Dubai was such an eye-opening experience for me. People elsewhere may have to cut down trees to build a concrete forest, while Dubai is transforming the desert into vertical cities. I stayed in a new business area called Al Barsha. A couple of years ago, it had nothing but sand. Now, the shining glass buildings are like mushrooms, no, actually more like bamboo reaching up to the sky.

My hotel was close to the new mall (Mall of the Emirates). Can you believe that they have an indoor ski inside called Ski Dubai?!

Figure 2: Ski Dubai from outside

Figure 3: Inside Ski Dubai

My daughter and I had a good time in this first indoor ski resort in the Middle East. The full day access to the snow park was AED 130 Dhs (US $36) and the 2-hour ski pass was AED 180 Dhs (US $50). Although high for entertainment expenses, it is affordable for ski fanatics: they do not need to fly to snowy countries to ski.

The landmark of Dubai is Burj Al Arab, one of the most luxurious hotels in the world, as shown in the first picture. Its rates start from AED 5000 Dhs (US $1389) per night.

But there are many decent hotels with prices below US $200/night.

Luxurious yet affordable: that is Dubai. That is also Dr. DE, our drilling engineering toolbox software.