So I was stuck in bed yesterday again and in aid of this blog (apparently) hubby deserted me to go and look around. He has kindly offered to share his thoughts and experiences as I can imagine you are sick of me talking about how nice the room is.
First let me start by saying ... I'm not a blogger but I did like Dubai. The taxi drivers (like we all saw in Europe) all seem to be ex formula one drivers. The fear of leaving space between cars is too much for them with excessive acceleration and braking happening constantly. Luckily my wife wasn't in the car for this trip as she would have her nails digging into my arms ... I found it well worth the fare.
I survived the taxi ride and was dropped off at the Dubai Mall where from the outside it doesn't look as impressive as the Mall of Emirates (where we are staying) but once inside you can see that as a mall it can definatly hold its own, with around 1200 shops this is not nearly a mall but a small city, with an olympic sized ice rink, a huge aquarium, an indoor theme park and over 100 places to eat. I'm a male who has never taken much interest in labels but I'm pretty sure my wife would run a-muck here. I spent a couple of hours walking around on my own not sure what to do wishing my wife was there to make the decisions for me (Please note readers he laughs evilly at this point)
At the back of the mall is the Dubai fountain which is adjacent to the Burj Kalifa - the tallest building in the city. Its mind blowing how big this pool is sitting in the middle of the desert and in this city its easy to forget that its a desert because everything is green and everywhere you look there is a fountain. Sitting up in a cafe looking down at the fountain I noticed there was eight people working and cleaning the pool and fountain, it must be a very time consuming dog as I struggle just to keep my backyard pool clean.
After more wandering I was feeling a bit down because we havn't really done much in Dubai because my wife is terminally ill in bed, well she is not terminally ill, but she certainly is acting like it. I decided to book a dive in the aquarium at the mall. The aquarium is huge, no surprises there with around 50 species of marine life including an array of sharks, stingrays, eels and some beautiful looking gropers. It was good just swimming around waving to the little kids as you go past.
After drying off I wandered down to the ice rink to watch two of the local teams here play some ice hockey. I have never experienced a game like this one, I was watching a game in the middle of a shopping mall. There were people sitting in the stands with me watching but more shoppers leaning over the balcony for a quick look.
So far Dubai comes across as a city that has no rules and is constantly trying to outdo itself. They have an ice rink .... lets build a ski field. A few people have told me Dubai feel fake, I don't think it's fate I just think their imaginations and budget have no limits. Im looking forward to the rest of the trip and hopefully taking my wife out to discover some more of Dubai.
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