Dubai
My trip to South Africa came through the way of Dubai. It was a 15 hour flight from SFO to DBX on Emirates Airlines. This was the first time that I was on a double decker Airbus A380-800. It was spacious and the service was great! Once we took off, I changed into the provided pajamas and got a drink at the bar (yes, there was a bar on the plane). The food was pretty good especially being airplane food.
I landed in Dubai at 8pm a bit later than expected but then quickly headed through immigration. As they stamped my passport, I was also given a 10GB data SIM card to use while I was visiting. It was my first sign that Dubai really catered towards tourists.
I met my tour guide right outside and we began our journey through the city. Our first stop was the Dubai Frame which is exactly as it sounds lol a picture frame that’s 150m tall made of gold. The goal of this frame was so that guests and citizens could see old Dubai from new Dubai. Old Dubai was in the desert, and filled with lower working class people where they lived. New Dubai is what everyone sees today: the lights and attractions.
After this quick stop at the frame we went to the Dubai Mall. This mall is like no other, largest indoor mall in the world and has so many shops from all over. The shops were not unique as they had all the major brands from around the world, but the unique thing was how global it was. I can’t think of another place that will have a Texas Roadhouse next to a Tim Hortons. We walked through the mall to get to the Burj Khalifa. The Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world. It has 163 floors and I was able to snag tickets for the 124/125th floors. After a quick line that snaked through like a Disneyland ride, I got to the elevators and had a quick ride up I made to my floor. The view was incredible and I wish I would have seen it during the day to see how far the city really stretched. You could see exactly where old and new Dubai was from just see where the city light ends. It was amazing how quickly the city was put together.
After the visit to the Burj Khalifa, we walked around the mall a bit and caught the two free shows in the outside promenade. The first was the fountain show that was I think better than the one at Bellagio in Las Vegas. The music was synced perfectly to the gushes of water and the jets definitely bursted up higher than the one in Vegas. The 2nd show that we watched was a light show that was projected onto the Burj Khalifa while this was not as spectacular it was pretty amazing to see it as well.
The final stop on the Dubai tour was a stop at the museum of the future. This museum is different than all the others since this didn’t show any history like most museums do instead this displayed the vision that the Sheik had of Dubai. He has envisioned how Dubai will look in the year 2070. Since I was visiting at night while the museum was closed I wasn’t able to go inside but the outside and design of a the museums was a sight to see in itself. The outside's design is actually a quote from the Sheikh Mohammed “We won’t live for hundreds of years, but the product of our creativity can leave a legacy long after we are gone.”
