Arrived yesterday evening but as it was after the sun went down and seemed like a good many hours on the plane - enough for two full meals- it seemed really, really late. So basically enough time to get a beer in the bar where we were assailed by a young man who was busy explaining the labor situation here and how most of the hotel staff and other construction workers were really low paid. Nothing we didn't know but odd that someone living here was wanting to talk to us about it. One bad note, I pulled the dive bag off the carousel and dropped it on my foot. Foot is not happy. Foot is very annoyed. Foot hurts a whole bunch.
We had reservations today for a couple of things, heading for both the Burj Al Arab and the Burj Kalifa. Burj means tower in Arabic, we were told. For anyone not familiar with the recently famous buildings of Dubai, Burj Al Arab was the first (according to their publicity) 7 Star hotel
. It is quite exclusive in that you must pass through security to be allowed to drive up to the hotel. No paparazzi or simple tourists allowed. It is the building that is built to look like a dhow (boat) sailing on the sea. Quite an unusual design and the interior lobby is supposedly one of the tallest open air lobbies anywhere. But you can make reservations to have tea or eat at one of the restaurants. As none of it is real bargain eating, we chose to have tea. I tried to get to the top of the tower for the SkyView bar but they didn't have anything at the correct time so we ended up having afternoon tea at the Junsui Bar which is an Asian Bar. And we have tickets to go to the top of the Burj Kalifa which is the tallest building in the world, at the moment. We've been to the top of many of the tallest buildings and then somebody builds something taller and we have to go traveling again.
But both of those activities were for this afternoon so we needed to find something for this morning. Breakfast and then to the tour desk to see what can be arranged. I'm interested in going to Bur Dubai, close to the creek through what used to be the center of town. Now I'm not so sure there is a center as Dubai has spread out so very much and each section seems to have it's own skyscrapers and apartments and offices. The place has so changed from the last time I was here that it is hard to recognize where I went and that was only about 3 or 4 years ago.
Anyway, we decided to get a Big Bus Ticket to get into town and then if we had time we could take it back to Burj Al Arab. First we needed to walk down to the Jumeirah Mosque, which is the only mosque around apparently that will let visitors go in to see it
. We arrived at 11:20 and we informed by a very nice gentleman that visiting hours are 10 - 11 and the mosque was now closed. As he is telling us this, people are passing us and walking into the mosque. We were going to turn around and leave but he said, Oh you can go in. Guess he felt bad that everyone was walking around us and we had stopped to be polite and correct. This mosque is not a big one and not a fancy one, as mosques go but it was nice enough. Did not take us long to look around and snap a few photos.
I had a scarf for my head but there were many visitors there in shorts so the mosque keeps a collection of robes for men and women to cover up before entering. Of course, you take off your shoes before you go inside. The area where people were taking off their shoes really smelled like an old gym locker. yuck.
Now we are going to catch the Big Bus. We walk to the first bus stop we find which is where the hotel lady told us to go but as we are looking at the map of the bus stops, it really becomes apparent that we are on the wrong side of the street. We go to the crosswalk and here comes a Big Bus. We cross in front of it and my brave hubby waves the bus map at the driver and he is nice enough to stop and let us get on while he is stopped at the light. Wow, that was impressive. Most of the time they just sneer at you and wave towards the bus stop, wherever it might be.
Of course, now we are going in the opposite direction of where we want to go
. If you've never been here, the town stretches for miles down the coastline from where the original settlement and the creek and the original business district was. When I was last here, I took a local bus where women are allowed on first and get to sit in front. But the road I was riding on then was completely barren on both sides. Now there is something everywhere, apartments, shops, stores, garages, more construction and beaches. I had a very difficult knowing where to exit last time but at least now we have commentary and music so we'll know where to go.
