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Today I had another day in Dubai. My flights from Moscow with Emirates didn’t quite connect with my transfer to Singapore/Perth, so I thought it would be a good idea to spend another day in the Emirates. I had no plans for the day, so I slept in and then went for a walk in the city. My two-start hotel is in the old part of Dubai and there are a lot of little middle-eastern-looking shops. The area must be known for its air conditioning vibe – every second store is selling air conditioners or parts for them. The rest has “Car Rental” or “Typing” signs on them. Not sure what they do. Surely not typing. I also didn’t see any rental cars.

Booze timing. The little “Panorama Hotel” (with a panorama view on a dusty street outside) where I stayed had something that looked like a bar. However I very much doubt people drunk there as they don’t sell alcohol in Dubai. When I arrived in the hotel at midnight last night (from my flight from Moscow), there was Arabic music blasting from the door and there were quite a few people sitting there inside. Must be drinking tea and smoking something. The interesting thing is that the bar was called “Booze”. And there is a sign at the door “Booze Timing”. As Borat says, “Ver-ry Na-a-ice!”

It was hot today (probably around 45C) and I caught a taxi to the “Mall of Emirates” – an undercover shopping mall, a size of Fremantle with a snow mountain inside. There shopping guides in Arabic, English and Russian. I didn’t think I’d buy anything there as most of shops sell label stuff, but I thought I’d just check it out. I stopped at a property developer’s stand to ask a few questions about Dubai market. With the city growing so fast, I was interested to talk to someone who deals with it every day. So, here I am, talking to Inga.  Where are you from? Ukraine. Oh, privet.. and we switched to Russian. Then after asking me why I didn’t just speak Russian to her (how would I know?) she called her manager (an Aussie bloke) who then took me for a drive to their office. I asked him how he was coping with those glamorous Russian girls at the stand. He seemed to enjoy it. He actually managers a team of 40 people – in a property development company – 40 of whom a Russian girls. Looked very much like a Russian brides store. Russian brides for everyone!

Today I also went through some industrial and building site of the city, visited the tallest building in the world – see some photos below.

Now here I am, again, sitting at the airport and typing this. Airports seem to inspire me and give birth of many of my thoughts, reflections and new ideas. Tomorrow I’ll be back in Perth. Welcome back, Australia. Welcome back into my life. It has been a great holiday.

I’m in Dubai. Just for a day. To check it out. See what it’s like, maybe to find someone who lives here and find out what they think about this city.

Dubai. Large. Sandy. 85% Indian. Un-natural. Hot. Windy. Very hot. Even hotter. Againts all rules. Traffic jams in the middle of the day. Lots of Russians.

It’s Ramadan month, which means fasting from sunrise to sunset. Fasting means no food or drink. How do you cope if you go for a walk and it’s 40C? I saw a McDonalds on Sheikh Zayed Road and I thought “Bonza! Let’s get something to eat! I’m a traveller, travellers allowed to eat during Ramadan (I think!). So off I go, hoping it would be open, longing for a cold post-mix coke. Surely enough, the store is open. Surely enough, there are people there buying food. I ordered a large “Chicken Big Mac” meal, picked it up, went to a table, sat down, started eating. Nice! But here comes a security guy and says, “Excuse me sir, the food is take away only”. Now, that’s business! While the rest of the restaurants and cafes in the whole city are closed for Ramadan (they only open after the sunset each day), McDonalds people thought, “hey, we can still open the store and sell BigMacs. We’ll just tell people to go somewhere else to eat it. In the 40C heat. Or, maybe just keep it for dinner tonight. Or for tomorrow. We know that BigMacs don’t go off.”

I did a bit of sightseeing and visiting places today. Mostly commercial stuff. Actually, my impression is that the whole city is commercial. Huge. Massive. Growing from under the ground.

I was able to catch up with a friend of a friend, a businessman here in Dubai, for dinner. It was interesting to actually meet someone who works and lives here, and share with them some of my business ideas and plans.

Here are some photos. There is a bit of a sand storm here today, so a few shots look a bit misty.