Dubai 1995 vs Dubai 2005

There's a ton of information and photos here:

Dubai Dept. of Tourism

Beware that load times are SLOW.

And also HERE about the islands.

Tod are those real pic's, they look like cgi????

Originally posted by I-Dom-In-VIII:
Am i the only one that thinks that Bs, i mean a whole city in 10 years.....

I would agree that first photo is more than 15 years old. You can tell just by the coloring of the photo.

But I must say, when was the last time you visited Las Vegas. The population in Clark County (Las Vegas, N. Las Vegas, and Henderson) was 700K people in 1990, now in 2005 it was 1.6 million.

I used to visit in 1992 and go to Red Rock canyon, it was a good 30-45 min. trip back then, now when you reach the end of the houses, go over a hill and your there.

This place has totally change in the last 10-15 years, so I could beleive those photos to an extent.

Originally posted by I-Dom-In-VIII:
Am i the only one that thinks that Bs, i mean a whole city in 10 years.....

Why is that BS? We want the ME to do that, it should create a more civilized society, which once it spreads, should reduce the threat of terrorism.

Originally posted by IRingTwyce:
man, night and day. Have you seen the palm tree shaped island complexes they're building in the bay? Unreal. Now they're also building an island complex resembling a world map. You could own your own island for a paltry $6.5 mil. What a bargain!

Yea, thats crazy. Saw that on Discovery channel I think. Import sand and use tankers with spray guns to fill in the sea. Stratigcaly placing them to make whatever shape they want. Cool, but crazy too

The reason it looks fake is because our modern cities are full from 100 years+ of expanding outward. New cities don't look like most of ours because they only have a couple blocks of development.

I say that's fantastic to see. I'm glad world efforts are doing this well. Business is business I guess?

Originally posted by IRingTwyce:
man, night and day. Have you seen the palm tree shaped island complexes they're building in the bay? Unreal. Now they're also building an island complex resembling a world map. You could own your own island for a paltry $6.5 mil. What a bargain!

I fly over them all the time when I go over there. It is really quite something to see. Maybe next time I'll get some pictures.

Originally posted by RTStabler51:

Originally posted by I-Dom-In-VIII:
Am i the only one that thinks that Bs, i mean a whole city in 10 years.....

Why is that BS? We want the ME to do that, it should create a more civilized society, which once it spreads, should reduce the threat of terrorism.

Urban development does not make you civilized.

Originally posted by RogerB:

Originally posted by RTStabler51:

Originally posted by I-Dom-In-VIII:
Am i the only one that thinks that Bs, i mean a whole city in 10 years.....

Why is that BS? We want the ME to do that, it should create a more civilized society, which once it spreads, should reduce the threat of terrorism.

Urban development does not make you civilized.

No, but free-market economy and the desire to be a prime trading partner with the West sure does help it along.

Originally posted by todras:

Originally posted by I-Dom-In-VIII:
Am i the only one that thinks that Bs, i mean a whole city in 10 years.....

Got oil?

i was watching a special on the Discovery channel about the world's biggest mall theyre building there. complete with an entire indoor ski resort and all!

they said that Dubai knows its oil reserves are depleting and that they plan to focus on tourism, making Dubai the ultimate place to visit in the middle east (if not the world).

Originally posted by Jeb Hoge:

Originally posted by RogerB:

Originally posted by RTStabler51:

Originally posted by I-Dom-In-VIII:
Am i the only one that thinks that Bs, i mean a whole city in 10 years.....

Why is that BS? We want the ME to do that, it should create a more civilized society, which once it spreads, should reduce the threat of terrorism.

Urban development does not make you civilized.

No, but free-market economy and the desire to be a prime trading partner with the West sure does help it along.

I think the UAE, and Dubai in particular, are the exception to the rule in the ME. They have the advantage of modernized, forward-thinking rulers and sujects. Unlike the majority of the area.

I think it's great to see what they're accomplishing, and hopefully some of their open-mindedness will rub off on their neighbors. If not, I suppose it's possible that their 'world's tallest building' might possibly suffer the same fate that ours did.

