Halls filled with men touting the latest missiles like they were video recorders, sheiks indulging in a few new business jets and fake replicas of Big Ben… Dubai is odd.
 
Rising out of the desert, the city stands with it’s bright lights and towering structures, a magnificent symbol of it’s own prosperity. I was in Dubai this week for Bloomberg News covering the International airshow.
 

 
“Five Thousand Dirham a night” exclaims my taxi driver. The cost of a night in the new Armani hotel, at the start of my ride/his guided tour by cost (I wasn’t staying there). All this glitz and glamour contrasts with it’s strict Islamic routes and conservative customs. At the show, men and yes I mean predominantly men, walked around exhibits and had their pictures taken with what are essentially war machines as announcements were made that companies were buying hundreds of airliners.
 

 
The part of the trip that I was looking forward to the most was the air display, I’d never shot one before and with F-15‘s flying at close to the speed of sound I was expecting a challenge. That challenge came but not in the way I’d expected; the perfect blue skies gave way to a sand storm that blew off the desert and swept over everybody in the crowd. It quickly became apparent that the show would be cancelled for the day and I retreated to the media centre to clean my cameras. The next day was far more successful, and the fast jets came out to play… as did I.
 

 
My efforts were rewarded with a front page on The Financial Times, see it here.
 
I’ve done allot of traveling and wasn’t expecting any surprises on this trip, but I was very wrong. The Arabic culture is fascinating and something I hope to explore again.