Observations …

Been in Dubai for 3 weeks now.

People here are all about the bling! Not only is the Architecture over the top, so is everything else! Saw 2 red Ferraris the other day while waiting for my taxi. The day I arrived here the front page of the Gulf News showed a +$1M cell phone encrusted with diamonds and gems purchased by and Emirati (I think). And this from the Edmonton Sun (courtesy of Rhonda K.)…

CAMEL WORTH MORE THAN AN NHL STAR
PRESMADINAT ZAYED, United Arab Emirates -- Dubai's crown prince paid the equivalent of about $2.7 million yesterday for a camel during a desert festival celebrating Bedouin traditions.
The festival also included a camel beauty contest, where thousands of owners strutted their animals in a bid for the top prize of finest overall camel, and separate categories such as best neck, head, lips, nose, hump, legs or feet.
Sheik Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the son of Dubai's ruler, Sheik Mohammed, bought 16 camels for $4.5 million, including one female camel for $2.7 million, the state news agency WAM reported.
More than 17,000 camels were registered for the beauty contest, which gave out millions of dollars in prize money and more than 100 four-wheel-drive vehicles and pickup trucks.

Everyone smokes here. Shisha is very popular but proven to be even more damaging than cigarettes and I have always associated bongs with illegal substances. I tried shisha on the desert safari, love the aroma, not so big on actually smoking it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hookah


Everyone is constantly on their mobiles (aka cell phone). Incessantly! Obsessively! Etiquette has no meaning here so go ahead and answer that call in the middle of an important meeting.

Nobody recycles here. The “green” movement is still in it’s infancy so no real facilities for it however I believe that will change relatively soon. I have been conditioned to separate my cans from my paper and to compost my organic waste, it just feels so wrong to throw paper into the same container as that banana peel!

Nobody car pools here. Logic would tell you that when traffic is this bad, the alternatives such as public transit and car pooling would be pretty attractive! Not so much. Gridlock is a sad reality.

Handicap accessibility is non-existent (sadly). If you are in a wheelchair, forget about it. I work in the Emirates Towers office building. Brand new. State of the art. Not a wheelchair ramp anywhere. Although I see a guy in a wheelchair there sometimes, I should ask him how he got in?!

Everyone (the women, including the Muslims) wears obscenely high heeled shoes! The higher and the spikier the better! The Carrie Bradshaw in me is in heaven (reference Sex in the City) -- bought 3 pairs last weekend!!! The challenge though is finding good, sensible walking shoes that don’t fill up with sand.

Speaking of TV references, I was joking with the guy who shares my cubicle about the lack of walls, I cracked a joke about Less Nessman from the show WKRP which, in my circle of influence, would have been hilarious. Unfortuantely, cultural references from 1980’s North America don’t translate well, he just gave me that smile and nod that says “I don‘t understand but I‘ll just fake it”.

I’m starting to lose my command of the English language when speaking with non-English speaking people. Short simple sentances, just the important words. Regular conversational English is too complicated.

Pork is not allowed according to Islam. In the super-market there are separate rooms where the pork is sold and sometimes there’s a sign that says, ”not for Muslims“. I haven’t gone into one of the special pork rooms yet, it has the same sort of aura as the porn section at the video store.

The coffee here is on par with camping coffee only stronger and with more grit. No Tim Hortons. Guess I will have to go to Afghanistan to get my extra large double double.

Not very dog friendly, at least not for big dogs. I contemplated bringing Minka here, but I can see that it was the right thing to leave her in Canada. I see a few people with smaller dogs and the occasional larger one but not often. Muslims believe dogs are dirty. The people who have them don’t seem to think to pick up after them.