I'm still glad we didn't turn over our shipping ports to them though.

Originally posted by Bill J. at Team Ford:
I would agree that first photo is more than 15 years old. You can tell just by the coloring of the photo.

Completely incorrect statement. I could show you photos from 5 years ago that look very old for a variety of reasons. You can't judge the pictures age by what's been posted.

Originally posted by I-Dom-In-VIII:
Am i the only one that thinks that Bs, i mean a whole city in 10 years.....

Here's a list of the Top 50 tallest buildings in Dubai:

http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/bu/?id=100485

Count how many were built prior to the past 10 years.

2.

And the vast majority of those were built within the past 5 years.

The city sprung up from virtually nothing in less than a decade. There's not many cities in the US where even just 5 of the 50 tallest buildings were built within the past 10 years (in NYC it's 9), let alone virtually all of them.

The little city of Dubai is spending a whopping $50 billion a year on contruction projects -- far more than the rest of the Middle East combined. For every high-rise building that it has built, it's got 3 more in planning or under construction right now -- it's got three hundred skyscrapers being built right now, NYC only has about 100.

Didn't Tiger Woods buy the "Australia" island? Or maybe someone else...

Originally posted by svt4stv:

i was watching a special on the Discovery channel about the world's biggest mall theyre building there. complete with an entire indoor ski resort and all! they said that Dubai knows its oil reserves are depleting and that they plan to focus on tourism, making Dubai the ultimate place to visit in the middle east (if not the world).

The indoor ski resort is done. Simply amazing. They were passing those pics around at work, as well as the former presidents(or whatever they call him) house. Both were insane. Have to see if I can find the pics

edit: found the pics, I can email them if someone wants to host.

I just cant believe they did all that in 10 years, shoot they trying building a set of condos and it took them like 3 years.. and that's only 4 sets...they built a who city in 10 is just amazing.

Originally posted by I-Dom-In-VIII:
I just cant believe they did all that in 10 years, shoot they trying building a set of condos and it took them like 3 years.. and that's only 4 sets...they built a who city in 10 is just amazing.

UAE has sponsored miriad architectural and development competitions world-wide for the development of Dubai. I know for a fact, Boston architectural firms are constantly vying for positioning in the area, similar to the competitive landscape of Shanghai and Beijing 10 years ago. I resembles the development that went on in Iraq in the 1980's when we thought they were our friends.

And don't forget the coolest hotels ever built, IMO:
http://www.burj-al-arab.com/

That is a sweet hotel!

A friend of mine is living there. Making big bucks as well as an instructor. He tells me it's really nice out there.

And, almost everyone with an eye in teh aviation industry is looking at UAE. Emirates and Etihad Airlines will have the biggest reach in moving people. Within the reach of one of their airplanes, they already have HALF of the world's population. Everything is set up to go right out there.

Originally posted by I-Dom-In-VIII:
Am i the only one that thinks that Bs, i mean a whole city in 10 years.....

Nope; the growth that Dubai has seen is nuts. I was in UAE a few moons back and the amount of construction that some spots on the outskirts are seeing is staggering.

I made the comment that the construction crane must be the official tree of UAE to more than just a few Arabs there and it cracked them up pretty good.

It's more than oil, too. Banking is BIG business in UAE as well...

This is the best/most interesting CI thread I've read in quite some time.

Glad I could be the cattle prod.

Originally posted by todras:
Glad I could be the cattle prod.

I can count on you to come through every once in awhile.

Originally posted by todras:

Originally posted by I-Dom-In-VIII:
Am i the only one that thinks that Bs, i mean a whole city in 10 years.....

Got oil?

They dont have much oil compared to other surrounding countries..

Originally posted by Goonz SVT:

Originally posted by todras:

Originally posted by I-Dom-In-VIII:
Am i the only one that thinks that Bs, i mean a whole city in 10 years.....

Got oil?

They dont have much oil compared to other surrounding countries..

Yes, but they seem to have more vision for the future than their neighbors.

