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tertainment was next on our list. The two big choices were an amusement park called Ma-
gic Planet and the jewel in this crown—Ski Dubai, a fake indoor ski slope in the middle
of the desert.
From the outside looking in through thick plate-glass windows, Ski Dubai resembles a
giant snow globe, with fake snow falling, a ski lift, and real humans skiing and snowboard-
ing. The ceiling is painted the blue of early dusk. Distant mountains rise on a painted
mural. Lights are dimmed to add to the effect. Children clambered up the bunny slope,
celebrating a birthday. Their parents sat on the other side of the windows drinking coffee
at the St. Moritz Café and watching their children slide down in toboggans.
Suleh Sueed Abdullatif of Ski Dubai guest relations hovered nearby. He told me he
had been a policeman for five years but left his job to work in the mall's snow slopes be-
cause he had always wanted to travel. His new job gave him the feeling he was in Europe.
“I have never been to the mountains, but I have no need to go there now. I have it all here.
This is real snow, man-made real snow,” he said. “I used to do sand boarding in the desert,
but it is hard on real sand. Now I go snowboarding here on my time off.”
We had this conversation in English, that limited “global” English that is sufficient for
a sales transaction, directions or chitchat. (I do not speak Arabic.)
Abdullatif captured the premise or promise of Dubai. The real world can be replaced
with theme park artificiality. No expense is too great. Experience is negotiable. Everything
can be imported or borrowed, then packaged and sold to the tourism industry. A simple
slide down a small man-made slope has a superficial appeal over sports on a cold moun-
taintop; a flight to Dubai takes the place of a hike through the Alps, the frustration of
speaking a foreign language and the adventure of living in a foreign culture.
Everything in the modern tourism industry discourages such an effort. The Kempinski
hotel in the mall is a case in point. “Snow in August” headlines a story in the Kempinski
glossy magazine extolling the virtues of staying in one of their fifteen ski chalets “overlook-
ing a gigantic snowdrome in the middle of the desert; the incongruous contrast it offers
between the stifling temperatures outside against the minus 1 degree Celsius that is main-
tained within Ski Dubai at all times . . . you can enjoy a cool experience that's unrivalled
by any hotel anywhere in the world.”
That is Dubai. Nothing can rival any number of the hotels built to outclass each other.
The Hydropolis Hotel is the “first underwater luxury resort” built on the seabed, over 60
feet below the water; its suites have clear Plexiglas walls to view artificial bubbles and sand
and “mermaids.” Then there is Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, rising higher than
two Empire State Buildings piled on top of each other. Here you can stay at the Armani
Hotel Dubai, advertised as the first hotel developed by the Italian designer Giorgio Ar-
mani. Fine dining includes Japanese, Mediterranean, Indian and, of course, Italian. Noth-
ing Middle Eastern, though; that is not part of the “Armani lifestyle experience.”
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