Saying Hi to Dubai

Departed Seattle on Monday at 1:00 PM; arrived to our Dubai hotel at ~9:00 PM local time on Tuesday night. Distance traveled : ~12,500 miles. Travel Time: ~24 hours, thank God for free booze on International flights. 

I had my own little happy hour......... for hours.







The Dubai International Airport is very nice; all new and filled with travelers of all shapes and sizes.  

Who do you think owns this and is this a new way to ship furniture?

















Dubai has an interesting, albeit  limited history ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai ). We thought that best way to get an overview was a Hop on- Hop off bus. 











The town was originally a fishing / pearl diving community until they found oil and Mikimoto started culturing pearls in Japan. The oil began to running out in the 1990's, so they switched to international trade, financial services and tourism. Now this place has cash to burn and a real estate development that seems endless. The are more skyscrapers here that anywhere else in the world.

Dubai has been called the "shopping capital of the Middle East". Dubai  has more than 70 shopping centers, including the world's largest shopping center, Dubai Mall. Clearly Dubai has taken retail therapy to a biblical level.

Add to that, they have the tallest build in the world, the Burj Khalifa. And they charge $150 dollars a person to go up to the top!!! What fool would pay that much to do that?

Oh, well here are a few pic from the top of the Burj Khalifa.

OK, so did I tell you it is "the" TALLEST building in the world. You only go around once.

Back the hotel, we checked out the pool. Since it's about 95 degrees a cold one and the pool are just right.

We ended the day watching a water show from our restaurant dinner table. The Dubai Fountains are something special to see. 

Imagine, a water show in the dessert, what's next?