Dubaï : Conclusion

There are a lot of other projects, but as you can guess by reading this article, Dubai has financial issues. Some projects are just forgotten, other are on standby… I can mention Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Hydropolis, Dubailand Ski Dome...

On a personal advice, i 'd say that I really like their projects, because, each of them is very huge, bigger than ever, and each times completly blows my mind. It is just crazy, and I like architecture. But someting is still bothering me. A lot of money are used, too much money. And there are some controversial about condition of people who worked on them. Most of the case, workers aren't paid much, and they work a lot of hours. Some videos, or reports show that workers was not well-treated, and sometimes, even worst, almost used as slaves.

Dubaï : amazing projects

Dubaï, which used to live thanks to oil and gas, knows that ressources won’t be here in 20 years. So Dubaï prepares itself to the future by changing its economy. In fact, this is already the case. Oil and gas represent only 5% of the Gross domestic product. Now, and since a few years, the city develops luxury tourism and trade. That’s why Dubai have the craziest projects int the world. I will introduce some of them.

Burj Khalifa/Burj Dubai

This is a skyscraper, but not just another skyscraper… This the tallest building ever built, with 828 m high ! This is just crazy. The structure of the building is very original and has a good design as you can see in the picture. Construction began in 2004 and it officially opened on 4 January 2010. As we all guess, the cost of this project is very impressive : 1,5 billions $ ! It is a part of large district called Downtown Burj Khalifa which will cost itself 20 billions. Crazy numbers… There are 160 floors habitables. The others levels are booked for business.

Palm Islands

The palms Islands are artificial achepilago. The principle is that each settlement will be in the shape of a palm tree. Once again, the project is completely crazy… Only for building the first two islands, it has needed 100 millions cubic meters of sand and rock …! There will be 3 Palms :

• Palm Jumeirah
• Palm Jebel Ali
• Palm Deira

On this islands, you will find luxury hotels, exclusive residential villas and appartments, marinas, water theme parks, restaurants… The first two Palm are built, but since the crisis of 2008/2009, we don’t know when Palm Deira will be finished. This palm is bigger than the other…

Burj Al Arab

This a famous luxury hotel easily recognizable by its shape : it looks like the sail of a ship. It is the fourth tallest hotel in the world. It stands on an articificial island (again :-) ) . This project was very important for Dubai. The aim was to build something that will illustrated Dubai, in the same way that we associate the Eiffel Tower to France. The construction begans in 1994, so it's kinda old compare to previous projects I‘ve introduced. It includes suite rooms, restaurants, a big atrium and other features.

The world

It is another amazing project, but since the global financial crisis, it seems to be stopped. The story begans in 2003. The project was supposed to build small islands which, together, look like the world map ! In 2008, 60% of the island were already sold, even the project wasn’t finished. Unfortunatly, we don’t really know what will happen to the project… You have the picture above near the palm.

Kuala Lumpur : The misterious city

Kuala Lumpur is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million, is capital of Malaysia, the second most popular tourist country in the asian continent. This city is not too exotic, it is rich enough.


Over there, you can see the Petronas Towers in wealthy neighborhoods. They are 452 meters above the ground. And they were the biggest on the continent during 6 years. But honestly, for me they are the most beautiful in the world.

In summary Kuala Lumpur has neighborhoods, rich, medium rich, poor, very poor, roads and buildings everywhere, trains (rails up), huge roads, many people, cars ... But a city so original in term of buildings architecture, culture, environment ...

Anecdote: During our trip with Matthieu, we visited a few markets. On one side the big shopping malls and other street markets. We saw the street China Town (books of Travel advises against to buy, but it appear that it is a major commercial heart for the city). In this street, there were only rapid Chinese who sold counterfeit products. This land is really a scam.

Kuala Lumpur : Quality of life

For lunch, we could eat Nasi Ayam (rice/chicken) and excluding holidays, we could order one of the 20 meals Nasi Goren (rice cooked and chicken or fish or other meats). In the evening we ate Roti Cynai (pancake with chicken, very good Indian food) or Fish & Chip (very expensive) (fish with fries, cabbage and potatoes (very small)). This does not vary much, we eat very often rice/chicken, rice/chicken or chicken/rice ...

