Dubai: Day 1

Once ensconced in my hotel, I hit the city. My first tourist stop in Dubai (because it happened to be across the street from a great Mexican restaurant, Barry’s Beach) was the Dubai museum, located inside an old fort. To my astonishment, beneath the usual exhibits of old canons and mud huts, topiside, lay a Disney-esque recreation (it even ended in a souvenir shop) of old Dubai, archaeological digs, and the sea floor.

It should have been wildly educational, and I was keenly interested in the economic history of this place, but all I could think was that the mannekins looked a lot like the marionette terrorists in Team America, and the female mannekins in their black burqas (or whatever they’re called here), inevitably facing away from the live passerby, were even freakier than real women in burqas, which dehumanize the wearer. It would be a great spot to film a James Bond movie. Imagine: a baddie could disguise himself as one of the female mannekins then spin around and attack an unsuspecting Bond with his curved blade. Eeek!

I then went to the Mercado shopping mall, which was far too upscale for the likes of me. I felt very poor and grimy, and crept back to my hotel.