Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The Two Towers

Riyadh isn't much of a city, at least compared with Dubai. Like Dubai, it's a miracle of unsustainbility that it exists at all. Sporadically the seat of government of the Al-Saud tribe and famous for its palm orchards (Al-Riyadh means "The Gardens"), the city grew from a mere 10,000 in 1950 to 6 million inhabitants today. Oil got more plentiful; water did not.

My Riyadh is my hotel-apartment near Al-Faisaliah tower

one of the two sky-scrapers that demarcate downtown. The other is the Kingdom Tower, which I was not able to take my own photo of:

Technically we can wander about the streets of Riyadh, but there is nothing to do. Movie theaters are outlawed and the malls are crowded with people I'm not allowed to look at. So my work benefits and our weekend plans are becoming more meticulously crafted. Apparently the US Embassy throws the best parties - although being the only party in town probably helps.

A few of us are actually tossing around the idea of starting a blog, on the DCist or VoxPopuli model. Mostly because they are good blogs, but also because our hypothesis is that there must be something happening every day in a city of 6 million people, but due to the closed Saudi society and high turnover of ex-pats, there are no clear information channels to publicize events. Maybe someday when I find the time.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Random Photo

Monitor Group flies back from Riyadh, all in a row:

It's Never NSOver

I was talking to a few new friends at Trader Vick's ([Mid-Sentence Tangent] - the closest thing to a dive bar I've found in Dubai. Cheapest beer here is 35 dirhams a bottle or $9.50. Having grown up with $8 Tombs pitchers, this is a travesty. Also, you need a girl in your group to get in anywhere after midnight. Which is difficult, as I only know a handful of girls and the gender ratio here is 2.29 guys to each girl.I do my research. And for a guy like me who is only going for the beer (or a mojito if I'm feeling adventurous) the door policies are a bit oppressive. I actually want to spend $10 on your beers - Please allow me to do so. So if anyone is looking for a business opportunity in Dubai, I'll go 50-50 with you on a dive bar. [End Tangent]) about how moving to Dubai is a lot like going to college for the first time and recalled Vox Populi's NSO Conversation Flowchart.

The US-expat population here follows the same general principles as college:
--In a new environment
--Don't really know anyone
--Here for 2-4 years with high annual turnover
--Everyone's looking for a party but no one is hosting
--You meet people that your roommates know
...and everyone is still from New Jersey

NYC ain't got nothin on us

I found a couple of interesting photos on the Burj Dubai - which on less hazy days I can see out my window some 30 km away. The following photos are from This is the Green Room though I found them via grapeshisha.

Burj Dubai, if it lived in Midtown instead of Bur Dubai:


And the view from the top of Burj Dubai, were it in Manhattan (I've seen this view of Manhattan before - when landing at JFK...):


It you have nothing to do, check out this link for more Burj Dubai in NYC photos

Saturday, September 19, 2009

More Mall Pictures

Having quickly run out of things to do in Dubai during Ramadan, I return to Mall of the Emirates with my roomies.

This is me. That is a watermelon carved like a rose. I thought it was pretty.

My flatmate Curtis, being hugged / groped by a large koala

Initial Assessment: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

My first project is located in Riyadh. While most projects are kept confidential for business confidentiality purposes, my current one has been released publicly. Monitor is helping the Government of Saudi Arabia (namely the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, though including other relevant bodies) implement their National Industrial Strategy to try to diversify away from petrochemicals.

What this means is that we work in Saudi Sunday through Wednesday. In a given week I fly out of Dubai Saturday night (weekends here are Friday and Saturday, although in Saudi weekends are Thursday and Friday. Don't underestimate their abhorrence of potentially sharing a weekend day with Jews...), work in Monitor's Riyadh offices and meet with clients and stakeholders Sunday through Tuesday, fly back to Dubai Wednesday and spend Thursday working in the Dubai office. Weekends just mean I work less...and play more mini-golf.

You won't find any photos of Saudi on this post just yet - I've been there twice and only now have the courage to bring my camera there. Passport Control is known to "examine" - read: confiscate and destroy - memory sticks and the like. In reality though, the Kingdom is boring. There are no movie theaters, a similar mall culture to Dubai, and during Ramadan there is literally nothing to do. We spend a lot of time hanging out in our apartments.

I will say though that the Saudis I've met so far are the most open and hospitable people I know. Stakeholders much senior to me in the project invite me out (not sure what that entails) and partake in long conversations over tea (after Iftar of course).

On the other hand, there are real dangers in the country. Some of the Monitor consultants live in compounds on the outskirts of Riyadh. I went to one briefly and the security measures are intimidating. We had to drive through concrete-lined narrow barricades around the circumference of the compound, passing through 4 checkpoints and under the potential fire of no less than 6 machine guns. Inside the compound exists and apartment complex like any other, but knowing that these compounds are ready targets for terrorist organizations (really what is better to attack than a walled community of Americans?) kept me on edge.

