DUBAI
ON THE CHEAP I
IN THE WORLD'S MOST LUXURIOUS CITY
BY NATASHA MEKHAIL
t doesn't sink in until I reach the 124th-fl oor observation deck of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest freestanding structure. Maybe it's the sight, stretched out before me, of
the futuristic city, a place so sparklingly new and architecturally daring that, from this vantage point, it looks like computer animation. Maybe it's the view of The World, an archipelago of 300 man- made islands that form a world-map mosaic four kilometres offshore. Or maybe it's just vertigo. But up here it fi nally feels like I'm in Dubai. In a few short decades, the United Arab Emirates, a nation of seven oil-rich Islamic sheikdoms on the Persian Gulf, has grown out of the desert to produce some of the most modern and luxurious cities in the world. Dubai and Abu Dhabi in particular have become associated with a kind of energized deca- dence. Dubai, for example, is a luxury-shopping mecca where even the most modest mall has an Armani. It's a place where, when the available
Natasha Mekhail WESTWORLD >> SEPTEMBER 2011 31 GOING BUDGET
