Dubai, UAE: Palm Trees ON The Ocean

Dubai, UAE:
Palm trees ON the ocean

Dubai is easily one of my favorite cities in the world. If I had a billion dollars or so, I would have an address here. Why? The entire city bows to you, serving anything you need, in a beach environment that is defined by ultimate luxury. This should be on your bucket list for a vacation. It’s better than Paris.
- Cris

Palm Trees In The Sand

Palm Jumeirah

To set the mood for today’s exploration, cue up the David Lee Roth song “California Girls” and sing about “palm trees in the sand.” Now you’re ready to party in Dubai. Our first experience is the Palm Jumeirah, the world’s largest artificial (man made) collection of islands in the worlds. What do you do with 7 million tons of rock and 120 million cubic meters of sand from the bottom of the Persian Gulf? You shape them into 35 miles of land that form a perfect palm tree configuration (of course).

Why didn’t they use desert sand, considering the area surrounding Dubai is, well, very sandy. “Desert sand liquifies once in the water,” Ali Mansour, who worked on the project, explained to CNN Travel. Considering the plans to house thousands of residents and several hotels on the islands, non-liquefying sand was the more preferable of the two. Good point!

Were you hoping to pick up a little house on one of the palm fronds? At the time of this visit, Espace Real Estate has this cozy little 4-bedroom villa available for the bargain price of just over $19 million US dollars. It’s a bargain! The good news is that most of the villas and condos on these islands are often empty because they are the 4th, 5th, or 12th home owned by the wealthy. It’s nice and quiet:-) While property ownership is hush-hush super secret, it doesn’t take long to hear a list of people with homes here (cough cough David Beckham, Roger Federer, cough cough).

Need a 12th home? Check out the inventory (it’s fun).

That pool is gorgeous!

Did looking at that pool remind you that it’s time to buy a bathing suit? Yeah, me too. Thankfully, JavaBurn figured out a clever way to burn belly fat using coffee.

Traffic, however, is not typically light in Dubai. Traffic is actually quite congested because the “little people” drive cars, clogging up the roads. What do the wealthy do? Some of them use helicopters to travel between the tall apartment buildings in Dubai. You can look out your window and see people helicopter from one building to the next to meet with friends, have a coffee, or attend a private gathering. It’s literally my dream to fly over traffic in a helicopter. They live this life.

Uh oh, did your spouse take the helicopter out to get coffee? If’s ok. You can “slum it” and use an air taxi service. It will have the gaudy corporate branding that screams “this passenger does not own this helicopter” but at least you won’t be late for your appointment.

Real estate is very serious business in Dubai. For nearly 20 years, people were outbidding each other for ocean-front condos…only to have an entirely new condo built and completely block your view. I would cry (and probably scream). Some of the buildings have themes. My favorite might be The Marina Torch, offered simply referred to as “The Torch.” The Marina Torch in Dubai has 86 floors, making it one of the tallest residential skyscrapers in the city. It's located in the Dubai Marina district and stands about 352 meters (1,155 feet) tall.

The Marina Torch is one of the most luxurious and exclusive places to live in Dubai. That’s not why it’s my favorite. I love this building because it’s one of the most expensive…and it catches on fire periodically. In 2017, a very large fire broke out, causing the servants of people who owned apartments to have to move out for a few weeks. The owners were not in town at the time. There is still video footage of royal sheiks helping people load their possessions into the trunks of their cars to move out. It was quite a scandal that threatened the future of the massive real estate empire. The 2017 fire is still whispered about (and laughed over) to this day. No one got hurt in either of the large fires in 2015 or 2017 and so I have no shame in chuckling over it. You have to admit that the name is not great for a large apartment building.

Dubai is the perfect playground! Now that we have figured out how to travel like a local, we will explore several exotic locations in the city next week.

See you next Wednesday.

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