If my camera doesn't get confiscated, I'll bring back some photos of Riyadh. I'm in Dubai through the 26th of September and will return from Riyadh October 1st.

A Room With a View

I finally moved into my apartment a couple days ago - we'd had the lease for about a week but the utilities (which are notoriously inefficient here) took their time in getting us water and electricity. Internet is yet to come, but that is what turns a house into a home.

I'm splitting a 2-bedroom flat with myself and two of the other Monitor new-hires, Josh and Curtis. Josh just graduated from Columbia and interned at the Monitor office here last summer, and Curtis graduated from Harvard three years ago and spent time studying Arabic in Egypt and at Georgetown.


The Burj Al-Arab Hotel, as seen from our 25th floor window. We were going to live in the Penthouse, but Paris Hilton was in town filming her "Dubai BFF" show, so it was taken.

The apartment complex we live in comes with a gym, pool and 9 hole mini-golf course. All this for much less than you could find in Burleith. Although it did help to come in at the bottom of the property market - rents are 40% what they were this time last year.


Looking out towards Bur Dubai. The gray smudge above the crane that is obstructed by the haze is actually the Burj Dubai. It's only the tallest building in the world, nbd.


Looking out towards the Gulf, you can see the Palm Jumeirah between those Chrysler-building-esque towers. The dollops of land in the distance are the unfinished remnants of the now canceled World Development (citing @shazzer87 with the link).

Saturday, September 12, 2009

It's All in the Mall

After getting a bit more settled, I asked some ex-pats with more Dubai experience what I should do in my free time. They asked if I had been to the malls. I hadn't, so they quickly made a list of malls I should visit.

See, it's really hot here, and there are some 45 separate large malls across the city. There is a huge mall culture here that makes me feel like I am 15 again. I've been frequenting the Mall of the Emirates, which comes with its version of Rodeo Drive:



Also in Mall of the Emirates is SkiDubai. For the price of a lift ticket at any upscale mountain resort in the U.S., you can ski for three hours on a bunny hill...INSIDE. I don't see any point in going besides to say I have, but it is fun to watch other Dubaians have their winter fun:



Some of the other malls recommended to me were Ibn Battuta Mall, themed after each empire the traveler passed through, and Dubai Mall, the world's largest with 1200 stores and a shark tank you can scuba in.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Fast&Slow

I've become used to things moving at the pace of Ramadan this past week. Getting my UAE residence visa and health assessment were tests of patiences and sojourns into Dubaian reading material. Monitor, on the other hand, moves at an altogether faster pace. I was staffed - sorry, allocated - to a project prior to my first day in the office and loaded with thick briefing materials and PowerPoint decks. Second day in the office and I find I'm headed to Saudi Arabia - TOMORROW.

That is, assuming I can bear the buereaucratic headache of obtaining a Saudi visa.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

NUMB3RS

I went out Thursday night with a few students from the American University of Sharjah - they gave me some local insight. Said Jaleel - "over here, Emiratis value things you wouldn't. Like mobile phone and license plate numbers." It turns out people will pay top dollar for these. License plate numbers in the single digits sell for millions of dollars, and anything under three digits is "very nice." My companions then bragged about how this girl they know owns "187" and one time they saw "13" driving around. Telephone numbers with lots of the same number are also valuable, which explains why the cashier at the mobile store complimenting me on having a "great number." My phone number has two '3's and two '7's in it...

If spending money on license plates seems odd to you (as it does to me), keep in mind that you are not paying for the number, but rather the status that accompanies it.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

My Own Dubai Map

Because Google is awesome, you can customize your own Maps*. Below is the link to my own map of Dubai, to try to give you the lay of the land. I'll update it as I know more, but right now it has my offices and (fingers crossed) future apartment. Oh, and I put in all the Dubai touristy goodies as well.


View nathan's iDubai in a larger map



*I first learned about this from Colin Brody and his awesome GERMS Driver Training Map

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Censored Thoughts

I jotted down a couple pages of the pros and cons of Dubai so far and showed it to one of my colleagues. Based on his recommendations, here is what remains:

[deleted]
Dubai is a colorful city which paves its own way, not letting itself be limited by such pests as logic or efficiency.
[deleted]

On the walk home this evening there was a team of men sweeping sand into little piles. Now if you are unaware, Dubai sits on the edge of a vast desert, aptly named "The Empty Quarter." Winds blow the sand everywhere. In about five minutes those little piles of sand will end of where they were. I want to go back and see if those men will vacuum up the sand and deposit it back in the desert.

That anecdote sums up this city. There is no reason for it to exist, but if you base your livelihood on minute nonsensical actions, you can justify larger nonsensical actions.