2.4 million square feet, has four floors and over 900 stores and services. Dubai mall is more than 10 million square feet and has more than 1,200 shops and services and is among the largest malls in the world. But there is a large difference between the two beyond their difference in size. While Mall of the Emirates is a large mall that just happens to have the first indoor ski resort in the Middle East, the Dubai Mall is a destination. This place is amazing! Not to mention huge! And beautiful. We only saw a very small portion of it and what we saw was absolutely beautiful. It’s also attached to the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, which is an amazing experience all by itself.
So the plan was to visit both malls - Mall of the Emirates in the morning, followed by a visit to see the Burj al Arab, the iconic hotel shaped like a ship’s sail that has become the symbol of Dubai, then a visit to the Dubai Mall in the evening for dinner, sightseeing and a visit to the 124th and 125th floors of the Burj Khalifa. Both malls have very high-end stores inside along with many, many American stores (think Forever 21, H&M, etc.) so our intent was mostly to sightsee.. But let’s face it. We were at the mall. Two malls! And we’re chicks. Chicks on vacation. Of course we had to shop just a little. What red-blooded American woman could resist?
So first up was Mall of the Emirates and Ski Dubai. Ordinary large mall. Very clean. Lots of stores. A little bit of interesting architecture. Not much to write home about.
Then we strolled down to Ski Dubai. Looked cool but three of the four of us are not skiers and no one was really too interested in paying $65 each to get inside to interact with their captive penguins, (much as we all love ourselves a captive penguin) which is the cheapest “experience” you can purchase, so we had to content ourselves with what we could see through the viewing windows, which wasn’t much. Sorry, Linda! These pictures are the best I could do.
The human bobsled ice slide experience
The ski lifts.
From there it was off to see the Burj al Arab, that iconic hotel. This place is so exclusive that you can’t even get onto the part of the island that it’s located on without a reservation at the hotel or in one of the bars or restaurants. We considered it, but decided that $80 apiece for a drink was too rich for our blood no matter how opulent and amazing we’ve heard the interior of this place is. Evidently, it’s really something to see. We decided to leave it for someone else to see. We did, however, get to see the outside of the hotel from the adjacent beach area. The shocker of the day, at least for me, was the color of the Arabian Gulf (the preferred name in Arab countries for what we call the Persian Gulf). I was totally expecting the water to be the normal blue-gray that we see in the Pacific at home. Who knew that the Arabian Gulf is the long-lost cousin to the Caribbean Sea? I was blown away by the color. Oh, and the Burj al Arab was cool to see, too.
Moving on, we arrived at the Dubai Mall in time for dinner. Oh, my. From the moment we stepped out of our taxi, we were dazzled. We’re suckers for some sparkling lights.
As we walked from this area to the portion of the mall where the outdoor restaurants were, we got a great view of the Burj Khalifa, which at first was all flashing, twinkling white lights...
...and then suddenly the Burj Khalifa busted out the most spectacular light show I’ve ever seen. If you follow my Instagram, you may have seen the full video of the light show. For those of you who do not follow me on Instagram, here are some collages of frames from that video so you can get an idea of what I’m talking about since I can’t for the life of me figure out how to embed the video on this blog. Sorry!
Is it just me or is this not just the most fantastic thing? This light show alone made the 17 hours of flying (26 total hours of travel door to door) totally worth it. Just sayin’.
The area where all of the mall’s outdoor restaurants are located is quite beautiful, too.
Ashley and I have decided that we want to live here. Right underneath this canopy. Forever and ever. Or until the summer heat hits. Whichever comes first. The end.
Of course, the inside of the mall is not to be outdone by the outside. We only got to see a small portion of the mall because we were crunched for time to make our 9:00 reservation for our “At the Top” experience in the Burj Khalifa, but I mean, come on! Two entire four-story walls of cascading water with silver divers? In a mall? Good grief! Beautiful and amazing. I would love to eat in the restaurant at the bottom!
As if all this awesome, over-the-toppedness isn’t enough, we will now move on to the main event of the day - the ride to the almost top of the Burj Khalifa. We bought tickets that took us to the 124th-125th floors. The tickets to go to the 148th floor were way, way expensive, almost triple what we paid, and we decided that the 124th-125th was good enough for us. The Burj Khalifa is currently the tallest building in the world. (Apparently, Singapore and Shanghai have buildings currently under construction that will dethrone the Burj. Not to worry. Dubai already has plans in the works for a massive building that will top those. Don’t mess with Dubai! They take their tallest building in the world title seriously!) The Burj is 2,722 feet tall and has 163 floors in total, but visitors can only go as high as the 148th (1,821 feet up). It also houses the highest mosque in the world. The 124th floor observatory is 1,483 feet up. The elevator to ascend to the 124th floor ascends at ten meters (32.8 feet) per second and the whole trip takes one minute. The unbelievable thing about it is that the ride is so smooth that if your ears were not popping like crazy every few seconds, you would not even discern you were moving. Same holds true for the trip down. You cannot feel the elevator start or stop. How they accomplish this at the speed this thing moves is beyond my comprehension. Oh, and did I mention the video display inside the elevator during your ascent? It’s so captivating that you don’t even really think about the fact that you’re rocketing to ridiculous heights in sixty seconds. Here are some screen shots from a video that I posted on Instagram.
Coolest elevator ride ever! And the view from the 124th floor wasn’t bad either. And in case you’re wondering, you’re looking down on some very tall skyscrapers.
Our final stop was the dancing fountain show in the lake in front of the Burj. It happens every half hour from 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. and is a completely different show each time. The shows last for up to five minutes. Apparently the fountain show is very similar to the show at the Bellagio in Vegas, but since I’ve never been to Vegas (go figure that one!) this was new and exciting for me. Our show was set to Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.” I managed to keep my phone up high above my head and steady with bags hanging off my arms for the entire four-plus minutes so I got a killer video. Here are some still captures from the video.
It was quite a day, I’ll tell you. Dubai is really larger than life. Amazing and stunning and over the top. I keep saying that if Hong Kong, Las Vegas and New York City had a baby and dropped it on the banks of the Persian Gulf, Dubai would be that baby. Without the filth, crime, awful traffic and weirdos, that is. Really.
So that’s it for now. Tomorrow is a super busy day. We’re up at 5:30 a.m. to finish packing, have breakfast and head out for a full day tour of Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates. We get back at 7:00, have to go have dinner, come back, change, grab our stuff and head to the airport at 11:00 for a 1:50 a.m. flight out of here. I will do my very, very best to work on a blog post that will cover today’s shenanigans and tomorrow’s, too, and I promise, promise, promise that I will post it when I get home.
In the mean time, I’ll leave you with this little tidbit: Did you know that Ashley’s name has been changed? Apparently she is now known as Shakira. Just ask any of the Arab men we came across while shopping in the souks today. They’ll tell you. More on this next time.
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