Dubai World's debts grew from projects initiated during Dubai's property boom, including man-made islands in the shape of palm trees and the world's tallest building.

VOA: standard.2009.12.02

Wildlife enthusiasts, meanwhile, should charter a boat trip from Al Mina out to the fascinating, Unesco-rated Palm Islands Reserve, the domain of loggerhead turtles, monk seals and hundreds of species of migratory birds.

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Of course, if you can manage to become crew on a yacht, all the remotest anchorages and untouched motus (low, palm covered islands) of French Polynesia come into reach.

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The plans are a twist on a more ambitious previous proposal to significantly overhaul the ship and convert it into a luxury hotel docked alongside one of the sheikdom's manmade palm-shaped islands.

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