Dubai!!!

I felt really really dumb today. I was so beat yesterday. I could barely finish my blog. I set the auto wake up call for 7:20 to give myself plenty of time to make my 9 am appointment. So I just collapsed. I remember waking up and seeing light outside my room. Knowing it was daytime I was pretty perplexed as to why my wake up call didn’t wake me up. So I looked at the non-digital clock next to bedstand, the arms said 5:30 Am. So I gladly thought whew, another hour plus to slumber. Happily I went to back to sleep. I woke up a few hours later and still there was sun outside my window, and still my wake up call didn’t happen. I looked at the clock next to my bed and it said 5:30 am…What???? So I jumped out of bed and turned on my computer pretty horrified to see that it was 11:30 am. I had overslept and missed my meeting. Now this is a nice hotel Im staying at…The Grand Hyatt. This sort of thing isn’t supposed to happen. What made it worse, is that I couldn’t contact the guy I was having the meeting with. The numbers here are weird, there is a country code, sometimes you have to dial 0, sometimes you have to dial + then if there is a city code that makes it even more peculiar. I haven’t figured it out yet. So I hopped on the email, and saw a note from the guy from my meeting written from his blackberry asking me where I was. So after a few emails, he was very understanding about my situation. I really felt unprofessional. So here’s the silver lining. I called the front desk and asked to speak to a manager. I explained the situation. They sent up a tech to check the phone wake up call…and wouldn’t you know it…it worked perfectly. I know I entered the time correctly, but what must have happened is that the phone got cut off before the time registered..thus they have no record of me making the request…thus the lack of the call. But after some negotiating, they compted the second night stay. So that made the whole ordeal a little more digestable.

So I had the afternoon free. After not eating for about 24 hours, I was feeling really hungry. I can’t see myself taking a taxi just for two minutes to get food, and I don’t want to pay $18 for a cheeseburger more than once. So I walked to a nearby mall…10 minutes. I had some lunch there then back to the hotel. They have an amazing and very long pool. This must be a five-star resort. So I swam the length of it, and it took me about 5-6 minutes to go from end to end…one way. Im a pretty fast swimmer to boot. So after 4 laps I was spent. I lounged by the pool in the warm Arabian sun. While some that live in Saskatchewan might be experiencing -40 c, I was soaking up the sun in 78 degree perfect weather. Winter time is coming, so it might dip below 74 here a few days then you break out your parka. But the Middle East gets such a rap for bad weather. Yes in July and August, it’s a few degrees cooler than the face of the sun, but for 8 months, its almost ideal.

I am just in love with Dubai. I thought Bahrain was great, but Dubai is fabulous. I always likened Bahrain to a poor-man’s Dubai. Dubai is it. It has everything here. Plus I think there are more non-arabs here than there are arabs. Not that it’s a bad or good thing. Its just that it’s a lot like Europe or very western. Lots of Americans here. There is Shopping for days, and building upon buildings upon buildings. This would be a great place to live. They also call it Paris of the Middle East. Dubai also has been in the news for amassing tons of debt…which they have. All the skyscrapers and there are hundreds were built on credit, many 10% down. So when the banking collapse hit, Dubai was in obvious trouble. But Abu Dhabi the second largest city, came to the rescue. Abu Dhabi was much more conservative in their growth. Their foundation and stability comes from oil. So Abu Dhabi this week partially bailed out Dubai to the tune of 10 Billion. Still Dubai future and its infrastructure seems great. There is less traffic here now, as many had left when the financial crisis hit. So the booming economy came to a standstill…lots left. Now it seems the economy has righted itself here and is slowly growing back up. The streets are less congested and the real estate prices are more manageable. Its only a matter of time before Dubai becomes booming again. Im convinced that Dubai is one of the greatest cities in the world.