Originally posted by muntus:

Originally posted by Goonz SVT:

Originally posted by todras:

Originally posted by I-Dom-In-VIII:
Am i the only one that thinks that Bs, i mean a whole city in 10 years.....

Got oil?

They dont have much oil compared to other surrounding countries..

Yes, but they seem to have more vision for the future than their neighbors.

And more tolerance.

Originally posted by IRingTwyce:

Originally posted by muntus:

Originally posted by Goonz SVT:

Originally posted by todras:

Originally posted by I-Dom-In-VIII:
Am i the only one that thinks that Bs, i mean a whole city in 10 years.....

Got oil?

They dont have much oil compared to other surrounding countries..

Yes, but they seem to have more vision for the future than their neighbors.

And more tolerance.

agreed 100000%

Here's the shots of Tiger hitting balls atop the Burj-Al-Arab hotel:

Originally posted by RogerB:

Originally posted by RTStabler51:

Originally posted by I-Dom-In-VIII:
Am i the only one that thinks that Bs, i mean a whole city in 10 years.....

Why is that BS? We want the ME to do that, it should create a more civilized society, which once it spreads, should reduce the threat of terrorism.

Urban development does not make you civilized.

Correct, but keeping it nice and cleaned shows a good civilization. People that are not civilized typically live in shitholes.

Originally posted by I-Dom-In-VIII:
I just cant believe they did all that in 10 years, shoot they trying building a set of condos and it took them like 3 years.. and that's only 4 sets...they built a who city in 10 is just amazing.

money talks and .......

you should see how fast condos and luxury apartment buildings go up around here. then there's Vegas!

monster hotels seem to go up over night. if you have a big enough budget you can hire the best contruction firms to handle the job.

Originally posted by baco99:

And don't forget the coolest hotels ever built, IMO:
http://www.burj-al-arab.com/

Did anyone read the bottom of the page listing the building.

Quote:

The image above is for internet viewing only, and may not be saved outside your browser or used without a license. However, you can buy usage rights if the image belongs to our staff.

Originally posted by Yankees25:
Here's the shots of Tiger hitting balls atop the Burj-Al-Arab hotel:

That is just FREEKIN' AWESOME!!! I love to play golf and hitting from up there must be so cool.

I wonder if he nailed anyone on the beach with a 1500 yard drive.

wonder how much he got paid to do that? LOL

plus remember this

Andre Agassi and Rodger Federer goin at it

I'd pee my pants at that height

When the world moves away from oil, what will happen to Dubai ?

Originally posted by ODC:
When the world moves away from oil, what will happen to Dubai ?

Which is why they're doing what they're doing. They're building themselves up to not only be a leading banking areas of the world but also one of the premier tourism destinations of the world and a haven for the super-rich.

i am so moving there and openning up a motorsports shop. you peeps have no idea!

we had a lay over in dubai on our way to pakistan. what a magical place. the las vegas of the middle east.

Originally posted by sigma:

Originally posted by ODC:
When the world moves away from oil, what will happen to Dubai ?

Which is why they're doing what they're doing. They're building themselves up to not only be a leading banking areas of the world but also one of the premier tourism destinations of the world and a haven for the super-rich.

true true, my last semester at school we had our "site" there so we had to do tons of research on the place. it all started in 1979 when they found oil. now they have put limits on how much gets refinded and exported b/c they know it's almost gone (almost being relative, more like about 150 more years at this pace). the leaders have the foresite though to try and turn the city into "An Eastern Las Vegas meets New York" according to one of the broucheres we got from the embassy. it's the only city in the world to have a seven star hotel and the city also sports an indoor ski range. by far one of the most technically advanced cities on earth and one of the fastest growing.

Originally posted by ODC:
When the world moves away from oil, what will happen to Dubai ?

Same thing that happens to every other society that exhausts their key natural resource that supplies them wealth...

They either diversify into other areas (banking is HUGE in UAE) or if they aren't successful at that, they decline.

