Dubai
I thought my site seeing days in Dubai were over but I needed to do shopping so I went to the uniquely named Dubai Mall. At the base of the Dubai Mall is the world’s tallest building called the Burj DubaI. Hard to explain how tall it is without a scale. The tallest building in Calgary is the Petro Canada Tower at 53 stories. The Burj Dubai will be over 160 stories.
The Burj Dubai is a supertall skyscraper under construction in the Business Bay district of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is the tallest man-made structure ever built, despite being incomplete. Construction began on September 21, 2004 and is expected to be completed and ready for occupation in September 2009
The building is part of the 2 km2 (0.8 sq mi) development called "Downtown Dubai", at the "First Interchange" (aka "Defence Roundabout") along Sheikh Zayed Road at Doha Street. The tower's architect is Adrian Smith who worked with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) until 2006. The architecture and engineering firm SOM is in charge of the project. The primary builders are Samsung Engineering & Construction and Besix along with Arabtec.Turner Construction Company was chosen as the construction manager
The total budget for the Burj Dubai project is about US$4.1 billion and for the entire new 'Downtown Dubai', US$20 billion. Mohamed Ali Alabbar, the CEO of Emaar Properties, speaking at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat 8th World Congress, said that the price of office space at Burj Dubai had reached $4,000 per sq ft (over $43,000 per sq m) and that the Armani Residences, also in Burj Dubai, were selling for $3,500 per sq ft (over $37,500 per sq m)
Fish
I really don’t bother much with sites that contain animals taken out of their natural habitat but I did go to the aquarium where you could into a glass tunnel to see the sharks, rays and fish at close range. The aquarium was amazingly big with a large amount of fish.
Dubai was eerily quiet. First time I have seen it that slow. No traffic or crowds anywhere. Is this a sign of things to come?
I flew strait from Dubai to Houston. Almost 17 hours. Thankfully I had a great book to read and slept a bit. After arriving in Houston I had a four hour layover and then a 3 hour flight to Managua. So exactly 24 hours of travel time to get to Managua.
Nicaragua
Managua is not exactly a sexy city. Not too much to do but I needed to get a visa for Brazil and that was amazingly well. I had visions of a lot of red tape and line ups but it took about two minutes and my visa was ready the next day. I rented a car in Managua and pulled over by the cops. I screwed up in a roundabout so I was easy plucking for a fine. After a bit of negotiating I was let go after paying $10 USD towards the Managua Police Xmas fund.
With no maps, no signs and not be able to speak a lick of Spanish I made it to San Juan Del Sur on the first try. Talk about blind luck.
San Juan Del Sur
After 13 months of waiting my condo was finally ready (95% ready). The first thing that I noticed was the view. I am 50 feet (45 second walk at low tide) from the Pacific Ocean on a pristine beach. Great views from the kitchen, living room and master bedroom.
The second thing that I noticed is all of the wood and the craftsmanship that went into building it. I think the wood might be commonly known as Brazilian Mahogany. Amazingly solid, you can really feel it as you move furniture and open and close doors. It is throughout the place. The place also has hand layed river stones. The developer is incredibly proud of his work.
It is also 17 km from San Juan. It is all dirt road to get here. I really enjoy the dirve. Rustic and passing rural Nicaragua. However, the poverty is noticeable with beasts of burden being quite common.
San Juan is primarily know for its beaches and surfing. There are about 18 thousand people and I see that there are cruise ships now arriving.
I just realized how boring this blog is…
So a duck walks in a bar…
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