Well, we could go to McDonalds (for change lol) to buy the cheapest Big Mac in the world ! 11RM the Maxi Best-Of meal (arround 2.7 €).

Otherwise they have good technologies (laptops, flat screens, computers, cameras ...), same for cars, they are modern and have a good equipment, though it's possible to fall on a old car without belt at the rear but with air conditioning anyway (in fact, they drive on the left).

However, some areas stay very poor and don't have access to modern technologies of course, maybe not to safe drinking water. But these neighborhoods tend to disappear progressively.

Kuala Lumpur : The exotic nature

Over there, it's hot, he averaged between 30 and 40 ° C during the day and the air is very humid. There are thunderstorms usually every day. One day there was a really big thunderstorm, it rained very lot. There is not short rains, over there lol. They have large channels to drain water.

The jungle is very dense in this region. Very green. There are even bits of jungle in the city of Kuala Lumpur. It is strongly not recommended to walk without a guide to risk getting lost or to fall with dangerous animals.

There are all sorts of exotic animals there. For the nicest, monkeys (but who are thieves), birds of the future lol ... For the most dangerous, iguanas, boas ... Strangely, there are very few mosquitoes near the jungles. Actually, Malaysians exterminated them weekly with insecticides.

Dubaï - introduction

In this post, I want to introduce Dubaï. Why? Cause this city is very incredible. I think it shows how far sometimes humans can go, and how crazy some ideas can be. But everything is not perfect. At first sight, the city looks great, and beautiful. But it has a cost. And this is not just about money…

Dubaï is one of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This is also a town. As you can see in the picture above, the city is located south of the Persian Gulf, between Sa udi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran. Its area is about 4,000 Km2, but a large part of it is a desert.

Still, this places Dubaï as the 2d largest territory by area (of the UAE). Its population is about 2,000,000. Dubaï as we currently know it is born in 1971, when United Arab Emirates was formed. In the past, dubai was under the protection of the UK. The location of the town was very attractive for trades at the time (~1900). After WWI, and then the Great Depression in the 30s, the town was kind of dead, and people were moving out. But, as we all know, countries located in this area have oil, a very important ressources nowadays. So people started to move in. As a funny anecdote, the city’s population grew by over 300% between 1968 and 1975 !

My London Experience: Conclusion

I’d never lived in a big city before this experience. So I don’t know if it’s that or the atmosphere that made me really love being and living in London. I enjoyed walking the streets, hanging out in the Tube, rambling near the Thames, ordering and being delivered pizza via the Internet (though you can now do so in La Rochelle, as well), coming across leashes of foxes in the streets or in the garden when coming back home at night... Maybe I’m the kind of person who appreciates all of this, or maybe not, but the only way to find out would be to try another city. And that’s another story...

My London Experience: Recreation

While in London, I didn’t have a lot of time to go out and visit monuments and museums, because I was working and because it was way too hot. All I did was go out for a barbecue with pals from the English course, go out in two random clubs (Zoo Bar & Club because it was free, and Metra Bar & Club because they offered a free shooter of alcohol at the entrance) with pals from work, and go out with them again in two of the most famous clubs in the world: Ministry of Sound and fabric.

I don’t remember a lot of things from inside the first one, except that I lost myself. And in order to come back home, I got on a typical London cab that brought my as close from home as possible with the money I had left. I ended up by foot, and encountered a leash of foxes, which made me quicken my pace. This club left me mixed feelings, contrary to the second one: fabric. Once I got inside the premises, I didn’t rest for the next 7 hours, and kept moving on the minimal techno beat till past 7am. It was an amazing experience and should be a must-go for every electronic music fan. When I got out, it was daylight, and I got accosted by unofficial cab drivers. It was quite funny because I knew what they wanted, but I couldn’t hear anything: my ears were buzzing after 7 hours of very loud music. Unfortunately for them, this time, I went back home by the Tube and by train. And unfortunately for me, I got on the wrong direction Tube train.

