This is the view from my home-away-from-home — without work in the foreground:
This is the skyline/office park view from where I worked (look at the sea in the background and you’ll see the white, sail boat-like Burj Al Arab –aka “the world’s most luxurious hotel”).
Last time I was here (2005), so much construction was underway, I really could not fathom what it would be like and whether all those buildings would be occupied. Well, I can report that now it’s a crazy big city full of skyscrapers; large, smooth roads; shiny new cars that drive on the right hand side esp SUVs (quite a shock to the system in both scale & direction after so much time in India); and bookstores that sell magnets and postcards with the ubiquitous catch phrase borrowed from the Brits and customised with [ahem] great wit and local humour to read: KEEP CALM, WE STILL HAVE OIL…
I haven’t yet been to the Burj Khalufia (aka the world’s tallest building) to get a good visual prospective on the Palm — the man-made island in the shape if a palm tree — but this is the Palm from the side from my hotel balcony:
If I can take a break from work to scale tall buildings, I’ll see about getting a bird’s eye view to share with you….
Dez in India 