the big fat world

All my previous knowledge of Dubai stemmed from those sky-crane pictures of the building boom that circulated the internet a couple years ago. Of course, I had heard of the man made islands and Ski Dubai but after spending a couple days here, the sheer amount of things to do on budget (or off) are staggering. So, [...]

There was a joke a few years back that the national bird of the Unites Arab Emirates is the sky crane. It was estimated that 16% of the world’s sky cranes were in Dubai alone. Today, the almighty sky crane still shoots into the Dubai horizon but it’s numbers have far dwindled and sadly, some [...]

The Burj Khalifa currently holds the title of the tallest building in the world. It stands a staggering 2,717 feet with 160 floors. The elevator ride to the 124th floor viewing area itself takes about 60 seconds and your ears will pop. Some current records (courtesy of wikipedia): Tallest skyscraper to top of spire: 828 m [...]

In the city that glitters, not all is gold, especially when one finds themselves in shopping district of Al Karama. Al Karama is absolutely one of  the best places in Dubai to find high quality genuine fakes. You name it and it’s here: Prada, Marc Jacobs, Louboutin, Jimmy Choo, Chloe, Rolex,Chanel, etc. Did you know [...]

And so another installment of Riley, Party of 1 hits the blog. Since needing a new Turkish visa, I decided to pop over to Dubai in order to renew my visa and celebrate 2011 arab style. With only 3 days here to celebrate, I still managed to tread the tourist terrain. Here are some solo Riley shots for [...]

Since embarking on my mission of an RTW trip, I have taken heap loads of pictures and since of the greatest pleasures on the road is taking pictures, I have plenty of me. Most Solo traveler pictures consist of a high angle shot to ensure your head is in the magestic background you are trying [...]