Today started early… mostly because last night was a late night. I started falling asleep soon after 12:30 and I recall Trevor exclaiming it was 1:30 at one point… I think Claire was up later than that last night doing laundry. Anyhow, the point is, it was painful. We got up, got dressed and got out to walk to the nearest metro. We were expecting a 15 minute walk, but alas, it took over 30. Thankfully it’s cooler than Oman, though… it’s still about 100 degrees. There were certainly a lot of stares as we were walking, but such is the life of a westerner who’s clearly insane to be walking. After struggling to enter the most poorly designed entrance to a metro EVER, we made it up to the tram and got aboard. The metro was pretty straight forward and we eventually made it to the stop called “Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall.” We were short on time so we hopped a taxi and said “entrance to the Burj Khalifa”… and he got us… sort of close. I’m not sure if it was deliberate or a communication issue, but he dropped us off at some fountains at the foot of the tower, not near any entrance, with a long, long way to walk and no time. We took off first in the wrong direction, but thankfully the security guard was bemused by our confused, fatigued faces and guided us to the right direction. We took off in a hurry, followed the street to the parking lot and with some more help finally made it (just in the nick of time) to the “At The Top” will call desk. Then they didn’t have my name in their system, lol. I brought the receipt, so they knew I made the purchase, but, not my name. There were a couple other “Bigler’s” in their system, so a nod goes out to them. ;) The entrance in to the tower was absolutely hilarious. The whole tourist part of the tower is filled with this inspirational, epic, movie-like music and the theme is definitely “inspiration, determination and imagination trumps all.” My favorite part was this moving walkway which was separated into sections… half a “old UAE meets the future” and half “look how cool we are.” The first scene was of the Sheik holding onto a falcon on the video screen. The screen itself filled the entire hall – about…. 50-70 feet long – and showed different videos. People working, the scenery of the desert, birds, etc – there’s a video, it’s interesting. Watch it, if you can.
The tower itself is an engineering masterpiece – designed after geometric shapes found in nature (flowers) predominantly, the building is the tallest building in the world. I’ll post some of the data and the stats later – they’re in my pictures… But it’s far and above taller than any other structure. The winds reach over 198 km/hr at the top – it’s over 200 stories and we were able to go to 124. It’s also beautiful. The designs and shapes are absolutely stunning. The fountains almost look steam-punk and the rest is geometrically perfect. Golden ratio anyone? 1.618 was everywhere. WOOHOO!!! Favorite number EVAR. Anyways. The view was incredible – miles and miles until the haze of the desert, the ocean or the smog impeded the view. It was full of contrasts – old and new, water, to desert, to buildings, to construction, to decimated old buildings… fascinating.
I must add that we’ve begun a new trend of marking our territory. Any cool place we go – Burj Al Arab, Burj Khalifa, etc – we use the restroom. If we have no other claim to fame, we can say we peed there. It’s like the non-vandalism way to mark “I was here” and another way to explore and take pictures and be silly. Anyhow, back to the recounting…
When we came back down there was this neat hall that commemorated all the people that had helped to build the tower in some way – Men and women, the CEO to the welder – the people were thanked for their contribution. I have to point out, and please take it as a clean, unbiased observation – there were no women in the center of the photographs of the groups of people. There was one photo of the 9(ish) where there were two women in the front line vs the back line, but always, always the girls were on the periphery of the photos. I thought it might be because women tend to be shorter and it was just a matter of visual symmetry- but there were some pictures where there were short men in the center. Anyhow – it’s an observation, a fact – cast whatever opinion you wish. : )
We eventually came back down and wandered the Dubai Mall – the largest mall in the world. It hosts an aquarium, a zoo, and ice skating rink and every store known to man. Though I adore the art of fashion, I don’t know much, and it was fun to see Claire so excited and amazed to see some of the stores that were there. From my walk to the mall, my feet were blistered and I needed new flats anyhow, so I bought some on sale for pretty cheap… also some sunglasses, so yay for protecting my eyes!! :D
We ate at a HUGE food court – Lebanese for Claire and I, with juice, pomegranates, and … tex-mex for Trevor. He’s so funny. We are surrounded by good, other-worldly (literally, we are in the Middle East), incredible food, and he’s so excited to eat Pizza Hut, Dominoes, and tex-mex. Haha. We all have choice and freedom for a reason… ;) I’m glad he’s happy. We finished the day wandering and decided to head to the Dubai creek. It’s supposedly the old part of town with older shops, etc… but I’m sick with a sinus infection, and Claire felt like she was coming down with something too, and Trevor looked like his energy had been sucked out with a vacuum, so when we hit an unexpected bump in the road (the transfer train was off line) we decided to head back. We are now back in the apartment where the two of them have slept, and slept and slept…. And slept… and are still sleeping now. I’ve no idea what to do. Wake them up? Let them sleep? Go wander on my own?? (don’t worry, I’m not going out on my own…) but … gah… do they want up? Should I let them sleep?
…. Several hours later…
Indeed they woke up on their own after another hour or so. We went up to the roof top pool, enjoyed the warm night air and the lit up, sky line view. Soon after, we left to go get gelato from the store down the street, and treasure our last night here in Dubai. I must add that I had some gelato and only got sort of sick – not the typical, horrible sick, but just a bit. How curious. I wonder if it was because I hadn’t had Dairy in such a long time….. ah well. We came back home – Claire packed – we watched TV and fell asleep.
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