Destination: Dubai
Morning Links: Skycar, Disney Shanghai and More
by Michael Yessis | 01.15.09 | 9:07 AM ET
- Disney and Shanghai have reportedly agreed on plans for a new Disney theme park in China.
- Google has added a transit layer to its maps in 50 world cities.
- The Skycar—a flying car—departed from London to Timbuktu with Neil Laughton behind the wheel.
- CNN offers video profiles of Dubai’s Emirates terminal and the airport of the year, Hong Kong International Airport.
- What about the world’s worst airports?
- Hu Jintao warns of potential travel problems in China for Chinese New Year.
- Men’s Fitness names Salt Lake City the fittest city in the U.S. The fattest? Miami.
- Slideshow: Paragliding over Africa.
- A Japanese website maps smells around the world. Apparently, there’s a “toasty odor of cow dung” somewhere out there.
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Yahoo! BuzzDubai ‘Sex on Beach’ Travelers Sentenced to Three Months in Jail
by Michael Yessis | 10.16.08 | 5:30 PM ET
The British couple was fined $272 each for the now-infamous transgression. The attorney representing the duo said he will appeal the case, citing a medical report that the “sex on beach” couple didn’t actually have sex.
Related on World Hum:
* Duo in Dubai ‘Sex on Beach’ Case Asks Judge to Let Them Return to Britain
* British Couple Arrested for Having Sex on Beach in Dubai
The QE2’s Final Hurrah
by Valerie Conners | 10.07.08 | 10:37 AM ET
Before she is remade into a floating hotel in Dubai, the Queen Elizabeth 2 is taking a farewell journey. She recently pulled into the port from which she launched 41 years ago. The Daily Mail reports on the trip, and features a series of photos of the ship as it sailed home one final time.
Duo in Dubai ‘Sex on Beach’ Case Asks Judge to Let Them Return to Britain
by Michael Yessis | 09.02.08 | 12:23 PM ET
The judge denied the request, setting another hearing for next week. Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors are on trial for, as we previously noted, allegedly having sex on the beach in Dubai. Palmer says she and Acors hugged and kissed, but didn’t have sex, according to the AP. Still, as Barbara Surk writes, “Public display of affection, such as touching, kissing or hugging, is illegal in Dubai and couples—particularly if not married—can be detained by police for indecency.”
Related on World Hum:
* Brits Go on Holiday, Europe Cowers in Fear
British Couple Arrested for Having Sex on Beach in Dubai
by Jim Benning | 07.10.08 | 11:42 AM ET
Contributor Elyse Franko recently wrote that Dubai is “the place where kids can be kids and dads can indulge their midlife crises.” But apparently it’s not the place where a couple of Brits can have sex on the beach and not get arrested.
First Moving Skyscraper to be Built in Dubai
by Jim Benning | 06.25.08 | 1:55 PM ET
Eighty ever-shifting floors? Oh, Dubai, you just give and give and give.
Dubailand to Add Marvel Comics, Ferraris
by Elyse Franko | 06.24.08 | 3:50 PM ET
We’ve already noted plans for Dubailand, Dubai’s massive amusement park complex that’s been staked out by Universal Studios and Six Flags. According to the Wall Street Journal, recent deals will to the mix add a Marvel superhero-themed park and a Ferrari-themed park called (you guessed it) Ferrari-Land. Ah, Dubai: The place where kids can be kids and dads can indulge their midlife crises.
Related on World Hum:
*Theme Parks Bound for Mumbai and Dubai
‘High’ Risk of Terrorist Attack in UAE
by Jim Benning | 06.16.08 | 10:24 AM ET
The warning for the United Arab Emirates comes from the UK Foreign Office but included few details. BBC report here.
Brad Pitt to Help Design Eco-Friendly Dubai Hotel
by Jim Benning | 06.04.08 | 12:29 PM ET
Oh, Brad Pitt, is there nothing you can’t do?
A Carbon-Free ‘Green City’ in the Desert?
by Joanna Kakissis | 05.06.08 | 10:42 AM ET
If the excesses of Dubai aren’t your thing, you might soon consider a very different kind of travel destination in the United Arab Emirates. Oil-rich Abu Dhabi is planning to build an “eco city” for 50,000 people that will be powered entirely by renewable energy, NPR reports.
In Dubai, a Little Lyon in the Desert?
by Joanna Kakissis | 01.29.08 | 7:07 AM ET
Ah, what love (and oil money) can do. They’re fueling the so-called “Lyon-Dubai City” project, which aims to create a mini version of France’s third-largest city in the desert of the United Arab Emirates.
Interview with George Saunders: Loose in the Real World
by Frank Bures | 09.28.07 | 1:03 PM ET
Frank Bures talks with the author about Dubai, Nepal's Buddha Boy and what he learned about travel from a mob of rock-hauling, 70-year-old women in Singapore
Burj Dubai Soars Past Taipei 101
by Julia Ross | 07.23.07 | 1:46 PM ET
From the rooftop of my apartment building in Taiwan, Taipei 101 (pictured) blinks reassuringly in the distance, hovering just above the hills. Some nights it glows blue and gold in its upper reaches; other nights it’s green and purple. I’ve whiled away hours on the building’s fourth floor, home to the city’s best English bookstore, and spent New Year’s Eve watching fireworks explode around the skyscraper’s edges. The spectacle is guaranteed to net Taiwan much-coveted global exposure on CNN. The world’s tallest building is always within sight, but I didn’t realize I held such affection for the place until I read Saturday that the Burj Dubai had unofficially stolen Taipei 101’s towering thunder. Taiwanese have long known the day would come; still, I felt my stomach drop.
Seven Wonders of the Shrinking Planet
by Jim Benning, Michael Yessis | 07.06.07 | 12:04 PM ET
Jim Benning and Michael Yessis unveil World Hum's seven wonders: places, things and people that embody ways the planet is shrinking and cultures are colliding
Dubai World Buys Queen Elizabeth 2
by Michael Yessis | 06.18.07 | 4:05 PM ET
Goodbye, high seas. Hello, Palm Jumeirah. One of the world’s grandest cruise ships, Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth 2, has been purchased by a division of a Dubai-owned corporation and by 2009 will become yet another mega spectacle in a land of mega spectacles. According to the AP, Istithmar, a division of government-owned Dubai World, purchased the famed British ship—it has carried royalty, troops to the Falklands War and the Norovirus from Acapulco to San Francisco—for $100 million and plans to turn it into a “floating hotel, retail and entertainment destination” off the coast of the manmade Palm Jumeirah island.