Perhaps it's because, other than expanses of desert, they're lacking in the natural wonders department. Gotta compensate somehow.
Perhaps it's because there's just nothing else to do for entertainment than sitting around thinking of ways to one-up all the other world record holders.
Either way, when you're traveling in the Arab world, you're guaranteed to find schtick, and lots of it. A few examples:
The World's Largest Thobe in Jeddah (temporary exhibit and totally logical use of fabric)
The World's Tallest Building (for a minute), the Burj Khalifa in Dubai
An indoor ski "resort," the previously-blogged about Ski Dubai at the Mall of the Emirates.
The World Trade Center Bahrain. This is actually some pretty cool schtick. They have 3 wind turbines attached to the building that provide green power on especially windy days (which are very frequent on this particular island Kingdom).
The Palm Jumeirah, Dubai. "You know what we don't have enough of? Islands that look like palm trees."
"Let's make some!"
The gratuitously large Mecca Clock next to the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Muslims are actually hoping to shift the world clock from being GMT centered to being centered around Mecca time.
The world's largest mall: Dubai Mall in Dubai. And inside that mall:
The world's largest acrylic panel in the world's largest underwater tunnel in the world's largest aquarium. A trifecta of schtick.
Who knows what they'll come up with next. I think the evidence above is proof enough that Arabs love them some schtick and they ain't ashamed to admit it!
Vicariously yours,
I love that there are chairs set up at the giant thobe- do people go and sit down to stare at it?
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