Eastern Time plus 9 hours
I am attempting to spend less time on the blog, so the entries will be shorter. The blog site has been having difficulties so Liz has asked me to keep the pictures to 30 or fewer, because she has to load the pictures one by one.
As we left the ship we were greeted by a musical group and this group of men that was waiting for the ship for some reason. Later we were told we were not to take pictures of men in white or women in black. I have to say that I was a little taken aback when I saw them. I knew we were really in an Arab country.
We passed the Gold Souk (Gold Market) as we left the port. Notice the neat building.
The architecture is outstanding.
They are doing a huge amount of building. We wondered who they think will live in all of these places. We heard that 30% of the world's building cranes are in Dubai and 50% of the tower cranes. It is very believable.
Our first stop was the famous Burj Al Arab Hotel. This is the hotel shaped like a sail. This was a very small ship tour . The hotel is all suites ranging from $2,400 to $15,300 per night plus 10% municipality fee and 10% service charge. You need special permission to enter this hotel, so we were on the Tea at the Burj shore excursion so we could enter. (We could have made private arrangements as Kazzie did, but we also wanted to do the boat tour around the Palm.) The building next to the Burj that is shaped like a wave is the Jumeirah Beach Residence Development. The grounds and beach were stunning.
We walked over a bridge to get there (could have taken a little cart) and had great fun checking things out before it got too hot.
We were greeted at the door with these dates and a woman with rosewood scented water to wash with. Another woman walked around with incense.
The interior was stunning. This picture shows the fountains going up and some of the lower floors.
The view straight up
Looking down on the lobby
Mosaic floor bordering carpets
An upper lounge area
We went into the area they were serving tea, but no pics allowed. The tea was wonderful and the room spectacular.
After tea we could walk around the hotel. We tried to take the glass elevator up, but it was closed for something or other. We went up to the spa and pool and they let us in. (Beautiful infinity pool and outstanding decoration, but no pics allowed) We had a beautiful view. Next we went up to the Al Mahara Restaurant, but again no pics inside. We did take some of the view, but the there was a lot of haze. We were told the haze is a mixture of humid air and building dust.
Next we proceeded to the Marina to board a boat to view the Palm Jumeirah artificial island.
Three of these islands will be built in all. The diameter of the largest one will be 12 kilometers. This picture shows the shape of the island.
We went around the breakwater on the outside. The cruise was about 90 minutes long. If Liz has put a link on here, take some time to check it out. It is really outstanding. This picture is of the new Atlantis Resort (like in Nassau).
It is at the top of the tree on the breakwater ring.(see map) There will be 20 resorts on the breakwater. We also saw a desalination plant and sewage treatment plants. Very, very interesting.
The boat also took us over to see The World, a cluster of 300 islands built loosely in the shape of the world.
Then Jeff and I left the tour and walked over to the yacht club which was closed because it was Monday. The guard called a car to take us to Ski Dubai, the indoor artificial ski hill. This silver structure is the ski hill attached to a mall.
This interior shot is only of a small section. The ski hill is in the rear and the tubing etc in the front of this shot.
One of the interesting things is that the chair lift is attached to the ceiling instead of the ground so there are no obstructions on the hill. The chair lift also turns a corner which is interesting construction. I hope I can get Jeff to blog about Dubai because he will have some interesting views on this place. The cost to ski for 2 hours was about $50 and included ski clothes.
On the way out of the port we had a last look at The World, the condo cruise ship.
3 comments:
That place looks amazing. A friend Pete served with did embassy duty there and I think some ships take port there for R&R on their way out of the middle east, though Pete never got to. Indoor skiing looks way cool. Am looking forward to your stop in Egypt XOXO
Wow Mom and Dad! That looks amazing!! I am so jealous of you being able to ski there, what did you do Mom while Dad was skiing??
I should have asked you to check out the race course. They have the riches purses in the world for race horses and it is all done by invitation only! You could have put in a good word for us!
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