Welcome to Dubai of the United Arab Emirates! Money in fact, DOES grow on trees here, or rather should I say, it is the color BLACK and gets pumped from the ground.
There is so much to see here in Dubai, that four days is the very MINIMUM you will need to see what interests you. The above picture, is the Tallest tower/structure in the world. It is named the "Burj Khalifa". If you are a Discovery show junkie as I am, you will have caught episodes in the past of this monstrosity being built. As pictures go, it just does it no justice. To be there in person, and staring up into the sky at this thing, will truly make you search for words. "How??? did....." etc...it's truly amazing.
The picture below, is where the "Gold Souk" is located. Gold of all shapes and sizes and here for your bartering pleasure, amongst persian rugs, OUD scents, lamps, all Arabian interests.
The day that I was there, the temperature was a comfy 115F. It does sound hot to us "westerners", but it's not as bad as it seems. I guess maybe its because I am somewhat getting acclimated to the climate after 6 months now
I stayed at the hotel called The Arabian Courtyard Spa and Suites. They were kind enough to give me a room with a view! This is it, the view from my room :-) You can click on any of these pictures to enlarge them. This place is called "The Al Fahaidi Fort". It is considered to be the oldest standing structure in the UAE. You can see the original walls and towers. They have turned it into a musuem. As I ran my fingers over the morter joints between the rocks, my mind ran imaginations as to what life was like the day that particular brick was lain?. Who put it into place? This is OLD stuff. The era of this fort and all the following pictures, are from the 3rd Millenium B.C. I really enjoyed going underneath and viewing the different excavated artifacts.
Upon closer inspection, you can see sea shells mixed into the clay/rock, used as structure for the walls.
All, from 3rd Millenium BC - excavated from current site.
The pottery, arrowheads and jewelry were fascinating to view. There were all indiviually tagged, recorded and marked. One can only imagine the hands that made these items all those thousands of years ago.
Okay, so I have many more pictures of the museum. This is but a taste. Now, onto the different Malls. There are some popular Malls in Dubai. For those of you shop-o-holics, they have anything and everything you desire. However, this is also the place (if you have been watching Discovery over the past while) where they have the worlds FIRST indoor Snow Ski mountain. Yeah, no kidding and it's at the mall. I skied it :-) I only took pix from the outside looking in-as I had to check my camera in while I was hitting the bumps. Also, the largest aquarium INSIDE the mall that I have ever seen. In these pictures you will notice to big school of tuna fish - oh yeah, also a BRAND new cooper, SUNK into the bottom of the acquarim for the fish to swim around. Only in Dubai!
Here is the ski slope, looking in from the mall. This is what you would walk by, as your eating your hot dog and heading to the next shop. Indoor ski mountain, COMPLETE with live trees.
And the famous COOPER at the bottom of the aquarium?
I will put up the last picture of the "Fountain" they have at the M.O.E. Mall of Emirates. It is a fastastic display of art. All these steel male statues of divers attached to a wall of cascading water. There are HUNDREDS of them. The display is huge, and my camera only captured a few of them. If you ever get a "layover" in Dubai, the malls are highly worth your visit. Okay then, I'm closing now with the following pix. In two days, I'm off to Chiang Mai, Thailand and then who knows........I'll be in touch.
LIVE FOR TODAY!!! YOU MAY NOT HAVE A TOMMORROW!
