Finishing writing projects (books, stories, reviews) and planning our exciting new project called Grantourismo, a contemporary grand tour of sorts, has kept us busy throughout December and January, and once again prevented me from updating this poor neglected little blog. Early this week we left Australia, where we went to spend Christmas and New Year with family and work at my uncle and aunt's beautiful house in Bendigo, for the UAE, our home since 1998, and the base for the intensive globetrotting we've been doing these last 12 years. Today we kick off Grantourismo with a little pre-launch party at a swish villa on The Palm in Dubai, on Monday we fly to London for the official launch of the project, and a week later we head to Marrakech to properly start the project. So what is this project then, you ask? Well, essentially, we're trading hotel rooms for holiday homes for a year (phew!) and partnering with HomeAway Holiday Rentals, who are sending us around the world to stay in their properties and write about the homes, the destinations, and the experiences they enable us to have. The aim is to inspire people to choose holiday homes over hotels when they're planning a trip, because we believe homes enable people to travel in a more enriching and authentic way. You can read more about the project on our pretty Grantourismo blog (which Terry designed) and here on the HomeAway site. And I'll tell you more about how the project came about and what it involves in another post. Because I have a party to prepare for now...

There's a reason I haven't been blogging much these last few months - or rather, lots of reasons. Terry and I have been busy travelling, mainly through the Middle East - to Syria, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan and Lebanon - on commissions for a number of magazines, and squeezing in some assignments at 'home' in the UAE in between. We continued to do a lot of writing for in-flight magazines, especially Gulf Air's Gulf Life and Jazeera Airways' J Magazine (as I told you last time I wrote one of these updates in October), mainly because the editors are so easy to work with, and the magazines are fun. In Gulf Life's November Heritage issue, we had a piece on Doha's stupendous Museum of Islamic Arts, and in the latest edition, December's Food issue, we've got a feature on our experience behind-the-scenes with Michelin-starred chef Pierre Gagnaire in his kitchen at Reflets, Dubai (which I blogged about here), and small pieces on Jordan's cupcake king and owner of Sugar Daddy, Fadi Jaber, Amman's heavenly mussabaha, hommous, foul and falafal place, Hashem, Kuwait's best burger joint, Slider Station (pictured), and Dubai's colossal sweet shop, Candylicious. In December's issue of J Magazine, we've got a feature on Kuwait's fabulous four women politicians and Aleppo's food biz family and their matriarch Dalal Touma, the woman behind one of the city's best restaurants, Zomorod. You'll also find Terry's lush images illustrating our stories and lots of our reviews of restaurants, cafes and shops in the magazine's Destination Guide. One of my reviews went up on i-escape, on Kangaroo Island's Southern Ocean Lodge (and you'll see a lot more of my reviews soon on the site on properties in Australia and Syria), while our review of Doha's Four Seasons hotel went up on Travel Intelligence. We've got a lot more pieces coming out in early 2010, everywhere from Asia's Connect to the Ritz Carlton magazine, and I'll let you know about those as they appear.

We spent our last night in the UAE in Dubai - stuck in a traffic jam, checking into our fully booked hotel, shopping for last minute necessities at busy Dubai Mall - packed with shoppers laden with shopping bags as late as midnight - and strolling the waterfront overlooking the new Burj Dubai, where tables at the outdoor restaurants and cafes were crammed with families, despite the 45 degree heat. It was the same old Dubai - not the 'ghost town' I'd be reading about in the media while we were in Australia. Ironically, summer has historically been the time of year when Dubai is usually a ghost town, when locals and expats who can leave the country for a couple of months evacuate for cooler climates for their summer vacation.

Pictured: the enormous aquarium at Dubai Mall.

Check out some of our latest work In print and online, including a review of Pierre Gagnaire's extravagant restaurant Reflet at the InterContinental Dubai Festival City in the latest issue of Gulf Air's in-flight magazine Gulf Life. You can read the online version of the review here and you can also take a look at our first review of Reflet on Fodor's Hot List if you missed it last year. In the same issue of Gulf Life you'll also find some photos that Terry took of Chef Mohammed Hellal at Damascus' Four Seasons hotel. We also interviewed the Chef two years ago while we were there updating the Syria section of Lonely Planet's Syria and Lebanon guide (we had written the Lebanon section and front matter for the 2004 edition). If you're heading down under to Perth (pictured) in the near future, rip out Walk This Way: Perth and test out my walking tour around Western Australia's capital which features in this month's issue of Connect, the Business Traveler magazine of Carlson-Wagonlit; you can print up the online version here. If you ever get a chance to do it, let me know what you think.

