Fake rolex and spice and everything nice

I spent all day everyday in the office so I didn't get to see a whole lot of Dubai though I did escape one evening to go to the old part of the city and wander around the souks. Traders have been in this area for hundreds of years and while the souks are labelled 'tourist attraction', the shifting of goods is still their business which means you end up with a very eclectic range of goods for sale. The different traders are generally grouped together so you can play them off with each other - textile traders are all in the 'silk souk', there's the gold souk, the spice souk, the perfume souk, the 'hey mister you want a fake rolex' souk and the chinese made plastic remote control toy souk. It's all there.

One of the things I love about traveling is finding quirky little gems that you would never come across at home, here is a picture of #246 on the list of things you will never see for sale in Australia:



No your eyes are not deceived, that is actually a giant sack of dehydrated prawns. It is sitting at the front of a spice traders shop, outside where the temperature is hitting mid to high 30's every day. Though in his defence, this is the cooler less humid part of the year, I assume the prawns are taken inside or not for sale in August when the temperature is hitting the high 50 degrees with 90% humidity. Hmmm...

I've had this thing nagging at me the whole time I've been in Dubai, it's a question
nobody has been able to answer, even the people actively involved in creating this crazy place. It's this: By 2015, there will be enough residential accommodation in Dubai for over 3 million people plus the equivalent commercial space. Dubai's population is currently 1.4 million, 250,000 of which are imported Indian and Pakistani labourers who are certainly not going to be buying new houses and settling here when it's all finished. Where are all the people coming from? Maybe they're all waiting for their house on a palm frond to be finished before the sell up and hop a plane to their island paradise. The rumours are anything from the Russian mafia diversifying to rich folks in third world countries creating a fail-safe if/when their own countries become a little too politically awkward. Whatever it is, the fact that they have designs on tripling the population in the next 7 years is probably the least weird thing about Dubai.

My palm is bigger than your palm

I flew into Dubai and landed at what will become the worlds biggest airport, had the worlds biggest cup of coffee and got into a taxi which took me along a freeway through the worlds biggest construction zone. The office is right near the Palm Jumeirah which in September last year became the worlds biggest man made island.



It held the title for a pitifully short time - it's already been eclipsed in size by the Palm Jebel Ali a few km's to the west which in turn will lose it's title to the Palm Deira just to the east. When completed in 2010, the Palm Deira will be 8 times the size of the Palm Jumeirah. Oh and I forgot to mention 'The World Islands' on which construction has just begun - this will be an archepeliago of 150+ islands in between the Palms Jumeirah and Deira formed in the shape of, wait for it, you'll never guess...the world.

The surreal Burj Al Arab is the world's only '7 star' hotel (actually there is no such thing as 7 stars, the industry chooses to call it that and the hotel choose not to say otherwise), the worlds richest horse race is in Dubai, the worlds largest indoor ski slope (though a newer, bigger one is currently being built) and not to be outdone on any front, just last month Dubai broke the record for the worlds biggest car crash involving more than 300 vehicles.

Family Bike Ride

Broke in the new bike today on the standard blast around Manly Dam in Sydney's northern burbs. I haven't done the ride since before my old bike was stolen so it was great to get out there on what Kacper appropriately calls the Family Bike Ride.



I christened the bike properly just as we were coming towards the end of the loop when I came across a small lady with a very large dog standing right in the riding line at that part of the track. I popped over a rock to get around her and saw, just as I hit the point of no return, the muddy hole that my front wheel was about to rest in and the piece of track my face was about to rest on as I went over the bars. She was very apologetic but didn't offer any practical assistance such as taking the bike off my head. Glad I bought the lighter one.

Heading to Dubai on Wednesday for 8 days work then continuing on for a quick lap through the US and back to Sydney on May 7th.

Table Rock

Went to a site called Table Rock on the western side of the Blue Mountains. I haven't flown there but Kacper and the other kids have been going out there pretty regularly. The site has great potential for XC flying and you probably want to get away from it as the landing is pretty average - the place is just rolling hills so everything is in rotor plus a spider web of power lines. Thanks to Andy for picking Michael and I up from the least shitty landing paddock (read: only one I could find with no power lines running directly across the preffered approach).