I don’t remember how, but a friend of mine when I was in high school contacted me. He was working in London for an Internet security certificates company and invited me for a few drinks. Indeed we had some, and this time, I tried to come back home by bus. Unfortunately again for me, the driver didn’t see me and I had to wait for a very long time. And when I finally got on a bus, I pressed the button way too early but I didn’t notice until I was on the street, and had to walk for more than an hour and a half to ultimately find my bed.

At this time, my sister was working au pair near Guildford (45min from Waterloo station by train). So from mid-July to mid-August, I paid her a visit during the weekend, two or three times. I met her friends and her boyfriend, we had some drinks and sometimes went downtown in clubs or bars. It was quite cool meeting her, because I hadn’t done so in almost a year.

My London Experience: My Work

Actually, I didn’t start working immediately. I first had to attend some English courses for one week at the English center, in Lewisham. It was quite boring but I met a few people with whom I had some drinks and a meatball barbecue. Then truly began the working experience: I had an internship job in a company selling discs, disc replicators and printers. It was located in Greenwich. I didn’t have a specific post, and handled random tasks such as answering on the after sales online forum, helping the webmaster transfer links from the previous website to the new one, fill in product descriptions, etc. At the end, we received a mini printer and I had to write a review about it (the article can be found here).

The working atmosphere was kind of cool, because we were 5 interns on a total of 9 employees, but it wasn’t easy to speak English all the time, as 4 of us were French. Our boss was relatively young so we had fun, even with him! Besides, every Thursdays, after work, everybody was going to the nearby pub to have some drinks and chill out.

Amid all this good time, there was all the same a negative point: lunchtime. We had the choice between a salad from Somerfield or Sainsbury’s, some McDonald’s burgers or some Asian takeout. I personally had a preference for the latter one, but we only had a one-hour break and didn’t really have enough time to relax.

My London Experience: The Departure

During Summer 2008, I had nothing planned with my friends or my family, so my parents asked me if I’d be interested in going abroad, in internship. One week and a phone interview later, I decided to go. As a matter of fact, it would be a nice opportunity to pay a visit to my sister, and of course to get some experience in another language.

The whole stay was being organized by a kind of organization for students who took in charge the search for a half-board host family, and for a company. I just had to go by plane and find my way.

So I boarded at La Rochelle - Laleu Airport at the very end of June, and landed in Stansted, the North London airport. It was the second time I went on a plane, but actually the first that I could remember, and takeoff was pretty cool, I must say. I then had to go to my host family in Lewisham, London, which I did, even if I sort of lost myself at one time. Unfortunately, they weren’t aware that I was allergic to dogs and the next day, I had to move to another host family, this time in Sydenham (Later, at the end of July, I had to move one more time, to Beckenham, because there wasn’t enough room for new students. In fact it didn’t bother me, it gave me a chance to live in a new neighborhood).

Crazy Singapore

Marina Bay Sands

Developed by a company from Las Vegas, Marina Bay Sands is the world's most expensive casino with a cost of 8 billions dollars.

It has a shape of boat with on top a giant swimming pool, the longest in the world at this altitude.

Three buildings support the boat shaped roof, the Casino which is located at the center and the two other buildings are hotels.

This construction is part of a big plan of investment in order to attract tourists in the city.

Sentosa island

Sentosa, which translates to "peace and tranquility" in Malay, is a popular island resort in Singapore, visited by some five million people a year.

Attractions include a two-kilometre long sheltered beach, two golf courses and two five-star hotels, and the theme park Universal Studios.

Singapore, what?

Singapore is a tiny island-country of 5 millions inhabitants (very densely populated), located in Southeast Asia, 137 km north of the equator.

It was a British colony during 200 years till the independance of 1965 and the birth of the Republic of Singapore.

The main language is English, but Chinese is commonly used due to the large amount of Chinese in the population.

The island has a very constant climate with temperature around 30 degrees and humidity around 90% all year round.

All religions are present but Buddhism is the dominant religion (42% of the population).

Singapore economy is one of most prosperous in the world and considered by the world bank to be the easiest to do business. The unemployment rate remains stable around 3%.