The Dubai Bubble from the air – the almost collapse of Dubai World has slipped out of the news. The City in the Desert fueled by speculation and greed – come along for a ride on the Dubai monorail.
Pay attention among other things to the complete lack of people and vehicles and no lights on inside any of the apartment buildings along the route. During the first week of operation, ridership averaged 600 passengers PER DAY.
The trip starts at the main land and crosses to the “trunk” of the man-made palm tree island. You go by all the apartment buildings, and then the road goes to an underwater tunnel and the monorail arrives at the resort on the outer barrier island. The only ways on/off that island are the tunnel and the monorail (or a boat)
Talk about a Ghost Town…
Or perhaps a mirage. I’m thinking those odd lights on the outside of the buildings are there to create the appeance of activity in pictures taken at night. John Batchelor has already mentioned that the brochures for the place had palm trees photoshopped into them to make the place look like it was liveable.
Dubai gets all of its water from desalination plants that run off of natural gas and all of its electriciy. The hope was to build a city to house a million people.