Wow. In most of my travels recently, I’ve gotten to a new country and needed a day to adjust and transition. I’m usually feeling sad about leaving the last place and saying goodbye to new friends while I try to adjust to the good and bad ‘differences’ of my new “home.” Sometimes I don’t have a great first impression, then I scratch beneath the surface, meet the people, and usually ended up liking each place after all.

I fell in love with Istanbul the moment my taxi dropped me off in the old town. My first night I went out, had a beer, ate with brand new friends, and even spoke with some other expats about finding a job here. I always know if I like a city if I still drag my ass out at night even after a very long, jet-lagging day on a plane. I did the same thing in Hong Kong—another city I really liked. Istanbul had cast its spell on me in about thirty minutes. The old quarter is quintessentially just that—it has that old European vibe with narrow medieval, cobblestone streets full of bars and cafes that spill out onto the sidewalk. The night air swells with sounds of clinking glasses, romantic whispers, and laughter. Plus the high summer season has not really hit yet so the small crowds are just my style. I find it so much easier meeting people as a solo traveler when there are not hordes of backpackers and other travelers mobbing through the streets at full volume.

Turkey is one place where “East meets West” literally. It’s especially true here in Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, because here the continents of Europe and Asia actually come together, separated only by the Bosporus Strait, which flows 18 miles from the Black Sea in the north to the Sea of Marmara in the south. And in the less literal sense–on the vibrant streets of this city of 12 million people, miniskirts and trendy boots mingle with Muslim head scarves and prayer beads. Turkey is a secular country that is 99% Muslim, but you might not know that in trendy Istanbul.

For sixteen centuries Istanbul, originally known as Byzantium, played a major part in world politics: first as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, when it was known as Constantinople, then as capital of the Ottoman Empire, the most powerful Islamic empire in the world, when it was renamed Istanbul.

Today, Turkey is no little chick. It is roughly 815,000 square kilometers – 3% of which are on the European continent and 97% are in Asia. This diverse land of 70 million people shares its borders with Greece, Bulgaria, Armenia, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Georgia. With 7000 kilometers of coastline, snow capped mountains and volcanoes, natural wonders; Turkey seems to have it all.

The bad news? Turkey sits directly on at least three active earthquake faults. Thirteen major quakes have rocked Turkey since 1939—the latest was a 7.4 magnitude whopper in 1999 which killed more than 18,000 people. I’ll try not to think about that part.

Information. Communication. Entertainment. What more could you want? (Well, there are a couple other things…)

As I flew from Dubai to Istanbul on my Emirates Air flight, I was amazed to discover an enlightened airline that still treats flying “the friendly skies” like an old-fashioned luxury in a modern world. The ICE system is their in-flight entertainment extravaganza packed into the screen in the seatback in front of you. You control it with your own remote and chose from over six hundred (600!!) channels of movies, TV shows and video games. There are hundreds of music albums to choose from and of course you have your own remote to control it all. It’s like having your own stereo system/DVD player at your seat. Oh, and of course, I’m sitting in Economy Class.

Not only that, there’s the information side with a map of our route PLUS two live cameras—one with a frontward view (pretty fun to watch during take off) and a downward facing camera to watch the city and clouds go by at full speed.

Finally, there is phone service, email capability, and even a way to chat with your friends and family in other seats on the plane. You can literally send a text or email message to someone on the ground somewhere and when they reply it will show up on your screen. Well, I’d write more, but I really want to take advantage of this system and start watching…the latest Grey’s Anatomy episode, the movie “Dreamgirls”, and then maybe listen to some sweet radio hits from 1983 like “Der Kommissar,” “Cuts Like a Knife,” and “Electric Avenue” by Eddie Grant. Pure classics.

Once again on my travels I’ve been able to meet some wonderful locals thanks to friends back home. My friend Kal is the Head of the Engineering Department at ABC7 Chicago. He hooked me up with his cousin, Mehro, who lives here in Dubai with her husband, Zahid. They are originally from Pakistan, but have lived in Dubai for about a year now where Zahid is a regional director with Lloyds Registry.

