Tom's in town and speed's hit the fan

It's all go here in Dubai. Time Out Dubai was gossiping about him only last week, then suddenly, the front page of the Khaleej Times is splashed with Tom Cruise hanging off the side of a building, shooting Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

Tom was back on the front page the next day, learning how to balance a falcon on his arm, his teacher His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai (whew!)

I too went up Burj Khalifa, world's tallest building, today. They wouldn't let me hang off any ropes. It was all strictly controlled. You know, I'm not a real 'tallest building' kinda girl, as demonstrated by my apathy for the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur recently. It's all just so obvious. The buildings are, kinda tall.

Burj Khalifa, which used to be called Burj Dubai until Dubai ran out of cash and had to suck up to its rich but daggy bro, Abu Dhabi, to bail it out with a new name, is 828 meters high. Its closest rival is not even close...Toronto's CN Tower, at 553m.

At the base of the tower is, of course, the gift shop where you can buy 'At the Top' branded t-shirts, clocks and branded scented candles (of course. I wonder what they smelt like. High? Haha.)

The lift took a minute to shoot up to the observation deck, travelling about 36km/hour. My ears popped three times on the way up and I lost count on the way down.

The view from the top was extreme. It shows a city gouged out of the desert, where a forest of metal and glass buildings is coated with a layer of dust, the desert sands threatening to take back what once was theirs.

I'd show you my pix, but I left my download cable at home. Uhhhhhgggggg!