Dubai, Day Two

The first thing I did this morning was step out on the balcony to see if I could glimpse blue skies. Nope. At least it is better than yesterday. I figured hey, we had paid for the tickets and I doubt that we will ever return to Dubai, so we are off to the Burj Kjalifa Tower today. The first challenge was to find a cab with a driver that spoke English. We ended up sharing a cab with another couple – should have been a good deal but the cab we took back to the ship by ourselves was half the price we paid going - so apparently the first cab charged double for the extra people. Our next challenge was to locate our tickets. I bought them online and couldn’t print out the receipt so I hoped that wasn’t going to be a problem. It actually went quite smoothly. They had a “will call” window and I picked up the tickets and we got in line – and what a line. It reminded me of a Disneyworld ride – you had lines to the moving sidewalks, lines to security, and lines to the elevators. I thought the Sears Tower in Chicago was tall. Burj Kjalifa tower stands a little over a half mile high! Over 20,000 people live and work there. It has the population of a vertical city. And what a money maker for an elevator ride. Every day is sold out and it is about $34 dollars a head if you buy in advance, and over $115 a ticket if you buy at the entrance. You get to the top by a high speed elevator that quickly takes your body up 124 floors. I expected my stomach to join me shortly thereafter. Surprisingly, you couldn’t even tell you were moving if you didn’t look at the floor counter – except your ears kept clogging. It was about a 30 second ride. You can’t see outside and there are these weird, blinking lights that gives you the sensation of moving very slowly, if at all. I don’t know how they do that – I guess the eyes fool the brain and stomach into thinking you are standing still. Then you exit and walk out to glass walls, from ceiling to floor, overlooking the city. The building actually has over 150 floors. For design purposes the observation deck is on the 124th floor. It is an incredible sight. They say this is only going to remain the world’s tallest building until about 2018 or 2019 as plans are on the table to build an office tower one kilometer high now. Attached to this tower is the world’s largest mall. (They are proud of all their world records. The guide also told us about a drink served at Burj Al Arab Hotel – an aged scotch served in a Baccarat glass (that you can keep) for the bargain price of $1,225 a serving - another world record for the most expensive drink.) Anyway, back to the mall. I thought the mall in Hong Kong was enormous! This thing has 1200 shops. There was Bloomingdales to Pottery Barn and Gucci to Louie Vuitton. There are shops specializing in chocolates made from camel milk – which is supposedly much richer in cream than cow’s milk. They say it has bubbles and a slightly salty taste. They even had a Victoria Secret – are they allowed to wear that under their Burkas? We probably walked ¾ of a mile and we didn’t cover one floor – I think there were three or four levels. It was overwhelming. You can tell Dubai has money from their stores and by their cars. I saw Rolls, Bentleys and a plethora of Ferraris. The drivers ranged from old men to teen age girls. Stories are told of women coming in and buying the entire stock of a store they like. I guess you give all the wrong sizes to friends, family or the hired help. I was glad to be able to get a little better pictures today. We are heading into Pirate alley for the next week. I seriously doubt we will have the excitement we had just sailing the Iranian Coast the first time, but we will see. So it’s good bye, Dubai - Buenos Dias buccaneers. Next stop Salalah, Oman.