We had a wonderful time at their house and savored a great home cooked meal. Their daughter was in town for a visit from London where she is studying law at university. They also invited some of their neighbors from their very-worldly expatriate ‘compound.’ We spent the afternoon having wine with some fun Pakistanis, Italians, and Danish. It was a blast and interesting to see how those who move to Dubai for work live and play. Mehro and Zahid were a super cute couple who seemed to compliment each other nicely. Mehro told us a story from when she was a young lady growing up in Pakistan. Her father owned a hotel where they hosted guests from all over the world. One guest was a man from Japan whom she befriended. He wanted to learn Urdu (the official language of Pakistan) so she began by teaching him the standard greetings. That night he was meeting a very important man for the very first time. He extended his hand and said proudly in his new Urdu dialect, “Hello, I am a goat from Japan.” Mehro, of course, was in the corner snickering. She was already a trouble maker! Of course, the way she told the story was better than I am writing it here. I’ve never met a Pakistani that wasn’t very friendly and super funny—they always leave me in stitches.

Besides darting from air-conditioned shopping mall to shopping mall, and gazing up at all the amazing buildings going up in Dubai, we also got to do some fun activities under the hot desert sun. One day we paid about $45 to spend a lazy afternoon at the plush One&Only Mirage Resort. It had one of the most beautiful pools I’d ever seen. First of all, it was huge and seemed to wind around the entire resort grounds. There were huge palm trees virtually growing from the middle of the pool. It was quite tranquil and we spent the afternoon reading, sun bathing, swimming and going for a dip, perhaps for the only time in our lives, in the Persian Gulf.

We spent another day at the Wild Wadi Water Park. This was another fabulous way to stay cool in the hot desert sun. We jumped in tubes and slid down waterslides and even slid up them—these were my first slides in which water actually propelled you upwards! And, being the somewhat fearless one, I took on the tallest, fastest waterslide outside of North America. Of course half-way up the stairs to the top of the tower, my heart started pounding and I was wondering why I was doing this. I convinced myself to “take the plunge” and hoped my swim suit would stay in place. The ride lasts about five seconds, maybe. And as you shoot down the 33-meter slide on nothing but your back, you can reach speeds of up to 40 MPH. Well, after the common instructions of keeping my legs crossed and arms crossed over my chest—away I went. Wooooooooo… it was over before I knew it, but a blast and worth it! And everything stayed on and in its place. Phew.

One of the ‘must-dos’ here in Dubai is a Desert Safari. For about $40, we did an afternoon Safari with Orient Tours. We were picked up from our hotel in a white Toyota 4WD SUV and proceeded to pick up an Italian couple and their son and speed out to the desert to begin our ‘safari.’ The first thing we did was stop at a gas station to refuel our bellies with snacks and also to literally let the air out of the tires of our SUV to get it ready for some real ‘off-roading.” Once in the desert we started some good ol’ “Dune Bashing.” We sped up and over the sand dunes, our wheels spinning and our truck skidding. It felt like some kind of out of control roller coaster. We dipped and sped up hills and slid down sideways. It was a blast and luckily the truck was completely padded inside just in case of any ‘roll-overs.’ After about an hour of this my stomach had just about had it with all the jumping and bumping, we head off to our oasis in the desert–an outdoor BBQ with cushions all around tables low tables with candles. Here we tried some sandboarding, which is much easier than the snow variety for the sheer fact that the sand slows you down as opposed to the slick snow. Oh yeah, plus it was the tiniest of baby camel slopes. Speaking of camels, we also got to take a slow ride on a big camel. Ours was named Shelia and she was sweet and tame. It felt similar to horse back riding except when it was time to get off she’d sit down, but this is a two-step process. First her front legs go down and you are thrown forward like on a carnival ride, then her hind quarters go down and you can climb off to low ground. For dinner we had some succulent barbecued chicken and beef—it seems that any kind of grilled/barbecued meet is beloved ‘round the world. The evening ended with a belly dancer whose hips certainly “didn’t lie” (Shakira, Shakira). It was great fun and the weather was so wonderful once the sun went down—it was just delightful. I, of course, was in awe of the thousands of stars twinkling above. Just amazing and probably a highlight of our time in Dream-world Dubai.

