Rooftops

Here's a few more shots of buildings, concentrating of their rooftops. Many are home to cranes, used in the construction of new buildings next door.

Structural Lights of Dubai

Here's a few close-ups of the exterior lights. I find them interesting - defining the shapes of the buildings yet not restricted to their original shapes. I think I'll be following up on this sometime in the future.

Dubai - Night time Cityscapes

Here are few views of the city taken on an evening cruise setting off from the Dubai Marina and travelling up river. What I found fascinating was due to the number of empty flats (occupancy is apparently around 60) and the corresponding lack of lights from the flats, the buildings shapes were very much defined by their exterior lighting - something I'll be looking at in more detail tomorrow.

Visiting the souks

Located in Dubai's old town, the souks are busy markets place, filled to the brim with people and all manner of shops. Except if you visit during 12 - 3pm, when they're all closed up. Hmmm...

Water Taxi

Crossing the Dubai Creek on an Abra - a traditional wooden boat. The views are fantastic even if the ride can be a bit bumpy.

Undersea Life of the Dubai Mall

Here's just a tiny fraction of the myriad of underwater life to be found in the Dubai Aquarium and Under Water Zoo, located in the Dubai Mall. It's the world’s largest acrylic panel aquarium, filled with fish both large and small.

Feather Butterflies

I found these delicate creatures in The Dubai Mall, suspending in large flocks from the ceiling. The mall itself is huge place filled with all manner of entertainments, another of which I'll feature tomorrow...

Dubai - Building work

Here's a close-up on some of building work you can just about see in yesterday's photographs. It's a huge sprawling city but apparently it's currently but a tenth of it's envisioned final size. It also doesn't feel like a place designed for people. With apartment block after hotel after apartment block being thrown up, there's a distinct lack of open areas and spaces between them and pavements are non-existent in certain places. Conversely, it also isn't designed for transportation either, with the road system a complicated mess.

Dubai - Daytime Cityscapes

I spent a total of 24 hours in the Dubai and have never visited such a weird, strange and amazing place before or ever likely to do so. The figures, facts and stories about the place are mind-boggling. A quick example is that everything you see in the photographs below and the location where I was standing to take them did not exist 5 years ago - There was only desert. And they're still building like the clappers.