Swim with sharks at Dubai mall

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Dubai just changed how we’ll all look at malls forever. The Dubai Mall could have changed the rules simply by installing an aquarium and zoo … or gone even crazier by putting sharks in the water. Hell, watching sharks swim is a great way to eat your Auntie Ann’s pretzel. In Dubai, you can have your friend hold your pretzel while you put on a wetsuit and hop right in!

At the Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo within the mall, visitors can slide into a 10 million-liter tank with sand tiger sharks, reef sharks and leopard sharks – not to mention giant groupers and stingrays.

Certified divers can arrive at the mall an hour before the dive (which lasts 20 – 30 minutes), while non-certified divers need to take a SCUBA course (noon on Thursday or Saturday). Certified divers will need to spend $225, with $300 for those who aren’t certified.

Flight attendant pleads guilty to bomb hoax

by Tom Johansmeyer on

It was a bad week for Australians, it seems. A naval officer was physically restrained on a flight to London. Not too long after, Matt Carney, a flight attendant from Melbourne, was sentenced to 18 months in jail in England. It was his own fault: he left not one but two(!) notes on a plane to London, “warning” of a bomb. Of course, he was working the flight.

The 23-year-old soon-to-be-former flight attendant is from Melbourne, but he’ll have a new home for a while. As soon as his Emirates Boeing 777 landed at Gatwick Airport, Carney was arrested. No explosives were discovered. One note was found in the lav, the other in the flight attendant’s luggage.

The note was “discovered” when Carney found wires in the lav. Though they weren’t connected to anything, the crew monitored this smallest of spaces. A passenger later found the note, which included: “We have the Taliban to thank for this.”

In pleading guilty to making a hoax threat (he denied endangering the safety of an aircraft), Carney said through his lawyer that he was stressed and tired. If Dubai to London wore him out, let’s see how he handles 18 months in the slammer.

Dubai plans to cut up the Concorde like the QE2

by Jamie Rhein on

Dubai has a thing for buying British vessels and cutting them up. Not long ago, it snapped up the retired cruise ship the QE2 with plans to cut it in half, add a section to the middle, and turn it into a floating hotel. The latest buy it and slice it plan is with one of seven British Concorde’s.

A Dubai consortium wants to place the Concorde–sans wings, near the altered QE2 as part of its fake island creation, the Palm Jumeirah.

Even though the Concorde hasn’t flown since 2003, thus doesn’t need its wings, there are some who think that cutting off the wings is a real slap in the face to British aviation. With people upset about the QE2 alteration project, this must seem like adding insult to injury.

Granted, there’s something a bit Sci-fi about a man-made island appointed with altered British vessels. But on the other hand, it could be seen as a compliment that vehicles that aren’t being used anymore for their original use are being given another lease on life, one with clipped wings and the other with an altered body. [Mail.Online]

A&K and Fairmont Earth Hour ideas will have tangible results

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Earth Hour is on Saturday, March 28 at 8:30 PM. The hospitality and travel industry seems to have embraced this commitment to environmentalism. There are plenty of noteworthy initiatives out there intended to show support for a planet that could probably use our help. Of course, some are more interesting than others. I’m pretty interested in what’s going on at Abercrombie & Kent and Fairmont.

Upscale travel firm A&K is taking action at each of its 62 offices around the world. Outdoor signs will be turned off, and only emergency lighting will be used indoors. This will save 620 light-hours of electricity. And, they’re going to shut off the air conditioning for 90 minutes before the end of the work day, lowering power consumption for this period by 18 percent.

The company is also turning its corporate social responsibility gaze outward. Sanctuary Camps & Lodges are going to host stargazing parties, thanks to the dark skies. They are also planning to turn off generators and cut power consumption by 50 percent for Earth Hour (at 13 properties in Africa).

A&K’s Sun Boat III and Sun Boat IV will turn off their generators, as well, operating only with emergency lighting. Guests will be able to enjoy the bright stars – because of the desert air – in Upper Egypt. Eclipse in the Galapagos will host a presentation on the Sun Deck and reduce the use of power by 30 percent.And, the company hopes that Earth Hour goodwill is contagious. Employees have pledged to save 2,960 light-hours, and A&K’s suppliers, including restaurants and hotels, have been encouraged to support Earth Hour, with hundreds agreeing to do so.

I’m also pretty impressed with what Fairmont is doing for Earth Hour (which you can track via Twitter). This company’s made it a habit to stay out in front of the market when it comes to corporate social responsibility, and it’s ready to play from Dallas to Dubai – at all 56 properties. In addition to its usual environmentally sound initiatives, some Fairmont properties are taking specific, unique action.

At the Fairmont St. Andrews, guests can choose at check-in the power they want to use: nuclear, solar or wind. They’ll also receive compact fluorescent light bulbs. But, this is just the beginning. If you decide to sweat it out in the gym’s spin class, the energy you create will be converted to kilowatt hours to show just how much power you produce. The class is sponsored to provide a cash donation to the World Wildlife Fund. Kids will be able to plant their own saplings. The initiatives at the St. Andrews property are designed to have lasting results.

In Alberta, the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise will light up its side of the lake with ice luminaries. Guests will be invited to gather around a fire and enjoy some old-fashioned storytelling under the stars. This hotel is committed to Earth Hour year-round, with 50 percent of its power coming from a mix of wind and run-of-river electricity generation.

Over in Kenya, at the Fairmont Mara Safari Club, the lantern-lit Boma will be a place for guests to gather and listen to a local naturalist discuss conservation and the environment – the “Maasai” way. It won’t be just lectures, though, as Maasai dancers will provide entertainment.

The Fairmont Zanzibar, Tanzania will celebrate Earth Hour for the entire day. Guests will be invited to sail on historical dhows on clear Indian Ocean waters. Chef Ric and his team will use charcoal grills to prepare seafood on the beach, delighting palates without disrupting the environment.

Are you doing anything for Earth Hour? Let me know at tom.johansmeyer [at] weblogsinc.com or http://twitter.com/tjohansmeyer.

Livin’ la vida expat in Dubai isn’t as snazzy as it used to be

by Scott Carmichael on

Forget New York City – the world capital of spend, spend, spend has long been Dubai. This is literally where the sky was the limit, and when they ran out of sky, they simply built out into the ocean.

Thousands upon thousands of foreigners made their way to Dubai to grab their own little bit of the wealth.

Of course, that has all come to a grinding halt. Construction is slowing down, and a general feeling of doom and gloom is descending upon the nation.

Things are apparently so bad, that many expats are packing up their belongings and leaving. Of course, when you leave so suddenly, you tend to forget minor things like your mortgage, your car and your credit card debt.

Dubai International airport is reported to be home to over 3000 abandoned cars from fleeing expats. Some of the cars have apology letters taped to the windows, and others have their maxed out credit cards left on the seats.

The expats leave the nation behind for a few simple reasons – Dubai locks debtors away, and anyone without a job loses their visa. The New York Times reports that parts of Dubai are starting to look like a ghost town, with unfinished construction projects and masses of vacant property.

Things are actually so bad, that the government has been canceling as many as 1500 work visas every single day – a number they don’t want to confirm or deny.

Unless things turn around very soon, the entire place is probably going to be doomed – Dubai does not have any oil of its own, and the entire economy was built upon real estate and financial services. Now those 2 sources of cash are slowly disappearing, Dubai could soon make the Madoff scam look like petty theft.

Do you (no longer) live in Dubai? Are things really this bad? Let us know in the comments!

(Via: New York Times)

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