Stopover in Dubai

View from the World's Tallest building
As I have mentioned previously, my favourite airline is Emirates. So, most of my trips are via Dubai. According to my app on my phone (where have I been), I have spent some 27 days in Dubai. Most of this time has been at the airport. However, I did have a short stay in Dubai. This was in fact, the second time I had been in Dubai. The first time was quite some time ago with Wouter.
My last trip to Dubai included a presentation of Virukill for some clients. I also took a few days to explore Dubai.
View from my hotel room
Marina area at night

My flight into Dubai was on business class. Can't really remember where I was come from, or going to. I often try to combine different trips into one, so I might, for example combine a trip to the USA with a trip to China. The nice thing about Emirates business class, is that they have a complementary chauffeur service in most destinations around the world. Obviously, this includes Dubai. So off I went in my big black Emirates chauffeur driven car to my hotel. My hotel was close to the Marina area. Really beautiful views from the hotel room.

There is a Hop on Hop Off bus service in Dubai. I made good use of this service. It is a great way to see a city and I strongly recommend anyone to use this when in a strange city. They normally take in most of the highlights of the area. A great way to see the city. The architecture in Dubai is really beautiful. Some amazing buildings. Of course the current world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, at 828 m, dominates the Dubai skyline. All of this is built on sand. Much of the land mass, like the Palms, is built on reclaimed land. I could not help thinking that most of Dubai is only about half a meter above sea level. The Middle East is a major producer of oil. The burning of fossil fuels, like oil, is a major contributor to Global warming. One of the main consequences of Global warming, is the melting of the polar ice caps. As these melt, the sea water will rise, so eventually Dubai will be a great diving destination!

View from the highest observation deck
Fish tank inside the shopping Mall
One of the highlight of any trip to Dubai, is to go up the Burj Khalifa. My dear wife paid for me to go up for a birthday treat. It was an amazing experience. It only takes the lift 1 and a half mins to go and a min to go down. Remember this is the tallest building in the world! The view from the top desk was amazing! A must do for visitors to Dubai. It is amazing to see Dubai from that height. The Dubai Mall, which is massive, looks really small from up there.

I hate shopping halls with a passion, but I did spend the best part of the day in the Mall of Dubai! This is the mall with a dirt great aquarium in the middle of the mall. In fact, the aquarium is so large that you can go diving it it. There are also a few ragged tooth sharks in the tank. There is even a walkway through the tank. Amazing. With the hop on bus ticket, you also get free access to the walkway through the tank and then also to the aquarium, which is on the 3rd floor of the mall. They have the biggest salt water crocodile in the world in the display. Really amazing for inside a shopping mall!

The different routs if the hop on buses all use Sol Kernser's Atlantis Hotel on the Palm as the centre point. When walking around the mall, there was a Gorden Ramsey restaurant there. I was excited, but this another post.

The world’s most expensive hotel, the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah is also in Dubai. This is a seven star hotel! This only costs around R 14000.00 a night.

There is a lot of development in Dubai and there are many cranes all around the skylight,

Food in Dubai is expensive. As this is a Muslim country, alcohol is very expensive. It is available, but at a very high price.
Old market
New market


Dubai is a city of contrast. There is the ultra modern building and then there is the old city, with narrow streets, and lots of markets. There is the fish market, which I did not visit the second time, but did on my first visit. There is also the Gold Souk (Market) which is an area just for small shops selling gold jewelry. The  old harbour is there and the old boats still load and off loads goods along the banks. This is how Dubai started off, as a trading post, and this is what it is still doing. There is no oil in the Emirate where Dubai is situated, so their wealth is based only on trading.


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