Dubai:
If I
heard it once today then I heard it probably at least 20 times…”this is the
world’s tallest, largest, most expensive__________”. Nothing in Dubai is small, modest, or
inexpensive. I think this has been such
an important stop in our journey to study Faith and Money because it really
sets the stage for seeing all the need in the world when you have been
surrounded by luxury. Dubai is clean and
beautiful…but HOT. It isn’t the South’s
sticky hot, but as if you have walked in front of a giant fan blowing hot air
onto you all the time. It is
oppressive. It is so hot that the
Arabian Sea was like really warm bath water…not quenching at all. I took some really great pictures today of
the world’s tallest building, the world’s tallest hotel, The Palm which is
Atlantis resort in Dubai, the world’s largest indo ski slope, camels, Bedouin,
belly dancers, and dune bashing cars.
But my SD card got erased…BOO!
Anyway
dune bashing is crazy. Seriously I
thought we would flip over. We were in Land Cruisers with roll bars and we were
flying over dunes in the dessert, doing wheelies, and throwing sand
everywhere. It is similar to going
mudding on a dirt road, but dunes are STEEP.
I keep screaming…my parents never even let me go mudding on our dirt
road!!!! It was like a roller coaster in
the sand. After the ride we ended up in
the dessert in the middle of nowhere for a BBQ dinner with a belly dancing
show. It is crazy to me that traditional
women here must cover EVERYTHING…at times even their eyes…covered in complete
BLACK head to toe…and yet for fun we will sit around in the cultural norm and
watch a scantily clad woman irate and dance for us. But I will say she was pretty amazing at it J
By
the time I land in Calcutta we will have all been awake for over 24 hours…and
we arrive in India at 8:30 am. No rest
for the weary!
I
will say that Dubai is certainly a place to come for those looking to indulge
and satisfy their whims and needs.
Tourism has now surpassed oil here for their revenue. And surprisingly this country is about 40-50
years old. The massive building campaign
began about 5 years ago. All we have
heard is that 5 or 6 years ago none of these huge building were here. Oil cost less here than water. And we have learned that their supply of oil
will run out in around 4 -5 more years…so they are counting on tourism staying
the primary economic stimulus.
Makes
me wonder though. We have talked so much
at church about wealth not being bad, but it does matter what you do with
it. When asked where the poor are in
Dubai our guide told us…there is no poor in Dubai. I wish that some of the lavish wealth they
have here could be used to alleviate the utter poverty of their neighbor
countries.
Write
ya in India next!
