Dubai, There's Only One

So this post will be all about biggest or most expensive for the most part.  Unfortunately we never made it over to the older part of the city, maybe I would have enjoyed that more with its gold and spice souks and the sailing dhows.  Dubai was just so hot and humid it was impossible to walk anywhere outside, humidity was something I did not expect in Dubai, plus the.inevitable long waits for taxis or Uber made for staying in the same area for the most part.  And that area was the Dubai Mall and the Burj Khalifa our first day.

We were taking a break from the ship for a few days starting here in Dubai so as soon as we got off in the morning we took our luggage over to our Marriott Residence Inn to drop it off then  headed to our 9:00 a..m. appointment to go to the 124th and 125th floors of the Burj.

The entrance to the building is in the incredibly massive Dubai Mall, the world's largest, a maze in and of itself, so it took us a bit to find our way to the actual entrance to where we would head to the skies.

With 163 stories the Burj Khalifa is the world's tallest building.  You can get a ticket to go the the 145th floor but the extra cost and the champagne that goes with it weren't worth it to us.  If you stand just below that rod coming out of the wall and look up through the little circle it shows you where the 125th floor is.  With almost forty stories above where we could go you know we didn't really get very close to the top.

Self explanatory.

I actually took this photo in the elevator, which plays some pretty cool video as it ascends. The tourney to the 124th floor takes all of 60 seconds.  You see this design in lots of places because it is the basic shape of the building, patterned after a lotus flower.  Having these overlapping "petals", if you will, strengthens the building and allowed for its height.  At least that's the way I understand it.

Comparison here of the Burj and the next tallest buildings in the world.  It contains over 900 residential units, plus hotels, real estate and construction businesses, fine dining, and office space.  There's room for around 10,000 people in just this one building.

You see from this sign compared to the previous one, that we were just a little more than halfway up the actual height of the building.  Crazy!

I had hoped for clearer views but with all the traffic, construction, and blowing sand, the air here isn't necessarily clear.

More views of tall buildings

for just about as far as you could see.  Check out the hotel on the left with its suspended swimming pool.  Shades of the Marina Sands in Singapore.

Far below was the lake with the Dubai Fountains.  We were going there later on to watch the fountain show at night.  Pictures to come.

You're stuck with this series of photos because we got sucked in to purchasing this photo package, talk about buying on impulse! 

 Anyway, you can see us superimposed

in various spots around the Burj at night,

one at a 125th floor window,

standing on a construction girder (they didn't get this one posed exactly right!),

near the lake,

with the Burj Khalifa in the background,

with fireworks,

and even falling off the building into the lake below.  Hope you enjoyed our little series of adventures! 🤣

After coming to ground level again a group of four, including Karl, left to go to Deep Dive Dubai to dive in the world's deepest pool after having gone up the world's tallest building.  Meanwhile, the rest of our group wandered the Dubai Mall for an hour or so until we needed to head over to the Museum of the Future.  The shop where I took these photos had the most delicious looking Turkish Delight and Baklava.  I would have liked to try the Turkish Delight but at $40 for a little tin I decided to pass.

Our plan was to meet the divers later in the afternoon near this huge waterfall inside the mall.  It was pretty spectacular with all the diver sculptures.

And it made for a good photo op here at the heart.

Upon finding another Tim Horton's we decided to sit down and let our feet have a break for a bit.

I was hoping that they'd have the delicious Honey Crullers that Aubrey loves so much, lo and behold they did!  I ate one just for her, well at least partially for her because I love them too.

After our respite at Tim Horton's we caught cabs to go to the Museum of the Future.  The shape of this building is pretty amazing and definitely a landmark in the city.

I wasn't sure what to expect here except that we were supposed to get a taste of what life might be like in 2071.  There were these cool flying fish sailing around inside when we arrived.  We couldn't figure out how they were controlled, or eventually where they went when they suddenly disappeared.

I honestly didn't get what they were trying to do in much of the museum and it was a bit disappointing.  There was some interesting technology going on though, like these images of everyone that was in an "elevator" as we began our tour. I'm one of the figures with an arm up taking the photo.

This model of the solar system was unique and interesting.

In this idea of the future there will be flying cars, the the trees in the photo on the right have been genetically modified so that they won't burn if they catch on fire.

