10.01.21
I kind of knew it before I got there, but just being in Dubai for a week proved that they don’t do anything normal or small. Everything is over the top, and bigger than life. Kind of like a real-world Disneyland, with lots of sand and tall buildings.
My trip to Dubai was not part of my normal Travel Younger itinerary, but was an invitation to speak at an event. How could I refuse? They covered my plane fare (from Miami), but I took care of my room, which was surprisingly affordable, as was most of the town. Sure, you could get several hundred dollar a night rooms, but mine was about $35 in a nice business hotel, plus offered a terrific daily buffet for about $10. But I did find my share of $24 bar burgers and $14 spaghetti dishes.
I also knew it would be HOT, but I was not prepared for humidity!
And we’re talking upwards of 50 percent (or more), especially by the water, so that was a scorcher. Much of the town lives “inside,” which makes sense, and that includes hanging out inside the biggest mall in the world. Let me start with the list of “LARGEST this and that.”
The Burj Khalifa, at 2722 feet, is far and away the tallest building in the world, and holds 3.3 million sq. ft. It rises to 160 floors, but my observation deck was floor 124/ 125, (1500 ft) which was fine. You CAN go higher to floor 148, but the cost was $103-145, not quite in my budget. They also have several different price options, including sunrise and sunset tours. There are many world records at the Burj, including highest free-standing structure, most floors, highest occupied floors, and highest elevation that CONCRETE got pumped to make the darn thing! Plus, longest elevator ride to GET to the top, longest service elevator, and highest observatory.
And the view from the top WAS spectacular, though surprisingly hazy, which they tell me is flying sand from the desert. Not a surprise since there is desert everywhere, and as aggressive as they have been building over the last 15 years, there is still LOTS of land to build upon.
At the bottom of the Burj is the Dubai Mall, which, no surprise, is the world’s largest mall, at 12 million sq ft, and about 1500 shops. It has waterfalls, an aquarium, an ice skating rink, and over 200 places to eat. I am not a fan of shopping or malls, but I was entertained by its sheer magnificence! Soon the “largest” category will include the Ain Dubai Ferris Wheel, which will be the largest in the world, due to open in October 2021.
The town is a high-tech marvel to some degree with a kick-ass metro which I truly enjoyed. The people were amazingly polite and even the taxi drivers were great to work with. Most were Indian, Pakistani, or Bangladeshi, and all spoke decent English. One took me to a better Metro station than I requested, and even though I didn’t have enough cash for a tip he was cool and gave me a bottle of water.
Speaking of water, the water is safe and good to drink since it’s all desalinated from the Arabian Sea. High tech, like I said. Plus, it left my skin really soft from the shower. Since English is as common as their native Arabic, I felt very comfortable there, especially after being in Latin America for 18 months. It is a highly Islamic culture, and many things are banned, but I was surprised that they allowed no WhatsApp video or Facebook Messenger video either. Some told me that was from telephone company pressure to increase usage.
The city has lofty ambitions and Dubai is so centrally located that the airport is getting to be one of the busiest in the world. The building cranes dominate the landscape, and the architecture looks like something from Blade Runner in places. If they feel they are short on waterfront property, what do they do? They build man-made islands right from the sand beneath them, which they have done with the beautiful Palm Islands, which holds a world-famous water park, Atlantis, among many other things. See what I mean? What they lack, they build. They don’t have a lot of “natural” landscaping or greenery, but money can buy anything—including that.
