Days in Dubai

Swift-footed time... just a couple more days here and then we go back to Kusadasi. There, I read on the internet, the temperatures are in the upper 'teens; ah, farewell to the glorious balmy air of the Emirates!
This evening David and I walked through the Jumeira Beach Hotel and out the back to where the sea laps upon the golden sand (no kidding). The sun was setting and we climbed one of the man-made structures at the end of a short causeway. Sorry no photos, will have to see if the same effect is achieved tomorrow evening...
It was glorious. The sun a bright red ball sank behind the distant Palm and the cranes and the misty mini skyscrapers. Gradually the sky turned soft pink. We saw a dugout canoe with ten paddlers (Europeans apparently keeping fit) quite impressively paddling in time...
Looking the other direction from the sunset we see Burj Arabi and the towers of the downtown business centre, also misty in the distance. The slender spires of many minarets illuminated from within, pierce the darkening sky. A violet light
I think about Dubai: it strikes me as sprawling and tangled, full of spaghetti crossovers, the incessant traffic zooming and hooting along the many highways, rushing to somewhere, busy, hurrying, the air polluted with carbon and commerce.
But there are the cultural oases. A couple of days ago Judy and I went to a good concert given by the Dubai Chamber Orchestra. Programme contained Haydn's cello concerto No. 2 in D (astonishing digital acrobatics required!) and a beautiful piece by the Polish composer Henryk Gorecki; finished with Prokofiev's symphony number 1 opus 25. Most enjoyable.
One can forget the ubiquitous sand and the artificial greens and the chaos of traffic and construction work, and the waste of energy and food, and the consumerism run riot...
Here in Umm Suqeim 3, the district where Judy lives, the ocean is nearby. Close to the open sea, the land gains context.
It often makes me think of Lego Land: the houses so similar, so cleanly plastered, the tall towers so shiny with their countless gleaming windows, the many cars lovingly washed daily, everything seeming so new...