Day 81 – 4/5 – Dubai

We had a private tour set up for 5 of us. It went from 9:30am to 6:30pm, so we had a very active day.

Dubai was as amazing as it had been billed to be. After visiting the landmark mosque, we drove by the largest shopping mall in the world. It has 1200 stores and an Olympic-size ice skating rink.

We drove to the Sheik’s palace and the one he is building for his son. They were both huge…like a college campus. We were not permitted to take photos. However, they had an extensive entry area that had peacocks, so we got some photos of them.

Next we went to a hotel that had the best view of the Burj Dubai. This is the tallest building in the world. It is over 900 meters tall (that’s well over half a mile high!) They refuse to yet say how tall it will end up being because they do not want anyone to have a specific target to beat. They say you can see for 60 miles from the top of the structure. It is due to open 9/9/09.

Dubai has construction everywhere. Six months ago they had 20% of all the construction cranes in the world in Dubai. Since then, they have been affected by the global economic slowdown, but that is from 8% to 2.5%.

Next we went to “Ski Dubai.” This is an indoor ski slope located in their second biggest shopping mall. The longest run is 400 meters with a drop of 60 meters. They make 6000 tons of artificial snow each day.

Next we drove to Palm Island. This is the first artificial island that Dubai built. It stretches 5 miles out into the sea and is shaped like a giant palm tree. This gives it a tremendous amount of new coastline. They say it is visible from space.

At the far tip of the island is the Atlantis hotel. It just opened 10/08. They had a huge opening event and the owner commented that it was difficult to believe that 4 years ago the hotel’s location was 5 miles out to sea from the coastline. This hotel is a twin of the Atlantis hotel in the Bahamas, except for the Arabic shape to the archway. The most lavish suite in Atlantis is the Bridge Penthouse located over the arch. It costs $30,000 per night; however, it is not available for a while because the Sultan of Brunei has it booked for the next 2 years. (That’s $20,000,000 in rental fee!)

The Atlantis has a huge aquarium, with 65,000 fish of 250 species. The water looked about 30-40 feet deep.

Our lunch stop was “high tea” at the Burj Al Arab hotel. This is the hotel completed in 1999 that looks like a giant catamaran boat. It is a 7-star hotel. All rooms are suites, ranging from $1,500 to $15,000 per night. Each suite has a private butler and private entrance. The lobby has a 17-story atrium. Everything in the lobby that is gold in color is not painted, but is 22 karat gold plated.

You cannot enter the hotel unless you are a guest, or have a reservation in one of the dining rooms or in the spa. We decided to do the high tea because it got us into the hotel, and it got us the view from the 27th floor. It cost about $110 per person, but had about 7 courses (all of finger foods) and took 1-1/2 hours.

After lunch we went to “old Dubai.” This just means it is 30 years old instead of the 0-10 year old part. We went to a shopping area, to the Dubai museum, to the spice market and finally to the gold market.

Current Dubai projects that we did not see very well include: a second, bigger palm island; “the world island” that looks like a map of the world’s continents when viewed from an airplane or from space; the new airport that will be the largest in the world; and Dubai World—a bigger version of Disney World. They are building Health World (medical megaplex), opera complex, and “sports world” that will have 4 or more stadiums in one complex.