luxury

2 essays tagged “luxury”.

The Burj Khalifa pierces the Dubai skyline at dusk.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Dubai: the engineered city in the Gulf and the desert beyond it

Dubai is the most engineered city of the modern era — built almost entirely since the 1990s, from a small Trucial Coast pearl-trading port into a 3-million-person globally connected emirate. The city is best read as the architectural laboratory it is.

March 24, 2023

Taktsang monastery clings to a cliff above Paro valley.

Asia

Paro, Bhutan

Bhutan: the Buddhist kingdom that charges you to come

Bhutan is the only country I have visited that requires a daily Sustainable Development Fee (now US$100/day) and a state-licensed itinerary. The cost is the point. The kingdom uses tourism to fund its national health and education systems, and to keep the country from being overrun. It works.

May 28, 2022