DUBAI - UAE - Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
DAY 158 – 06/06/13 – DOHA – DUBAI (UAE)
Another day in the hot, humid and oil rich Gulf and another round of flights were on the agenda. It felt like all we were doing on this leg of the journey was slowly getting to know a place and then having to grab a taxi to the airport and leave to another mysterious Arabic destination. This time our destination would not be so mysterious but would still be very Arabic as we were heading back to Dubai for a few days before our entry into Europe.
In an unexpected twist that would soon start a very frustrating airport stint we found that the cheapest flight on offer was with the American airline United. They were basically doing a pickup in Doha and Dubai before flying into mainland America and we grabbed a seat for the pickup leg. When we arrived at check in we were approached by airline staff who basically interrogated us for ten minutes on our bag movements for the past day. We were asked if we had packed our own bags which was pretty standard and we answered, "Of course we did." But then we were asked questions such as, “Did we pack explosive devices in those same bags?” and “In the last 24 hours have you left your bags unattended?” “Um, no Sir, no bombs today and no, we never left our bags out of our sight in the last 24 hours,” we answered, which of course was a blatant lie, we had in fact given them to the hotel staff to look after all day but by the serious look on the interviewer's face, I am sure that he should not hear that bit of our story.
From here we received our boarding passes and then went through regular security and then as we approached our gate we were subject to even more stringent checks that were apparently required for any flights heading to the US of A. This included scanning our shoes and in my case my thongs, our bags were re-checked in case we had picked up any nuclear devices in the duty free shopping area and we were padded down extensively in case we had any hidden objects that the four previous metal detectors had failed to pick up. The security guard who was American and worked for the American travel authority gave me quite a friendly pat down and seemed to be quite interested in and around my groin area. I may or may not have explained to him that if he were looking for hard objects he only needed to continue what he was doing for a few more seconds and he would find a weapon pointed right at him.
After all of this security we finally took off for Dubai and after only 45 minutes in the sky and preciously one third of the time that it actually took to get through American security we arrived. We went through immigration, grabbed our bags and made our way to the tube. It was good to be back in what was feeling like another second home to us and soon we were at our hotel, admiring all the impressive skyscrapers lifting out from the sand and paying extraordinary amounts for tasty but overpriced foods.
DAY 159 – 160 – 07/06/13 - 08/06/13 – DUBAI
As we only had a few days left in Dubai we decided that we should head to possibly the most famous landmark in the city and possibly the entire UAE, the Burj Khalifa, the world’s highest building and free standing structure in the world. Dubai has a lot to be proud of but this surely has to be their greatest man made achievement, as the building stands at a whopping 828 metres and more than 160 stories. Burj Khalifa holds the following records.
During our previous visit to the city we looked from afar and in awe at this amazing building, but could not actually get tickets to visit the top until this very day such was the interest in the attraction. Even from afar the building is mammoth and the mega structure can been seen for miles from any vantage point in Dubai, absolutely dwarfing the other buildings within its vicinity.
The building is also right next to the Dubai Mall (also the world’s largest) and even though we had spent a good two days there previously, Jo thought this visit to the Burj Khalifa would present another fantastic opportunity to explore more of the retail giant. Naturally I was ecstatic about the prospect of spending yet another day in a shopping mall. Sensing my rising annoyance at the situation Jo quickly tried to get me excited by explaining quick facts about the mall to arouse my interest, but to be honest, just thinking about how many shops I would now have to visit (again) was just making me angry. Even after six months on this trip and 2.5 years living with Jo, I am still not sure if she understands that I don’t like shopping and just knowing that it is the world’s biggest shopping mall only makes the situation worse. It’s kind of like getting punched in the face with a fist, this hurts and is likely to do some damage, but if you were punched with the world’s biggest fist this wouldn’t all of a sudden become a great experience, no, it would hurt even more and most probably do more damage. Annoyed or not I was on my way to the mall and then finally we would climb (or just take the elevator) to the top of tallest building and free standing structure in the world.
I won’t bore you with the details about the shopping mall, but I can tell you it was as expected and was the same as the previous days spent there. What I will bore you with is the details of the Burj Khalifa. Our entrance time finally arrived and we took the lift up to the top of practically the world. The viewing platform is located on the 124th floor which is about ¾ of the way up but still you are miles about any of the other tallest towers of the world.
On the way up we were wowed by the stats that the interactive elevator was throwing at us. Over the 45 second ride to the observation deck we found out that the Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world, the tallest free-standing structure in the world, has the highest number of stories in the world, has the highest occupied floor in the world and has the highest outdoor observation deck in the world. It is also equipped with an elevator with the longest travel distance in the world and has the tallest service elevator in the world. Some of these facts were clearly not as impressive as the others but it all added up to the main, unquestionable fact, that this was one big beast of a building. As soon as we entered the actual observation deck it was evident that 834 metres of building height gets you a massive f**king view, naturally with 360 degree of no interruption. The view was breathtaking and luckily for us the visibility was good, as the previous day there had been a small sand storm which had nullified the view to virtually nothing.
We spent the next three hours up the top watching day turn to night and then were treated to amazing half hourly water fountain shows from, wait for it... the biggest water fountain in the world. The water fountain is amazing and the fact you can easily see it and the different shows that it performs every half an hour from 124 stories in the sky is testament to its size and grandeur. We signed off by taking our final city landscape photos and went down the bottom of the tallest building and free standing structure in the world via the elevator with the longest travel distance in the world, walked past the largest water fountain in the world and went back into the largest mall in the world that houses the most retail shops in the world.
The trip to the top was a great way to end our time in Dubai, UAE and the entire Emirates, the extra shopping that followed was not, but still Jo was happy, so that was a win. This whole region had surprised us immensely over the past three weeks and it was amazing to see a vision become a reality from one man’s dream to change the way cities can be created forever. Although our time was up in this part of the world, we were looking forward to changing the desert landscape, hot and humid climate and our dirty clothes for Europe’s greenness and sophistication.