Dubai is such an impressive city; it is clean, beautifully landscaped and says “wealth”. As Mike said “This is the Disneyworld for the rich” and I agree. It prides itself on having the biggest and best of everything including 5-7 star hotels, artificial islands like Palm and the World and even an indoor ski slope.
The economy looks to be booming as evidenced by the number of new construction sites and how many people are working. Many locals were working on the construction sites but many were also scrubbing the brick patios, pathways and walls with brushes and sponges one brick at a time.
We arrived at the Dubai Mall and it was overwhelming. Every major merchant from the US and the world has a store here. Besides the variety of merchants it boasts two 3-story wall fountains, hundreds of large TV screens and restaurants. The Gold Souk (market) alone had 222 different stores!
When we left the mall we were at the central plaza. Here in the city center was the largest water fountain in the world as well as the tallest building. At 6pm we saw the water fountain show and it was incredible, we are in a desert aren’t we? The water cannons would shoot water 40 – 50 feet in the air and sounded like fireworks bursting in air. The second show at 7 pm was even more spectacular, after dark it included a beautiful light show.
Next week when we return we will be ascending the world’s tallest building and I look forward to it. We want to also visit Palm Island (a land reclamation project which is in the shape of a palm tree), the Mall of the Emirates with over 1200 stores, an Olympic-size ice rink, a Fashion Catwalk and an indoor ski center (Ski Dubai). Another excursion to we would like to take is a wooden boat (dhow) down Dubai Creek which runs through the center of the commercial heart of the city to the east (Deira) and the city’s historical district to the west (Bur Dubai).
Off to the city of Muscat, Oman tomorrow.
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