Last day in Dubai

The climate at this time of year lulls you into feeling that the place could be really livable. I know however, in a month or so the blast furnace will crank up making any sort of outdoor activity, unbearable.
And that's the evening I'm talking about.
I had a late afternoon swim in the Gulf yesterday and the water was about 30 degrees Celsius. The waves were about 1/2 a meter and the water salty. You have to wade out a good 100 meters to get any sort of depth to swim but I found the whole experience really chilling.
Last night I went to Bar 360. It's part of the Jumeirha Beach Hotel complex and its one of the "cool" venues for the moneyed to sip vodka and watch the sun come down. It's a mixture of gawking tourists, creepy expats, euro trash and Gulf rich kids dripping in money.
I watched a 50 something Brit expat approach a group of girls and try on some of the most cringy chat up lines.....
He clearly had money, and it was a "I'm well off and could help you out" sort of skin crawling predatory swoop.
"Boy have you got that one wrong" was what I thought.
Dubai is a playground for Saudi princesses.
They dress as if they're cast members of the "OC " except the gear they're wearing is couture.
Even jeans are in the $500+ bracket.
Jewelry....ahh the jewelry.
I won't even begin to to describe the gold dripping from ears, necks, belly buttons....
They blew the creepy guy off without even a hint of nervousness.
A wave of a bangeled hand and arching of perfectly manicured eyebrows had him scuttling back to his boozy mates, uneasy and confused.
Ego crushed with minimal effort and icy indifference.
Far more dismissive and casually ruthless than angry.
Annoyance requires recognition.
The middle aged boy-men stood nervously silent, shifting from foot to foot pretending to themselves that their foolishness had gone unnoticed.
I noticed and giggled inside.

This place is serious money.

The kind of money that sees itself as a natural extension of the food chain. These folks never think about WHY they have so much.

It just IS and that's the way it works.

Dear, sweet peasant.

Don't be sooooo silly.

Knowing that you don't really fit in with these folks and not caring, makes the endless posturing funny and the sunset, free for all, sweet. Drink and laugh with colleagues.
The surreal circus going on under your nose becomes part of the entertainment.
Fun to observe and silly enough not to get under your skin.
As I've said before, Dubai is center of a vortex of never ending building.
It's hard to comprehend how all these buildings are going to find tenants. Nowhere you go in the city seems "finished".
The credit crunch and real estate bust everywhere else in the world has had no impact here.
The bubble is still expanding, with no pop in sight.
It's a heaven sent laundromat tailor made for washing all of that Russian money.

I'm on my way to Qatar and then will head to Tehran...for FIVE DAYS! Not only will my liver get a break, I should also get some cool pics.
I'll post more as and when.
Love to all
T