Dubai, Day Three

I thought this jetlag would be gone by now.

Didn't do a whole lot today -- just a trip over to the Exhibition Hall to set up our products, and thence to the Mall Of The Emirates, because any time you have an opportunity to see an indoor ski slope, you should see it.

We walked around for a long time as my dad looked for a power adapter for his computer. I think it took us about 40 minutes to walk from one end of the mall to the other, and in that whole time I saw almost nothing that I couldn't have seen an an upscale mall in the States. Lots of high-end fashion labels, and the same book, toy, shoe, and electronics stores you see everywhere else. I did have fun pretending I was interested in buying a $9,000 diamond bracelet (and the clerk came down to $3,900 pretty fast), and I looked for some clothes for my daughter, but even the "authentic" local outfits were made in Bahrain.

One of the guys we're sharing a booth with said he felt like being in Dubai could be like being in any major American city, and I know what he means. The other day when we visited Dubai Creek I was hoping to find some sort of "real" Dubai. I try to break away from the touristy parts of whatever city I visit -- I enjoy being a tourist but try to get at least a small sense of what a place is like outside the normal tourist paradigm. A lot of times for me that simply means walking without purpose around a residential district, or spending as much time as possible in the city center and/or the oldest part of town. It's a quest to find the essence of a place, if I may be so pretentious.

Now I haven't been here for very long, but I feel like there really is no essential Dubai. Or, rather, the essential Dubai is found in its various malls and 70-story glass high rises. I guess its not surprising that, in a country where only 15% of its residents are natives, there isn't going to be a thriving "old town," but I am a bit disappointed. One of the reasons I love to travel is the opportunity to see something different, something unlike my own world, and this isn't it. This is just my world -- the American world of capitalist consumption -- transported to the desert and writ large. And that's fine, for what it is, but it isn't all that interesting to me

Which brings me back to The Mall Of The Emirates, which feels like the apotheosis of Dubainess. As such, it's worthy of appreciation, but I'm sure I could appreciate it more if it were in my nature to enjoy shopping for pants, scarves, cell phones and jewelry.

That said, I did get a really good shwarma in the food court.

After we came back from the Mall I struggled to stay awake. I thought about taking a walk around the immediate environs of the hotel but was feeling disillusioned (and lazy). When I met up with my dad for dinner -- we just went to the bar in the hotel, where I had some very nice lamb chops and a Guinness -- he told me he had done exactly that and found it to be an actual neighborhood, with houses, small shops, etc. So I guess if I hadn't been so cranky I might have discovered a little bit of what I claimed I was looking for. Oh well, maybe tomorrow. After talking a bit, we did decide that on our last day here we would rent a car, leave the city proper and explore the environs (read: desert) a bit. So I do have that to look forward to.