We rented a car and off we set down the main trunk of the tree, tingling with excitement.
Four lanes each way with two additional feeder lanes each way...not too shabby!
Half a million people are expected to live on the palm when it is completed.
Apartments for rent along the main corridor.
A villa on the main trunk.
The really nice villas on the fronds are gated...we can't go in. Each costs at least several million dollars. Each has its own sandy beachfront.
Some pretty exotic cars to go with the expensive villas!
Would you believe we have to race one of these super turbo toys between traffic calming bumps? "It's my only chance to race with a Maserati and win", says Wayne. Whoops, did I say Wayne? Maybe it was one of the boys.
We actually have a chance because these fancy cars are built so low to the ground that the owners tend to slow down at the bumps, unlike the rest of the vehicles...not that we want to damage our rental car, of course.
Sigh, there is way too much testosterone in our car.
This self proclaimed eighth wonder of the world doubles Dubai's coastline and adds another 500 kilometers of beachfront.
We discover a frond that isn't gated, at least not too much...and we daringly drive onto it.
The sleeping security guard suddenly becomes very alert. (Is that a gun at his waist?) He kindly lets us go further, but for five minutes only, since half of us beg an engineering interest. Or maybe he's hoping for a payback. We have no idea what is appropriate.
There are no villas on this frond, just sand and gathering construction materials but we photograph the villas on the next frond. We thank the security guard with a paper note. It's tipping, we say to each other, not bribery.
On the empty frond (where we couldn't do much damage even if we tried), we catch a pic of the monorail going to...
...the famous Atlantis hotel.
The only access to the Atlantis is by monorail or undersea tunnel.
Parking at the crown of the crescent, the sea breaker upon which the Atlantis is built, we jump out of our car (which is clearly not exotic but at least is foreign) to marvel at the view.
The Gulf wind in our hair... the briny scent of the sea in our nostrils... bliss!
That's Iran across the water although we can't see it...and the extra American war ships recently deployed to the Gulf are out there somewhere too...the bliss evapourates.
Blake jumps over the barrier, since there's no sign forbidding it, and springs across the rocks to stand on the very tip.
We hope he can get back up the eight foot high wall...before a security guard wanders over.
He does...with a little help...and we pose for a "we were here on the Palm" pic.
Can you see the extra sprig of grey at my temple? It's new...and I think it's from way too much daring.
Can you still see us as we drive back down the trunk?
