Unending miles of desert sand, the camels, and a multitude of oasis – that is what Dubai was just about 30 years ago. All that has changed – a metamorphosis of sorts has transformed this city of oil riches into one of the most opulent and ostentatious cities of the World. Dubai today, is the central trading hub, not only for the Asian region, but also for most other parts of the world. Seven small kingdoms joining to form the United Arab Emirates 34 years ago, have delivered the Dubai of our times. In a sense, Ostentatious itself can be a gross understatement while describing a city like Dubai. You will feel as though it is more an audacious exhibition of unending opulence.
Look at The Palm – an immense man made island in the shape of a palm tree off the coast of the fashionable Jumeirah beach district. It is home for multi-millionaires, luxury apartments, shopping malls, and some of the world’s biggest hotels. If this is not enough, look at The World which is a communion of 300 individual islands and if you hop on to a helicopter to look at this collection of islands, it will look like a world map. Sheer naked exhibition of what money can do to transform what was once described as long stretches of barren dessert land!

The only seven star hotel in the world is also house in Dubai and has an underwater restaurant which the guests can access only via submarine, and Dubai is already in the process of housing an entirely underwater hotel.

But, you are grossly mistaken if you thought that the cash splashing is megalomania. Conversely, it is a shrewd plan for sustainability hatched by its ruler. Dubai’s oil reserves are very limited, compared to its closest neighbor Abu Dhabi. Therefore, Dubai, in its effort to secure its future has positioned itself as a business and finance hub and in recent times, a tourist idyll too. The city has a lot to offer and the unabashed ambition it holds deserves its due credit.