Holiday Hotel Dubai

The longer you spend in Dubai the more likely you are to spend your twilight years in a Home For The Bewildered.

I came across this in Ibn Battuta Mall today…

Please don’t touch the turtle which isn’t there.

Ummmm….

Hadn’t been there for a long time, mainly because of the frustrations caused by the traffic, but I ventured to the Burj Dubai district the other day and looked around Old Town and Old Town Island.

Look, I know it’s all brand-new fake-old, but I think it’s done well and I like it. It has a good feeling about it, you’re away from the traffic in most of it, there are shops and restaurants open, landscaping’s coming good.

Remember there was nothing here a very short time ago, just a desert area. And Dubai really has very little that’s genuinely old. It was a tiny place huddled around the Creek, small buildings made of mud and coral, wind towers the tallest structures.

If you’re going to build communities you need the basic shop and apartment spaces which are the interior of buildings. The outside of those buildings can be anything - modern shapes clad in glass, copies of historic European buildings, ultra-modern shapes clad in new materials. Or you can design them to reflect the region. Whichever you choose it’s man-made, in a way it’s fake.

I like the idea of using designs which reflect the region and its history, which is what Old Town and Old Town Island are.

The entrance to Old Town Island has a large gateway typical of so many Arab cities - not unlike the walled cities which were standard historically in Europe.

Through that first gateway and there’s a really nice square, beautifully landscaped, with another gateway at the end.

Through that gateway and the old-style theme continues.

Across the main boulevard to Old Town which again reflects the old architectural style of the region.

Not that it matters to them, but a thumbs up from me for Emaar.

Dubai Festival City

People, remember my last post on shopping for Gaza?

I know it’s a serious business, but The Big Bailout does have a funny side.

Human nature being what it is, being the cause of the crisis in the first place, greedy eyes are looking hungrily at the pot of gold being dangled.

“You’re giving away money, I want my share” is the general approach.

I’ve been having a giggle at reports of hundreds of special interest groups, including the bizarre, preparing their claims for US taxpayers’ money. It’s been referred to as a feeding frenzy with applicants including state governors, property developers and local sports teams.

Now today there’s a classic reported in the Daily Telegraph:

US porn industry seeks multi-billion dollar bailout

The pair have asked the 111th Congress, which convened on Tuesday with the economy at the top of its agenda, “to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America” with a bailout.

Go here for a laugh.

A whole row of Santa’s little helpers bringing the Christmas festivities to an end…

And an ignominious end for the tree…

About 50 pharmacies across Dubai have a ready “Gaza Care package” list for you. For Dhs 250 or Dhs 500.

The package contains much needed medical supplies such as antiseptics, pain killers, electrolytes. And baby supplies such as baby milk, baby medication and hospital/clinical supplies such as Saline solution, Betadine, cotton wool, alcohol swabs, surgical gloves and so forth.

This is the link to the facebook group

Here is a list of the participating pharmacies and the contents of the package. Spread the word!

Shock horror! Surely not! I can’t believe it!

“It’s a fair cop, we dun it” says Vince.

And there I was believing them when they denied it all, Vince sent that tear-jerking letter to 7Days, they promised to get married…

But safely back in freezing England, Vince spills the beans to that fine example of quality journalism, the Daily Mirror.

In true tabloid form, from the original ‘poor Brits face six years jail’ reports they’ve now turned on him:

Shoe-horned into a cheap suit which does nothing for his corned-beef complexion and double chin, Vince Acors is no obvious romeo.

But, incredibly, this is the self-styled stud who narrowly escaped six years in jail for his drunken antics on a Dubai beach.

I love the way the tabloids do that, play a ‘human interest’ story for all it’s worth for a while, then turn and bite the subject.

The Mirror’s readers must have been tut-tutting at the prospect of jail for the poor dears, now they’re tut-tutting at their antics.

That’s the tabloid world for you, rags and readers alike.

Anyway, back to Vince.

Probably the thing I dislike most about the way Dubai has changed is the people it now attracts.

These days there are far too many like Vince and his new-found friends:

I’m a red-blooded bloke who’d spent 13 hours gorging on limitless champagne, vodka and lobster.

I’d been drinking for 13 hours, there wasn’t an awful lot of thinking involved.

(At the police station) She was telling everyone exactly what she thought of them. She was still completely p***ed.

Michelle spent the time on her mobile ringing her friends, but they were all too drunk to help.

He goes on to brag about his exploits, here and elsewhere, and to slag off Michelle.

A class act.

The story is here.