Last weekend we went to Dubai for the first time. Just a reminder, Dubai is a city in the United Arab Emirates. Technically, it is also an emirate, which is kind of like a state. It's about an hour and a half from where I am staying. I will be spending many more weekends there, so this was just a day trip to check out the city and see what we want to do next time. Dubai is well-known for doing things big to attract tourism, so I was stoked for my first visit.
Our bus dropped us off at the Dubai airport and then we took a taxi to the Dubai mall. My company offers the free bus to the airport, so we took advantage of it, but a downside was it dropped us off at 8 am. There is NOTHING to do at 8 am in a country that observes Ramadan.
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| View of Burj Kalifa over morning coffee. |
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| Burj Khalifa |
We were starving and of course no restaurants were open. You can be fined or jailed for eating, drinking, chewing gum, holding hands, etc during Ramadan, but you are allowed to do it privately. Some people eat in bathroom stalls but that's gross. Because we are allowed to eat in hotels, we found one near the mall and had an amazing breakfast. The best thing about it was our view of the Burj Kalifa. The Burj Khalifa is the world's tallest building. We had planned to go up it but you have to get tickets and they are way too expensive unless you by them in advance. We'll save that for another weekend. Also, in a few years it won't be the tallest building in the world. The Bin Laden Group is planning on building a taller one in Saudi Arabia. But for now, this one, at 2,717 ft tall, is the tallest structure in the world. Below is a chart that compares it to other buildings in the world.
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Yep, that's tall. This image is from wikipedia. Sorry if you have to zoom in to read the text, but the Burj Khalifa is on the far right. |
After breakfast we spent sometime in the Duabi Aquarium, home of the largest single-panel tank and the saddest looking penguins I have ever seen. We also spent some time shopping in the world's largest mall, the Dubai mall. I bought a pair of shoes. When in Rome...
The mall was by far the fanciest I have ever been in. I think it is something like 12 million square feet or something, but some were closed for Ramadan. There were no crowds which was nice, but it also made the experience a little boring. There were no people to watch, and people-watching is my favorite thing about public places in foreign countries. I always wonder where people are from, what they are doing, where they are going... But they were all at the mosque I suppose. The decor at the mall was amazing though, and it was like being in a museum. Here are a few pictures of my favorite parts:
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| Is that nature I see? No, just a fake tree in the mall. |
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| Dubai mall. Notice the lack of people and the fancy decor. |
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| Butterflies in one of the mall's many atriums. |
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| "Waterfall" fountain in the Dubai mall. |
Those were the highlights of my trip to Dubai. I never thought I would be writing about going to the mall, but I guess it was a cultural experience. I do really miss being outside and all of this air conditioning is making me a little stir-crazy. I also feel like I am not getting to know this city because I can't just wander the streets aimlessly. But I'm here to learn about geophysics, so an Arabian walkabout is out of the question. Yesterday was the start of our weekend and we were supposed to go to Ferrari World (home of the fastest roller coaster on the planet) today, but it's closed for renovations, just like the ski hill in Dubai. Tomorrow we are going to the Grand Mosque and I'm sure I will have some pictures of the beautiful architecture to share.
Later,
ET
PS- Sorry for any spelling mistakes. The default on my google spell checker here is Arabic so it's useless.
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