I've been musing about airports and thinking about my experiences at Melbourne and Perth airports last week and what made them so bad, and reflecting upon what makes an airport cool, what kind of things would actually make the experience so much more fun! The factors that make Melbourne so unpleasant are the lack of comfortable seating and places to relax, poor business and communication facilities, dismal retail and dining options, limited opening hours, a dirty environment, and a distinct lack of character. So that means my ideal airport would be exactly the opposite, and possess the following characteristics:
* an abundance of comfortable seating, from reclining chairs to chill-out sofas and ottomans, in various formations and environments to suit different moods and needs;
* state-of-the-art communications and public business facilities (not only in airline lounges), from free easy-to-access WiFi throughout the airport and desk space with powerpoints for those who want to set up their laptop and work to reasonably-priced pay-by-the-hour lounges for those with long layovers who want to get serious about working;
* a wide range of useful and engaging retail outlets, from gourmet delis and a supermarket to excellent bookshops (not only stocking airport novels) and newsagents, to quality gift stores specialising in local products, and travel shops that don't only sell suitcases, but offer up everything from travel gadgets to tech accessories;
* an array of quality drinking and dining options and no franchises for starters: I want to see clean, quality cafes, restaurants and bars, ran by independent owners who care about what they're doing, and have a desire to sell more than muffins and soggy plastic-wrapped sandwiches. I want fresh food, made-to-order, and variety. Why can't airports have stand-up Italian-style cafe bars where you can grab a macchiato from an barista who knows not to ask "Is that a short mac or a long mac?" And why not proper fine-dining restaurants or chic bistros for those of us with long waits between connections? Obviously there's a place for fast food but can we please give the McDonalds and Subways a miss and only allow quality options, like a wood-fire pizza place or a Japanese sushi bar?
* everything should be open as long as flights are operating: there are many 24-hour airports dotted around the world that can manage this, Dubai for one; there should be no reason to close anything if there are still people streaming through the airport;
* the place should be gleaming; everything in the airport should be shiny and clean, and smelling fresh and lovely - from the public seating to the toilets to the floors throughout - there's just no excuse for grubbiness at a developed city airport in this day and age;
* the airport should be well-designed; from the practical stuff (security, check-in, baggage drop, signage, transport, traffic flow) to the aesthetic (departure lounge seating, shop-fronts, dining experiences, etc), the airport should look cool. It should not only be functional - it should work and be comfortable - but it should have form and style. Airports should look chic and inviting. They should make us want to spend time in them instead of wanting to get the hell out of there the first chance we get.
What do you think? What makes an airport cool for you? My favorites include Copenhagen, Amsterdam's Schiphol, Dubai and Hong Kong, but even they're not perfect. Do you have any favorites?

Technicalities aside (see my previous post on Dubai as 'salad bowl' rather than 'melting pot') I was pleased to read The Dubai Melting Pot Is In the Kitchen Too in the New York Times. After an abundance of Dubai-bashing in the media recently, it was a relief to see a story by a writer who actually enjoyed himself in Dubai, and to read a well-researched piece of travel and food writing that gave such a scrumptious insight into the place. However, often it's the focused, one-subject stories that are more revealing than the all-encompassing pieces that try to do everything and don't end up covering anything particularly well at all. While cuisine, cooking and a culture's eating habits tell a lot about a place, in this case what's heartening is the fact that the story was centered, that it stayed on topic, that it rang true, and that it dug a little (although perhaps not as deep as it could have), rather than staggered all about the place, scratching here and there at the surface, and scraping together nothing but castles in the sand. During his three-day "odyssey across the culinary landscape of Dubai" writer Seth Sherwood samples an array of restaurants featuring cuisine from North Africa to the Sub-Continent, crediting Dubai’s cosmopolitan population for this culinary diversity, and writing "For devotees of food from the Arabian-Islamic world, Dubai may offer the grandest and most concentrated smorgasbord on the planet." Okay, so they're not really 'Arabian' (he probably means Arabic), but we'll forgive him because at least he was there. You see, I still can't get over Brisbane writer Elizabeth Farrelly's nonsensical piece in which she admitted that she had never been there but strangely for six months had "wanted to write about Dubai as a ruin". In stark contrast Sherwood's piece is grounded in reality: "Though the international economic crisis has raged like a sandstorm through Dubai’s office towers, financial markets and construction sites, a January visit found the sprawling restaurant scene remarkably intact." He concludes: "The upshot is a citywide food bazaar in which restaurants, high- and low-end, serve up tapaslike mezes, aubergine par excellence, fluffy couscous, tangy yogurts, endless kebabs, meats stewed with fruit, fiery arrak liqueur and honey-drenched desserts. All you need is taxi fare and a love of spices." I couldn't agree more. Although I don't always agree with his choices. Sherwood covers everything from the chic Moroccan restaurant Almaz by Momo (pictured) to the gritty Pakistani worker's eatery, Ravi, an expat favorite. The challenge of doing a story like this is that the writer only has three days to eat his way around the city and has to rely on his research abilities as much as his skills at discernment whereas we have had 11 years of dining in Dubai, with plenty of time for repeat visits. Another reason I love guidebook writer - 6 weeks in a city allows you plenty of time to return to places, to wander by on different nights, and to talk to locals. But once again - at least he was there.

