Work trip to Dubai, United Arab Emirates - 28th to 31st January 2007

After my first trip to Dubai, back in August, I was mostly just wowed by the sheer ridiculousness of the whole place, so it was great to get a reasonably quick chance to go back for another look. This time, it wasn't all work, because I decided to work in a day off to try to see something of the place. What I saw was money, sand, camels, terrible traffic, even worse drivers, and sunshine.

First, the money. I spent a lot of time hanging around hotels - it is the thing to do in Dubai. Business meetings happen in them, I obviously stayed in one, but generally they seem to be the places that make the world go round out there. Much as it is casinos in Las Vegas, or shopping malls in Singapore, or even pubs in London - hotels in Dubai are the place. And they are all full of people that seem to be eager just to show off their wealth.

That includes rich British chavs who are there to go shopping for tacky but expensive designer labels; and rich Arabs who have more money than they know what to do with. In fact, there is a LOT of money floating around the place, along with conclusive proof that it does not buy refinement or class. I saw more Juicy Couture tracksuits on orange British women in 3 days, than I ever wanted to in a lifetime.

On my day off, I went on what they call a desert safari. They pick you up in a 4x4, then take you out into the desert. You hammer over sand dunes in the jeep, which is a fantastic and exhilirating ride. You stop in the middle of nowhere for the chance to take a photo of sand.

Then they take you to a camp in the middle of the desert, where you can do camel riding, sand boarding (like snowboarding but on sand), henna tattooing, sheesha pipes, and they feed you a nice barbecue. It was a great 5 hours or so, and I'd fully recommend it as being worth the £30 or so I paid to do it. I would slightly doubt quite how "in the middle of nowhere" we really were, because I had a mobile phone signal throughout the trip!

That day, the UAE were playing Oman in the final of football's Gulf Cup. On the way back into the city, it became apparent that they had won. People started to fill the streets, hooting horns, spraying aerosol cans and lighting them to make flamethrowers, and even spraypainting their new and expensive cars in UAE national colours. As well as the jeep here, I also saw a brand new BMW 7-series, and a Hummer that had been spray painted all over.

Complete madness, and another sign that some people there seem to have no money worries. So, what should have been a 20 minute drive to my hotel, ended up taking 2 hours, as the streets became totally gridlocked. For a group of people that don't drink, I have never seen such riotous celebrations - OK, so the won the Gulf Cup - if they won the World Cup, Dubai wouldn't be still standing after the celebrations had finished!

This gridlock was only slightly worse than the usual Dubai traffic jams, which are not helped by the appalling standard of driving out there. In the UAE, only about 20% of the population are native Arabs, and they literally own the place. They are natives, everybody else is a foreigner, and they are so rich that traffic fines make no difference to them.

So, when they are out driving, they will just drive wherever they want to, to get somewhere quicker. That means if there is a traffic jam, and a pavement next to the road - just drive on the pavement! Or the central reservation! Or across the mouth of a junction, then cut back in again!! All of which of course causes the most horrendous traffic jams at all hours of the day and night, as well as a fair few accidents. All good fun to see just how incredibly cheeky some of the queue-jumping drivers can be. I would hate to have to drive a car out there, especially given that every other car seems to be a Toyota.

So, a good few days, rounded off by an hour in the massive duty free mall that is the airport. At the end of January the temperature easily got to 30 degrees each day, making this actually a pretty good place to go and get a winter tan. Which is what many of Britain's chavs seem to have decided to do. The money obsession everywhere is a little but vulgar, but there is at least a little bit beneath the surface to be going along with. Dubai, however, seems to be turning into the world's version of the Costa Del Sol.