Originally posted by sigma:

Originally posted by ODC:
When the world moves away from oil, what will happen to Dubai ?

Which is why they're doing what they're doing. They're building themselves up to not only be a leading banking areas of the world but also one of the premier tourism destinations of the world and a haven for the super-rich.

Also in investing in enterprises worldwide. How do you think Dubai Ports World is buying up other port management firms?

On a side note... I still don't think those look anything like palm trees.

Originally posted by M!key:
i am so moving there and openning up a motorsports shop. you peeps have no idea! we had a lay over in dubai on our way to pakistan. what a magical place. the las vegas of the middle east.

true dat..im sure after a week in pakistan you wanted to get the hell out..i know i did

are you crappin' me?! i had the best time ever in pakistan.

Originally posted by M!key:
are you crappin' me?! i had the best time ever in pakistan.

dude i hated it!! It was soo hottt!! nothing to do, its not like u can go out for a walk ya know, prolly get shot haha..I was like wow I cant believe I went to school here for 5 years..ahh worst time EVER!!

i was treated like royalty man. the shooting thing maybe because i was the only blonde in the country.

naw, really it was the best time. we had tons of stuff to do. mostly shopping, but yeah a ton of stuff. pakistan isnt dubai though thats for sure.

Originally posted by M!key:
pakistan isnt dubai though thats for sure.

dubai is its own world man, I'd kill to have a house there

Originally posted by m!key:
i was treated like royalty man. the shooting thing maybe because i was the only blonde in the country. naw, really it was the best time. we had tons of stuff to do. mostly shopping, but yeah a ton of stuff. pakistan isnt dubai though thats for sure.

But once you stay there for longer than a month, that all changes and they put you to work. And THAT ..... sucks.

Originally posted by Goonz SVT:
wonder how much he got paid to do that? LOL

plus remember this

Andre Agassi and Rodger Federer goin at it

I'd pee my pants at that height

Those appear to be chops...... Anyway, wonder what they're gonna do when the oil runs out? It seems like they're going to try and be a tourist spot. If only for VERY rich people as least.

Originally posted by Kokopellian:

Those appear to be chops......

Guess again

Originally posted by todras:

Originally posted by Kokopellian:

Those appear to be chops......

Guess again

No, not the tennis portion, the dazzling hotel in the background in them. I think that was added. Look at it vs. the background....

man i wouldnt want to be the ball boy for that game!

Originally posted by loggerbomb:
man i wouldnt want to be the ball boy for that game!

HAHAHAH

That is simply amazing!!!!

Originally posted by loggerbomb:
man i wouldnt want to be the ball boy for that game!

I wouldn't want to be a surfer during that game!

<BOINK!>

Originally posted by Kokopellian:

Originally posted by todras:

Originally posted by Kokopellian:

Those appear to be chops......

Guess again

No, not the tennis portion, the dazzling hotel in the background in them. I think that was added. Look at it vs. the background....

that hotel is actually there..lol not a chop buddy..Dubai is for real

Originally posted by Goonz SVT:

Originally posted by Kokopellian:

Originally posted by todras:

Originally posted by Kokopellian:

Those appear to be chops......

Guess again

No, not the tennis portion, the dazzling hotel in the background in them. I think that was added. Look at it vs. the background....

that hotel is actually there..lol not a chop buddy..Dubai is for real

I know Dubai is for real, didn't dispute that. That second pic with the hotel is a chop or rendering. That's all I'm saying.

Originally posted by Kokopellian:

Originally posted by Goonz SVT:

Originally posted by Kokopellian:

Originally posted by todras:

Originally posted by Kokopellian:

Those appear to be chops......

Guess again

No, not the tennis portion, the dazzling hotel in the background in them. I think that was added. Look at it vs. the background....

that hotel is actually there..lol not a chop buddy..Dubai is for real

I know Dubai is for real, didn't dispute that. That second pic with the hotel is a chop or rendering. That's all I'm saying.

Maybe they touched it up or something... decided (or got paid off) to make the hotel stand out a bit more than normal...

