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Dubai, UAE

  • February 27, 2025
  • KK

After 5 months living in London, it was time for warmer weather! We originally planned 5 nights in Dubai and 3 nights in Oman—Wait, let me correct that…. this is the first trip I did not plan. Jack planned everything, from the flights and hotels to the tours and timing of events. It was really weird for me to just follow along and let Jack do it. (And in truth, he did a pretty good job!) When our friend, Qasim, found out about our short time in Oman, he convinced us to switch it around to length the Muscat portion. Flights from Heathrow to the Middle East aren’t in the early morning like flights back to America; in fact, they are scheduled for arrivals between 11pm and 3 am!  Many of the Dubai and Omani airport lounges aren’t even open until 8:30 pm. After arriving in Dubai very late—midnight—we made our way to the JW Marriott downtown and checked into a marvelous suite. (Thanks, Titanium Elite). Seeing how the city was so alive even at 1:30 in the morning was amazing! By the time we settled into our room, it was close to 3 am before we could get some much-needed sleep. We had a lot of ground to cover, but Jack had everything planned out.

Inbound from London

Dubai is a fascinating city! I didn’t know much about it, but everything I heard rang true. The Emiratis definitely like to be number one in everything— the tallest, the biggest, the richest….., and they are indeed. With the World’s tallest building, largest shopping mall, most expensive hotel rooms, and man-made islands, they win. Luxury lives here. Even the police have fancy cars: Ferraris FF and Lamborghinis Aventador ($500,000), and even an Aston Martin One-77 costing $1.79 million. From our suite on the 59th floor, we looked out onto a sparkling city by the sea (and it wasn’t Corpus Christi!) Like NYC, it is a city of skyscrapers, but unlike NYC, it is spotless. I could eat off the marble floors in almost every building. Jack had been here before (the last time 25 years ago when he served in IKE).  He had gone up to the top of what was then a pretty fancy building – the Burj Al Arab, but now he wanted to check out the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. Up early to get a head start on all the day’s activities, we first headed to the Dubai Mall. Unsurprisingly, access to the world’s tallest building is through the world’s largest mall. It is the most visited mall in the world, with over 100 million visitors every year, comprised of over 1200 stores and 200 dining facilities. (It even has a full-size ice hockey rink!) And of course, inside the largest mall in the world is one of the world’s largest suspended Indoor Aquariums—home to over 33,000 aquatic species, with the largest number of Sand Tiger Sharks in the world. (There were plenty of other sharks it, also!) Jack had pre-booked our tickets and after a leisurely lunch and a long walkabout in the mall, we entered through the aquarium’s long glass observation tunnel where tons of sharks, fish, and rays swam freely around us. The aquarium is divided into three zones: 1) the Rainforest Area with otters, piranhas, and colorful parrots, 2) the Rocky Shore Area with penguins and spider crabs, and 3) the Living Ocean with all types of fish and jellyfish. My favourite was King Croc weighing in at 1654 lbs. and 16 feet long! He’s one of the largest living crocs in captivity. If you want to splurge, for an extra fee, you can even dive with the sharks in the aquarium! We spent almost 2 hours in this magnificent underwater world.

Dubai Aquarium
Huge Croc
Chinatown in Mall
Mall Ice Rink

Timing is everything, and heading up to the world’s tallest building’s observation floor was planned for a visit at dusk to see the setting sun. After spending most of the afternoon visiting the aquarium, walking around the mall, and the beautiful waterways surrounding it, it was time to head up to the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building (2,717 ft.) – 163 floors. Think about this…..the Burj is almost three times the height of the Eiffel Tower and twice the height of the Empire State Building. Today, Saudia Arabia is trying to top the Burj by building the Jeddah Tower—about 564 feet taller. Lucky for us, Jack played his Taylor Swift Card (throw $$$ at it) and bought the “fast pass” tickets for the very, very, top observation floors (154th where the world’s highest lounge is located). We thought we were high when visiting the Ozone Bar at the Hong Kong Ritz-Carlton on the 118th floor years back. We were able to bypass hundreds of people waiting in line and were led into a small room where we were divided by experience—At the Top (lower floors—124 &125), At the Top SKY (middle floor – 148) and The Lounge (highest 3 floors—152, 153, and 154, which also had access to the other lower floors). It is hard to imagine an elevator rising to that height, not to mention how fast it would travel. Each elevator operates at a speed of 22 mph, taking only one minute to reach the 124th  floor. (At this floor, we had to change to another elevator to reach the 154th floor). I can’t even comprehend one elevator this fast, but the Burj has over 57 elevators and 8 escalators. Ok, so once we reached the top floor—the Lounge—we had our obligatory cocktail (champagne for me and a beer for Jack) and walked around to admire the views. Walking out onto the world’s highest observation deck was not for the faint of heart (or for the underdressed—IT WAS WINDY & COLD!) Was it worth the expense? Probably (about $400 for the two of us) since I doubt, we will ever be back. It was a once-in-a-lifetime sight to see. From this viewpoint, we towered over the many skyscrapers dotting the city and looked down on the man-made lakes below. One thing we were disappointed with was the information void regarding the engineering of the building itself. Yes, it’s spectacular and a great view, but we wanted to understand the marvels of its engineering; there really wasn’t much information on that during the tour. After visiting Dubai’s heights, we returned to sea level and the amazing grounds around the Burj Khalifa. The mall area surrounding the Burj is hopping at night. Hundreds of people were strolling around the lake and surrounding waterways enjoying their sweet desserts, popcorn, and ice creams waiting for the next synchronised fountain display. By the way, every year, 15 million gallons of water are collected by condensation on its glass walls and used in this man-made lake at the base of the Khalifa. We had dinner at the Tap House, but were told we had to meet a minimum dollar expenditure. I was worried we wouldn’t reach it, but Jack just laughed and said he was sure our cocktails and dinner would be more than enough to cover it. We were seated at a table right next to the lake with a stunning view of the fountain and lighting of the Burj. Being so close to the water and fountains was wonderful—except when the wind blew the fountain mists our way! The fountain shows begin at 6pm, choreographed and set to music with a different theme every 30 minutes. (Much like the Bellagio in Vegas.) The lake, waterways, and walkways are so beautiful in the evening. During the day, the Burj Khalifa sparkles in the sun, but at night, while the fountains dance, the building transforms into a mesmerizing light show spectacle.