And speaking of genetics, you go into a room with colored lights that change every few seconds and highlight

vials containing holograms of various types of plants and animals.  It was beautiful in there if nothing else.

I'm not sure what this wall was for but it was lovely.

The next area was about sensory experiences, very relaxing.

When you walked on this carpet it sent lights racing out from your footprint.

This space had a areas to lounge on the floor where you could watch as the lights created water reflections on the ceiling.

In this spot you were supposed to meditate a moment and make a wish.  I'm not sure what the purpose was of putting your arms into the slot.  LeaAnn and I both gave it a try.

This example of AI was fun, you could ask it questions and see what kind of an answer you could get.

In the imagined future these BionicANTS could be used in a group to work collectively as ants do to complete various tasks.  Maybe that one would be useful but I really doubt that a bionic dog could ever take the place of a real one.  What do you think?

Outside we took a few photos from inside the center of the building.  I couldn't believe I was really there!

And a view of some of the city from inside the loop of the museum.

It was sort of an interesting place to visit, but like I said, the best part was the building itself.

Another shot of the Burj in the late afternoon after we went back to the Dubai Mall to meet the divers and have some dinner.  Funny, but we chose Texas Roadhouse as the spot to have our meal.  It was good but way too much food.  I swear the beef ribs they brought Karl were equal to a half a pot roast!

After getting checked in to our hotel and getting a bit of rest we were back at the lake to see the fountain show.  Just after we got there the Burj Khalifa lit up with its own light show.  It was pretty cool.

We had booked tickets to watch the fountains from boats that traverse the lake.  Thanks to getting there early we were able to watch an earlier show than planned.

The show itself was lovely but only lasted about five minutes.  We figured out later that there are actually several different shows that are done each evening, each to different pieces of music.

The boats positioned us for an excellent view of the show and then sailed us around the lake for another twenty minutes or so.  It was a fun thing to do at night.

One last photo of us, for real, at the Burj Khalifa at night.

I took this photo as we were heading to our final taxi of the day, just to show that we were definitely in an Arabian country.

The next day we ended up taking the Hop On Hop Off bus with Laura and Bob down to Jumeirah and its excess of wealth.  You know you're in a wealthy country where you find the Ferrari, Maserati, and

Lotus dealerships all right next to one another.  There were more expensive car dealerships but I figured photos of two was enough.

We passed by the Burj Al Arab, the world's only 7 star hotel.  It's a mere $24,000 per night to stay here.  The hotel is taller than the Eiffel Tower, has its own helipad, and 202 rooms.  Completed in 1999 and costing a billion dollars, the Burj Al Arab is built on its own manmade island, with only 2/3's of the hotel actually being usable space.  I honestly can't imagine who stays here.  Not surprising they even have the world's most expensive cocktail here, $7,438 a glass.  Excess to the max.

One of the loveliest hotels in Dubai is Atlantis, which is also famous for its incredible water park, one that has many of the largest water slides in the world.

You can get a nice view of the blue Persian Gulf from Atlantis.

Read and laugh.

We got off the bus at the Emirates Mall, the second largest and more affordable mall in Dubai, to go check out the ski resort inside of it.  It was boiling hot outside but inside they were bobsledding and snow boarding.

Yep, this is the place to ski Dubai!

The hostess at one of the restaurants was kind enough to let us come inside to get a good view of the ski slopes.  It all just seemed so crazy but was probably a fun way to spend a day.

A couple more interesting skyscrapers we saw on the way back to the Dubai Mall where we went in search

of the world's largest indoor aquarium.

Shocker, another biggest something!

It was pretty impressive though, and Karl was like a little kid walking along the exterior, watching the fish and the divers inside.  After a few minutes here we went back to the food court for some KFC.  Following that, Karl got the world's fastest haircut, I think it took all of four minutes.  then it was back to the hotel for a nap and to pack up before leaving for the innovative Dubai airport to catch our 2:15 a.m. Emirates flight to the Seychelles.  Yes, we were off to take a vacation from our vacation.  It was definitely an interesting couple of days in Dubai, and maybe if we'd been there with locals who could show us around, I might have felt differently about the city, but for now there's no need to return in the future.