It is  hard to imagine that just a couple of months ago I was in the Middle East focusing what to take photos of and which doggone  settings on my camera to use create the perfect image.  (Jim Cline Photo Tour) 

Wow.  My world has changed.  Yours too.  

While we are in a scary and frustrating time, it is satisfying to go back and look at those photos and remember the experience.  

For example, I’m thinking about my time in Dubai. 

I enjoyed four days in this impressive city at the very end of Feb.  In this blog, I’d like to share impressions of this experience.  

Dubai is not a walking city

1. I quickly realized Dubai is not a walking city.  I’m a walker. When I get some place, I really enjoy strolling through the environment.  See what I can see.   But….hard to do in Dubai.   I experienced a huge city with incredible highways slicing through the urban setting. We were surrounded with massive buildings. 

Much of the year it is probably too hot to walk very far.

At one point I needed something from a pharmacy. The concierge pointed out that there was one across the street (multi lane thorough fare) but to get to it I had to walk about a mile one way, use the mass transit skywalk to get to the other side and then walk a mile back on other side.  Repeat to get back to the hotel.  I was short on time so I didn’t but, wow.  A simple thing like getting to the other side  of the street was a huge effort. 

Instead Hotels had shuttle buses to take you everywhere.  I took one to the big mall (world’s largest) and it worked well.  It amazed me though because the mall wasn’t that far from our hotel—maybe two miles—but with the mass of highways and lack of crosswalks, it would have taken me considerable time and I could easily have gotten lost.  

The architecture is fascinating.  Each building trying out do the next with its creativity, fabulousness and architecture wonder.  Unfortunately they are so close together and hard to really appreciate from a moving vehicle.  Here are some samples.   

In Dubai everything feels new

2. Everything is new.  Duh! This part of the world jumped into the modern age with the discovery of oil in the 1970s.   What seems to be valued are big, glitzy and modern.  The largest shopping center in the world.  The tallest building.  Grand and big. Lots of lights.   Some call Dubai the Las Vegas of the Middle East although there are no casinos.  

I visited the  huge shopping center, marveling at the fact every major retailer in the world and more were located there.  Gigantic.   I didn’t get to see the famous ski hill, but I did visit the Aquarium. It was  nothing special in the world of Aquariums, but a nice addition to the shopping scene. More interesting for picture taking than Dubai’s version of Bloomingdales or the Gap.  

Dubai is home to the tallest building in the world

3. The Burj Khalifa, or the tallest building in the world was an interesting experience.  It took probably an hour to get to the top.  Lines for this elevator.  Get off and get in another line. Get on another elevator.  We were in the midst of huge crowds most of the time being herded like animals.   Finally we got to the observation area.  It was like looking at a city at night out an airplane window.  I’m glad we did it, but it won’t go down in my memory bank as the “best.”

I did really enjoy another night when we had dinner at a restaurant near the base of the Burj.  At the end of the dinner, the light show started.  Spectacular. Guess it happens every night, frequently changing.  Here are some photos, but a quick search of UTube and you’ll see more. 

Dubai Marina is great for photographers

4.   From a photography standpoint I really enjoyed the Marina.  This is a new fancy area with huge buildings, big yachts surrounding  a small body of water.  Shooting reflections of these buildings  in the water was really fun.   People watching was fascinating as well although people in general were not keen on having their photos taken. 

I did find the rules about the marina  very different from my marina experiences.  No hanging laundry on the boat.  No pets.  No music.  Nothing. Very sterile.  For the boating folks who have hung out in marinas around the world, this is a far cry from the sometimes messy, noisy and chaotic environment of boats lined up in rows, sharing the same nautical space.  

So….I’ll think some more and will likely do another blog about Dubai…..more to say.  Stay tuned.  Maybe we’ll look at shopping, a planned beach resort and some random things that caught my eye.  

Last week I featured Dubai’s sister city, Abu Dhabi, a very different experience.  

Please record your experiences in Dubai  and/or Abu Dhabi in the comment section below.  Let’s compare and contrast.  I’d love your observations.