Dubai is a big delicious bowl of salad. And a fusion salad at that. Don't you think? While the term 'melting pot' gets used a lot, it's not a 'melting pot' in the strict sense of the concept, in that there hasn't been an assimilation or intermarriage of ethnicities to the extent that the original cultures have been lost and the culture as a whole has become homogeneous. Far from it. Indeed, that's not really a desirable thing anymore anyway, is it? For me, Dubai is more of a 'salad bowl' of cultures, where individuals, families and ethnic groups are all enticingly mixed together but they each retain their own unique identities, and the rich traditions and wonderful customs that make them special. Indeed, Dubai, or rather, the United Arab Emirates, is one of the most multicultural places I know, where alongside the Emiratis, the Iranians, Lebanese, Egyptians, Syrians, Jordanians, Indians, Pakistanis, Filipinos, Russians, French, British, and so on are all able to maintain their own cultures, eat at their own restaurants, shop for the same groceries they might buy back home, worship in their mosques, temples and churches, shop for their own music etc - and those of us who relish the opportunity to consume other cultures are able to thrive by living in such a cosmopolitan society that is as rich as the best of them (Canada? Australia?) in terms of its cultural diversity.

Pictured? Foreign visitors (from the UK, Europe, Australia and North America) waiting to try home-cooked Emirati food at the Cultural Breakfast at the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding in Bastakiya, Dubai. This is one the first things I recommend people do when they visit Dubai - it gives them a great insight into the local culture, religion and people, and goes a long way to breaking down stereotypes and misconceptions.

A debate over the Hari article and other Dubai-bashing stories, such as a recent piece in the Toronto Star titled 'Dubai how not to build a city' (this one in the whole "city of superlatives" sub-genre, and equally as bad as Hari's, laced with just as many cliches and factual and historical errors) is raging in the blogosphere, particularly on UAE blogs such as Grape Shisha, who posts about the Toronto story; Secret Dubai Diary (a blogger who surprisingly liked Hari's piece); and the UAE Community Blog, where SamuraiSam posts a hilarious piece titled Dark Side, in which he writes: "Dear international media, You need to write more articles that reference the 'dark side of Dubai', there are clearly not enough." Sam links to 12 articles, including stories by the BBC, The Guardian, ABC News, The Times, Time, and Bloomberg, which all use the 'Dark Side' in their melodramatic headlines. This is exactly why I thought Hari's piece was a parody. There's the 'Dark side of the Dubai dream', the 'Dark Side of Dubai's Boomtown', the Dark side of Dubai’s economic boom..., Carole Cadwalladr explores the dark side of Dubai, and - my favorite - 'The Dark Side of Splendor." What about 'The Dark Side of Journalism'?

Terry has written a particularly fine post on the subject (his last), 'This is my last Dubai goodbye', over at his blog Wide Angles Wine & Wanderlust. Do take a read.

