[WOW] World's First Underwater Hotel

Sooooooooo....who built it? That's right...we did. One of the architects is an acquaintance of my girlfriend, by the way.

Anyway...been to Dubai many times.

What's good about Dubai:

- the beaches
- the sun
- some excellent hotels
- it's not too far from Europe, so when it's cold in Europe, it's almost the closest place to get some sun
- good shopping, i guess, if you are into that
- some impressive architecture
- relatively liberal for an Islamic country

What sucks about Dubai:

- it is NOT beautiful...it's an artificial city built into the desert - while that is impressive, there is really nothing "beautiful" about it
- it's like a massive construction site at this point in time
- everything's too "gigantomania-style"...why does everything have to be the biggest, greatest
- the Islamic laws, while more liberal than in even more islamo-fascist countries, are still ridiculous
- censorship: they block plenty of websites just because there might be a boob somewhere or they might be related to some gaming activity...then again, hey, it isn't really all that different in the US
- hypocrisy: while they have all these super-strict laws in place, everyone knows that it's one of the prostitution hubs of the world - in the hotels, you'll see some completely veiled women next to some Russian hookers wearing almost nothing...actually a funny sight...and in a way, that shows the people in Dubai are a lot more tolerant than, let's say, Saudis
- incredibly long wait at immigration...well...like the US
- i can't help but thinking that they either finance international terrorism or pay them off like you would pay off the mafia...so that nothing happens - i mean, how come they are never under threat or anything like that - you have everything there that the islamic extremists supposedly hate...prostitution, alcohol, etc.
- it's really a two- or three-class society - the Arabs living there exploit all the Indians (and people from other poor countries) working there - and working conditions are really bad for many of them - and the third class of people would be the tourists...one sometimes feels that they are tolerated because they bring money, but I haven't seen much genuine kindness or hospitality from the Arabs there, but ymmv

 

Hey Det...

Have you been to Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Bahrain or any other places around that area? Also by chance Azerbaijan, Armenia, or any of those Central Asia 'Stans?

I'm just listing all the places I've been seeing lots of tv ads for lately and wanna know if any of them are worth visiting...

Also, what's "ymmv"?

 

thank god, i've been waiting over 20 years for you to say that !

back to hong kong....going to try to resurrect my acting career. i wonder if jet li would do a movie with me??

 

What?

Did you say the same about Vegas?

 

No, never been to any of those... but would be curious to go.

ymmv = your mileage might vary...