Old Dubai with Ron Pegna

I met up with Ronny Pegna (Ben Pegna's dad), he has been in Dubai since 1983 and pretty much saw this place transform from a modest Arabic town to a world class mega city.

Obviously his favorite part of the city is to show visitors the old part which has a lot of the original character of Dubai, according to Ronny, Dubai is in danger of losing the historic heritage to the expense of modernization.

We crossed the creek in an old-fashion wood boat and walked through a few souks (Arabic markets). On the way back he showed me where they used to live and basically where Ben grew up.

It was amazing to catch up with Ronny and I am really grateful for his unique perspective on Dubai.

When Ronny picked me up Luke (Ben's little brother) came along to just say hi. Luke also works in Dubai, the last time I saw him he was 15 years old and Ben and I took him to boarding school in the UK. It was great to see him, his turned into a solid young man from the teenager I remember.

Both Ron and Luke reminds me so much of Ben and it just makes me miss my friend so much, can't wait to see him again soon.

{Roedolf}Read more