Only in Dubai......

The following is some of the things that I don't really like about Dubai. But that's just personal as things like this are what others LOVE about the place. As soon as I want to 'hate' on Dubai, something comes along that makes me love it. This past week-end, the "Legends Rock Dubai" tennis tournament came to town. Jim Courier and other stars of the 90's were competing including, the replacement for the injured Goran Ivanesivic....STEFAN EDBERG!! I was in 7th heaven as he is my all-time favorite tennis player. He was mostly still playing his classic serve and volley game, but lost in the finals to Courier 6-3, 6-4. What a trip down tennis' memory lane.

We are in the home stretch before our extended winter vacation. We finish school December 4 and return to school on January 4. We also have a holiday on Dec 2 as it is UAE's birthday! I'm off to either Goa, India or Bangkok for a few days before heading to South Carolina. While in the States, I'll also head to Utah for a week of skiing, although there doesn't seem to be much snow at the moment! On with the article about Dubai.....

Crisis? What crisis? Dubai hotel to throw 20 mln dlr party
Date: 11/19/2008 8:13:00 PM

Dubai is throwing a multi-million-dollar extravaganza on Thursday to launch a luxury hotel on an artificial palm-shaped island, despite the bite from the global financial crisis. More than 2,000 world celebrities are due to attend the event which has been dubbed by the local press as "the party of the decade." Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, actors Robert De Niro and Denzel Washington, and former basketball great Michael Jordan are expected to walk the red carpet at the 1.5-billion-dollar "Atlantis, The Palm" hotel. The evening will peak with a fireworks display that will be "seven times larger than this year's Olympic Games opening ceremony" in Beijing and will be "visible from space", according to the event organisers.
The event will cost a hefty 20 million dollars, said Sol Kerzner, the South African billionnaire, hotel and gambling tycoon, who is organising the bash. "We built something that's quite extraordinary. We've got to tell the world about it," Kerzner told AFP about the lavish hotel which was built through a joint venture with giant local developer Nakheel.
Nakheel, which is controlled by the Dubai government, has built some of the most iconic projects that have put the Gulf emirate on the world map, including a cluster of islands making the shape of the world. Located at the trunk-top of the Palm Jumeirah, one of three palm-shaped islands, Atlantis occupies the entire central part of a huge breakwater.
The 1,539-room hotel is made up of two pale rose towers, which are linked by a bridge which houses a 35,000-dollar-a-night suite. Management says there is a waiting list of guests for the suite. The Dubai hotel is inspired by the original Atlantis that Kerzner built in the Bahamas but is not an average 5-star hotel. It boasts the largest waterpark in the Middle East and a gigantic aquarium in which 65,000 fish, along with an enormous whale shark, swim in 11 million litres of water.