Founding of Singapore - 200 Years

Sir Stamford Raffles arrived on the island of Singapore on 28 January 1819. Back in 1819, Singapore has an indigenous population of about 150 people.

Today is the 200th anniversary of Raffles arrival. Our population has grown to about 6 million people, crowded onto a small island. Raffles had set up a trading post in Singapore which allowed it to prosper given its strategic location between Europe, India and China, Japan. This is despite an absence of natural resources.

Dubai Skyscrapers Part 2

Dubai Creek Tower model at Dubai Mall

Not only is the Burj Khalifa not tall enough at 830m, the UAE is building another structure which is 1.2 to 1.3 km tall. It is known as the Dubai Creek Tower. The tower as shown in the photo above is a slender structure with cable like supports. It looks like a tall rocket that is about to blast off to space. Around the centre of this tower lies observatory decks.

Obviously, it doesn't come cheap. This is another project to showcase Arabs wealth.

While it is another engineering feat making the engineers laughing to the banks, it doesn't makes economical sense. The monies could be spent on research that could make human lives better, reduce the number of hunger death, reduce pollution, reduce climate impact, lower risk of terrorism, improve cultural appreciation etc.

It just reminds me of the Tower of Babel mentioned in the Book of Genesis of the Old Testament.

Dubai Blue Sky

Being a desert climate, there is little rain all year round. I took a picture of the blue sky which show a cloudless sky. The blue is unedited and natural.

Dubai Skyscrapers

The quantity of skyscrapers in Dubai is amazing. There are so many construction works on-going in the city that one wonders whether there are real buyers to these real estate. They are building condos, hotels, malls and offices everywhere along the main spine (where the metro lies).

While there are attempts to go Green through the use of solar panels, this cannot be said for design of infrastructure, eg the volume of chilled water required for cooling space is tremendous. The volume of water needed to make the landscape looks green is huge. Otherwise it will just be desert sand. Dubai uses desalination techniques to extract water from the sea. Without energy (from petrol or gas), the malls, offices will not work. But there is a certain lifespan for energy even though it is available cheaply in this region. There seems to be an emphasis on extravagant, from artificial pool (in a desert), creek, reclamation from desert sand and massive tall buildings

Dubai is traditionally a trading hub. One can see in its Gold Souk and the spice trades. But trading should not give supernormal profits. While I understand that the government of UAE is trying their best to diversify to non-oil industry, there must be development in pace of demand. Expats will simply leave in times of economic crisis.

What I like about Dubai is the availability of cheap petrol and relatively cheap car prices. Eg Mitsubishi Attrage is about 36000 Dirham. There is 5% value added tax. Food prices are comparable to Singapore prices. Winter climate is fantastic.

Dubai Architecture

Other than the skyscrapers, Dubai traditional looking buildings do have certain architectural identity such as the cantilever protruded feature , the curve opening with Islamic details and the circular roof. These traditional design looks good on modern buildings and is unique to this region. I also notice that many buildings have limited opening/windows due to the possibility of sand storm. This impedes natural ventilation but nowadays they are cooled by air-conditioning.

Dubai Food

In the 5 days in Dubai, I have not eaten sufficient local dishes to give a conclusive comment on the food. But I notice that Dubai has a variety of food, mainly focusing on Arabs, Indians and Western dishes.  These are the food I have eaten and some little comments:-

Wimpy at Naif Street - This is the best street food I have eaten. It is simple Kebab which cost just 5 Dirham. The melon juice cost 10 Dirham which was one of the best melon juice I had. I believe the restaurant may have added milk into the juice. Simple and tasty meal near the Gold Souk. I would recommend it.

Indian Food - The first photo below shows Chicken Briyani. It was prepared with spices and yoghurt. It was well prepared and the chicken is tender and tasty. The food was purchased and served to us.  The second photo shows food taken from an Indian restaurant. It was beautifully prepared and tasty. It was of course expensive.

Iranian Food - The restaurant was recommended by a youtuber. There were many photos of celebrities and even royalties who had visited the restaurant. I had mutton kebab as shown which cost 32 Dirham. The food was a bit dry despite of the yoghurt which tasted too sour for my liking. Somehow, I thought there would be better dishes which I could order.

Kebab Fast-food in Dubai Mall - I guessed this was a Turkish kebab (but could be wrong). It cost me 23 Dirham. The accompanied sauce was good but there was no vegetables. They gave 3 dough which I could not finish.

Dubai UAE 13 - 17 Jan 19

Dubai Old Town near Gold Souk

I am in Dubai, UAE from 13 Jan 19 to 17 Jan 19 on a work trip.

First Impression
- Largely influenced by UK standard - from power plug, widely used of English, English radio stations that play British singers songs, eg U2 etc.
- Not so many Chinese influx as compared to Japan. Filipinos are working mainly in service industry.
- Mainly Arabs and Indians.
- Just separated with Iran with just one Strait. At the time of visit, Israel had just attacked Iranian targets in Syria.
- Many Spices trading. I bought one of the most expensive spice in the world, Saffron at 20 Dirham for 2 gram (20 Dirham is equivalent to SGD $7.60 or USD$5.4). It smells good.
- A simple train service with only 2 lines - Green and Red. The NOL card for train costs 25 Dirham has a value of 19 Dirham.
- Street food is almost same price as Singapore. One simple meal cost 15 Dirham (SGD5.70) comprises of kebab and a fruit drinks.
- Weather in January is good at 23 degree Celsius. Good for walking around.
- Still many construction works in Dubai city, showing infrastructural development and the abundance oil money and wealth.

Written in Dubai