Dubai is super hot and very dusty. The combination of the hot sun, dry desert air, and constant construction dust give the place an overall ‘whiteout’ look. You can tell the sky is blue somewhere straight up, but anywhere near the horizon it just looks like a gray, hot haze.

Dubai has become one of the world’s fastest growing cities over the last thirty years. In fact it’s already tripled in time since then. Since the discovery of oil here in 1966, the city took off on one of the fastest growing spurts in history. Its oil reserves are actually quite modest, but this ground breaking, industrious city used the quick oil wealth as a springboard to create a market for tourism, real estate, trade, and manufacturing. It’s over-the-top style, ‘in your face’ wealth, and larger-than-life playground for the rich puts it in a class on its own. Five-Star beach resort hotels, year round sunshine, and dozens of modern, humongous, open ‘til-midnight shopping malls keep the tourists coming. Also the incentive packages for employees—including free homes and cars, plus NO taxation, and, of course, rock bottom gas prices—keeps the expats moving in.

This completely new urban landscape virtually rises out of the dry desert with what appears to be hundreds of skyscrapers and literally dozens upon dozens currently under construction. They claim that right now Dubai is home to one quarter of the world’s building cranes—and I believe it. This modern city is home to the world’s tallest hotel, the iconic sail-shaped Burj Al Arab (Arabian Tower), the self proclaimed world’s only 7-Star hotel. It has become the symbol of the city. The one thousand-foot-tall hotel (taller than the Eifel Tower) has become the symbol of the city and sits on a man made island just off the main beach strip of Jumeirah. The all-suite hotel has 202 duplex suites starting at nearly $2000 a night, each with floor to ceiling windows giving you a breathtaking view of the city and sea. Well, we actually didn’t get to see this view because when we approached the gate of the hotel we were actually turned away because we were Jews.*

*Just kidding. We were really turned away because we didn’t have ‘reservations’…oh, and we were Jews. No, actually, no non-guest can enter the hotel at all without a dinner or bar reservation and those need to be made weeks in advance of course. Oh, and no blue jeans….that’s what I meant ‘no jeans,’ not ‘no Jews.’ We were out on the street.

Another superlative in the dreamland that is Dubai–the new “Burj Dubai” (Dubai Tower) going up right now. Yep, you guessed it—when it’s complete it will be the world’s tallest building. And in it? The first ever Armani Hotel. At 160 stories, this modern, sleek needle tower will be twice the height of New York’s Empire State building. Riding down the main drag, Sheikh Zayed Road, we found it hard to miss it towering over the already tall wildly-designed towers on all sides…and it’s only half built. Oh, and of course it will have the world’s fastest elevators rocketing up to the observatory decks at 40 mph.

Also coming soon to a Dubai near you—the first ever underwater hotel. Hydropolis will be a complete ‘submarine’ getaway for you to lay your head…or drown while sleeping if there are ever any major leaks. Sweet dreams under the sea.

You may have already heard of these man-made island developments happening just off the shores of Dubai. The Palms are three man-made islands groups resembling palm trees. And the “The World” is exactly just that—a group of man-made islands completely representing the globe. You can buy the ‘country’ of your choice. Prices for the islands range from $15 million to $45 million. In fact, there are rumors that British celebrities Rod Stewart and David Beckham have bought into this project, but neither of these have been confirmed. Becks already does however own a villa on the nearby Palm Jumeirah development. And just recently, rocker Tommy Lee announced that he was buying the Greece Island for ex-wife Pamela Anderson. How sweet. Now they can run around naked on their very own island and film videos of the whole thing. All these crazy dreamlands are made of sand dredged from the ocean floor.