The story 'The Dark Side of Dubai' apparently wasn't the parody I had hoped it to be, however, while I was disappointed to see The Independent (a paper I have written for before - on Dubai) print such an appalling piece, I'm pleased to see that in an effort to provide some balance they have printed Emirati columnist Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi's 'If you think Dubai is bad, just look at your own country' (although Dubai of course is not a country, it's a city-state or emirate). Also see the reprint of the story at The Huffington Post just to read the articulate comment from SAS. You might also want to read Al Qassemi's piece 'Looking at the bright side of Dubai' in Arabian Business. The British government's response to Hari's piece, the BBC's recent Panorama story on Dubai, and a slew of other stories, is also interesting - read 'UK Government distances itself from Dubai criticism', the result of a Foreign Office-organized press conference in Dubai, which has appeared in a number of publications. It will be fascinating to see if the debate continues in the media, especially the news media. We all know media organizations have agendas. Editors carefully weigh up whether and how to run with stories. Essays like Hari's don't slip in accidentally. So it will be interesting to see if and how this discourse impacts the travel media where advertising plays a powerful and pivotal role. Airlines like Emirates and Etihad spend huge dollars on advertising.

A brilliant parody of the Dubai-bashing genre of article of which we've seen a spate recently in the US, UK and Australian media, has been published by The Independent called The Dark Side of Dubai by Johann Hari. (To save me linking to all the stories, see this accurate analysis of the process 'reporters' visiting Dubai appear to go through to produce the trash they've been publishing, by a reader, The Consultant, in the comments at Arabian Business.) A lot of people are getting very upset about this story. Not only Emiratis but expats who have lived in the UAE for a long time who know the place intimately, understand its complexities, and love it for all its flaws. Nobody's dismissing the treatment and hardships experienced by foreign construction workers nor the challenges faced by those losing their jobs that are covered in the stories. They're upset at the ongoing media attacks on Dubai (it's truly baffling) and the lack of objectivity and balance in that media coverage, the publication of factual errors, exaggerations and even lies, and the racist tones running throughout much of the coverage. Dubai is not alone as a developing state and economy, nor is it the only state to experience recession.

Now don't get me wrong, as someone who moved to the UAE in 1998, I also share their frustration but I don't understand why people can't see that 'The Dark Side of Dubai' is a parody. It's so obvious. Just look at the melodramatic title of the story and the piece is jam-packed with over-used Dubai travel writing cliches ("One Thousand and One Arabian Lights", "Dubai Disneyland", "the architecture of the pharaohs as reimagined by Zsa-Zsa Gabor", a "Neverland built on the Neverland"), gross exaggerations (every expat has maids and whole armies of staff, every expat is a CEO etc), and stereotypical characters (Western expat with a Range Rover, "Filipino girl behind the counter", he meets the Emirati at Starbucks, everyone is drunk and partying all the time, blonde Dutch girl in hotpants... p-lease). It's laden with so many historical and factual errors ("in the mid-18th century, a small village was built here." He should have added 'overnight'!), and racism (just read the thing), that it can't possibly be presented as serious news commentary, certainly not something a high quality paper like The Independent would print as truth.

And it's funny on so many levels. There's a whole parody of the simplistic 90s anti-globalization rhetoric first year uni students might have referenced in a "Modernisation and Globalisation" class: the 'East' being consumed by the 'West' and its junk-food mega-brand pop culture with the references to Starbucks, Pizza Hutt, Nando's... we should be shocked that the Emirati is wearing 'Western clothes' of blue jeans and a Ralph Lauren shirt - and that he drinks a Coke! C'mon, this is 2009! It has to be a joke. We all know globalization is far more complex than that and our understanding is far more nuanced now. I mean, he actually uses the term "third world".

Still not convinced it's a parody? If you were too gob-smacked to notice the dreadful writing the first time around, take another read. An example: "Thirty years ago, almost all of contemporary Dubai was desert, inhabited only by 'cactuses' and tumbleweed and scorpions." And where was John Wayne? The set of a Hollywood Western comes to mind, right? When was the last time anyone saw native cacti in the Dubai emirate? That very sentence is a clue that this is a piece of fiction. And then there's the surrealism: Hari taking notes in Harvey Nichols as he listens to a sales assistant telling him about a £20,000 taffeta dress! And the melodrama: "And I stop writing." This is too funny. Perhaps it was an April Fools joke-story (like the Dubai double-decker boutique hotel bus announcement from Mr and Mrs Smith) and Hari missed the deadline? But I, for one, am hoping it's a series.

Pictured? That's me... looking for tumbleweeds and cactus. I know where to find scorpions.


*** If you see this story and pic elsewhere, it's because the content has been STOLEN. It's appearing on a number of sites without permission, but, trust me, invoices are on the way!