Or it's very possible that, with as fast as Dubai is going up, that the particular hotel in question didn't exist yet when that photo was taken and it was photoshopped into that photo as many architects/developers will do. It's very common to take a somewhat popular photo of the area in question and photoshop it with the new building in it.

EDIT: Just checked, and that's not possible. The hotel in thebackground was built in 1997, the picture of the tennis match was taken early 2005.

Dubai is really nice! I'd like to go once before I die.

Originally posted by RTStabler51:

Originally posted by I-Dom-In-VIII:
Am i the only one that thinks that Bs, i mean a whole city in 10 years.....

Why is that BS? We want the ME to do that, it should create a more civilized society, which once it spreads, should reduce the threat of terrorism.

Don't talk... You are an idiot

Originally posted by ODC:
When the world moves away from oil, what will happen to Dubai ?

From Wikipedia:

"Dubai is distinct from other members of the UAE in that revenues from oil account for only 6% of its gross domestic product. A majority of the emirate's revenues are from the Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZ) [2] and now, increasingly, from tourism."

Why are people so stupid to think that every country whose people speak arabic are oil hungry terrorists?

DO RESEARCH BEFORE YOU MAKE STUPID COMMENTS

Dubai's health as a "municipality" in the UAE is linked to the other areas of the country, which most of their income is based off of oil and gas.

UAE as a whole (according to DOE, CIA and UAE's own government site) states that 30% of the countries GDP comes from oil and gas production.

I seem to recall that Oklahoma City and Tulsa didn't fare too well during the Oil Bust, even though most of the actual oil and gas production was taking place FAR away from both of those areas. A similar conclusion could be drawn from here, since many of the businesses in Dubai are tied to energy production...

Finally, where in the Hell did anyone in this thread make the suggestion that Dubai or the UAE was full of "oil hungy terrorists"?

the only thing we have seen from you in the last two posts is the ability to insult people. how about you provide us some research to back up your position? i for one would love to hear why you think the middle east is not a hot bed of islamic extremism and why dubai trying to become a world player in terms of civility with the west and ecomonic success shouldn't be seen as a possible way of influencing some of the other less cooperative regimes in the area. it would be an excellent way for dubai to win friends and infuence people in their favor.

All A-Rabz are terr-ists. Duh.

Originally posted by JaTo:
Finally, where in the Hell did anyone in this thread make the suggestion that Dubai or the UAE was full of "oil hungy terrorists"?

Maybe not in this thread (although I think there was some allusion to it), but in the Dubai Ports World flap, a whole buttload of Americans seemed to think that was the case.

Originally posted by nofx198e5:

Originally posted by ODC:
When the world moves away from oil, what will happen to Dubai ?

From Wikipedia:

"Dubai is distinct from other members of the UAE in that revenues from oil account for only 6% of its gross domestic product. A majority of the emirate's revenues are from the Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZ) [2] and now, increasingly, from tourism."

Why are people so stupid to think that every country whose people speak arabic are oil hungry terrorists?

DO RESEARCH BEFORE YOU MAKE STUPID COMMENTS

Wow. You need to calm down.

Seriously, this has been a good thread until your wackiness.

The fact that it was suggested by another poster that Dubai's economy being different from other countries of the middle east would make the threat of terrorism fade just made me mad. I am sorry if I am the only person who is easily angered by others when these kind of comments are made, especially over such stereotypes.

Originally posted by nofx198e5:
I am sorry if I am the only person who is easily angered by others when these kind of comments are made, especially over such stereotypes.

That's the problem. Too many people like you are easily angered over other people's statements. Its the internet, lets not start a flame war over it.

Relax...

Originally posted by zgendron:

Originally posted by nofx198e5:
I am sorry if I am the only person who is easily angered by others when these kind of comments are made, especially over such stereotypes.

That's the problem. Too many people like you are easily angered over other people's statements. Its the internet, lets not start a flame war over it.

Relax...

Exactly!

The intraweb is great, so great that you can shut your computer down and walk away.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/03/22/D8GGPJJG3.html