Today was a nice day. Zach and I walked the marina near our hostel and had intellectually stimulating conversations. We talked about business and the focus of adventure capitalism. This one day in Dubai serves as an intermission between leg 1 and 2 of the trip. The first leg of the trip consisted of Israel, Georgia, and Africa. The focus was heavily on adventure capitalism and learning about various economies and business ideas. I think it was extremely successful. We made our first investment, made very good connections, and learned so much about the people and culture of the world. Tomorrow we head to Asia for the duration of the trip. While there is always a focus on investment, this leg of the trip is more for fun, exploring, and adventure. I am really excited for the variety of things to see, eat, and do. After our talk in the morning Zach and I went to see the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. It cost 300 dollars to go to the top so we did not do it, obviously. Dubai is just so boujee and so much consumption it is gross. It is impressive what they have done with a small strip of desert in the middle of the Arabian peninsula though. The zero percent tax on everything and only 5% VAT for items is what draws people here to live and do business. Countries which draw international corporations to their land by lowering corporate tax makes the country grow. When a country can become a center of finance and attract banks from other nations it is sure to increase its GDP. This is what happened in Singapore and here in the UAE. Rwanda is a very stable and growing market but Zach and I would like to see more international finance happening there. At night we went to the only place to indoor ski and snowboard in the world, Ski Dubai. It was guys night so we got like 40% off. We paid 60 dollars for rentals, clothes, and the snowboarding. It was actually really fun and there was a steep run with some jumps and a T Bar to take you up. I really love snowboarding so I was happy to be able to go this year, even if it was indoors. It is late now and we are headed to Nepal tomorrow. I still need to reflect and give my biggest Africa takeaways. Hopefully I have time tomorrow. Feeling grateful and loving this evening.