I find it curious how reporters work sometimes. I answered a few questions last week for a reporter who was writing a story on Dubai for a travel news syndication site that produces 'news' stories that are then picked up (or not) by their subscribers. Although I answered just a couple of questions from a long list of questions I suggested were better directed toward a Dubai Tourism spokesperson and a real estate expert, a brief part of one of my responses in effect became the story. So far it's appeared on a travel insurance website (take a look here at: More to Dubai than Glamour Alone). What I find odd is that the suggestion was that my answers would contribute to a much larger story but instead they became the story. Which leads me to wonder... was there ever a 'story' in the first place? Or had the reporter's editor just directed the writer to come up with a story on Dubai, any story on Dubai? Which explains the odd combination of questions directed to me. Or perhaps there was an idea for some kind of story initially but because the writer couldn't find anyone else to comment, my quote simply became the story. What do you think?

Read Terry's take on yet another racist and sensationlist story on Dubai today over at Wide angles, wine and wanderlust. The Australian media's abysmal coverage on Dubai has stooped to new lows today where a so-called 'investigative' journalist writing for The Age newspaper demonstrates that in the eyes of the Aussie media Dubai is clearly the guilty party after its arrest of Aussies over alleged dodgy property dealings in the city-emirate. I've never read such over-hyped and trashy 'reporting' before. Somebody clearly needs to go back to journalism school. I love the opening: A vision of gleaming new cities in the desert has proved to be a mirage for Australians lured by Middle East riches. Um, not all Australians, thank you very much. On both accounts. Since we moved to the UAE in 1998, we've not seen one mirage, but nor were we "lured by Middle East riches" in the first place. For those of us who came for the cultural experience and quality of life, Dubai has delivered in spades. The Sydney Morning Herald (sister-newspaper to The Age) is no better, with slightly edited story of the beat-up. What I love about this 'report' is the suggestion that 'the Sheikh' (assuming they're implying Sheikh Mohammed) is involved in these shonky dealings. If I was a certain Sheikh I know who I'd be suing. Anyway, take a look at Terry's post...

Don’t you think there are some destinations where a guidebook is invaluable? There’s been a backlash against guidebooks in recent years, since the rise of freely available online travel content. And while there are certainly cities I’ll go without a guidebook, cities where you can stroll around and stumble across places of interest pretty easily, there are some destinations where you really need to know where to go to have a good time – whether those tips are coming from trusted locals, or if you don’t know anyone, a trusted guidebook or trusted online source, (note my use of ‘trusted’) is up to you. But Dubai so it seems is definitely one of those destinations where you're going to have a far better time with a guidebook.

How to experience Dubai on a budget and dispelling myths about Dubai are topics I find myself increasingly writing about, both for paid assignments and on this blog (see Dispelling the biggest myth about Dubai and Dubai on a budget: the best things in life are free). Yet, I still feel like I have a lot more work ahead of me when I receive comments like those from Gary Arndt of Everything Everywhere to yesterday's post. I wish I could turn back the clock for poor Gary to his arrival at the airport and hand him one of our guidesbooks, because Gary came away thinking: “Dubai is expensive and there isn't much to do other than shop. If you want to sit on a beach, I can think of dozens of other places in Europe or in the Indian Ocean which would be more attractive as a destination. The malls seem very orientated to luxury brands. Every month there is some sort of news story which comes out of Dubai about someone getting arrested over something trivial.” If ever there was an argument for using a guidebook, there it is. Guidebooks may quickly become out of date, but in Gary’s case, our 4-year old Lonely Planet Dubai city guide would have shown him a much better time than he seemed to have. And while some people don’t like shelling out money for a guidebook, there is a lot of stuff freely available on the web, including many of the articles we’re written on Dubai for magazines and newspapers. I’ll pop up another post with links to our Dubai content that's freely available online, and I’ll also write another Dubai myth-busting post. Because seriously, there are few cities in the world where it's easier to have a good time - without lying on a beach or stepping into a shopping mall.

