First day in Dubai. Left ship and checked into Amwaj Ritana JBR hotel. We could not get to our room right away so we had lunch on the patio. We got to our room about three. We were on the fifteenth floor overlooking the pool and beach area. Dubai has a well deserved reputation for being the “city of gold.” Everything is the biggest, tallest, and first of its kind. We could see the world’s biggest Ferris wheel from our room. Unfortunately it was not working. We could also see the beach and the Persian Gulf. Lots of activity outside including water skiing, jet skiing, parasailing, and the usual yachts trying to outdo each other. Lots of yachts. About thirty years ago before oil was discovered, Dubai was a little fishing village with Bedouins roaming by grazing their flocks. They had some pearl diving but that stopped when Japanese pearls got popular. Now, if you are a citizen, the Emerite provides you with land, a government job, a house, no taxes, free education and health services. The only way to be a citizen is to be born there with Emerite parents. You can work there but you must leave when you are sixty five. Most of the buildings downtown are apartments and condos for their guest workers. The workers are from all over the world. We were told there are eight workers on average for each citizen. Emerite citizens live outside town in their own area.
Where in the world is Dalna 