Dubai is the fastest growing city in the world after Shanghai and is presently home to an amazing 24% of the world's construction cranes. With this comes an army of contractors and labourers, most of whom are bused in every day from labour camps and Sharjah. I came across a good article yesterday which highlights the desperate plight of many of these people, although I'm not sure I like being described as a 'pampered mercenary'. The poverty divide is certainly striking - from expats on fat-cat packages to labourers (on the Palm for example) earning less than £100 per month.
I've said enough about driving here already (still no licence in case you were curious), but I did enjoy this picture I came across the other day.
On the domestic front there have been yet more trips to IKEA, but to compensate we did have a good afternoon on a lovely quiet beach at the Marina. The water is still like a warm bath and a good breeze made for a pleasant time.
We had a good shopping trip without the kids to Dubai's bargain basement souk in Karama. Janet picked up a 'Mulberry' and 'Tods' handbag and I got a 'Mont Blanc' watch (which stopped soon after). The good stuff tended to be hidden away in little attics above the shops which we were ushered in to. It's all completely counterfeit of course but some of it was very good quality and you'd be hard pushed to tell it wasn't the real deal. This was followed by sushi in the very smart Emirates Towers where we were the scruffiest people by some distance. Tomorrow night we're going to the Ritz for their Iftaar buffet. It's a hard life ...
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