June 23, 2008
Dubai vs Abu Dhabi
Fenton Bailey reports again from Dubai – and Abu Dhabi:
Everyone in Dubai said that what's happening in Dubai is nothing to what's happening in Abu Dhabi. "This glass represents Dubai", said our guide pointing to a small glass of water on a large glass coffee table. "The table is Abu Dhabi." So off we went. It's a two-hour drive, and these kinds of billboards line the desert highway most of the way.
Abu Dhabi sees itself as the Monaco to Dubai's Las Vegas. It's classier, in a completely over the top way. Saadiyat Island is the subject of an exhibition at the ultra swank Emirates Palace Hotel, a $3-billion building made of mainly marble and gold. The cultural district will boast a Gehry, a Zaha Hadid, a Ted Ando, and a Jean Nouvel. Though I found something a little scary about the performing arts center (modeled after a bird's skull), I loved the shell-like Guggenheim.
But it's the scale of it that's just so incomprehensible. We drove back to little old Dubai in a daze and ran out of gas along the way. Really.
– Text and photos by Fenton Bailey
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