Air Conditioned Sand and Fake Rain

Don’t you just hate the feeling of the sand between your toes? The horrid golden granules, fine as flour warming your feet? Hmmm...maybe not. Yes it can get everywhere (and we mean everywhere) and yes we’ve all been scorched by the sand a couple of times in our lives. But the newest craze sweeping Dubai leaves us Brits (who were out on beaches in full force this glorious weekend) a tad bemused! Air-conditioned sandy beaches will be the newest fad to hit UAE shores. That’s right. The Palazzo Versace Dubai, due to open next year, will have a series of lagoons (both chilled and heated) that will be set on “climatised” beaches. Pipes will be laid beneath the sand that will blast cold air through it, thus preventing any of the – uh-hum – “awful” hot sand experiences.  At around $17,000 per square foot (and rising) the apartments are guaranteed to dazzle.

But that’s not all. Just last Tuesday the light rain shower that came down over the UAE was not a freak cloud but in fact The Meteorological Department experimenting with making artificial rain. They used an aircraft to sprinkle cloud seeding salts in moist clouds, and induce fake rain. It’s official. Dubai is taking over the world and everything natural in it.

What with the Dubai’s Armani Hotel due to open next year, we’re sure it will be a case of handbags at dawn for the strangest haute couture height of luxury around. Whatever will they think of next?

CS