Dubai, Saturday August 15th to Wednesday 19th

Not much of Saturday left as we arrived at the hotel at about 11.30 pm and it was still hot and steamy. The plane trip was as we expected, sat behind each other despite several at the airport to rectify the BA stuff up. We were not on our own as there was a family of 4 in business all seated separately. Only BA could be so customer (dis) orientated. The level of on board service was also way below JAL, Cathy and Qantas, although we must say that the crew were polite and helpful. Obviously BA are seeing how low they can go before the flying public totally revolt.

What can we say about Dubai other than it was an experience not to miss. On the one hand there is some marvellous architecture but on the other hand it all reeks of a house made of playing cards.

I have never seen so many abandoned projects, both civil and built, and I would not want to be in the crane hire business as without exaggeration we must have seen over 1000 idle cranes on deserted sites. I guess you would not want to be in the plant hire business full stop.

Whilst the “international financial crisis” is obviously part of the scenario, it seemed to us that there was also a long term demand and a speculation issue. Even if the ICF has caused a drop in tourist numbers there seemed to us to be far too many elaborately built overly large malls, and an outright abundance of unoccupied accommodation.

We only visited three malls, The Mall of the Emirates, near our hotel, the Dubai Mall and the ...... Mall. All were pretty deserted particularly the Dubai Mall which is massive. In some arms we observed that there were no customers at all for extended periods and those few people who were strolling around were not carrying shopping bags. We reckon 90% of the few visitors that were there, were doing what we were doing and just having a gawk. Here were also many vacant shops particularly in the Gold Souk which was almost totally devoid of customers in the hour or so we spent there. The Mall of the Emirates was bit busier but potential customer numbers seemed to be way below sustainability.

Also impacting on the latter was the fact that it was surrounded on at least two sides by abandoned projects and for miles around by road works which seemed at least a year off finishing. Our hotel was only a couple of hundred yards from the rear entry yet because of the road works was virtually inaccessible by foot. In addition to get from the shops by car or taxi to our hotel required about a 4 km detour, (to cover the 200m lateral distance). It was the same every time we came back, we would pass within 2-300 metres of the hotel and then divert for 3-4 km to get there. And this was just not a problem in our area, several really high class hotels had appalling approaches to the extent you would not have wanted to stay in them they were so isolated. One 5 star hotel we visited to drop off other tour guests on the way back from our Desert experience was accessible only down a string of laneways boarded by abandoned developments. Heavens knows what the views looked like from the rooms.

The site between our hotel and the Mall was a massive hole in the ground several stories deep and covering at least 5 hectares and it was apparent that it had been all but abandoned for a very long time. It is difficult to imagine just when or even if work will recommence on any or of these sites and if not what will become of them. There must be thousands of such projects in terminal distress. We saw only a handful where there was any work in progress.


The development outlook from our perspective looked positively frightening.

On the other hand we were enthralled by the completed architecture and the vision. Even though I was aware of the size and magnitude of the “palm” developments I was quite taken aback by the intensity of development and the number of multi story apartment blocks. Just who owns the product and how much is ever occupied is anybody guess.

I was also somewhat perplexed by the number and dispersement of the commercial buildings, and wondered for a city of that size, even with the “international” influence, how they could all possibly be fully utilised and where the supposed demand was or all those coming (or at least were coming) out of the ground. I also found the distances between centres and infrastructure links, particularly transport, perplexing. It did not seem that there was any rhyme or reason to locational decisions and the transport network in its current state, (where everything seems to be half finished) chaotic. Traffic was also heavy on all major roads and a smog haze hung over the whole place whilst we were there, although to be fair the heat was also a factor.

I guess I am just too conservative and lacking in vision, however this would be the last place I would currently invest in.

From a tourist viewpoint however we had a ball, we overlapped with Lesley and John for a day and took the opportunity to join them on the desert safari and night BBQ. It was a long drive out but when we got off road, bloody hair-raising, although I thought Michele handled it pretty well even if her knuckles would not relax their grip in the hand rail in the back seat when we arrived at the “tent”. I did manage a pretty poor sand boarding attempt on the dunes and we both enjoyed our 200m camel ride and Michele her henna tattoo. The food was terrific and I will post a photo of the dunny sign when I get the chance. There was also a pretty good looking belly dancer who certainly did not cover up in the Islamic tradition.

The third night Michele and I also enjoyed a dhow cruise dinner on Dubai Creek, which I guess would be more properly described as an inlet. I should acknowledge that both the window, and actual shopping had its moments.

Dubai was also bloody hot and surprisingly humid at this time of the year. We had expected a clearer heat and not for our glasses to fog up every time we went outside.

Suggestion to anybody thinking of booking Dubai accommodation, the further out you get the more likely you are to be affected by road works or abandoned development works, in retrospect we would have been better off closer to Dubai Creek than the Mall of the Emirates.


Hong Kong, Wednesday 19th to Friday 21st August

Very different to Dubai, busy everywhere and although hot, I thought easier than Dubai to handle although Michele felt the humidity more.

Neither of us had been here for some time and found much had changed. Stayed in down town HK on Col Stubbings’ (very good) advice and close to times square.

We both found that it was much more modern than 20 years ago and much more cosmopolitan.

Certainly the shopping has changed, particularly in the malls, to upmarket designer stores, although the old style markets and stores do still exist. Around where we stayed, near the Times Square Mall, there seemed to be few westerners around, although plenty of Japanese but no touts, or very few anyway. Kowloon was much different, more tourists and full of touts.

We spent our two nights and three days here casually wandering around in various directions and kept tourist activities to the star ferry to Kowloon and a trip up the peak. We enjoyed the executive treatment at the hotel (we upgraded on arrival) and in particular the evening drinks on the 26th floor taking in a view of the Peak. Of course there was some shopping, notably for a new suitcase to replace our now two broken ones and a new pocket camera for Michele.

We also ate well, why is it that Chinese food tastes much better over here than at home, is it MSG or lack of?

As I type this we are awaiting our 11.15 evening plane home and looking forward to sleeping in our own bed tomorrow evening and to a Lions victory!!.

PS. Our first Qantas flight on our One World ticket and they s*** all over BA for service both on the ground and in flight!!!