Today is our site seeing tour with our own driver/guide. His name is Sunil and he picks us up from the hotel for our afternoon tour and once finished he will be dropping us off at the biggest/largest shopping mall in the world, The Dubai Mall. From the hotel we head off first to Palm Jumeirah. This is a man made island in the shape of a palm tree and is the first palm built out of 3 in total. At the head of the palm is the Altantis hotel which is the first Atlantis hotel to be built on an island. This hotel is huge as many other things in Dubai. To get to the hotel you drive down the drunk of the palm which has villas built all the way up the palm. The palm itself has in total 16 leaves meaning there is 8 islands and each side of the island and has villas on it which people can buy and range from 1-14 million dollars. Each villa has its own beach front access and a lot of celebrities have a villa here. We are told that one Russain man has bought a whole leaf which would be worth a lot of money. To get on one of the leaves you have to have a password and access. Each one is a gated community. We have come to end of the trunk and to get to the hotel we go through a tunnel under the water and out the other end. We stop to take photos like all other tourists and this place is out off this world. Looks like one of the kids movies...maybe Atlantis...not sure what it was called. On a clear day upon looking out to the ocean you can that they are working on building other islands known as The World, basically a number of islands which represent that world and will be worth a lot of money to buy. The hotel also has a massive aquarium.
From the palm we head over to Burj Al Arab or otherwise known as the first and only 7 star hotel in the world. The one that looks like a sail. Each room is double story in this hotel and a nights accommodation is anywhere from $1200 to $14k. It has it's own helicopter pad and a restaurant which sticks out of the hotel with amazing views. A place we must visit l think as part of the trip. Dinner there is about $250 each. To get a good view of the Burj Al Arab we went to a modern souk (market) which is part of the Jumeirah group. The Jumeirah group is an area which the hotel is a part of and it's all owned by the royal family. There is a also another hotel as part of the souk and the whole area was built to represent Venice. It has traditional boats called the Abra going around and taking families from one end to the other. At this hotel we are told many celebrities stay, due it being so private and secluded. From one of the areas we got a very good view of the Burj Al Arab and l managed to take some good shots. Then to get some shots from the front Sunil drove around to the front of the hotel and from across the road l took some shots and perfect timing as l got some shots of a helicopter coming in to land as well. Unless you are staying at the hotel you can not enter through the gates. If you have a dinner, high tea or drinks booking you can enter the hotel only 30 minutes prior on proof of deposit paid, how crazy is that? Outside the hotel there is a massive water/fun park and another couple of hotels. Dubai has heaps and heaps of hotels and the top 4 in the world of just hotels are located here. We wondered if all hotels were full and the occupancy rate and according to our guide they are always at 70% or more, another wtf? This place is out of this world.
Next we headed off to another souk where form there we see the world tallest building, Burj Khalifa and the worlds tallest dancing fountain,bigger than Bellagio in Vegas and l thought that was big. Seeing the Burj Khalifa is amazing. This structure is huge. It took 5 years to build and stands at 828 meters tall. The viewing platform is on the 124th floor and the first 8 floors are the Armani hotel designed by Armani. Spectacular. To see the fountain we will come back for dinner on the water front and have dinner at a famous chef restaurant from Italy, Carluccios. Tomorrow night we will visit Burj Khalifa to see the view.
To get the feel of different areas within Dubai we headed off to the financial district and saw the stock exchange building which reminded me of being in New York. Each theme/competency let's say in Dubai is located in one area, for example everything to do with media is at media city, everything to do with sports is at sports city and etc.
As part of the tour we get to go on a traditional boat ride across Dubai creek and head into downtown Dubai. The old part of Dubai where we will visit a spice and gold souk. Getting onto the boat is hilarious, you basically walk up and jump on from the side and sit on a wooden plank for about 7 minutes and it cost 30 cents one way. A great way to get from one side to the other quickly. The spice souk is what l expected the Muscat souk to be like and it was great to smell all the different spices. Saffron is everywhere to buy and Liz tried to bargain but unsuccessfully had to walk away. The gold souk was full of very yellow gold and like in the movies we got asked a thousand times if we wanted designer handbags and watches. Curious and wanted to say yes but thought l better stay out of trouble. Speaking of trouble, Dubai has hardly any crime. Their crime rate is really, really low and should someone commit a crime they are deported back to the country they came from and unable to return. Most people living here are from outside Dubai and not true Emirati people. there is on 1.7 Emirati people in Dubai. This is the name that they are known by. Another cool thing they have is speed limits and fines. If the limit is 70 you have grace to drive to 80 and only after 80 you are booked but only booked from a monetary perspective. Once you go over another 10 kilometers you lose points and etc. How cool is that? Downtown Dubai is really old and traditional which is what you would expect. You get to see a bit of poverty but not much as the government here for their own people provides a lot of benefits. This place is also tax free which helps.
After the souks we head off to the Dubai Mall which is the largest in the world and you can spend 3 days here walking around to see it all. From the mall we got to see the fountain at night which was fantastic and goes off every half hour. Looking forward to seeing it from the top of Burj Khalifa tomorrow night. The mall also has an Olympic size skate rink, an Aquarium and a massive indoor water fall. Why not? As l mentioned before this place is all about big and having the biggest, tallest and being the best. They also have trains which run every 6 minutes and carry up to 650 passengers and there is NO train driver. All electric and never had an issue. Melbourne public transport can learn something here. They also have air conditioned bus stops. I could go on and on about the biggest, tallest, largest and most out there things but will stop cause the list is too long.
Tomorrow we go up the Burj Khalifa at 8.30pm, another thing you have to pre-book and lucky we found out. I hate going up heights like this and the Eiffel tower, CN tower in Canada and Empire state do not compare to this building. Allegedly the lift travels 10 meters per second and you reach the top in one minute. Let's see how that goes.
Until next time see you. Z xx
