Day 2 Taxi!!

We were told by one of our servers last night that Dubai is not a city for walking around, never mind that our hotel is far enough outside of the main tourist area to require a cab ride anyway. Now we know why - despite the economic downturn putting the brakes on a lot of construction, it seems that practically every main road has some kind of building going on around it, or another building being put up beside it. Only the skylines of Toronto and Miami can compete with the number of partly-finished high-rise construction projects on the go here.


That same server also called Dubai a giant shopping mall, but that’s another story…

After consulting with the Crystal hospitality representative after breakfast this morning, we revised our plan for the day. Originally we had planned to take the hop-on-hop-off bus and tour Old Dubai and the Souks, but our reservation for Afternoon Tea at the Burj al Arab changed all that. The reservation was for 1:30 and they only hold it for half an hour if you’re late (and charge you a no-show fee if you don’t get there at all) meaning everything had to revolve around that. So we took Taxi #1 from our hotel to the Mall of the Emirates, the second largest mall in Dubai. We think that the Dubai Outlet Mall is the largest - surprise, surprise. And, for perspective, both are apparently larger than the West Edmonton Mall, which is the largest in Canada. The mall certainly is beautifully designed. There were quite a few people wandering around, but it didn’t seem that many were in the stores.

The main attraction at the mall is, of course, Ski Dubai. This is an enclosed ski area that is kept at a constant -4°C and packed with man-made snow. The ski hill is just under 200 feet high. It looks like a nice little run, but not particularly challenging to anyone who’s done a few winter weekends in Canada. They offer lessons at various levels - nothing looks so incongruous as the poster delineating the different levels of experience (I can keep my skis straight; I can turn and stop, etc.) written in Arabic. One lady tried to very hard to sell us a photo of ourselves sitting in a lift chair, but the last thing we needed was another picture of us and snow. Of course, the entrance to Ski Dubai is in amongst the stores that sell - and we’re not kidding - ski boots, ski suits and accessories!!  Here are a couple of photos:

Once we were done gawking around the mall, we took Taxi #2 to Madinat Jumeirah, a two-hotel resort area done up in a Moorish style. There is an indoor souk (market) where the merchants sell everything from carpets to jewelry to antiques, and there are a few outdoor stalls as well. The resort has lagoons and canals running through it, with abras (small boats) that ferry the resort guests around.

One of the inside souks

We took Taxi #3 from here to the entrance gate to the Burj al Arab, one of THE most exclusive hotels (among the hundreds) in Dubai, which is located just outside the entrance to the Wild Wadi Water Park, so it was quite a busy little spot. As Larry said, it would be easier to get into Fort Knox than past security. If you’re not a guest, or don’t have a reservation at one of the restaurants, you are not allowed to set foot on the property. It was only once we showed them the printout of our reservation that they allowed us to start walking across the bridge to the hotel, a distance of about a kilometre. Hotel guests get to ride in a golf cart. It was rather funny to see all these people taking turns standing beside the gate to get their photos with the hotel in the background, because they weren’t allowed on the property.

The hotel lobby area is quite spectacular in itself. The reception area is just inside the doors - two ‘intimate’ reception desks and it looks like registering guests get a personal guided tour of the facility and an escort to their suites. The focal point of the lobby is a fountain/waterfall, and the escalators to the mezzanine level have huge aquariums of tropical fish in the walls beside them. To try to explain more would be impossible, so here are the pictures:

Looking down the fountain.  The orchestration of the water streams changes constantly.  It's almost mesmerizing.

The second fountain on the mezzanine level.  It also shoots a geyser about 100 feet up in the open atrium.

The lobby atrium - dizzy yet?

The mosaic tile floor

We were headed for the Skyview Bar and found, by chance, the glass-enclosed express elevator. It was too bad that there was a layer of haze/fog/smog over the city; otherwise the entire view would have been spectacular. As it was, we could only see the buildings on the Palm Jumeirah in dark, hazy profiles. But the tea service made up for it all. Again, we won’t bore you with words - just take a look:

The 'tower' of tea - sandwiches (cucumber, egg, salmon), tuna profiteroles and shrimp vol au vents, shortbread cookies, fruitcake and creme caramel, and cakes.  All of that for two people!!  Are you hungry yet?  Here's a closeup:

So, after spending two hours over tea (we might actually still be there if we had actually gone for lunch!), we wandered back out to the gate and picked up Taxi #4 to take us back to the hotel.

It’s now Sunday evening, and wondering where we even get the nerve to be hungry after “tea”, we are preparing to go to dinner in one of the seafood restaurants in the Atrium. Tomorrow morning we move to the ship.