Day 153: Dubai – Day 1
As we are on a tight budget for our Year Trip, we couldn’t afford to stay in one of the world’s most expensive cities for more than two nights, so we had only one full day and one half day to pack in all of our sight-seeing. After a big, egg-sandwich breakfast we headed out into the city to start checking off our list of must-do attractions. Our first stop was the Mall of the Emirates. As we rode the subway (although it wasn’t really a subway, as it was above ground), we marveled at the high-tech cleanliness of the city – we felt like we were visiting a glittering, futuristic New York. Just like in Kuala Lumper, the subway stop was (thankfully!) connected to the mall entrance via an air-conditioned walkway.
Waking up to a great view in our high-rise hotel room, while Igor cooks us breakfast
Exploring Dubai via subway
The Dubai subway is so clean, modern, and thankfully air-conditioned. Lindsay spotted a virtual grocery store in one of the stations – if only we had these in NYC!
When we got to the Mall of the Emirates, we headed straight for the #1 item on Igor’s bucket list: Ski Dubai – an indoor ski resort in the middle of the desert! It may be 38⁰C outside, but it’s a chilly -1⁰C inside! After looking at the price options, Lindsay decided to forgo the snowboarding as she’s very picky about her snow quality and didn’t feel the Dubai snow was powdery enough for her. So Igor took the GoPro and headed up the mountain solo for his 2hr time slot, while Lindsay wandered around the mall.
Dubai LOVES its malls – the AC is a sanctuary from the stifling heat! But it’s not all about shopping – the Mall of the Emirates is home to one of the fewer indoor ski resorts in the world – Ski Dubai
It’s 101⁰ outside in the desert, but Igor dons his snowcap and thermals to hit the slopes! Unfortunately, the website failed to mention that gloves are not included in the rental gear, so his poor hands were freezing by the end of the morning
It’s still morning, and the mountain is practically empty, so Igor has the snow to himself
Lindsay waits outside the theme park and waves as Igor goes up the chairlift, and catches a glimpse of him shredding the pow
While Igor was snowboarding, Lindsay explored the mall, doing some grocery shopping and thumbing through the new Harry Potter at the bookstore
Once Igor got out of the mountain, he and Lindsay hopped back on the subway and headed for the Palm Jumeirah – one of three man-made archipelagos in the shape of a palm-tree off the Dubai coast. The second Atlantis Resort is located at the top of the islands, and although we didn’t have time to visit the water-park, we did a quick walk-through of the aquarium and took a short break outside for lunch, before hopping in a cab to our next destination.
The heat was so intense when we exited the mall, the camera lens completely fogged up as Lindsay tried to snap a picture of Igor crossing the subway tracks!
No matter how tired we are, we’re going non-stop today – jumping on the monorail to visit the man-made archipelago, the Palm Jumeirah
Atlantis! Are we in the Bahamas? Nope – it’s the mega-resort’s second, lavish property in the Middle East
The Ambassador Lagoon is the largest open-air fish tank in the Middle East, with over 65K types of fish, rays and sharks
Admiring the fish in the Ambassador Lagoon, at the Palm Atlantis
Since we’re backpackers, we’re too poor to buy lunch at the Atlantis Resort, so we crawl miserably out into the oppressive heat, walk out of the hotel parking lot and find a tiny patch of shade on the empty boardwalk to eat our packed lunch
Cheapy, cheapy! Eating hard-boiled eggs and oranges for lunch outside the Atlantis Resort
We really wanted to visit the Burj Al Arab – the world’s most luxurious hotel – Igor even considered booking us a room, but at USD$1K+/night, it was WAY out of our price range. We tried to get as close as possible, hoping there was a way to walk onto the property to check out the lobby, but the hotel was on another private, man-made island which was only accessible to guests. So we snapped a picture from the nearby mall before heading back to the hotel for a short break.
More malls! Igor starts to lose steam as we visit the Souk Madinat Jumeriah – a small mall built to resemble a traditional “souk” or market-place, but with the added benefit of air-conditioning. After an ice-cream pick-me-up at Baskin-Robbins, he is ready for more walking
A gold-bar ATM?! Only in Dubai! We would have liked to buy one, but the machine was SOLD OUT
We had hoped to visit the Burj Al Arab – the world’s only “seven-star hotel”, but it is only open to registered guests, so we could only view its unique architecture from afar
Window-shopping in the Souk Madinat, we found so many lovely items – tea sets, chessboards, lamps and fabrics – once again, we found ourselves wishing we could buy souvenirs on our Year Trip
Catching a cab back to the Shangri-La Hotel where we had a 2hr break before heading out again. Lindsay took a dip in the nearly-empty hotel pool while Igor took advantage of the super-fast Wifi to upload the last of our Africa photos
Our hotel helped us book a 6PM ticket to the top of Burj Khalifa – at 2,700ft and 163 floors, it is the world’s tallest building. We usually don’t go in for this type of thing (we skipped the Petronas Towers in KL), but we figured once we’ve visited the tallest building in the world, we’d never have the desire to pay to go up another tall building again. We headed up with plenty of time to see the sunset, and since there was no time limit once you were at the top, we hung around to see the city lights at night.
After spending a good hour and a half at the top of the Burj Khalifa, we finally headed back down, caught the Shangri-La’s free shuttle bus from the mall back to the hotel, and retired for the night. Whew!
THE Dubai Mall – where guests can buy tickets to visit the Burj Khalifa – the tallest building in the world
As we scanned our tickets, one of the guides points out the 125th floor observation deck to us
The elevator to the top went dark and featured an LCD display on the walls during our 45sec ride to the 125th floor – we traveled at 33ft/sec, but barely noticed we were moving!
With the hazy summer heat, the view of Dubai from the top of Burj Khalifa looked pretty smoggy
Beautiful chandeliers and fancy ceilings inside the Burj Khalifa
Igor standing by the window, and Lindsay on the observation deck, waiting for the sunset
Trying to snap a few pics on the crowded observation deck required some aggressive tactics as many selfie-snapping Millennials were hogging the windows – one girl was seriously sitting in front of one window pane for over an hour, taking multiple pictures of herself wearing a fedora!
Since the sun set at 6:45PM, we knew we wouldn’t make it down in time for the fountain show, which happens every hour on the hour. Since we were exhausted and hungry, we didn’t want to wait for the 8PM show, so we just stayed at the top and watched from above
Dubai night-scape, from the top of Burj Khalifa
After seeing the Burj Khalifa lit up for the night, we finally got into the elevator and made our way down to the ground
One final stop at the corner grocery store for some fresh cheese for our second pasta dinner in our hotel room