"Dubai has always been seen as a playground for the rich. What is the Dubai tourism authority doing to pull in people with less money?" That was one question among others that came to me Friday via the DK-Rough Guides PR office, as author of DK's Top Ten Dubai and Abu Dhabi guidebook, from a London journalist writing a story on Dubai. Although I suggested he contact Dubai Tourism for comment, I still shared my thoughts. While Dubai Tourism has appeared to focus on marketing Dubai as a luxurious, safe 'sun, sand and shopping' destination, the media, which loves covering the rich and famous and the glitz and glamour, has lapped it. There's no denying Dubai does luxury well (better than many places), but it's always been so much more than simply a lavish destination where you can spoil yourself silly, especially to the people who live in Dubai. When I lived in Al Mankhool, for five days a week my everyday experiences were more centered on Dubai's gritty backstreets (the 'off-the-beaten-track') and the city's heritage, culture and arts. We'd regularly walk to the Creek and Bastakiya, wander through Bur Dubai souq to Shindagha, both for exercise and to shop at the Shindagha supermarket, browse the souqs at Bur Dubai or across the Creek at Deira, or see a traditional performance at the Heritage and Diving Village. We'd frequently stroll along the Creek and through the parks, especially Al Seef Road and Za'abeel Park. We'd attend opening nights at galleries like The Third Line and B21, and we'd go to events like the Dubai International Film Festival. Occasionally we'd do very 'local' things like watch the camel training or even go falconing with some of the local guys. It was only on weekends when we'd go out with friends for drinks, dinner and a dance, at the bars, restaurants and clubs in the five-star hotels that we'd experience 'luxury Dubai'. But our Dubai, the Dubai most locals and many expats (not all) experience, is the one I've always tried to promote through our guidebooks and writing like our Insider's Guide to Dubai. But while Dubai for us is a set of complex experiences and representations, for much of the global media and potential tourists (as I'm reminded everyday) it's nothing but a luxury destination. It's time Dubai Tourism gets serious about re-branding Dubai and telling the world about the things its residents love about the place. Don't you think?

"A couple of years ago when I first started reading travel articles about all the new develop- ments in Dubai, I could never have guessed that this would happen," Erica from Blissful Travel wrote in response to my post on Dubai yesterday, which was actually a pointer to Terry's post on Dubai's Global Reporting Meltdown over at Wide angles, wine and wanderlust, so read that first. I spontaneously began my response to Erica this morning with "I couldn't have imagined it either... unless perhaps I'd given it some serious thought..." So I did give it some thought...

This should probably begin with "Once upon a time..." Because I'm thinking this is a bit of a fairytale, a rags-to-riches story. Well, that's how The Media likes to make it out. Or rather have it play out. You see, in the beginning Dubai was a media darling. She was Cinderella after her makeover at the ball. Or - because I should use a more contemporary analogy - she was like the beautiful young starlet who suddenly appears on the Hollywood scene. She gives an okay performance in an indie film, but she's attractive and has charisma. She wears the glammest dress and most gorgeous gems to the ball, or rather, the Oscars, and all of a sudden she's in the spotlight. Everyone's talking about her. And The Media starts writing about her. Everybody catches on and suddenly she's everywhere. She's on every talk show, every gossip site, in every magazine. Life couldn't be more perfect for this rising star. Who wouldn't want this much attention? Everyone wants to be her, to be with her, to live her glamorous lifestyle, to feel part of her 'in' crowd. But then she makes a mistake or two... a bad dress choice or movie role, a bad boyfriend? And then she really messes-up in their eyes... perhaps a racial slur? Filmed taking drugs? Or worse, in a none-too-flattering position in a park (or at a beach?) without clothes on? But the starlet doesn't care. She was an indie film goddess to begin with after all. She fascinated and intrigued long ago - even if it was just her friends and family. So then, The Media turns on her, her fans (who never really knew her anyway) turn on her. They're all against her now and are gleefully showing her at her worse, and printing all those bad hair days. The thing is... there's a career and a livelihood at stake here. So what will the starlet do next? Is an image makeover in order? Or does she need to prove that she can really perform? (Because her family and friends know she can shine.) Should she even care? SohHow do you think this story is going to play out? Because we know we're nowhere near an ending yet...

Speaking of Dubai, the little city-state has taken quite a beating in the media lately with a number of negative articles about its apparent economic meltdown, written as if the rest of the world weren't in recession. My partner and co-author Terry Carter, who is also a writer and photographer who blogs at Wide angles, wine and wanderlust, has posted about recent coverage in 'Dubai's Global Reporting Meltdown' in which he analyzes the sloppy journalism that at times verges on racism. Take a look and let us know what you think.

