Pa and I spent yesterday afternoon visiting “The Other Dubai.” Walking the neighborhood, taking photos, having a wonderful Arabian lunch at an outdoor cafe. It was going to be a good blog.
The evening was set aside to visit the world’s tallest building - the Burj Khalid,
163 floors, 2,717 feet head to toe.
Not a cheap ticket, but once in a lifetime. And a few extra dirhams bought us a ride past the 124th floor, where most people get off, to the 148th and the observation deck.
Nearly sunset and a clear sky, we were awestruck.
After a while, I started taking photos like everyone else. 25, 30 or more before leaning to capture the little things on ground zero. I don’t know why, but I raised my head, bumping it on a metal tube that keeps people from falling off. Reaching for the sore spot, I let go of my phone.
Time slowed as it floated like the feather in those early depictions of how gravity works.
Of course there was nothing we could do but walk around as inconspicuously as possible before descending the 148 floors.
The Burj is connected to the Dubai Mall and soon enough we were at the Apple Store where Ahmed from Syria helped us with the purchase of a new iPhone 14. We talked about Syria, of course, and I shared the story of the young woman who sold us the Popeye socks.
“We Syrians are like that,” Ahmed said. “We’ve suffered so much and yet maintain a belief that it will get better someday.” He then talked about his older sister, smuggled out of Syria to Germany eight years ago. “She had nothing when she arrived. Now she has a Masters Degree in public health, working with refugees.”
Back at the hotel, we’re on the hotel phone with T-Mobile for an hour and a half trying to get the iPhone activated. Just 477 dirhams. By the way, the photos from the day never made it to iCloud.
This morning Pa and I decided to go back to the neighborhood, stopping first at the Mall’s “biggest in the world” aquarium.
A nice diversion.
Following afternoon prayer,
we had lamb chops again at the little restaurant. Succulent and grilled to perfection, they were worth twice the menu price.
Waiting, we did some research and confirmed what we’d heard - that Dubai has a world class surveillance system, blocks various social network platforms, and doesn’t hesitate to jail to make a point.
No blog.
Back at the hotel we visited with Valerie from Zimbabwe who’s getting her Masters Degree in hospitality and hotel management from a university in South Africa. She’s finishing up her one year internship and submits her thesis next week. “My argument is that the poor treatment of service industry employees comes at a considerable financial cost to shareholders.”
“I’ll do things different someday,” she promises. “I’m going to own a chain of hotels all around the world where everyone is treated like family.”
Had I not bumped my head, Pa and I would never have met Valerie and Ahmed.
The adventure within the adventure! Sorry to hear about the loss of your phone - but if you had to lose it, what a way to go! Besides making for a good story, it also puts you in what I would suspect to be a statistically small group of people. How many people in the world have been to the top of the world’s tallest building? How many people in the world have dropped their phone off the top of the world’s tallest building? Fred, you are definitely one in a million! Or maybe more like one in several hundred million!