Dubai…….November 4/17.  Charminder is our guide from Sri Lanka. He is extremely personable, funny and speaks very good English. This is some of the info he told us …. for yours and my benefit if you like. Some people don’t like all this info that I write but most do. The canal that runs through this humongous city is only one year old. It is 5.7 km long. It was created using the Dubai Creek as it’s base…..that comes out at Jumeirah Beach. There are 7 emirates… sort of like independent city states that have a coalition that make up the United Arab Emirates Sheik Mohamed is the reason for all this tremendous amount of building and elder brother. It was only 1992 that all this building began-Mohamed began as minister of tourism after death of father in 1990. His older brother was first leader. Emaar is the building company (you see the name on a huge number of the buildings being erected and competed. It is owned by the Sheikh himself. Nice!Only thing here before this building boom was the World Trade Centre, dunes and camels. The point of this all to make tourism their income because there is minimal oil…. enough only for their own consumption. There were 14.9 million tourists this last year.Our hotel (the Marriott Marquis Dubai)is in the Burj Khalifa area. Other main area is the Marina……along the Dubai Creek Canal.This last summer it was as high as 57 C. During summer it regularly is over 50 C with 100% humidity. Trust me, this humidity seems to be in the fall/winter( now) as well. I think the temp these few days is around 33C December ranges from a 10 low of to 20 CDutch & Belgians professionals the designed the islands. In 2002 they began Palm Jumeirah. It is 5 km long. Along the trunk of the “Palm”, you can get 2 bedroom apts. … for 1 million ….. to startThe trunk is 2.5 km long. There were only going to build 2500 single homes on the fronds……were sold out in 72 hrs at 3-4 million dollars a piece for a 4 bedroom. They are now worth 25M. Because they had sold all these 2500 homes so quickly …..sight unseen, they decided to cram in a few more…. total 4000 houses. They all have waterfront. In 2008 the Atlantis Hotel was built……on the rim islands.To get to the hotel zone you have to drive through a tunnel. It took 40,000 workers to build the Palm.There are only 300,000 natives out of a total of 2.6 million population. All “natives”have education etc totally paid for. Others that live and work here, pay their own way. Everyone that emigrates here for work has the same rights as the natives but never citizenship. When their working days are over they must leave. There are around 65,000 fish in The Aquarium at Atlantis 200 islands in the “World” being build now On the Germany island it will rain and snow on Switzerland.2 are completed …Lebanon and Morocco so far.It took 3 years to build Palm Jumeirah and 12.5 B to build …..not intruding buildings Apt price to buy very expensive but only 10% down needed and less than 1% interest No taxes on anything. No religious restrictions It takes only 1 minute to rise to top in Burj Khalifa. It was completed in 2010.. built in shape of desert lily….. with a 3 point base. There is no rock to build on so foundation is 70 mtrs deep. C80 concrete used to build Burj. In order to reach the top and because of the 40C temp min. Part of it is the Armani tower sold at 37,500$/ sq. mtr. Sold out in 3 hr. The cost of buying gold is 7 Dirham ($2) – 35 Dirham per gram for workmanship plus price of gold on market ….times the number grams. I never had time to buy anything. You 5 years is the max allowed on cars in UAE then they take sell to other countries. “Freighters” near the souks in Old Dubai are owned by Iranians. They take the goods to and from here to Africa, etc.  Meaning of dhow is sailing boat (used for transporting merchandise)They had no power until 1974. There was only one tower until 1990. It was the 37 story built World Trade Centre built in 1979 by Sheikh Rashid, the father.6000 plus acres of industrial parkSheikh Mahtoud is son of Rashid. Sheikh Mohammad is his brother… the present ruler of Dubai. 100,000$ dowery minimum170 sq metres is smallest suite in Burj al Arab. There is a helipad on top. At 27,300 Dirham most expensive drink available there.Last year there 80,000 houses built in Dubai 8 million people foreigners plus 1 million natives total 9M population.All this talk of the rate in which this city was built is absolutely mind boggling. All the construction that is going….they have made 2020 as the goal….because they will be hosting the Worlds Fair. What is also amazing is that you never hear “any” construction noise! Nov. 5/17