Dubai has a population of 1.4 million. About 60 percent of that figure is made up of "expats" or foreigners who are working here with multinationals. There's a lot of British and Indian people here and most of them live in "compounds," which are these huge gated communities that are almost little cities inside complete with shopping malls, gyms, polo clubs, schools, medical centers and restaurants! Many compounds have names and slogans that crack me up such as: "Falcon City--Live the Legend" or "Al Barari Villas--Your Sanctuary For Life." My parents live in the "Arabian Ranches" and you can see their street in the picture above. To give you an idea of how huge this place is, there are atleast 2000 villas in the compound...and all the houses look exactly the same. When I go for my evening run I almost always get lost and end up running longer than intended. Somehow asking passersby, "Excuse me, do you know where the brown villa by the palm tree is?" just doesn't cut it.
Though the compound scares me, I have to say that whoever designed this place certainly knew how to create a good backyard. When I'm not exploring the city, I lie down on my mom's cushiony swinging-chair with a stash of trashy magazines and listen to my ipod. This is truly one of life's perfect pleasures.
2 comments:
WOW! Are all the buildings in the city built like a lego? N.E.A.T.-O
That must be tough, getting lost in a new city and asking strangers "can you tell me where I live?".
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