,
We pass the Jumeria Beach which costs to get into it, pass the Burj Al Arab, pass the Wild Wadi Water Park, and finally we turn into the Palm. The Palm is a development that was poured into the sea and built up from the sea floor bed. it is shaped like a large palm tree and at the very end of it is the Atlantis or the Palm, or the Palm Atlantis. A gigantic hotel and luxury resort. You say one of those names and pretty much everyone knows where you mean. We are about 3 hours away from our tea time at the Burj but since it has taken us about an hour to get here, we decide to get out and have a snack and then take a cab back to the Burj when it is time. There is also a monorail that comes out here and while we saw lots of people coming down from the station, I never did see the monorail
. maybe it is a ghost one.
They are not near as fussy at the Atlantis and you can walk inside but it looked like you can't get past the main floor shops and restaurants without having a room key of some kind. We went to the aquarium. It had a lot going for it and then blew it all by bad planning, in my estimation. They had some wonderful tanks of fish, both fresh and salt water but in order to know what was in the tanks, you got a brochure. In order to read the brochure, you needed to carry a flashlight! We could never get enough light on the brochure to see if we were in front of the right tank to see if we could identify the fish. There were no signs on any of the tanks. So some wonderful tanks and great fish and if we weren't scuba divers, we would have had no clue whatever what we were looking at. Not a good plan. But it was a good aquarium if you overlook that bit.
We decided that my hubby's reputation was at stake. He tries pizza in every country he's ever been in so we went into a restaurant and ordered a pizza. Oddly enough, we got another lecture from the waiter on how many people are in hospitality in this country and how well educated they are but underpaid
. wow, is everyone jonesing for a tip or what? It was a good pizza though.
Oh, almost forgot. As we walk into the hotel there is a "gold machine". In case you suddenly feel you don't have enough gold or need some gold in a hurry, you can stop at this machine and put in your credit card and buy some gold in the form on a gold ingot, a gold heart, gold earrings, and there were several other choices as well. Kind of a gold ATM. amazing.
So we are done with our pizza and now it is time to catch a cab and go to our tea over at the Burj Al Arab. We walk out of the hotel and one of the staff angles towards us to steer us into a hotel car which is always nice but about twice the price of a regular taxi and there was a line of regular taxis sitting there so we angled for the regular taxi and drove over to the Burj.
Our taxi driver was practicing for the Dubai Grand Prix I believe. We got there alwfully fast. With reservations at the Burj, you are allowed to "enter" 1/2 hour before your reservation and you have 1/2 hour after your time of reservation before they will not let you in
. We pull up to the gate and the guard checks our reservation and the gate opens, we drive across the bridge, drive past the hotel Rolls Royces, and get out at the Burj. We enter where someone immediately comes to see where we are supposed to be and directs us to the Junsui. We are allowed to go up the escalators where we are in the lobby that goes to the very top. The country flag is hung from the top and cascades all the way to the bottom. Not sure how many floors it is but a lot. OH, and there is a dress code to get into the Burj. No casual dress but very smart casual, very smart.
The Junsui is actually downstairs again so we've gone up through the lobby, past the expensive shops, past the water fountains, past the mosaic floors, and then back down to the ground floor and into the Jonsui where we have about 5 minutes while they get our table ready. We are taken to a nice table looking out on the marina and the Jumeria Beach Hotel - shaped like a breaking wave. Our tea is a 7 course "dim sum" meal along with the tea. Each course is about 2 or 3 pieces of whatever and is varying in country of origin so really we only had dim sum for one course. We both get Imperial Annapurna tea and each get a pot. Then our first course is tempura calamari in a wasabi mayonnaise sauce. I'm not a calamari fan but I tried one and it was good and I got the hot bit. Hubby didn't get any hot bit on his so I gave him mine.
As we had just finished a pizza about an hour ago, neither one of us are terribly hungry and unfortunately, turned out that was fine. For such a wonderfully "prestigious" and fancy and well known place (at least according to their own publicity), neither one of us thought the food was that great
. At best, a few of the courses were good and the rest were OK and one course, neither one of us liked at all. wow. I was so excited to go to Burj Al Arab and have some tea and food and then it was not wonderful. At least I was in the Burj. We were able to sit and watch some man kayak back and forth across the water in front of the hotel. he was most energetic.
