Some Pictures from Dubai

[Kevin]

My wife is on her way home from India and she had a layover in Dubai. From Dubai there are direct flights to Dallas. Not sure why there are so many direct flights from Dallas to Dubai. I suppose its a hub to other places. It's just strange to me to think of all the people flying at any given time. It really puts into perspective just how many people there are in the world. But I digress.

Anyway, I thought ya'll might like to see some pictures of Dubai. Again, lots of smog and very poor air quality. However, sweetie says the city is very clean and she feels really safe walking around. Which is good.

I'd love to go there and see the architecture.

This is at the 2020 Dubai Exhibition Center. I remember reading about that a few years ago, but don't remember the details. I think they wanted something like a World's Fair. But then Covid...

Seeing the air like this just makes my skin crawl.

Public Transportation. She's told me they have separate train cars for women only. The men have to ride in different train cars.

The interior of the Dubai Mall

 

[Kevin]

Oh yeah, that flight from Dubai to Dallas? It's 16 hours. I can't even imagine.

 

[dannyd]

One other thing you may not be able to imagine is years ago Dubai looked like Van Horn, Texas. ;)

 

[arfmel]

Years ago, Van Horn looked like Van Horn, too.


NTTATWWT

 

[rugerguy]

Goes to show us just what ALL that money can buy, and boy do they have the cash:rolleyes::cautious:

 

[RSIno1]

Years ago, Van Horn looked like Van Horn, too.


NTTATWWT
View attachment 31876

They used to have a great Mexican restaurant Chuy's - I think it was 2004 we left the motel to go to the steak house when we got there the steak house was still smoldering from a fire the day before so we hit the Mexican place across the street. Went again around 2015 and it had changed hands and was terrible. Google maps show the Smokehouse Restaurant and Auto Museum is still an empty slab.
A friend when he was working for Ford had to make a yearly trip to Dubai. He loved the place but hated that they always flew him through Germany with a 4-6 hour layover. His contract required 5 star accomodations and first class airfare. While he was there they supplied him a car and driver and insisted that he not drive due to insurance requirements. The haze in the air is dust not smog. Even with a moderate wind you can get sandstorms you can't see further than 10 feet.
Direct from Dubai to Texas - must be an oil connection somehow.

 

[arfmel]

Last time we went to Chuy’s (maybe 10 years ago) the pest control guy had just sprayed for cucarachas. Mexican roaches. The damn things were everywhere laying on their backs waving their little legs in the air. We didn’t hang around for lunch.

 

[dannyd]

I have been to Van Horn and early Dubai.

You can start at the Atlantic Ocean and drive west on US Highway 90, when until the highway ends at I-10 then your in Van Horn.

The best treat in Dubai was the Basket Robins truck coming to the pier and selling the sailors out of date, melted and refrozen ice cream. I really looked forward to that truck. :)

Last time I was in Van Horn 40 years ago, Dubai 31 years.

 

[pyth0n]

I heard the people in Dubai don't like the Flintstones, but the people in Abu Dhabi Do.
(Sorry, I had to. I couldn't resist. I really tried.)

 

[RoninPA]

I've been to Dubai (and Abu Dhabi) a half dozen times. In the 4th picture, that syscraper you see in the distance is the Burj Kahalifa. It is the world's tallest building with a total height of 2,722 ft, (829.8 m). I saw it progress from when they started it until it was about 3/4 done.

Also, Kevin, did your wife tell you how many floors the Dubai mall has? And all the floors are "decorated"? like that picture.

And Dubai has a Hard Rock Cafe, I've eaten there and have the tee shirt :D

 

[t-reg]

"Public Transportation. She's told me they have separate train cars for women only. The men have get to ride in different train cars."

FIFY

 

[dannyd]

The strangest thing you would see is hundreds of Chevy Suburbans in the port area.

When I asked why so many, he told me the Suburbans have an armor kit that was easy to install and that most had the kit.

Then he added Israel buy's Fords, so the Arab states buy from General Motors.

 

[Boxhead]

I lived in Dubai for two years. I could not leave soon enough.

 

[rjfirefly]

I lived in Dubai for two years. I could not leave soon enough.

What was the main problem? Boredom? Alien culutre? People not friendly? Or too dusty?

 

[Johnny-Baseball]

As for Van Horn, TX:
In 1975 during a drive from Dallas to El Paso, I drove into Van Horn at midnight, looking for a filling station. Streets off of the main drag still had hitching posts. The picture posted above looks about right for the Van Horn I recalled.

As for Ford vs Chevy in the Middle East:
In April 1991 I landed in Kuwait City and continually lived there until July 1991 (oil fires churning out heavy smoke the whole time). There were armadas of Chevy Impalas and Mercedes Benz S Class cars - all wrecked/damaged by the Iraqis. I asked where the Impalas came from (since the Kuwaitis generally had enough wealth to drive the MBs). I learned the Impalas were driven by Kuwait's many non-Kuwaitis, including employees of the local companies, house servants, etc.

Considering Kuwait's pre-invasion population was 2 million, which included only 500,000 Kuwaiti citizens, that made for lots of Chevy sedans. Many thousands of those Impalas were piled in junk yards when I was there, victims of the Iraqis' invasion, and the US' bombing of the Iraqi army as it rushed along Highway 80 - the later-named "Valley of Death" highway - leading out of Kuwait City back to the Iraq border. And that highway still contained thousands of burned/bombed vehicles when I drove through it one weekend. My greatest surprise? A GI had drawn the ubiquitous "Kilroy was here" character on a burned-out tank. Underneath the picture the GI wrote, "Into the Valley of Death Rode the 4,000," suggesting the number or Iraqi soldiers the US had killed that day along the Valley of Death.

For those who want to know, Kuwaiti citizens owned all of the middle east's Chevrolet dealerships. But other countries' wealthy families owned all of the middle east's Ford dealerships. Competition among those countries was such that no Kuwaiti would buy a Ford, and visa versa.

FYI, wealthy individuals in all of the middle eastern countries owned MB and BMW dealerships, thus avoiding a BMW vs MB food fight.