Weekend in Dubai--Day 2: The Burj Khalifa, Tallest Buidling in the World

Dubai is a city of records, firsts, bests, richest, biggest...-ests, etc. Once we determined we were going to visit Dubai, Scott immediately made it clear that the one thing he was most interested in see was the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa.

This was taken during the cab ride there.

 The Burj Khalifa was originally named the Burj Dubai, but it's completion coincided with the global financial crisis. Drowning in massive debt, and without the expected influx of tourism and prestige-rental dollars a huge bailout was sought from (the still quite oil rich) Abu Dhabi. In honor of that $10bn gesture the building was renamed the Burj Khalifa, after the president of the United Arab Emirates and emir of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahayan. It is literally so big you have ot have a special camera to be able to take an unobstructed picture of the whole thing in one frame. Believe me, I tried.


We scheduled our tour--you are advised to buy the tickets well in advance of your arrival as the tours fill up quickly--for 10:30 in the morning of our second day. Since it's such a landmark, and since we could see it from our hotel, we decided to just get in a cab and tell them where we wanted to go. Usually we would have printed out maps and directions, but all we brought with us this time was a printout of our ticket vouchers. Even so, we were running a few minutes late and I was worried that we might miss our tour. You can imagine how confused, and mildly panicked, I was when our cab pulled up in front of Dubai Mall, which looked to be about a block away from the Burj itself.

Our cabbie didn't speak much English, and I was not about to get out of the cab until I knew what was going on. He had a conversation with Scott which I couldn't hear very well, but he repeated our destination and insisted that we were to go into to mall. Still somewhat worried, we got out anyway and went inside. Fortunately for us there was an information desk immediately inside the door and the nice man in the uniform behind the counter politely assured us that we were in the right place. It turns out that you get to the Burj tour by taking the elevator down and walking a short distance underground.

Since we were running a little later than we wanted to--i.e. just enough time to check in, get our tickets, and make the tour--I was feeling tense when I saw all the people who were also waiting to take the tour. I shouldn't have worried, though. Even though there were so many people, the every aspect of the tour is well planned and efficient. Everything was slickly polished and there was a definitely hum and excitement in the air. I couldn't help walking a little too quickly past all of the wonderful information plaques on the hallways leading to the elevators. I wanted to capture it all, but with so many people anxious to get to the top it would have been impossible to linger long enough soak it all in without causing an international incident.


The design of the building itself it a work of art. The foot print of the building is a triquetra, and this motif is repeated over and over again throughout the building. On the walls, etched in the glass room dividers, in the tile on the floors, in the logos on the brochures, etc. Seeing it everywhere, with some subtle variations in pattern and repetition, is not too hard on the eyes, though. It's usually subtly included in the already tasteful design of the building so you don't at all feel like you are being beaten over the head with it. Instead it is an elegant addition adding continuity (and branding *wink*) to an already impressively arranged space.

 The Burj Khalifa is not only the world's tallest building, but also boasts the world's fastest elevator, traveling at 64 km/h (40 mph) or 18 m/s (59 ft/s). The elevator really is incredibly fast, and you see digital displays on the wall for the floor numbers as you pass them, as well as various promotional adverts, but it is packed so full of people you can barely see them. It would doubtless have more impact if it had glass walls à la the amazing wonkavator, but it was at least well air-conditioned and the ride was short enough that the shoulder to shoulder discomfort was bearable.

When you reach the end of the ride, the elevator opens onto the observation deck on floor 124. Though it's called the "At the Top Experience," it really isn't the top of the building. It's still very, very high though. Also, it isn't really a tour, it's just a bunch of neat things to look at on your way to and from the observation deck. The observation deck goes all the way around the building with floor to ceiling windows. There is plenty of space so that people are free to linger as longer as they like at the top, but it's small enough that after about 20 minutes you've really seen everything you came to see and egress occurs organically and comfortably. Have I mentioned how much I really like good planning?

We were warned on the bottom that it was a hazy day. I can only imagine what the view must be like when it is a clear day.

Looking UP from floor 124!

Scott joked that he couldn't "believe they don't clean these windows...GAH!" Uh, yeah, I'd get right on that, too. Hundred floors up. Just sayin'...

Yep, that's my boy. Brings a comic book!

I found out later Miles and Scott were pretending to be evil overlords using the mounted space cannons, cleverly disguised as digital viewing stations, to wreak havoc upon the hapless citizens and tourists below.

That round thing down there is the main entrance/rotunda to the very huge Dubai Mall, where our cab driver dropped us off.

There is a small gift shop at the top that sells bag, t-shirts, postcards, etc. I bought a shirt for my son, and would probably have picked up more stuff as souvenirs (I really really wanted to get a t-shirt for my husband too), but they just didn't have that much that interested me. I usually look for fridge magnets, coffee cups, t-shirts, pencils or pens, or postcards. The coffee cups were the tall thin kind. I prefer the more substantial ones. Any coffee cup that enters my home has to look like it will survive the inevitable early morning tumble it will take as I struggle to get it filled with warm, life-giving java before I'm fully conscious.