After a couple of hours in the Burj, we figured it was time to head for our other Burj, Burj Kalifa. This building, I'm sure, was the one with a lot of publicity about it when it was being built that it would revolve. In fact, I remember seeing many photos or drawings of what it would look like. Each floor would revolve independently and separately from each other so that at only one time during the day would the entire building be back in line with each other. I think they never did that or they have stopped revolving it as each time I looked at it today, the floors were all lined up and not revolving. And there was nothing in any of the exhibits we passed about it revolving. Too much trouble, too expensive, too many people getting seasick, or too hard to engineer.
We got a hotel driver this time so a lovely special price to get to the Burj Kahlifa
. He drops us at the Dubai Mall which is the largest mall I have ever been inside - to date. We follow the signs through the mall until we find the "at the top Burj Kahlifa" signs for which we have to go down one floor to find our way to the ticket collection. We have a 6 p.m. time to go and we are able to walk right in and get on the elevator to the entrance. notice how many different hoops we are going through? At the entrance, we pass a sign that says 30 minute wait from this point. I am so happy that we are walking well past that sign. In fact, we only had to wait about 4 minutes before we are on an elevator. We did have to listen to the happy greeter. He's the one who puts you in the line and then does the "good evening"! "I can't hear you!" "GOOD EVENING!" and on and on until everyone responds. Then it's waving and putting you on the elevator and saying thank you over and over again. I would go crazy with a job like that.
We are whisked to the top quite rapidly, ears popping, and we exit on the 124th floor. We go through some revolving doors and we are actually outside! There are a bunch of floors still above us but I don't know if they are occupied or not. hard to tell because from the time we entered the mall until we stepped out on the 124th floor, it had gone completely dark. Lights are out everywhere in Dubai - except (wait for it) - the two things I wanted to see the most - the Burj Al Arab lit up at night, and the man made islands in the sea - both the Palm and the World. We stare off in the direction where we think these things are and there are no lights except for a tiny few and hard to tell if they are boats or actual islands. very disappointing there. We finally find the Burj Al Arab and the Atlantis but the Burj seems to be dark and the Atlantis doesn't have that many lights on it. Bummer.
But the rest of Dubai is spread out around us in a cacophony of lights and brilliance. Quite beautiful. We circle around the outside bit and also the inside bit and look at the photo they took of us before we came up to the top (they make everyone take a photo - yuck - cruise ship ideology anyone?) and then did a selfie and also got suckered into taking quite a few photos for other people. Once you do it for one person, seems others almost line up behind you and ask you to please take a photo for them. We always do. No problems.
Finally we have looked at all the lights and it's time to go down. We are waved into a back corridor and put on the fireman's elevator. How interesting. it has a board like a Christmas tree with lights for every floor. Thank goodness some little kid wasn't in there running his/her hands up and down the floors. can you imagine stopping at each floor!!! Oh, and the fireman's elevator goes a lot faster!!!
There is time to walk around the mall so we go to see the waterfall which is nice and then head for the Souk which is supposed to be like a traditional Arab shopping center when it was all out in the desert and all. Now it's all expensive and contained and ridiculous but we did stop to check on some gold prices. I am here to tell you that I have excellent and exquisite taste because the three bracelets I chose to ask about had price were $4000 and $7000 and $10,000. Nice. A quick stop at Waitrose which has a special "pork" section with a sign over the door that says "not for Muslims" then out to a taxi and back to our hotel. busy busy day but we've covered the two Burj's, albeit a bit disappointing on the expectations but still good experiences and I would recommend both. time for some relaxing and hoping that our recorder back home is taping the Day of the Doctor. Oh, biggest problem today, our heater was out in our house back home. Hopefully my family has fixed it and is not freezing!
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