Adventures with Julia

Dubai City Map

I am looking out at the Persian gulf from our hotel’s breakfast restaurant just to the left of the Burj Al Arab Hotel on this map.  It is lovely, but just too hot to want to be on the beach. Yesterday was also very hot. We managed a full day of touring around Dubai from inside our car and in buildings. No one is outdoors more than absolutely necessary. The temp got up to 113F.

Scene from the car on the main road through the city.

We drove all over the city, and visited several of Dubai’s landmarks. First was the man made Palm Island. Looks like a palm from the air, but driving through it there was no sense of palm at all, just lots of buildings, large and larger. It is where many of the ultra rich have houses.

We also stopped at the most expensive hotel in the world, the Burj Al Arab, where the rooms are $2500 and up. We shopped in the largest grocery store I have been in including Wall Mart.     Mark bought a new electric tooth brush as his died on arrival. We walked hours the worlds largest shopping mall, with about 1100 stores and hugs spaces to walk around in. The mall included an ice skating rink and a walk under, around, over and through aquarium complete with a fish zoo and a glass bottom boat ride. That was very interesting. In another, slightly smaller mall, we visited the only indoor ski area in the world and actually saw people skiing on the man made ski slopes, with snow covered trees.

To see the desert, we drove 20 minutes out of town. The city is so built up there is no sand for miles. Once out in the desert the sand began to form rolling hills. Our guide said the sand hills just get larger as you drive further. Enough.

View from top of Burj Khalifa

Back to the city, we went up to the 148th floor of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. There are a few more office floors above our landing. The world’s first, and maybe only, Armani hotel occupies the bottom floors, followed by many floors of apartments and then offices. There are 3 viewing levels, of which 148 is the highest. The ride in the elevator was most interesting. It lasts only 75 seconds and travels at 2 floors per second with no sound or sense of motion. A second elevator ride takes you from the 125th floor to the 148th. Once at the top, the glass walls totally contain you so there is no fear of falling or being blown around. We stayed up there a long time enjoying the view all around. We were told the Burj Khalifa was built in only 7 years and was fully rented in 48 hours from when it became available.

There was a water show at the base of the building, just like the one at the Bellagio in Los Vegas. We saw one of the shows from the top, where it was not very impressive. Later, we saw another water show from the ground and liked it better.

Water show in front of Burj Khalifa

Did not get back to the hotel until 7:30. After a shower and change, we took a buggy (translate golf cart) ride to a seafood restaurant on the hotel grounds. It was out on the water, but again too hot to eat outdoors. Nice food, but very expensive.

Now we are at the Dubai airport and I want to get this post sent.  Will send more text when I can.