Near Burj Khalifa
Sunset View over Dubai
View from 148th Floor
Fountains & Burj

Up early again the second day, we were off to the Gold Souk and decided to opt for public transport via the Metro.  It is amazing how clean everything is in Dubai. I was expecting a desert oasis with a lot of sand everywhere and a bit more third world, but that’s not what I found; there wasn’t even a thin layer of dust or sand anywhere—the public transport was even spotless. Once at the souk, I was immediately overwhelmed. We had gone there to specifically look a replacement necklace and perhaps find a new stone for my favourite ring which I lost whilst in Paxos. But there was SOOOOO MUCH GOLD! Everywhere in every shop, GOLD! I didn’t know where to begin. Not only was there a ton of gold, I was a little taken aback by the amount of goods from India. And things were not CHEAP! A pashmina I could get in India for about $3 was $25. We did manage to get a good price for some 18k gold earrings I have been wanting, though. Finding a restaurant that might have a good bathroom was a little tricky. We had to walk out of the souk and cross a main road to find one. But of course, the fact that I am allergic to capsaicin was lost in translation between the waiter and the Chef.  Neither understood not spicy and without any hot peppers, meant NO SPICY! To them my dish wasn’t spicy – to me- I didn’t eat; I had what was left of Jack’s rice. To my delight, I saw people with ice cream. So that would be my lunch; however, I was not in the mood to try Camel Milk Gelato! Thankfully, I found a Baskin & Robins. After a few hours in the Souk, we took the train to the Emirates Mall, which used to be the largest and has a full ski slope and chair lift inside it—all with man-made snow.  It was a marvel to witness such decadence and over the top engineering of bringing man’s imagination to life.  We ended the day touring the Miracle Gardens—think a Rose Bowl Parade amusement park (no rides of course), with flowers and greenery everywhere and hundreds of families and lovers enjoying the night eating and drinking (juice—no alcohol), spending quality time together.

Gold Souk Entrance
Gold, Gold, Gold
Miracle Garden
Emirates Jet in Flowers

Even though we were headed to Oman the evening of the third day, we wanted to check out Dubai’s Museum of the Future. Again, over the top and out of the box thinking could be found here showing what life would be like in 2070.

Dubai was one of those cities on my bucket list; kind of like Venice—everyone should visit at least once in a lifetime but once is enough. Now that my time in Dubai has come to an end, I wanted to share my thoughts on the city as a whole. It is everything that everyone says—completely over the top luxury and firsts, but to me, it lacked charm; it’s Disney, only cleaner and more sterile. Hundreds of thousands of tourists visit, yet everyone is immaculately dressed—name a designer and someone is wearing or carrying it. I’ve never seen so many designer baby and children’s stores. Money definitely lives here!

Museum of Future
Top of Museum of Future
Miracle Garden Castle
Ski Dubai
Miracle Garden Entrance
Burj Khalifa View

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2 Responses

  1. Susan DeCorpo says:
    February 27, 2025 at 9:33 pm

    An amazing end to this journey! I will miss your blog: reviving travel memories and inspiring new ones, though we’re a bit too old for some of your adventures! London is still my fav, and it was great to meet Barbara and Maxine in Hawaii. Those London bonds stretch long and far! Where to next for the intrepid travelers? I’ll be watching for the next edge. Safe travels and aloha.

    Reply
  2. Scott Gregory says:
    February 27, 2025 at 3:13 pm

    Would love to experience Dubai also and you have confirmed what everyone has told me – super clean and that money does live there.
    Great report.

    Reply

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