The world's most opulent stopover

A water taxi floats down the Creek in Dubai. Picture / Alan Gibson

Dubai is sort of Las Vegas meets Singapore. Like the wise guys in Vegas, the sheikhs in Dubai seem engaged in a competition to see who can produce the most extraordinary buildings.

Like Singapore, the place is simply bursting with shops and markets where you can buy absolutely anything. And, like Vegas and Singapore, Dubai has been created out of nothing. It is built on sand, with a scorching climate, no scenery, little history and not much water - and is now attracting 6 million tourists a year.

Following the example of Bugsy Siegel and Lee Kuan Yew, Dubai's ruling al-Maktoum family have successfully pursued a strategy to transform their tiny fishing village into the trade and tourism hub of the Middle East.

Their policies of free trade, few taxes, cheap imported labour, good port facilities and openness to western ideas - plus huge oil revenues - have, in a few decades, made Dubai one of the most spectacular and prosperous cities in the world.

Huts made from palm fronds and houses built of blocks of coral, stuck together with mud and lime, have been replaced with gleaming steel-and-glass skyscrapers of the most extraordinary design.

Inspired by the seemingly limitless funds, the world's architects have produced amazing buildings, with bizarre geometric shapes, unusual materials and extraordinary lighting effects.

A drive through the city carries the risk of a dislocated neck as you twist and turn to pick up all the sights. Office blocks look as though they have been split down the middle, twin towers are linked by a huge bridge, buildings have golden golf balls on top, skyscrapers are the shape of giant Ds or triangles, a yacht club is in the shape of a dhow's sails, a hotel is modelled on an old fort but with buildings linked by canals, and an airline building in the shape of - yes - an aircraft.

The most spectacular, which even appears on number plates, is the Burj al-Arab Hotel, which proclaims itself to be the only seven-star hotel in the world, built in the shape of a 320m tall sail and sitting on an artificial island.

But potential challengers are already under construction. Nearing completion is the first of two Palm Islands, artificial islands in the shape of a vast palm, with hotels, apartments and resorts that are being snapped up by wealthy jetsetters.

Further out to sea another island development aims to create a huge map of the world where investors will be able to buy Britain, say, or even New Zealand, which for ease of construction will apparently be the same size as Australia.

Then there's the US$500 million ($702) underwater Hydropolis Hotel due for completion in late 2006, where guests will gaze into an undersea park teeming with fish.