Does the world really need travel guides compiled for us from Wikipedia and/or any other online sources for that matter? Following on from my posts on Offbeat Guides part 1: my findings & part 2: my conclusion, I've been thinking about the future of travel guides... but first, the postscript: after posting part 2, I returned to Offbeat Guides for another glance at the Dubai guide to look for some author details. At the end of the Contents, I noticed a References page. I'd initially thought this might have been a further reading list. It wasn't. It turns out the Dubai guide's content came largely from Wikipedia. A few questions immediately sprang to mind:
1) Why on earth would a site marketing itself as a new travel product with its own brand 'Offbeat Guides' rely on using Wikipedia (predominantly) for its content?
2) Why wouldn't they incorporate Wikipedia into their branding? Or announce on the home page where their content is mainly coming from? (Had I have realised that from the start I wouldn't have wasted time testing their beta.)
3) How can they claim they have the most current content on the web when they're so heavily relying on Wikipedia? Not everything on Wikipedia is updated regularly. Content is only as good as the author who has written it. Or the editor editing it! And if we don't know either how can we trust it? Which leads me to my final question...
4) Why did the team behind Offbeat Guides think travellers even needed such a product?

The shelves of most good bookshops are crammed with row after row of quality travel guides written by professional authors, edited by professional editors, and produced by established guidebook publishers (DK, Rough Guides, Footprint, Fodors, Time Out, etc), and then tucked into a little corner here and there will be books in smaller numbers but sometimes produced to even greater standards, like the gorgeous Thames and Hudson Style City guides and the sexy Hip Hotels books, there'll also be a few niche guides like Hedonist's and Pulse's Night+Day series, and there might be a rack of cool guides like Wallpaper's, or a box of Luxe guides on the counter. And we haven't even started on online guides such as Triporati's travel guides and World Travel Guides, and all those excellent resident-authored city blogs that are as good as, if not better than, some published city guides... so why, when there are so many brilliant, high quality, authored guides, do we need something like this? Please don't tell me this is a sign of things to come. If anything, I was hoping that the future of travel guides would lie in more lovingly-crafted almost artisanal guides by small passionate publishers such as Love guides. Please don't tell me I'm wrong. What do you think?

Outdated, incorrect, misleading, poorly-written and poor choice of points of interest, the Dubai 'guide' that Offbeat Guides delivered was disappointing. It was about as current, authentic and original as the museum display pictured. My conclusions based on my findings:
1) Not an 'offbeat' bone in the guide's body: the title suggests the content's focus would be quirky and alternative in its selections. It wasn't. All mainstream.
2) Little that's customised or personalised: site promised I'd "build my own personalized travel guide". Apart from being able to input content I'd written, I couldn't pull info from other (more reliable) sources or a community, unlike other guides. Strange, because Offbeat Guides blog says they're fans of customized product companies (Lulu, Cafepress, Spreadshirt etc) which allow publishing or production of original creative content and/or community-created designs. Structure is customisable; can choose which sections you don't want.
3) Content is not original: content that appeared in the Dubai guide is already available at thousands of sites on web. Easy to check: I googled a few phrases & paras. As content appears in so many different places (legitimately, syndicated, plagiarised & as spam) it's difficult to identify original authors. This is a huge problem: how can content be trusted? What's most astounding is they expect you to pay for anonymous content. Offbeat Guides appears to be little more than a packager and retailer of readily-available (and sometimes suspect) travel information.
4) Information was out-of-date, false & inaccurate (as you saw in my findings): this was my biggest problem with the guide I tested, not only because their Twitter Bio proclaims "Most up-to-date travel guides. Ever!" but for content to have value it should to be true, accurate and up-to-date - especially if you're selling it!

The guides seem to be purely a money-making exercise. There's none of the attention to detail, originality, passion and commitment to producing quality travel content that we've seen in products such as Love travel guides. If anything, this is a strong case for traditional guidebook production (print or online), i.e. guides written by authors who can write well, are destination experts, have visited all the places, and checked all the information. If the guides were free, then I wouldn't care, but that they have the nerve to charge unsuspecting travellers is what irks me. I'd love to know what you think.

