Photo of the Day (12.19.2009)

by Brenda Yun on


Despite the recent news from Dubai stating its property and building crisis, the city is alive and well, and visitors like our faithful photographer jrodmanjr continue to have inspiring shots to offer us — like this one. Only in the Middle East can you snap a sunset like this one. That round, glowing sun lowering on the horizon must have been a sight to behold.

The dawn of a new decade is just weeks away, and while the sun will set on the beginning ten years of this millennium, there are plenty of beautiful things to look forward to.

If you have some great travel shots you’d like to share, be sure to upload them to the Gadling pool on Flickr. We might just pick one as our Photo of the Day!

Crisis in Dubai creating fantastic bargains for travelers

by Scott Carmichael on

After years of building new hotels at a record speed, Dubai is starting to pay the price for overcapacity. Hotel prices in this desert state have already dropped more than 25%.

The average price for a room used to be $305, and in just one month, it dropped to $230. This means that tourists coming to Dubai for a week can save over $500.

Of course, this all has to to do with more than a bit of hotel overcapacity. The recent news about the financial situation of Dubai is helping people consider the destination for their next vacation.

A similar thing happened when Iceland stood on the edge of total financial meltdown. Bad news for one country, means great bargains for others. Unless of course that country is the United States, in which case the government comes up with new and improved ways to scare tourists away.

The Dubai numbers come from the UK division of Hotels.com where they noticed a massive increase in search requests for Dubai hotels. Since Dubai released their doom and gloom financial news, searches for Dubai hotels increased by 570%.

Dubai always wanted to make its money from tourism (it doesn’t have much oil), so perhaps by turning into a budget destination, they’ll finally have their wish granted.

Photo of the Day (12-9-09)

by Jamie Rhein on
This photo titled “Peace” by jrodmanjr, the fellow who took it, is a lovely depiction of an alley away from the hubbub of a city. As he noted, time away from the souks in Dubai, the city with the tallest building in the world, was well needed.

In the comment section, he also gives details about why he framed the shot the way that he did. If he had moved the camera to the right, “the bright clutter, crates, and trinkets ended up to be too much of a distraction. “

As it is, we become the witness to the life of a man who reads in quiet repose.

If you have captured a quiet moment of repose, or any other sort of moment, send it our way at Gadling’s Flickr photo pool, It might be chosen as a Photo of the Day

Your first peek inside the towering Burj Dubai

by Aaron Hotfelder on

The Burj Dubai, the tallest man-made building in the world at 2,684 ft., is set to be completed in the United Arab Emirates in January of 2010. The UK’s Telegraph website recently posted some rare photos from inside the nearly-finished superstructure, along with some incredible facts about the project. Among them:

  • The Burj Dubai will have the world’s fastest elevators at approximately 40 miles per hour.
  • The external surface of the skyscraper is the equal to the size of 17 football fields.
  • Like to “get high” when you party? The Burj Dubai will have a club on floors 144 through 146.
  • The building is estimated to cost roughly $4 billion, about three times more than the new Yankee Stadium.

Check out the Telegraph‘s amazing photos here. More Burj Dubai news from Gadling here.

Final resting place for the QE2 not so final after all

by Scott Carmichael on

Last year, we wrote about the very last voyage ever for the famous Cunard QE2. This magnificent vessel was purchased for $82 Million by Dubai developer Nakheel. The plan was to dock the ship, and convert her into a luxury hotel. As it turns out, that very last voyage ever is not as final as first thought.

Part of the contract with Cunard meant that Nakheel could never use the vessel as a passenger carrying cruise ship.

Of course, back when they signed that contract, they probably didn’t realize Dubai was going to suffer from the effects of the global recession.

The scope of the slowdown of the Dubai economy has now forced the final resting place of the QE2 to be put on hold, and the ship is going to act as a not-so-luxury hotel down in Cape Town for the 2010 football world cup.

It is still unknown whether the Dubai project will continue as planned or whether the resort planned around the QE2 will become yet another victim of the Dubai economic meltdown.