In my wanderings in the city, I've seen an office building shaped like a pyramid, an amusement-part-cum-shopping-mall called Global Village, a fake Italian mall called the Mercato, plus numerous "cities" of one kind or another (Internet City, Media City, Maritime City, Endurance City, etc.) - city being the catch-all suffix denoting a cluster of any kind. On the grounds of the tennis tournament they have developed a faux Irish village, which, surprisingly enough, is called - Irish Village. It features a Kelly green facade with a post office (fake), a bric-a-brac storefront where they sell Irish souvenirs, an Irish pub serving brewskis-a-plenty. It's a popular place, as crowds either watching the matches or just enjoying the atmosphere pack it nightly, especially loads of ex-pats clearly thirsty for a buzz.
You're out of luck if you don't drive in Dubai. I come from a city where taxis are in woefully short supply, but San Francisco has nothing on this place. At any given time of the day, one can expect to wait from 10 to 30 minutes to flag a cab. Even the hotels seem to have little sway. At my hotel, asking for a cab means the bellman walks out to the curb and fruitlessly waves his arm. It's a two-pronged problem. One, taxis are cheap. I rode many miles for about 30 minutes the other day and it cost 60 dirhams, or roughly $18. The other issue is that public transportation doesn't exist. There is no rail system, though a new limited metro is due to open in 2009 (like everything else, it's visibly under construction along the main roadway).Of course, gas is cheaper than water ($1.50 per gallon), which means everyone jumps behind the wheel to go places.
Driving along Sheikh Zayed Road, the main thoroughfare filled with all those mind-boggling buildings, you get the sense this city is an architects dream and an urban planner's nightmare. In isolation, the building designs are inventive, inspired, and mind-bending. However, there is no visible street life, no cafes, no workers streaming in and out. You almost wonder if anybody occupies these architectural marvels.
Rising above them all, of course, is the ominous Burj Dubai, which when completed will stand substantially higher than the current tallest building, the 1,671-foot 101 Tower in Taipei. The Burj is expected to grow to some 2,625 feet. Nothing seems built on a human scale, and so in the end, it feels alienating.
Along the same lines, all the themed parks and Seven-Wonders-of-the-World rip-offs are reminiscent of Las Vegas, which is often the first comparison that jumps to mind.
Except in Vegas, the fakeness is part of the fun. Here, it's not clear.
