The buses pull up to the Emirates Airlines flight from Stockholm to take us to the terminal. The heat-intolerant Swedes gasp as they exit the flight, and start laughing. The climate is just absurd. It is 39 degrees Celsius at 11 pm, and incredibly humid: truly like entering a sauna. The buses take us to the terminal and I quickly go through the automatic passport control, and take a taxi to the hotel next to the Dubai museum for my overnight layover.

I am in Dubai, on the way to Delhi. The Burj Khalifa was my main tourist attraction stop. I loved the space age elevators that seem like they aren’t moving at all, but are actually the fastest elevators in the world. The only way to know that you are escalating is through the sensation of popping eardrums. The view was rather hazy, and I couldn’t see the Palm Islands, but it was all pretty impressive being atop the tallest building in the world. It is like being in the airplane; almost too high to feel that the earth below is real. There were surprisingly few tourists, and the whole visit took less than one hour.

I forgot that it was Ramadan, and there were no restaurants open until 7 pm. But the food court opened at noon in the Dubai Mall. Unfortunately, not the raw vegan place, BeStro, but I found some decent Chinese tofu. Don’t try to take a sip of water, or eat some chocolate in your backpack at the Dubai mall during Ramadan: the guards stop you immediately and give you a warning.

The impressions of Dubai are pretty much what I expected. This is a land of excess, with millions of cars and taxis, and lots of chain stores. Of course it is a huge metropolis, so it is not only multinational corporations, but the humongous Dubai mall could be anywhere in the world. I would have liked to see the gold Souk, probably the biggest gold jewelry market in the world, but no time, and it is mostly closed for the holiday. Everything is air-conditioned. The whole concept of Dubai goes against environmental conservation. The shower in the hotel was one of the best I have ever experienced, with high pressure and loads of water; in the desert. Plastic bags are used indiscriminately, and there are water fountains, vast swimming pools, green lawns and golf courses. It is like an exponential Las Vegas lacking the gambling.

The prayers break out over the loudspeakers in the food court, even though the majority of people are from China or Europe and are probably not Muslim. Despite the excesses and lack of conservation values, there is something exciting about this desert city in the heat. It represents the dreams of people to show off, and get rich. The millions of people from South Asia and the Philippines working here came to make money, and get a taste of those things in the mall. It is simply the epitome of robust capitalism.