Burj Khalifa: Photo Story

As promised, I'm sharing some photographs, some taken by me - others from stock photographs from the BBC and the Guardian newspaper. The soundtrack features an instrumental version of Time to Say Goodbye (Con Te Partirò) famously recorded in Italian by Andrea Bocelli in 1995 and later in Italian and English as a duet featuring Sarah Brightman. Several versions by both exist and the song features as part of the daily show for the dancing Dubai Fountain in Downtown Burj Khalifa. The version here is an electronic rendition of this popular tune. The slideshow was produced using Micrsoft Photostory. Enjoy.

Burj Khalifa: Top of the World

Almost exactly a month ago, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai was officially inaugarated before a worldwide audience. This week I took the 60 second ride to the public viewing gallery "at the top" of Burj Khalifa and have thus now stepped foot in and seen the world from the highest man-made point in the world. (If one takes a service lift, there are still yet higher points, but I've made a piece of history, for me, at least.)

Burj Khalifa is quite a spectacular building, and yes, you feel your ears pop as you go up and down in the lifts.

In the next posting, InshAllah, I would like to share a few pictures that I have taken and some official photographs from various sources. However, today we look back at January's opening ceremony including the firework display and the amazing dancing Dubai Fountain.

Global Village

Which one would you have?

Global Village or Globalisation? These terms are used interchangeably or synonymously - we constantly hear through the media that we live in a global village or that globalisation is upon us - it's rather clichéd, either way. But, if given a choice, I wish we had the global village approach rather than a globalisation approach. Think of all the things that a village contains - a micro economy, a sense of community, a shared sense of responsibility and a sense of unity or togetherness. Contrast that with globalisation, which is often understood to be the rise in monopolies out to exploit every corner of the planet. Perhaps that view is pessimistic, but I still vote for the village approach.

The Global Village, rather like a mela/global shopping fair sits just outside Dubai on Route 311 - Emirates Road. It runs, as in previous years, between November and February and I was there twice this weekend. The village is made up of pavilions with country themes - Egypt, India, Iran etc. where crafts, clothes and foods are sold. There's also entertainment - we saw a magnificent dervish from Morocco, who really stood out. I missed the photo op, but the performance was fantastic. Anyway, here are pics showing the Pakistan and Afghanistan pavilions.

Emirats Arabes Unis: L'Envol Du Faucon

Flight of the Falcon aka Musings from the UAE

As promised, I return with my UAE related theme. This video is inspired by the documentary Emirats Arabes Unis: L'Envol Du Faucon (United Arab Emirates: Flight of the Falcon) produced by Pierre Brouwers for Media 9 and featured on Vodeo.tv.

Reproduced using Windows Movie Maker with footage from the documentary and photographs from my collection. The soundtrack features a snippit from Ishy Bilady - عيشي بلادي - the country's national anthem.

Tor_Khan تور خان

Life ... on a Dubai Metro

The Dubai Metro made it's official inaugural journey at 9.09 09/09/09. Within two days it was estimated that over 10% of the population of Dubai had made the journey on the metro. That was two weeks back and this weekend, I drove down from Abu Dhabi to take a trip on the UAE's first train - at present only the Red Line is open to commuters (we took the journey from Ibn Battuta Mall through to Rashidiya), but it is hoped that when fully on-line the metro will provide connectivity to the main areas of Dubai from the malls, to places of interest and the financial district through its network of sub-stations and air-conditioned skyways.

The metro claims a number of firsts - the first driver-less fully automated metro, the first in Dubai and of course, the first in the Gulf. It has been a long time in waiting and the novelty aspect means that it was very busy on the weekend. There were some teething issues with lines at the ticketing booths, but the ride was comfortable (when sitting!) and I was impressed with the frequency of the trains (said to be between 7 and 10 mins). There's even a written guide on travel etiquette, and plenty of staff to remind travellers should anyone forget.

I shot this video on my mobile phone. Edited using Windows Live Movie Maker (still looking for a simple Vista-compatible video editor!) and featuring a soundtrack by Rahim Shah and Nazia Iqbal singing Tor Orbal.

The Elephant Clock of Al Jazari

A Most Ingenious Mechanical Device

One of the centre pieces of the India Court at the Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai is the Elephant Clock, based on a medieval invention by Al Jazari, celebrated craftsman, mathematician and astronomer.

Al Jazari, born in 1136, upper Mesopotamia served as a engineer to the court of the Turkish Artudid dynasty that ruled Eastern Anatolia and the areas that are now northern Syria and Iraq. The elephant clock, featured in Al Jazari's manuscripts, The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, is an early humanoid robot featuring a mechanical mahout who strikes a cymbal every half hour.

The Book of Knowledge

The elephant clock above photographed by me at the Ibn Battuta Mall is a stunning reproduction of the original and is featured below in illustrative form in the book of knowledge.