STEER Day 1 in Dubai.

It's 6.11 a.m. in Singapore now, but it's only 2.11 am here in Dubai Airport. We are now waiting for the connecting flight to Damman, Saudi Arabia after our flight from Singapore earlier today. Been awake for more than 22 hours, and our flight is only due at 5 am. Sleepy TTM!

After we reached Dubai, we made our way via the Metro to the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. The tower wasn't the main aim of our visit though, it was more of the 12 million square feet Dubai Mall that we really wanted to check out. It's a stunning 8 times the size of Vivocity, and a supposed retail haven. And haven it was indeed!

There was virtually every single design house in that place, and there was a Gold Souk that housed a whole wing of jewellery stores. Then there was the fountain that we all thought looked a lot like the Singapore River and Clarke Quay. There are water shows every 30 minutes at the fountain, and we were lucky to catch 2. Simply amazing! Although we all tried capturing the beauty of it all with photographs, I think the magic of the moment was in the fact that it was so fleeting. I have got to bring Kai Li here one day...

Anyways, other interesting sights were the indoor aquarium in the mall itself where we saw sand sharks and gigantic groupers. There was also H&M which we didn't have time to go into. I really really wanted to check out the Kinokuniya Book House, but we didn't have enough time for that either.

After one day here, I can really see the opulence and lavishness of the place. The Emirati have spared no expense at displaying their wealth. And wow, do they know how to enjoy the life!

One other thing I noted was that even though Dubai is considered quite liberal in the Middle East and has some latitude in what they allow, the advertising here is still much more conservative as compared to Singapore. Guess? advertisements do not have their usual flaunts of cleavage, and most advertising do not even show people in them. Brand names are the big thing here, but not so much advertising. I can imagine how hard it is for a new brand to strike it out here. Seems like in order to make it in Dubai, your company must have already made it somewhere else.

It seems really short when I am blogging this, but the tour around Dubai was truly an eye-opener, be it from the narrow-mindedness of what luxury is, and also from a cultural viewpoint as an observer looking at how the Arabs behave and lead their lives. They are really family-oriented (everyone is almost always seen in the family unit), and somehow there is an aura of dignity that they carry as Emiratis that one can feel around them. I can only imagine the pride with which they have for their country. Something we can all learn as Singaporeans, I believe.

We are headed to Saudi Arabia later, and from what I have heard so far, the culture would be quite different from what we have here at Dubai. That means more interesting things for me to learn. I am still wondering how they conduct their marketing and advertising if all depictions of humans are disallowed. Looks like I am going to find out real soon!