As the new travel product Offbeat Guides intrigued me and I'd been invited to try their beta, I decided to test them out with Dubai, a place few people know better than Terry and I. My shorthand notes based on the exercise:
* After signing in, selecting destination & inputting travel details, site promises I'll "build my own personalized travel guide". Seconds later my 'guide' appears:
* Intro - very general, not written by someone who knows city well OR visited in recent years; misleading ("It is essentially a desert city"), out-dated ("A relatively new tourist destination, Dubai has gained in popularity in recent years."; probably written 6 years ago); & spookily familiar: "It is a city of superlatives: for the fastest, biggest, tallest, largest and highest, Dubai is the destination." Googled that phrase & discovered thousands of sites with exact same content! Probably one of our old Lonely Planet Dubai books there somewhere too!
* False travel planning advice, eg. "While Israeli passport holders are not welcome, having Israeli stamps in your passport is not a problem." Not true! Officially it is a problem. This could get travellers turned away at airport.
* Lots of incorrect info & evidence author hasn't visited places. Examples:
"Express By Holiday Inn Dubai-Internet City... this modern hotel is downright luxurious for a Holiday Inn Express..." Confirms author hadn't been here. We've stayed here. It's comfy for budget hotel, doesn't come close to luxury.
"The Terrace Bar, Park Hyatt... a chilled out bar touching the Dubai Creek... Plays light music." No idea what 'light music' is. Obvious author hadn't been when DJ's spin weekend afternoons.
"Cafe Chic... ran by Michelin star chef Michel Rostang." Mon Dieu! It's been many years since Monsieur Rostang was around... last time we ate here Chef Pierrick Cizeron was still at helm (has been for years) & Michelin 2-starred chef-patron Philippe Gauvreau was still overseeing Cafe & visiting frequently from Lyon.
"Basta Art Cafe... sandwiches-and-salads menu is aimed squarely at tourists." Not true! Basta was very much locals-only cafe til few years ago, until writers like us & Time Out mag team encouraged tourists to go here. Customers still mainly locals/expats. Menu hasn't lost focus - we eat sandwiches & salads in Dubai too. Um, shwarma (see below) is actually an Arabic 'sandwich'.
"Shawarma is the most available (and cheap!) food in Dubai. It is meat that has been cooked on a skewer and then cut into thin strips and placed into a pita bread with vegetables and dressing." Um, no it isn't.
"Ravi Restaurant... excellent Pakistani food that is incredibly cheap. This is a must see for anyone with a spicy tooth." It's cheap, it's Pakistani, it's not pretty to look at, it's far from excellent. It's just cheap grub for those looking for a bargain meal. Nothing more. Spicy tooth, hey?
I could go on but I won't. I skimmed the rest, but generally: writing was weak & badly structured, choices were usual suspects, and it was clear writer hadn't been to most places.
While the site enabled me to incorporate my own notes, why would I want to add them to the trash that was on the page? And why I would want to pay to then have this printed (and bound?) was unclear...

At the shared taxi stand in Abu Dhabi - and other Emirati cities like Sharjah, Fujairah and Al Ain for that matter - taxi drivers yell "Dubai! Dubai! Dubai!" to let potential passengers know their destination. And of course the other drivers shout out their destinations too. But there are always more taxis heading to Dubai and they always fill faster. During our first couple of years in Abu Dhabi, after we moved there in '98, we'd catch shared taxis to Dubai a lot so it seemed. At least once a month or so, to eat out, take in the local sights, stay at a nice hotel, and of course, go shopping. In those days Abu Dhabi only had one shopping mall and Dubai had three decent ones and a few smaller shopping arcades in the suburbs. Once we'd piled into the taxi, we'd each hand over our Dh10 (less than US$3) to the driver for the 90 minute ride then he'd speed off down at a million miles an hour. Crammed in those taxis I learned a lot about the people who'd chosen to live in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. I didn't speak Arabic, Hindi, Farsi or Urdu, but I could tell a lot about them by the way they dressed, the things they carried (or didn't), their body language, their eyes, and of course they're smiles... whether a Pakistani driver, Afghani labourer, Sri Lankan maid, or Indian bank clerk, they'd all come here to work, make money, and send it home to a spouse or family to pay for their kids to go to school or university, to buy a house, to one day start a business. Terry and I weren't there just for the money; for us, it was more about the cultural experience and the travel. But all of us were there to make our dreams a reality. And for most of us, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, like fairy godmothers, granted our wishes. For me, the good news stories over the years have far outweighed the bad. My Dubai is a very different one to that I read about in the papers. So I've decided to start a series on this blog called 'Dubai Dubai Dubai! Some tales of a city...' and every now and again I'm going to share a story or two, take you on a ride, and show you my Dubai... are you coming?