Oct 6 through 8 - World Expo2020

A large part of planning our trip to the Emirates just now is that Dubai is hosting the world exposition - EXPO2020 (because it was supposed to be held in 2020).  Over 190 countries have pavilions here and are strutting their technology or science or business opportunities or just simple tourist information.

The EXPOS2020 park was quite extensive.  

We spent three straight days visiting the EXPO in hot, humid weather, so we weren’t as “good” at our sightseeing as we might have been otherwise.  But many of the pavilions were air conditioned so that helped a lot.  We didn’t do a good job of keeping track of which building was for which country so most of these pictures will just be treated as “generic” EXPO pictures and will organize them by subject.

The grounds of the EXPO were extensive with massive boulevards and fascinating buildings.

Mask wearing within the Expo was generally good but then all the staff did reminders where necessary.  

Paul checked several online sites for “best pavilions” to visit and we hit many of them.  “Best” could be best architecture or best video displays or lighting displays or whatever.  Some of the pavilions were amazing architecture wise…huge, creative use of materials (particularly woods), etc.  Several had amazing video/light displays.  And others, like some of the smaller countries (think Polynesia or Caribbean or smaller African Countries) were pretty much lovely pictures, maybe some smallish screen videos, and some local crafts.  It was all a mixed bag. 

The exterior architecture varied a lot from building to building.  There were a lot of generic, boxy pavilions that were used by countries that those countries that chose not to custom build.  These were usually smaller countries with fewer resources.  We visited a lot of these and got to see lots of Polynesia, the Caribbean and Africa.  But the custom built ones varied greatly and were pretty amazing.  

The Belgian Pavilion had a great restaurant.  Unfortunately it was open to the outside so it was hot.  (Great Chocolate mousse though.)

Most enjoyable exposition for us was Pakistan…it had a great video of all the lovely places one could see in Pakistan but we will likely never get to see…so this was our tour of Pakistan.

Switzerland had a fun exterior which allowed “interaction” by those coming in.  The shiny, mirror-like exterior was slanted to give a reflection of the bright red carpet with “Switzerland” on it.  They gave you a big red umbrella with a Swiss white cross on it.  Then you could walk up and take a photo of you, your umbrella and the red Swiss carpet.  Sort of fun.

Switzerland

UK had a great exterior.  The “exhibition” itself was a long ramp (in the sun) with periodic QR’s to scan to get info.  (A number of other exhibitions also had these QR scans to get info on the particular exhibition.)  We decided very quickly that the QR concept, while “cutting edge” was a lousy way to do an exhibition.  You couldn’t really peruse the room to see what was being presented and then focus on what took your fancy.   Info was somewhat slow loading and sometimes you were in the sun so couldn’t really see the screen to read the information.  In general QRs was only good if you are the type that want to view “everything” and don’t mind spending long periods of time in exhibitions featuring these…because these are a slow way of getting through the exhibition. 

United Kingdom

South Korea

Russia

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More EXPO2020 Exteriors
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For some of the pavilions, the main attraction was the interior design or displays.  Here are just a few of the more interesting ones. 

Brazil had a large wading pool (rain forest?  Amazon?) but not a whole lot else

Brazil

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More EXPO2020
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An interesting item from the Finland Pavilion.  The Finnish Social Security System offers every new mother a maternity package.  The range of 50 items remains largely the same but the colors and patterns change yearly.  Updates come in response to family feedback.  Materials are most ecological and even the box duplicates as a bed.  This photo shows a few of the items in the package.  What a thoughtful system of support to new families.

Note the red and green lights above the doors.  The restrooms were massive with multiple corridors of stalls.  The red and green lights helped identify those stalls that were unoccupied.  How helpful.

The pavilions had interesting displays of items relevant to their country or culture. 

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More EXPO2020 Displays
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However, we decided early on that some (many) nations seemed to be using the EXPO as an excuse to pull out all the stops and put on the most amazing video and light shows they could possibly devise.  The lighting and video artists did an amazing job in many of these pavilions.  Most of these photos are of light or movies/effects projected onto surfaces.  The photos don't do the displays justice.  But these are the best we could manage.

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More EXPO2020 Light and Video Displays
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Expo2020 exhibit 1 video
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Expo2020 exhibit 2 video
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Expo2020 exhibit 3 video
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Expo2020 exhibit 4 video
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While waiting in line to enter the Malaysia pavilion we were treated to some of their song and dance.  It was a very nice way to kill time. 

We really enjoyed watching a huge water feature.  The line to get down was really long (over an hour) so we just enjoyed if from the viewing areas.  We weren't that interested in getting wet, although I think it would have been cooler down there - but just as humid).

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Water feature video
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There were occasional robots rolling around…intent of them could not be determined.  However, one, when it’s path was blocked by a guest, would announce that it was part of security and to please get out of the way.

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More EXPO2020 Grounds
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On our way out the first night we stopped to see part of the show being performed in the huge central dome.  Very colorful.

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Performance under the dome video
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And then, just as we were getting to the exit, we saw a large number of Arab men in their white native garb, doing a folk dance of sort with long sticks.  Found out later that the sticks were the camel sticks they use to guide their camels.  The dance was very sedate and subdued.

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Folk dance video
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We took a taxi in the first day of our visit but after that we used the tram and metro system.  It was clean, fast and efficient, even if masking compliance was sketchy.