My trip to the UAE has surprisingly been a relaxed one! That's probably due to the fact that we're not staying Dubai but another one of the Emirates (Ajman to be precise) so I've had some time to lounge around. But for the last two days Dad and I have been making trips to explore the city which was once very familiar to me.
We started off in the Mall of the Emirates (MOE). I enjoying shopping so I was looking forward to it immensely (especially after spending so much time in Ajman - the people we were staying with were amazing hosts but sadly the same could not be said for the Emirate).
Upon arriving at the mall and glancing at the directory, I was filled with the realization that over 75% of these stores were 'luxury retailers' (translation: things I can't afford on a random shopping trip - these purchases would require lots of planning and saving). So instead of shopping we settled for mall walking (/hopelessly wishing I had set aside much more spending money for this trip!) The mall walking was a nice change of pace from all the eating we'd been doing (yep, my jeans are definitely more snug..sigh).
Since the motto of the UAE is 'bigger is always better'(...okay so maybe it isn't, but it should be) in the mall there is a..theme park (for lack of a better description) called Ski Dubai. Yes, that's ski, as in on snow. Yep, they created a mini snow park within a mall in the desert. See my motto totally fits. Also! Right beside Ski Dubai is a vending machine, but this (of course) is no ordinary vending machine, this is a gold vending machine (not gold as in its made of gold - although it is painted gold - but this machine sells you gold!)
The next day we decided to visit the Burj Khalifa (the tallest tower in ze world!!) and the Dubai Mall. The isn't much to say about the Burj Khalifa (which always makes me think of Wiz Khalifa!) except for the fact that its huge-mun-gous!! I couldn't get a picture of the whole building on my phone so here is the top portion of it
Its so big that it casts a shadow in the sky!!! I also learned that Saudi is planning on building a tower that is taller than the Burj Khalifa! It will be 1001 m tall! All these stories make me think of when Mr Burns tried to block out the sun!!!
Anyways, back to my 3D memories. Dad said that the Dubai Mall is smaller than MOE so I thought maybe I can do some actual shopping here!! Yeah, not the case. Within these two malls I'm fairly sure that you can find every luxury brand you can think of! So my wallet remained safely tucked away in my bag. The most exciting part of the mall was the aquarium! Its huge!
After staring at the fish for a while and roaming through the mall, we went out for a bite and a stroll. Dad thought it would be a fun experience to take a boat over the creek instead of the metro so 60 cents (!!!) later we on a boat (m*****f******!). ...don't ask, it just felt necessary, instead look at some pictures! (Also this now means that I have traveled by air, land and water!! The travel trifecta!)
It takes about an hour on the bus to get to Dubai from Ajman so it gave me some time to take in some sights and sounds. In my opinion, Dubai has become a city juxtaposed against itself; so many buildings in the skyline reek of opulence and excess yet they are all half empty. Also beside these 'should be palaces' are half built sky scrapers in which the owners decided their wallets could no longer harbour the burden! From the looks of it, this is not the Dubai I remember at all! But after closer inspection (after running around the streets for a while) I realize that the Dubai I knew still alive; after the recession hit, a lot of the nations floating population left, leaving behind the handful of people who have always known this Emirate as home (well, they also left behind multitudes of empty shop fronts!). Leaving Dubai on our way to Ajman, the sense of familiarity that I had been waiting for had finally arrived :)
All in all, it was a good trip. I definitely want to come back to city on my next trip to India (even if its just for the shawarmas!). But next time I'll be better prepared for the shopping experiences!! For now, I'm off to get some rest before we fly off to Dublin (one the best perks of traveling with my Dad is the access to the airport lounges-this I could get used to!).
Until next time,
-Arlene
p.s. look what I found on our first day in Dubai (they also have Second Cup here as well!)
p.p.s on the topic of coffee, how is it that Dubai & Sri Lanka have 'The Coffee Bean' but Toronto doesn't?! What the poop?!
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