MosheR Loc: New York City

Thank you for that spectacular review.

srfmhg Loc: Marin County, CA

Great shots Mel.

PAR4DCR Loc: A Sunny Place

Thanks for taking me to Dubai Mel.

Don

lnl Loc: SWFL

Your entire series is magnificent and shows the magnificence of Dubai. It certainly has a different “look and feel” from other large cities. In my case, that’s partly due to its location. Imagine a ski slope next to water. Imagine tents next to a bunch of skyscrapers. Imagine Mel and Mrs. Mel standing beneath the tallest building in the world. It’s all a wonderful experience for me.

MosheR Loc: New York City

Any time, Don. You're always welcome to come along.

MosheR Loc: New York City

Thank you, Ellen. It certainly was a wonderful experience for us as well, if a bit different from the places to which we usually like to travel.

MosheR Loc: New York City

Spectacular city. But thanks.

Reuss Griffiths Loc: Ravenna, Ohio

As usual, I'm late to the party Mel. I can only add to the accolades you've received from many other UHHers. In addition to the excellent photography, I like the way you organized each part to feature some aspect of Dubai. Most publications about Dubai focus on the extremes, superlatives and extravagance of Dubai. While you touched on those, you also showed us parts of Dubai, like the people, and the historical and cultural portions of the city unknown to most, a much more balanced view. I was beginning to wonder if you were going to say something about the Burj Khalifa but you saved the best for last.

This is the part where I start thinking about what you said and start asking questions. You open with your praise of the City for all of it's innovation, technology and engineering. My previous impression of Dubai is that it is an excellent example of the local Arab royalty moving from totally dependent on oil, to using those resources to build kingdoms and economies based on technology and innovation to secure a place in the modern world in their own right independent of oil. You mentioned that many of these architectural master works are almost empty. Is this sustainable or are they gambling on the occupancy growing with the city. At one point, you referred to the city as overbuilt.

You mention a number of times how hot it was as an explanation for why very few people are seen outside. Just how hot was it? When you went up to the top of the Burj Khalifa, was it a lot cooler on the open observation decks or was the difference merely really hot up there vs really, really hot down below.

This is perhaps your best posting to date and must have taken a lot of time and effort to put it all together. Good Job. Good Show. Kudos!

nimbushopper Loc: Tampa, FL

MosheR Loc: New York City

😁😁😁

MosheR Loc: New York City

Hi Reuss. First of all, you're certainly not "late to the party." Your very well written and inciteful comments and questions are welcome at any time. So let's take them on one at a time.

Regarding the editing you liked so much, 99% of the credit for that belongs to my wife. When we return from a trip I cull off the photos that are simply not good, which is easy to do, or redundant, which is somewhat more difficult. Then she places them in Mac's iPhoto and edits the s**t out of them. Most of this has been done long before we even knew about UHH. Now that I've been posting, I simply cull more photos from those she has edited, just to make the presentation a bit more manageable. I usually aim for about thirty or forty pics, but in this Dubai set I believe I came in at about sixty ... more than I would normally like, but that was it.

You said that I didn't just show the usual spots, which is more or less true, but we were only there for four days, so I didn't get to the places I usually like to see, such as where the ordinary people live and shop. Just about everything you saw here, with the exception of the Bangladeshi encampment, were places where most of the tourists go. That is not our general MO, but I thank you for noticing anyway.

As for your question about the sustainability of the empty buildings, I have to tell you that we were there about ten or so years ago, so I'm not certain if they are even still as empty as I saw them to be. If so,I doubt if this could possibly be sustainable, but that all depends uupon how deep and flexible the pockets of those in power are.

As for walking in the streets, it was just my guess that this had to do with the heat which, being in a desert, is very dry. I've been to lots of places with similar temperatures, and the result was always the same. For example, I never saw many people going out for a casual stroll in Las Vegas or Phoenix.

Finally, those observation decks at the top of the Burj Khalifa? They're all enclosed, air conditioned, and perfectly comfortable. The glass up there is tilted at such an angle as to minimize reflections that would otherwise mess up photographs, but you still have to be careful when taking pictures. Many of mine did have annoying reflections. If I couldn't correct them I tearfully dumped them.

I think I now covered everything you referred to in your response to my series. If not, just write again and I will try to set things straight. Happy Election Day, and go vote.

Mel

Bubalola Loc: Big Apple, NY

WoW, Mela

MosheR Loc: New York City

ThAnKs, Eugene.

Reuss Griffiths Loc: Ravenna, Ohio

I didn't want to run on in my first response, so I limited some of my thoughts. My first thoughts were that the local royals of whatever stripe provide 2 things, money and vision and they literally buy everything else. They hire the best architects, engineers, planners; bring people in from all over the globe for a labor force, skilled and unskilled and then manage the whole affair. I was guessing that they could sustain it as long as the oil lasts and are working hard to make sure it's sustainable first. And all the extravagance is the lure to fill those buildings and "palm trees". I would assume that's the formula for all the emirates, like Abou Dhabi just down the road. I saw a Grand Prix race from a new track there and it was the best layout and track of any I've seen.

I was also wondering about where all the "staff" live. You showed the Bangladeshis and the old Arab cultural neighborhoods but there has to be a lot of infrastructure to support downtown Dubai. All the working people have to live somewhere and there has to be massive power plants, sewage, water treatment, waste removal, local markets and malls for the worker bees not the tourists. None of it is apparent in the pictures you presented but based on what you just said, I'll bet you might have some of those too limited by the 4 day trip.

Kudos to you wife for organizing everything when you get back from your trips. I've never been disciplined enough to do that and as a result, I waste a lot of time just trying to find images from past excursions that are on external storage devices and so on. It looks like your job on your trips is cover the front and back end, i.e., to gather the information, pictures, history, etc and then put together the presentations of it on UHH and probably elsewhere, and your wife takes care of everything in between. What a team!

P.S. I vote early and often.

MosheR Loc: New York City

Generally, when we're in some new place, I ask the hotel staff or our cab driver where they live and go there. That way, we get what we hope is the best idea of the "real" city. Often enough, we bunk in the same hotels in which the locals stay, so we're already there. And of course, when we visit tribes, we're certainly already there. Couldn't do this in Dubai, though, because of our limited time, but we did the best we could. Be well, and congratulations on your voting record.