Dubai the home of Expo 2020

        A fortnight ago, I was part of five African journalists selected to attend the Global Business Forum in Dubai and meet the Expo 2020 organisers.

We were privileged to get business class tickets from Emirates Airline. So when I arrived at Julius Nyerere International Airport, I was given my boarding pass and ushered into the Tanzanite Lounge.

In the lounge, one can eat and drink anything they want and there is also a massage chair for those who want to relax their muscles. We then boarded and left Dar es Salaam for a direct flight to Dubai International Airport. There is inflight wifi on the plane and fully flat bed seats on the business class. And the inflight service is more than perfect with crew accommodating every individual’s need.

My abode in Dubai was at the Address Hotel in Marina, an upmarket part of the city, which is less crowded. The rooms are ipad controlled; the architecture is magnificent; the hospitable and polite staff service is quite unmatched. I was staying on the 11th floor with spacious lounge with my window overlooking the Infinity pool. The hotel is situated right next-door Marina Mall so you can actually walk from the hotel lobby straight to shop.

Global business forum

After our breakfast, we were picked and driven to Madinat Jumeirah located on Al Sufouh Road to attend the fourth Africa Global Business Forum which brings together government officials, business people and investors, focused on working together to ensure Africa becomes a long-term engine of global growth.

This was the main reason of our two-day visit to the Middle East and to meet the Expo 2020 organisers. You see Dubai won the bid to host the 2020 World Expo in November 2013.

Breathtaking skycrappers

Well, let’s go back to describing Dubai; to be frank, it is impossible to condense the beauty of Dubai and its people in just one article. Dubai is home to world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa at 2,717 feet above the ground. Even the sky is not the limit for these buildings, which are tall enough to pierce through the belly of the sky. What was a desert some years ago is now a home to beautiful capital of breathtaking skyscrapers, which are tall enough to aim for the stars, the sun and the moon. The skyline in Dubai is not so clear due to desert winds and sand.

On our drive out of town to the Southern District, we saw some residential areas with unique blend of modern and Arabic architecture.

Any hawk-eyed journalist like yours truly would notice a lavish lifestyle in Dubai if the sleek cars on the streets and huge shopping malls were anything to go by. Even dates are packed in fancy wrappers like candies.

What is interesting is that the authorities in Dubai have managed to dredge land from the sea floor to put up iconic and modern buildings. The architectural creativity is on another level thus giving Dubai the world’s most captivating city space. I managed to see the world’s highest twisting tower – the Cayan Tower which is a 75 storey building, we asked locals who told us that the building’s twisted shape reduces wind forces on the tower

You can imagine this is a country, which has evolved from a small fishing village in the desert to a one of the world’s most beautiful city. Perhaps any first time visitor needs to know that Emiratis are very humble people and are so welcoming.