It's 2.30am now and i can't sleep. Got really sick of all the readings and thus i am here to write more. haha..

Saw this on the news just now. The grand opening of Atlantis The Palm hotel in Dubai. If you think Beijing's firework was extravagant, this is just speechless. Fireworks outlining the whole shape of the palm. Wonder how much money goes into that.



Dubai is really an architect's playground. Just look at the amount of development going on there. Like those who say, they are building an oasis in the middle of the desert. I think of Dubai as playing simcity with cheat code. Building a whole city from scratch without having to worry about money. They are going to have more of such artificual island in the persian gulf, 2 more "the Palm" and "The World". I guess in 5 to 10 yrs time, flying over Dubai will be a damm interesting view. and they are going to build this gigantic airport with 6 runways in addition to the existing airport, which just opened a new terminal extension!

With all these luxury hotels and homes spinning up along the dubai waterfront, i wonder how many people actually can afford these properties? I wonder if the occupancy rates are good. well, people are willing to pay for such luxuries. How about the locals? Concepts of social polarisation and gated communites come into mind (study too much alreadly). actually, there is a lot of studies that can be done in the UAE. come on, bring them into our lectures. haha...

now dubai seems to be another country on my 'to go' list.