I can remember a day quite clearly, about five years ago or so, when I was sitting on my couch in my house in New Jersey, watching my favorite channel – the Travel Channel. I love to watch the shows on the Travel Channel, and make all kinds of imaginary plans to visit places and countries and hotels. I’ve always had a rather strange obsession with hotels, and would gladly stay at one in my own city, if I thought it was interesting enough and I had the money to waste. And an interesting hotel set in the middle of an equally interesting destination is even more appealing to me. So imagine my fascination on that day, years ago, when the Travel Channel began to air a show about an amazing hotel. A seven-star hotel. And that’s not even a real rating – everyone knows hotels only go up to five stars. But THIS hotel was so unusual, they had to tack on a couple extra stars...
I sat on my couch, transfixed, pulled into the images of the hotel on my television screen. It was filled with fountains, and fire, and giant aquariums. It had rooms with purple drapes and ornate bathroom fixtures and unbelievable views of the ocean. It had a dizzying, towering atrium, zooming up through twenty-some floors. And the whole thing was set out in the middle of the water, built to look like a billowing sail. And I knew, without a doubt, that I’d have to find a way to get there some day. The only problem? My amazing hotel is in Dubai. And, as has been made clear by the recent “port deal” controversy, it’s not exactly on everyone’s list of vacation spots.
But I have to ask – why in the world NOT? Am I the only person who saw that Travel Channel show? The fact of the matter is, Dubai is running out of oil. So to ensure continued revenue, they are, quite successfully, turning themselves into one giant tourist destination. A giant, crazy, never-before-seen kind of resort city. In addition to the hotel (check it out – http://www.burj-al-arab.com/), they’re constructing entire islands shaped like palm trees and maps of the world. Oh yeah, and did I mention the indoor ski resort? How crazy is that? I just love this place. And I’ve never even been there…
The sad thing is, people hear “Middle East” and they freak out. They don’t read about it, they don’t learn about it, they don’t talk to people who’ve been there, they don’t try to form their own educated opinions. They simply hear “Middle East” – and some kind of long-ago-formed, preconceived idea jumps into their heads. I suppose it must be something simple, like, “Middle East = bad.” Personally, I don’t like to label things that broadly. And I’m not stupid – I’m not planning a Baghdad getaway any time soon… I’m not thinking about strutting down the streets of Riyadh in a miniskirt and halter top. (Although I have to admit I WISH I could visit Riyadh… the Kingdom Tower and Al Faisaliah Tower are another couple of architecturally interesting buildings. However, I fear – seeing as I lack a Y chromosome – many areas would be off-limits to me.)
And that’s the great thing about Dubai – they don’t really care about your chromosomes. X, Y, whatever. It’s all good. But I still doubt I’ll get the chance to go there any time soon – off the top of my head, I can only think of MAYBE three people I know who would be willing to make a trip to Dubai with me. And then of course there’s the fact that rooms at my super-cool hotel are about a thousand dollars a night. (But that’s the price you pay for super-coolness…)
Personally, I can’t understand why there’s any kind of “controversy” over this whole Dubai port deal. I mean, look at that hotel… look at the crazy islands – these people KNOW how to make good use of water. My first thought when I heard about it was, “Yeah! Let Dubai run some of our ports! Then maybe WE can get some super-cool hotels and crazy tree-shaped islands!” I suppose there isn’t much “resort planning” included in the port deal. But you never know. It could happen. I’m keeping my fingers crossed…
No comments:
Post a Comment