Afaranwide

DUBAI SPECIAL

NEWSLETTER 41: Feb. 16, 2020

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All Aboard the QE2!

The much-loved Queen Elizabeth 2 ocean liner has been converted into a floating hotel in Dubai, and that’s where we spent the first two nights of our week in the city. It was fun waking up in our cabin, opening the curtains and peering out through the portholes. The conversion, which is only partially complete, has in the main been undertaken with restraint and respect for the famous old ship’s eventful history. There’s no sign of the gold-plated bling some feared would be inflicted on her by Dubai. We’ll be publishing a post with full details of our stay, along with a piece about a stopover at another Cunarder that’s been turned into a hotel, the Queen Mary. She welcomes guests at Long Beach, California. In the meantime, READ our post about the day Dubai bought the QE2.

Empty Plane, No Health Checks

Our Dubai trip has provided welcome respite from the impact of the coronavirus on Hong Kong, where we live. Hong Kongers have had a tough time of it for nearly a year, as first the anti-government protests and then the virus have completely changed the atmosphere in the city. The effects are hard to escape even if you fly off for a break – our plane out was barely a fifth full, and when we landed we received word that the return flight had been cancelled amid plummeting demand for travel to Hong Kong. Worryingly, there were no temperature tests or other health checks at Dubai when we arrived on what was a direct flight from Hong Kong.

Surprisingly, the return flight – on an Airbus A380 superjumbo – was even less full than going out.

READ our Hong Kong staycation post about how the protests affected the city’s tourism industry.

Going Back Isn’t Like Going Home

Expat life throws all sorts of things at you, and our holiday in Dubai has taught me another one. I’m English, so “going home” will always mean going to England. But going back to another country that has been your temporary home is another thing altogether. We lived in Dubai for six years, and I loved it. But expats have their own Dubai, Hong Kong, or wherever they have chosen to be.

Once you leave, it moves on without you. I loved the apartment where we stayed (near where we used to live) and catching up with friends. However, like us, many friends have moved away. “My Dubai” doesn’t exist anymore, and I guess that’s true for all expats wherever we live. I need a new word for a place that was home for a while. – SB

READ our post about trips home.

Another World Record in Frame

Dubai is famous for having lots of the world’s biggest things. It has the world’s tallest building, the world’s biggest (by one measure) shopping mall, the world’s biggest UAE flag, and – a particular favourite of ours – the world’s biggest acrylic panel. With all this, there was clearly a risk that they would soon run out of new world’s biggest things to boast about. But don’t worry, they’ve come up with a new one – the world’s biggest picture frame. The Dubai Frame is 150 metres high and 93 metres wide. Colin went along to take a look, and he’ll be writing about it soon.

READ about our visit to that tall building, the Burj Khalifa.

When is a Mall Not a Mall?

In Dubai, the answer is when it’s a car park. An extension to the enormous Dubai Mall opened recently with all the usual hoopla. The Dubai Mall Zabeel has a vast, glitzy facade that stretches endlessly alongside one of the city’s massive elevated highways. Huge signs lead shoppers to it across an elevated walkway from the main mall. Yet when you get there you find, well, not much at all. Of the eight stories, seven are for parking. When fully opened, the single retail floor will have 63 shops, which is nothing by Dubai standards – the Dubai Mall has 1,300. So why promote it as a mall extension when it’s really a car park? This is typical of the way Dubai relentlessly bigs up everything it does.

Dubai Opera, a welcome addition to the city’s entertainment offering housed in a fine new building (pictured), opened in 2016. Yet its website refers to its “unique heritage”. Verona (completed 30 AD) and La Scala (world premieres of works by Puccini, Verdi, Donizetti…) have unique heritages. Something built five minutes ago that was staging a tribute to Charles Aznavour when we were there does not. Meanwhile, Expo 2020 is being touted as “The World’s Greatest Show” nine months before it opens. What if it’s no good, like the UK’s Millennium Dome back in 2000? I’m sure all that bombast from Dubai puts off many more people than it impresses. – CS

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