My second visit to Dubai was one of those experiences that stayed in my head long after I came back home. The thing is, you would think that visiting a place for the second time would make the excitement disappear a little bit. Like, you've already seen it, you've already taken the pictures, you've already walked around, so what is there to be surprised about? But Dubai somehow impressed me all over again.
The first thing that always gets me about Dubai is the scenery and when I say scenery, I don't mean mountains, forests, waterfalls or some beautiful natural landscape. Dubai is almost the complete opposite. It's buildings everywhere. Huge buildings, glass buildings, hotels, shopping malls, highways, bridges, skyscrapers... everywhere you look, somebody has built something. The natural landscape is mostly sand and desert dunes, so almost everything impressive you see around you is something human beings decided to create.
You can look around and realize that this entire place wasn't handed to them looking like this. A lot of what you see is the result of planning, investment, engineering and a serious desire to build something remarkable. The desert didn't suddenly decide to become a city. People looked at the environment they had and basically said, "Okay, let's build anyway."
Then there's the Burj Khalifa even after seeing pictures and videos of it countless times, standing there and actually looking up at that thing is completely different. It's one of those moments where your brain needs a second to process what you're seeing. You're just standing there thinking, How did human beings actually build this? I remember looking at it and feeling this strange combination of amazement and inspiration. It's not just a tall building to me. It's a symbol of what can happen when people decide that "impossible" is not a good enough reason not to try.
The first time, you're mostly fascinated by everything. You see the skyscrapers, the roads, the malls, the lights and all the things you've seen online, but this time I found myself thinking beyond the tourism. I started thinking about development. I started thinking about what a country can become when there is a deliberate effort to build infrastructure and create an environment where ambitious ideas can actually become reality.
I don't expect my country to become Dubai. I don't even think it should try to become Dubai. We have our own history, culture, geography and identity but I would love to see that same level of ambition when it comes to developing our own country.