Back in October, I had the opportunity to spend almost a week attending the 25th Annual Summit of the Family Business Network International in one of the most remarkable cities in the world: Dubai. It is a truly amazing city. Twenty-five years ago, it was little more than a port with a few homes and office buildings surrounded by sand. Today, it is a sprawling 1,600-square-mile metropolis that is home to some incredible architecture, including an indoor skiing hill with live penguins and the world's tallest building. The city is very diverse -- dispite being located in the United Arab Emirates, only 20% of the residents are Arabs. However, the Arab influence of the Gulf Coast region is everywhere. White collar workers around the city wear Gulf Coast national dress -- a white tunic and loose headscarf for the men and a black dress and black hijab for the women. It's not uncommon to see more Western attire, however. Even though Dubai's modesty laws disallow extremely short skirts, I saw plenty of European women wandering the Dubai mall dressed like they were going clubbing. They didn't get in any trouble, but they definitely made a bit of a scene.
It's an extremely customer-service-oriented society, even outside our fancy resort. Gas stations are full service and at grocery stores, employees will load your groceries into the car for you. In Dubai, you don't have to lift a finger unless you want to.
The city is an architect's dream come true. The buildings are all less than 25 years old, and most are under 10 years old. Each and every one is absolutely incredible. There's Burj al-Arab, inspired by the curve of a ship's full sail, with its gravity-defying curves rising out of a manmade island in the middle of the Persian Gulf. There are two replica Chrystler Buildings, a tower that twists like an impossible double helix, and 50-story office buildings that shine in the desert sun in shades of turquoise and gold like nothing I've ever seen in the United States. There is a massive salmon-colored building meant to look like a giant clocktower, and there are buildings made entirely of glass with huge holes designed into them and curves that glass panneling shouldn't be able to create. And then there's Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, its 163 stories of blue-black glass shooting straight out of the desert like a needle, towering over the rest of the world and sparkling nightly with millions of tiny silver lights. It is an absolutely beautiful city. On my first night, I went out to the beach after sunset, hiked up my skirt, and went running around in the warm waters of the Persian Gulf just because I could.
I can't say enough about the incredible beauty of this city along the warm waters of the Persian Gulf. The experiences I had in this truly global city and all the things I learned there are too much for one blog post!