Getting High in Dubai!

There is only one way to get really high in Dubai and that is to visit the Burj Khalifa. Burj Khalifa is far and away the tallest building in the world. I won't bore you with a lot facts and figures- you can Google that yourself. But I will tell you that the Empire State Building is 443 meters tall; the Eiffel Tower is 324 meters tall; the Burj Khalifa is 828 meters tall. So you could put the Empire State Building on top of the Eiffel Tower and still have 61 meters to spare. For my American readers -there are 91 meters in a football field. Burj Khalifa is located in the heart of downtown Dubai and is connected to the Dubai Mall and The Fountains. There are numerous malls in Dubai- I have been to the Marina Mall, Mall of The Emirates, the Mercato Mall and the Dubai Mall. Lets just say these people LOVE their malls! Huntsville has two malls that are a small fraction of the size of the ones here. Also, I have never been to a mall here that isn't busy and full of people. It's almost like Christmas shopping traffic all the time but because they are so huge there is plenty of room to roam. Because this post is about the Burj Khalifa I will only write about the Dubai Mall which is the largest I've seen yet (Larger than the Mall of The Emirates!) and nothing short of spectacular. It boasts 1,200 shops to include  MAJOR fashion stores, trendy boutiques, access to Burj Khalifa, an aquarium- yup, a huge aquarium you can pay to tour however there is a magnificent two story viewing panel to see the sharks, stingrays and thousands of other marine life. And did I mention the olympic sized ice skating rink and Gold Souk? Jimmy and I were at Dubai Mall for several hours and saw maybe 25% of it. We went through the Gold Souk and Fashion Avenue. The entrance fee to Burj Khalifa is $100 AED if you buy your ticket for a later tour i.e. buy your ticket in the morning and tour later that day or the next day. If you want immediate entry the fee is $400 AED! As usual we had no specific plan and just showed up at the counter. We told the gentleman we wanted $100 AED tickets and would come back tomorrow if necessary. He must have liked us because we got immediate entry right then! It's good to be blonde! It is a self guided tour and you can take as much or as little time as your schedule allows.

 

Burj Khalifa pic taken from the car as we approached the structure.

Inside the elevator at the 114th floor. The observation deck is on the 124th floor but the inside of the elevator had all kinds of flashing lights when you got to 124 so the pic didn't take.

After you get off the elevator you step onto a moving sidewalk through a dark tunnel. You see and hear a lot of the history of Dubai and the creation of Burj Khalifa along the way. Very cool!

The observation deck! The deck itself was beautiful- wood floors and glass panels top to bottom. This is the main observation deck however it is designed so you can walk the entire perimeter of the building

and get an amazing, unobstructed 360 degree view of beautiful Dubai.

View- Holy Cow!

View!

The highway below. I zoomed in for this pic.

Buildings- I zoomed this pic hoping to show the unusual buildings. No two buildings look alike and every one is architecturally unique. I'm going to have to do a future post dedicated the buildings here.

Looking down on The Fountains. The Fountains is 275 meters long and contains over 22,000 gallons of water and was designed by the same creators of the Bellagio fountain in Las Vegas- but bigger! The Fountain "performs" at scheduled times and we missed that unfortunately. However I can tell you that it has hundreds of various sized nozzles to include large ones that shoot water as high as a 50 story building. It is all set to music and has over 6,000 different colored lights to add to the drama. The main spotlight in the center can be seen from 20 miles away. Jimmy & I plan to go there for dinner one evening. I'll be certain to post on that, too!

You can purchase a gold bar out of a vending machine! There are different sizes and emblems to choose from. The smallest one was about $650 AED. We actually considered it for a minute but ultimately decided not to indulge in such an extravagant momento!

Crystal replica of the Burj Khalifa in the gift shop.

View of The Foutain and surrounding park area from the ground floor.

So we finished the Burj Khalifa tour and strolled into the Duabai Mall. You can't see the thousands of dove-like figurines floating from the center of the sky light but the suspended sculpture was very impressive. This is the entrance directly into Fashion Avenue.

Dolce & Gabbana

Versace

Fendi



Armani

Louis Vuitton

Gucci

Chanel

Dior. All of the store fronts were very elegant but the Dior was my favorite. Those are individual lights made to shine like diamonds. Very sparkly and eye catching but not at all glitzy. All of these stores are next door to each other in a circle around the aforementioned center sky light and dove like hanging sculpture.

We left Fashion Avenue and randomly strolled the mall. The pic is blurry but it shows all the people, multiple LCD screens advertising events, etc. and the escaltors to the four levels. I didn't get a pic but in one of the center areas we came across a young girl performing a piano recital. There was a sizeable crowd to support the many students performing that day. How cool is that! 

Entrance to the Gold Souk. The Gold Souk consists of a maze of meandering corridors all lined with jewelry stores and other similar shops and themed courtyards. It was a mall in itself! In all honesty there were many empty stores and it lacked the bustle of the main mall but it was still very interesting and you see many unique items.

Jimmy's princess on a mosaic throne. This is in the main entrance of the Gold Souk. I can't even fathom how many tiles were used to construct this throne but I sure did feel like a queen! 

One of the many courtyards within the Gold Souk and a couple of shops.

Watch shop in the Gold Souk. I don't know if the stones are real but this watch was COMPLTELY encrusted in diamonds (?) to include the band.

Another courtyard within the Gold Souk.

18K $100 USD.

Exit from the Gold Souk into the main mall.

This is the viewing panel of the aquarium in the Dubai Mall. It is the largest viewing panel in the world. We didn't tour the aqauarium (we were exhausted by this time!) but you can walk through a viewing tunnel, take a glass bottom boat ride, snorkel and even shark dive!

Like I said, we were there for several hours and this post reflects only maybe 25% of what the Dubai Mall has to offer. I can't wait to share all of this with my girls when I can finally get them over for a visit. My Baby, my Angel and my Princess- I think of you every day and miss you so much my heart aches. My mom and my sisters and nephews and many friends- I love you and miss you. Take care of each other.

Peace, love and happiness- M&J