Dubai United Arab Emirates 5/9/24
Dubai, UAE
What a great day we had in Dubai! It is such a new, modern city with beautifully designed buildings everywhere. Of course, our tour of Dubai included going up in the Burj Khalifa, currently the tallest building in the world!! The building was originally to be named the Burj Dubai, but due to a financial crisis in Dubai, Abu Dhabi's emir, stepped in and lent the city $10 billion to right itself, and the tower name was changed to Burj Khalifa in honor of Sheikh Kalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Our first stop though was Dubai Picture Frame. It is 493 ft tall x 313 ft wide and overlaid in gold leaf. It is covered with over 15,000 square meters of GOLD dipped stainless steel and does it glow! It is actually an observatory, museum and monument located in Zabeel Park but since it was fenced off, we only saw the exterior and got some photos. The building mainly serves as an observatory, providing views of old Dubai in the north and newer parts in the south.
The next stop was the Burj Khalifa. The Burj Khalifa is actually located right at the Dubai Mall. In order to go up to the top, you have to enter through the Dubai Mall. I think they picked up the Disney trick. Shopping to go in and shopping to come out! Built to house a variety of commercial, residential, and hospitality ventures, the tower is 163 floors and a height of 2,717 feet (828 meters). Upon its inauguration in January 2010, Burj Khalifa easily surpassed the Taipei 101 building as the world’s tallest building. At the same time, Burj Khalifa broke numerous other records, including the world’s tallest freestanding structure, the world’s highest occupied floor, and the world’s highest outdoor observation deck.
The Burj Khalifa has the feel of elegance, from the aroma of the tower (they must have it connected to the air system) to the shops, photo stations, restrooms, etc. Dubai is a city with 22,000 multi-millionaires/billionaires so it is not surprising it is also pretty expensive. By the way, it was less than 60 second ride to get from ground floor to 125th floor!
After we finished the 125th floor, back to the mall which had an aquarium in it. We did not go in, but they had a tank you could view from the mall. The entire experience was pretty cool.
Outside the Burj Khalifa, is a fountain system that cost $217 million build. Illuminated by 6,600 lights and 50 colored projectors, it is 270 m (900 ft) long and shoots water 150 m (500 ft) into the air while accompanied by a range of classical to contemporary Arabic and other music. It is the world's largest choreographed fountain. I have several pictures of it from the 125th floor but it was not shooting up water during the day when we were in the Burj Khalifa. Would have been nice to see it and compare with other fountains and laser shows we have seen.
Final information on the Burj Khalifa, for those of you that might want to purchase a residence in the Burj Khalifa, the cost is a mere $37,500 per sq meter. What a bargain!!
This is the view from the 125th floor of where the water fountain show is staged.
This is the Burj Al Arab hotel. It is one of the tallest hotels in the world, although 39% of its total height is made up of non-occupiable space. It stands on an artificial island and connect to the mainland by a private curving bridge. 24 carat gold leaf was used to embellish the interior and 86,500 pieces of Swarovski crystals have been etched into the frame of the mirror in the bar and the entrance. We got to look at it from afar - no tour groups get in there! We checked prices and the lowest price was 1,110 pounds per night. It had better be the best place you would ever sleep in the world!
Last, was another photo stop, the Zabeel Palace. Zabeel Palace is the administrative headquarters and official residence of the Dubai Royal family. It’s one of the many homes of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of the UAE, as well as many of his family members. Since it is a residence, they do not allow tourists to enter the grounds or palace, so all of our pictures are taken from outside the gate. When the palace was originally built it was in an isolated desert, Zabeel Palace is now a beautiful and conveniently accessed royal residence, surrounded by beautiful gardens filled with birds, flowers and home to roaming peacocks. The Grand Gates, topped with bucking horse statues which are an homage to the UAE’s long affinity with horses and the Dubai ruler’s love for equestrianism. At night, these gates are illuminated, creating a beautiful spectacle visible from all the way up the long drive. Unfortunately, we were there during the day, and did not see it lit, so I grabbed some pictures from the internet to show the night view.
We were in port for a very short time - this tour took 3.5 hours and we thought that we would get to the Gold Souk - heard it is amazing just to see, and of course, we (I) were looking to buy some gold. Our guide told us we were about 1 hour away from the souk (market) and no way would we make it back to the ship on time, so once again, Mickey wins. See why I wanted to go?
Dubai is an incredible city with equally incredible growth and architecture. The residences of the locals were much more upscale than the housing available to the working class and imported labor. It would be an incredibly expensive place to live for outsiders and certainly challenging for women born in countries with equal rights. But it would definitely be a place that we would love to visit again and spend more time. We felt like we only scraped the surface of what Dubai has to offer and we didn’t get the chance to sample any of the local cuisine.
So, Dubai marks the end of our second segment of our world cruise. We were to have been heading to the Mid East, but as you all know, we got rerouted around Africa. Next stop is now the Victoria Seychelles after a few days of sailing on the high seas! Still in Indian Ocean.
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