They DID have these gold foil-covered chocolate camels, though. If I had thought for one minute it would have survived the shipping ordeal I would have gotten one to send to my mother. I think she would have gotten a good chuckle out of it, but I could only picture her puzzled expression as she peered through the clear plastic box at the gold and brown lump that would have arrived in the mail some weeks down the line. So--I settled for a photo. This one's for you, Mom!

After the getting our fill of the observation deck, we headed back down to have lunch in the amazing Dubai Mall. There is a much larger gift store at the bottom, for those who might be interested, but we bypassed it pretty quickly and went straight to the beautiful sculpture of the building they had on display.

Huge, slick, shiny, full of designer names and gourmet chocolate stores...it was really all too much for me. I'm sure we didn't even get to see half of it, but we finally found a place to have lunch which was really nice a refreshing. It was called Sumo Salad and it was really, really great. I heartily recommend it if you are lucky enough to have one nearby. And if you don't, consider opening a franchise. It's that good!  It was also nice to rest for a while. Before too long, we were ready to get back to the business of exploring the mall. There was really too much to see.

We did wander through enough, though, that we found our way to the the Dubai Mall Aquarium & Underwater Zoo which also boasts the Guinness Book of World Record's...uhm, record...for the world's largest acrylic panel. We got the full tour of the Aquarium with the glass bottom boat ride, trip through the "underwater zoo," and a voucher for the gift shop.
 
The boat rides are scheduled in in 30 minute increments, and we were there early enough that we didn't have to wait too long. While we were wending our way through the "creepy crawlies" section of the underwater zoo, we were offered an opportunity for Miles to sit with a constrictor and have his photo made. Scott had a severe allergic reaction to the tourist dollar trap and had to walk away for a few moments to get his blood pressure back down, but since Miles was game I wasn't about to let this opportunity pass us by! Was it gimmicky and over-priced? Absolutely. Was it worth it? I'll let you be the judge for now, and I will get out the pictures again to show Miles a couple of years from now. And then I'll get them out again to show my grand kids when they are 10 years old and ask them how they feel about it. *wink*
 
Turns out the "free" voucher for the gift shop was just one AED (United Arab Emirates Dirham) more than a t-shirt for my husband cost, SO I got to buy him a souvenir shirt like I wanted without any more cash flowing into the Aquarium's coffers.

Incidentally, I am not poking fun at my husband over the money issue. The whole trip was well under budget, so it wasn't that we were spending too much, he was just upset on principle. I think getting upset over principles is a good thing. I especially admire it in my loved ones. What I might be poking a little bit of fun at is how he knows what to expect from these trips and he still gets mad anyway. Just like I get mad at dangerous drivers. It's the way of things. *grin*

When we finally exited the Aquarium we were all starting to get a little droopy so we wandered back into the central part of the mall to get some "hot beverages" as Dr. Sheldon Cooper would say. It just so happens that I got some killer souvenirs for my nieces and nephew at the exotic little shop across from where we had coffee, but they will just have to wait until the package arrives for the reveal.

From there we strolled back through the mall and decided to head outside toward the Dubai Mall Fountain. The thing is huge. In fact, there are two of them, but they are so big you can only see one of them at a time. Fortunately for us, when we were at the top of the Burj Khalifa, we just happened to get a shot looking down on the fountain that we got to watch. When we went out of the mall, we walked across a pedestrian bridge to find a shaded bench on the other side where we would sit and wait for the show.

The little black curlycue thing is actually the the pumps and pipes that drive the fountain in the video below. From this angle you can see to foot-bridge we crossed from the mall and the corner we were perched on for the show.

This video was taken March 6, 2012 at 5:45pm. If I recall correctly, we saw the earliest show and they occur every 45 minutes after that, but I'm not sure how late they run. You could probably check here, if you are curious though.

Though our spirits were much higher after such an enjoyable display, we were all definitely ready for dinner by the time the fountain show was over. Scott and I both wanted to take the opportunity to have a nice, quiet "grown up" meal in a sit down restaurant. Scott had done some looking around on that side of the bridge while we were waiting for the fountain to start so he had some idea of what was available. There was a lot to choose from, as in the rest of the mall, but we decided to try a place called the "Meat Co." It was expensive but pleasant and pretty much exactly what we were looking for. I was so tired I don't even remember what I ordered, but I do remember being embarrassed by the way some other American tourists were poking fun at our African waiter's name. I was livid about it, frankly, but I didn't want to embarrass Scott--or our very kind and professional waiter--any more than necessary.

Other than a cab ride home through the beautifully lit downtown Dubai, that was it for day two of Dubai. Day 3 was just an uneventful trip to the airport heading back to Kuwait, so that's all we have to report from Dubai!