UAEDRL day 1

As you know, my studio group visited the United Arab Emirates last month to investigate the context surrounding our project site in the city of Ras' al-Khaimah, north of Dubai, on the Persian Gulf.



DAY 1 included first landing in Dubai and driving down Shiek Zayed Road (the infamous road with all the skyscrapers - the image of Dubai), then walking into the old city, known as Diera on the East side of Dubai Creek. Diera is home to crowded streets and a complicated maze of souks (markets).

The city is a crazy land, really, with skyscrapers popping out of nowhere, massively taking over the image and skyline of a generally sprawling city. The rate of construction is amazing, and we all know how i love super-dense high-rise cities - but Dubai has big issues, and i could write on and on about its projected problems. But for now, a brief description of DAY 1 will simply be described as visiting a place very different than anywhere i'd been before. Of course, parts of the city are very "Western" mostly, American-inspired, kinda like the BigMac - yikes - with giant roads and gas-guzzling SUVs; but also it is clearly an Arab world, and i stuck out like a sore thumb in many neighborhoods with my blonde hair and California sunglasses. My classmates said it was similar to India in many ways, especially the super-crowded market neighborhoods with tiny winding streets and large population of Pakistani and Indian merchants. Speaking English wasn't a problem at all however, as most people there are ex-patriates from other countries, so languages spoken are very diverse. My Indian classmates reckognized Hindi spoken more often than even Arabic. I just noticed lots of people staring at me. :) In many ways, i think Dubai is like Vegas: You can love it, yet you hate it.

[you can click on the slideshow above to activate controls and then to also link to my picasa photo album, which contains some captions of the photos. you can also view a much larger (higher quality) version of the slideshow through my picasa album: http://picasaweb.google.com/lindsaycarol/UAE1 ]