Dubai

Paris has the Eiffel Tower, Rome has the Coliseum, Buenos Aires has the Obelisk and Dubai has the Burj! I’ve been dreaming about seeing this 7 star hotel for a long time, where they serve the gold-dusted cappuccino in a luxurious marble and gold setting.

The Burj Al Arab has the shape of a sail and viewed from above it looks like a boat sailing in the white sandy desert of the Emirates. The rooms have quite an obscene cost but, with plenty of advanced notice, it is possible to make an appointment and go there for tea time. The Burj has the helipad where Tiger Woods shot a few golf balls and Andre Agassi played a tennis match against Roger Federer, at over three hundred meters above ground, overlooking the waters of the Persian Gulf.

The Burj changes colors, yellow, pink, blue, green, purple and more. It is quite a show to see how it changes colors again and again while walking down the street or while having a drink at one of the many bars at the Madinat Jumeirah Souq.

We were able to visit Atlantis in “The Palm” island, with its hotel, amusement park, aquarium and so much more! This man-made island with the shape of a palm tree is where they claim that a lot of celebrities are purchasing condos and is the first of many that Dubai will soon have. The Palm is located to the left of “The world”, a group of man-made islands that each of them represents a real country. Another pretty amazing thing that only Dubai could have!

The Mall of the Emirates was one of many shopping malls that Dubai has. This one in particular has a pretty amazing indoor ski slope where you can not only ski but snowboard, sleigh ride, take the ski lift all the way to the top of the artificial hill or just plain have a great snowball fight! It’s amazing that all of this and so much more is within the walls of a shopping mall. Here you can find snow every day of the year, regardless of the season and temperature outside!!!

The Mall of the Emirates has a pretty amazing restaurant in particular, Almaz by Momo. My friend Reda and his girlfriend took us there for a spectacular Moroccan dinner, (probably the best Moroccan dinner we ever had!) since Morocco was our next destination and we could use an introduction to Moroccan cuisine. You can find any type of food in Dubai, and it was great that while there we got to eat all sorts of foods. We got to eat some that we were really missing, such as Thai food, Indian food and Mongolian BBQ.

Another amazing shopping mall was the Dubai Mall. This one has –among many incredible things- a huge Ice Rink. The rink is huge, Olympic size, and it can hold up to 1000 people ice skating at once. The Mall had only opened a few weeks before we got to Dubai, and unfortunately while we were there a huge storm hit the city for a few minutes and as a result the place flooded. The Mall has an amazing aquarium with thousands of types of fish and other sea creatures.

We did a little bit of everything while we were in Dubai, included a cruise through the Dubai Creek (a river to us) aboard a traditional wooden Arabic Dhow (boat). It was nice to be there right before the sunset and see the people taking the small boats going home after a long day of work.

It is impossible to list all the incredible things we saw while we were there, but I have to mention that we were able to observe the construction of the Burj Dubai, which in September 2009 will become the tallest skyscraper and the tallest man made structure in the world. Everything they do in Dubai has to be the best, and the Burj Dubai couldn’t be less than the best of the best, therefore Giorgio Armani is in charge of the interior decoration of the Armani Residences, on the first 37 floors of the building. The Burj Dubai is across the Dubai Mall, the gold souq, restaurants, shops and The Address. The Address is another amazing super luxurious hotel, with amazing restaurants, crystal curtains, impeccable marble and gold details everywhere. The Burj Dubai stands watch as cranes swing into action. The gentle murmur of the construction is almost drowned out by the water falls that are found in the gardens. The picture itself is not complete yet, the canal below is dry but will soon be filled with water to resemble the Madinat Jumeirah canals.

Dubai was an amazing experience, a unique world unlike anything we had ever seen, and something we really enjoyed and will never forget.

Gaby