Dubai, 10.00am of a Sunday. The corporate headquarters of the Emirates Group becomes the latest in a long line of visited buildings that are truly impressive to behold. Glassed, girdered and decidedly open-air, it’s a wonderful “junior” complement to Emirates’ spectacular Terminal 3, just on the other side of the highway. (“Junior” is no denigration; in matters of size, there are airports and then there is everything else.)

In fact, one of Emirates’ senior V.P.’s, Richard Vaughan, explains that so busy has Terminal 3 proven in the half-year since its opening, flights are already spilling over into Terminal 2. Nice work, if you can get it.

Emirates Group can get that work, if the imminent Canadian arrival of the A380 airbus — the world’s largest passenger airliner — is any indication. The airline is pushing the Canadian government to allow daily direct flights from Toronto to Dubai; pre-booking for the airbus is already solid enough to suggest that current three-flights-per-week restriction might require revisiting. (The A380 will make its Toronto debut June 1; check back for further DRIVENmag.com coverage at that time.)

Lunch offers another glimpse of the Dubai less seen. Still deep downtown, still new and big and a little formulaic (not a major criticism, just an observation), the restaurant SanaBontà — wholesome goodness, roughly translated from the Italian — specializes in what we are told is “casual dining” at “an attractive price point.” Not cheap fast food, you understand, so don’t even suggest it in polite company. The dining experience is wholesome enough, and good-ish; better still is simply the fact that we are eating in what amounts to an upscale food court, it’s quite busy, and the people are decidedly local. (Insofar as there are locals in a country that is 80 per cent ex-pat; the point here is that the diners are actually residents of Dubai. Nice to still be a tourist yet not have to hang with them exclusively.)

The afternoon takes a turn for the surreal when we visit Ski Dubai, located in, yes, another mall: Mall of the Emirates. The place is ‘old news,’ having been around for years, still, it’s more than bizarre to see the renowned ski hill within a building. Within a city. Within a desert. I still choose to call it not quite impressive, but certainly unpredictable.

The trip comes to a compelling close with a lavish dinner at Jumeirah Beach Hotel, the architechtural companion to the Burj Al Arab (though please note that the former predates the latter by one year). Together, they form what’s locally known as the Wave and the Sail, each offering a terrific view of the other.

The meal is exquisite: Argentinian beef ordered blue by your humble savage and, remarkably, served with the centre warm. Easily one of the finest steaks I have ever had the pleasure of slicing.

Tomorrow, back to Canada, a 6.30am airport departure. I like the idea of leaving under the cover of the still-rising sun; it will make it easier to maintain tonight as the final memory in a trip so luxurious that I am expecting a mild shock upon returning home.

We could all do with a little extravagant culture shock once in a while.