After a great flight on board Virgin airline's plane fondly named sleeping beauty I arrived to the most impressive grandiose hotel. Apparently all hotels here are like this and off season you could stay here for the same price as a simple holiday inn type hotel in England.
The lobby was as impressive as the outdoor grounds where the pool is artificially cooled! From there we walked to the metro/overground rail thing. Where unfortunately the trains were so infrequent and the Staff so misinformed that it took us over an hour to get to the Dubai mall stop. What didn't help is that Fridays is apparently their day of rest much like our Sunday's use to be like. Anyway what mattered was that we got to our stop again unfortunately this was a few months too soon as the air conditioned walkway to the mall wasn't finished. What didn't help is that we were now very close to our scheduled visit time of the famous Burj Khalifa. Therefore this resulted in a light jog in nearing 40 degree heat! We made it in time... Just... and very sweaty!
The Burj Kalifa with a staggering inconceivable height of 828metres made for an impressive visit. From the elevator going up at 10 floors per second to jaw dropping panoramas the Burj was definitely a worthwhile visit. If booked in advance on the internet it only cost £16 which is four times less that if purchased on the day.
From there our tour took us round the enormous Dubai Mall filled with all the most lavish items money can buy not to mention a huge fish tank of guinness world record status.
The hungry bellies were satisfied by feasting on a variety of the world's foods on offer at the food court.
Outside the mall and at the base of the Burj Khalifa we found the pools where the rival of the Belagio fountains resided and got to appreciate the enormity of the Burj from its base.
Next stop was the emirates mall where the ecologically murdering Dubai ski slope lives. Why is there a ski slope in the middle of the dessert?... Because they can! By this point the sun was starting to set so we headed by taxi to the beach next to the worlds only 7star hotel the Burj al Arab. Iconic in design and instantly recognisable the world over. Appreciating this at sunset was bliss. A great end to the day....
However before calling it a day we still had big plans to head to the Burj Khalifa once more where we could see the fountain spectacle that occurs every 30mins to dulcet musical tones. The spectacle water dance only lasts for 4minutes but great to watch between getting some grub.
From there, back to the hotel, where my body clock was saying 7pm and my watch said 10pm so naturally I headed down to the huge gym that was available for a workout. I finished this a 11:45pm seems crazy but my body was happy with that. Funny how despite the long day out sight seeing my body was still not ready for bed. That's one plus side of time difference I suppose.
Take care,
Fred
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