Dubai visit

...sorry, this post is a bit late in time because it happened that we were able to fly to Dubai for a project and look-see visit.
It was - how can I say - just WOW!!!!! (I really mean this!). Never ever before I have seen a city like this one. Although I have been almost already around the world and seen many cities. But most cities I have seen are not build in just 10 years but rather evolved over the past couple of hundred years. Hence, there are no BIG/HUGE projects going on. Imagine: in Dubai they are about to build a new metro system (there was no before, so new is really new). Maybe I should say they are building it from scratch (IT folks would call this green field approach). So what they do is building this metro everywhere in the city concurrently. Hence, when you drive around, you will see that the status of the metro is allover the exact same one. Differences in status you can not even spot at hot spots such at the airport or in the city center. It's just all the same all over. What this means for logistics is useless to say! It must be a huge effort as well to serve all sites at the same time with the same material. Unfortunately I have not seen how they are doing it - it might happen all at night.
The same actually happens for buildings as well. Although some project may have been stopped recently or have not even been started due to the financial crisis, there is still a significant amount of projects going on. At Dubai Marina there are at least 10 20-story buildings growing each day. Work is going on 24x7 at this time of the year and hence the noise level is accordingly.

Traffic is another superlative thing. Most roads have at least 2 lanes, not seldom 4 and highways have 6 - in each direction of course! However, during rush hours it happens that all lanes are pretty full. And because there are loads of cars around the time to resolve the jam is pretty long too. Some folks say that they stay in traffic 4 hours each day just get to work and back home, because they live a bit outside of Dubai. For us, traffic was not a problem as we lived close by and therefore it took me only 10mins to commute.

Prices are outrageous! No matter if it is every day groceries (+40% since January 2008), lunch/dinner at a restaurant, hotels and of course houses/apartments - maybe the hottest topic.
So when it comes to houses/apartments you must spend between 80k - 100k USD per year for a decent house with 2 - 3 bed rooms. And that - is just the beginning!
More to follow.