It seems here in Dubai that neither the sky nor the sea is the “limit.”It’s 100 degrees outside and you want to cool off? Pop over to “Ski Dubai” the huge indoor ski resort at the Mall of the Emirates. Leave it to Dubai, to build a ski resort in the desert. I think Vegas needs a ski resort about now, don’t you?

It’s hard to miss all the consumerism going on around me here. Abaya-cloaked women stroll up and down the mall corridors with bags from DKNY and Tiffany. Sitting in Dubai traffic (urban planning seems to be an afterthought in “the world’s tallest this” and “the world’s biggest that” city) it’s hard to miss the huge Hummers lumbering past. As a wealthy nation, the UAE enjoys some great benefits—free healthcare, free education, and even a marriage fund. Overall, the city is more expensive than many other places I’ve been on my trip and seems to hold par with prices in many big American cities. A stay in one of the resorts can set you back at least a couple hundred a night. Budget lodging is pretty tough to find, and without any real efficient public transportation (a Metrorail is currently under construction, like everything else) taxi cabs add up when you have to ride all the way across the spread out town just for dinner. We spent $5 for a small bottle of water at The One&Only Mirage Resort where we spent the day lounging at the amazing pool and fabulously landscaped and lighted grounds. And then I bought a 1.5 liter bottle of water at the Deira neighborhood grocery for about 25 cents. The big kicker? One amazing incentive to living here is there are virtually no taxes whatsoever—no income tax, no sales tax, no capital gains tax, and no property tax. That makes living in this desert oasis a much more viable option.

Of the 1.4 million people in Dubai only 10% are Emirates. The other 90% are actually expatriates—Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Lebanese, British, and other Europeans—who make up a good part of the workforce. And many of these are here working in construction. Dubai appears like a pure utopia, but underneath the surface there, of course, are some dark spots. From what I’ve heard the thousands of construction jobs are here for the taking, but sadly, the working conditions are quite poor. It sounds like there’s been some improvement, but just working outside in this heat alone seems unbearable.

Also, it has been said that a lot of September 11th money may have flown through here apparently unbeknownst to the government. There is no question that the UAE may have a mixed record on terrorism. But they have been our ally and cooperative in certain respects.

Do you know Dubai?

Religion:
Islam is the official religion of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates. Non-Muslims are not allowed into most mosques. We even saw a store display of copies of the Koran with a big sign saying “Non-Muslims are not allowed to handle the Koran.” Muslims pray five times a day: at dawn, around noon, when the sun is in the position that makes the shadow of an object equal to the length of the object, at the start of sunset, and finally, at twilight, when the last drop of sun disappears over the horizon. And Muslims don’t need to be in a Mosque to pray, they just need to face Mecca, so they will just stop whatever they are doing and wherever they are and pray. All public buildings—airports, libraries, shopping malls—have prayer rooms.

Alcohol:
In Islam, it is forbidden to eat pork and also to drink alcohol, therefore it is only sold at hotel restaurants here. No other restaurants serve any alcohol whatsoever. You can NOT purchase alcohol from any store or supermarket unless you have an official “alcohol license.” Only non-Muslims can be issued this license by the police department. For a tourist, this makes vacationing here even more expensive—when you want a drink you have to go to an expensive hotel bar or restaurant because there is no such thing as a “cheap beer” here. In line with this, any kind of drunk driving is forbidden—it is completely a zero tolerance policy—you are not allowed to drive with ANY quantity of alcohol in your system. If you drink and drive and are caught you will go to jail.

Mail:

There is still no direct service mail delivery as of yet in Dubai (read—no mailmen). All residents must have their mail delivered to a Post Office Box.

Government (see also Religion):

In each Emirate (state) of the UAE, the power rests firmly in the hands of a ruling Muslim tribe. In Dubai the Maktoom family is in charge. There are no political parties or elections.