What True Luxury Is

Around the City of Gold with Lexus

- Hannah Choo

DUBAI, TO ME, was a place I’d merely fly through, and never to. Its shiny skyscrapers and malls aren’t enough incentive for me. And from all I’d seen and read, I can’t help but think of the city as all consumerist hype and no soul. Kind of like Las Vegas, but even less character.

Then Lexus flew me in for a special guest experience, and I realised there is nothing like Dubai. It is one of the world’s fastest growing cities by sheer will. It dreamed of being spectacular, and set about to flesh out that dream, which is now a fait accompli.

For a city that didn’t have an asphalt runway until the 1970s, it is remarkable how it has become the jewel of the UAE, defined by luxury and unruly extravagance. The Dubai Mall, the biggest in the world, is a sprawling display of cosmopolitan capitalism, and a stone’s throw away, the Burj Khalifa, is the tallest building in the world (it was eager to beat Taipei 101 to get the title). After you have paid and worn yourself out by the crowds and snaking queues, you soar to the top in possibly the world’s fastest elevator. Who knows? But keep your eyes peeled on the skyline. It is garish and unapologetically artificial, but yet magnificent in its own way.