top that!

dubai is a city of the biggest, the tallest, the fastest built, you name it...it's here and it's the best of anywhere else in the world. we were told it was a national obsession by someone that lives here. dubai has also recently hit hard times maybe bigger and faster than other countries. rents have plummeted from astronomical to merely expensive. while the construction of dubai has slowed slightly there are still many cranes and active construction sites.

dubai is a city for cars...no pedestrians allowed. trust us...we tried. most of the roads are freeways with no sidewalks in sight. crossing a freeway would be certain death for anyone that dared. one day, after spending the afternoon at the beach, we decided to walk back to our couchsurfer host's place. he lived about 6 blocks away...6 dubai blocks (ie. biggest, longest, fastest) but nonetheless only 6. we walked along the freeway on a sidewalk that turned into a boulevard that abruptly ended because of construction. not willing to give up easily we crossed the road and walked through a complex of hi tech companies called internet city. only to be confronted with sheik sayed freeway with...of course...no pedestrian crossing. our only option was to flag down a taxi. yup. in dubai you need to take a taxi to cross the road.

the tallest building in the world - burj dubai at 800m

we were in dubai during a muslim holiday known as eid al-adha (in turkey they called it biram). on another attempt at walking through the city we came across this goat. we weren't sure why a goat would be walking through dubai dressed to the nines...but eid is a celebration of sacrifice so...

poor poor goat

not everyone celebrated the weekend off with a sacrificial goat. our host, haytham, prepared an eygptian bbq for us and some friends. it was a feast...rice with chicken liver, okra, bbq chicken, yummy green stuff (can't remember what it was called but boy was it good), tahini sauce and jay's contribution of mango salsa.

haytham, nancy and monika preparing our feast

jay chilling with pink panther at haytham's

on our last day in dubai we decided that since we only had a few hours we would not attempt to walk yet again. we relented and called a taxi. we had yet to see the famous 7 star hotel, the burj al arab, which is built on a man-made island.

the burj al arab in dubai

dubai was on my must see list. am i glad i saw it? yes. would i go back? probably not. at least not for 20 years or more. maybe by then they will have the sidewalks completed.

ma'a as-salaama,

corina & jay