Seven stars in my kit lens!

Well, I'm not trying to capture seven astronomical bodies with a humble 18-55mm nikkor. That would be hard to do. An easier way to capture seven stars would be a few minutes drive from home. The best part of it was diong it with friends from work who shared the same nikon addiction.

Burj al Arab. The only hotel on the planet to boast a 7- star rating was a sight to behold. Although we were not able to enter the premises because we didn't have time, (time is gold, if you know what I mean) we were allowed to shoot from the main gate. And shoot we did!

A short walk from the gate passing Wild Waddi adventure park and Jumiera beach hotel (another sight to behold) brought us to an open beach right next to the dubbed luxurious beach. Actually, they had the same sand and sea water. It's the fence that defined the boundary between the luxurious price of basking and swimming and the free-for-all beach.

We spent a goot 2 hours draining batteries and filling memory cards while exhausting creativity.

The sun's heat made us decide to go the the Mall of Emirates to cool down and from there, we parted ways. The photowalk was a success and we plan to do it again.

Babel

Babel. The Tower of Babel (Hebrew: מגדל בבל‎ Migdal Bavel Arabic: برج بابل‎ Burj Babil), was an enormous tower built at the city of Babylon (Hebrew: Babel, Akkadian: Babilu), a cosmopolitan city typified by a confusion of languages, also called the "beginning" of Nimrod's kingdom. According to the biblical account, a united humanity of the generations following the Great Flood, speaking a single language and migrating from the east, participated in the building. The people decided their city should have a tower so immense that it would have "its top in the heavens."

We all know what happened to ancient Babel. Those people had one intension of building such a structure:

"Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves..."

Fast forward around 4000 years later. On the same region of the ancient face of the earth has risen a simillar tower, built to top the records of modern engineering and architecture. Rising 828 meters into the arabian sky stands Burj Khalifa (formerly known as Burj Dubai) This icon in the heart of downtown Dubai has caused a spark of light for a city that sits on a shadow of scandalous econimic crisis.

Indeed, a "name for oureselves" has been established. In a city of superlatives where adjectives with "est" suffixes are a daily cliche among tour guides, the "tallest building" surely has found it's place on the list of places to visit.

The Burj is not hard to miss. Rising over three times higher than any building forming the cityscape, the Burj can be seen from great distances, even from Sharjah, Dubai's neighboring Emirate. At night, the tower's strobes rhythmically slice through the darkness to the desert sky, declaring its hights to aircraft pilots and silently commanding many flight passengers to scramble for their cameras to capture a glimpse of a celebrity among skyscrapers.

Sadly, this symbol of Dubai's bling is already scarred. It is a fact that this tower of vanity does not belong to Dubai (anymore). About a month before the tower opened its doors to the public, Dubai's economy was on a freefall. It's oil-rich neighbor, Abu Dhabi shelled out a whooping 10 billion dollars to cushion the blow. One of the trade offs was that this tower would be property of Abu Dhabi right smack on the heart of downtown Dubai.

Opening night was a blast. A multitude of mixed nationalities waited, anticipating the fireworks and fountain shows. Through the cacofony of various languages and fashion statements at the opening night, one can just imagine reverse of Babel. Babel was never completed and people fled from it. this time, on Burj Khalifa's completion, people of different languages came over to sing and unite in celebration of such an engineering feat.