Last Day of the Holiday

Saturday 7 January

Today was our last day of the holiday but we had nearly a full day in Dubai to enjoy. With our latest checkout from the hotel to be 3pm we decided to sightsee and have lunch before coming back to the hotel at 2. The main thing we wanted to see was the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, which we could see right outside our hotel windows. The Burj is a beautiful building. Very stylish with a 3 pointed base and numerous outer floors ending at various points as the building rises. At each of these ending points there are outside terraces. We walked from out hotel to the Burj but came to the wrong door--the one for residents--and were directed by a security guard to the nearby Dubai Mall to buy tickets. The entrance to the Burj is actually through the Mall. I'd say the whole complex area, the Mall, the Burj, the Gold Souk (a building with tourist souvenir shops) and our hotel which also has several high rise apartment buildings were all planned as a whole and built around the dancing fountain. We went to buy our Burj tickets and discovered that all tickets were sold out until Monday! Nothing had prepared us for that. We noticed, however, that people were going up to the desk and seemed to be buying tickets then saw that there were 'immediate' tickets available at 400 Dirhams each. That's like $A100 for each ticket. Well the Burj was only one of two main things I'd planned to do in Dubai so we bought immediate tickets.

The Burj really is an experience not to be missed. The whole entryway to the elevators was full of displays about the building of the tower. It was quite a fascinating coming together of people from all parts of the world and all nationalities to create this structure. The building is over 828 metres (2,716.5 feet) and more than 160 stories, Burj Khalifa holds the following records:
• Tallest building in the world
• Tallest free-standing structure in the world
• Highest number of stories in the world
• Highest occupied floor in the world
• Highest outdoor observation deck in the world
• Elevator with the longest travel distance in the world
• Tallest service elevator in the world

The elevator was also the smoothest elevator I've ever been in. There was no sinking feeling in the stomach as it went up. It was smooth as silk. Only the closing of my ears told me that I was going up. The observation deck--called 'At the Top' is on the 124th floor. There we were able to go outside and view and take photos over Dubai. The floor of the deck is stained wood planking which I thought was unusual. One would expect everything to be concrete in a building like this. Glass panels separated us from the outside but these had gaps in them to allow for photography. Inside the observation area continued around the other side of the building and, of course, there was a gift shop. We bought the photo they took of us before we got in the lift so have a nice memory of our visit.

After going up in the Burj we went back into the Dubai Mall and looked for Arab ties for Paul with no luck. Then we ate lunch at the food court. The Dubai Mall is not only a shopping centre but it is also an entertainment destination. It has an aquarium and an ice skating rink in it. I think Australian Malls should think about doing this as well. They would then compete with each other over more than just shopping.

We went back to our hotel by walking around the lake and got there about 2 but then we found our room cards didn't open the rooms so we had to go back to reception to get new cards. That ate up some of the time we were planning to use for rest and we ended up taking all of the time up to 3pm repacking our bags and checking the rooms for belongings. Just before 3 we called for our bags to be collected as we were going to put them in storage and go out again. The kids were wanting to just sit in the hotel reception, which was a small busy area, for 3 hours before we had to leave. But Paul and I didn't want to do that so we got them to come with us to the Gold Souk to buy last minute souvenirs. We also got ice creams and generally tried to use up the last of our Dirhams. We were sitting eating the ice creams at about 5.05 when suddenly the fountain sprang to life to the accompaniment of opera music. I've just looked it up and we heard Con the Partiro by Andre Boccelli and Sarah Brightman. A beautiful song!

We thought we were lucky to hear that but then as we walked around the lake back to the hotel only 15 minutes later another fountain show came on with Michael Jackson singing Thriller! Wow! We got to the end of the lake closest to our hotel and waited for 6pm when we thought there would be another show. Paul was going to video this one as it would be getting dark and the lights would show up the fountain better. Instead, the show was delayed (we think) as the call to prayer came out. So it was a bit after 6 that the show we filmed came up. Unfortunately, I don't know what music it was as it was nothing recognisable.

We returned to the hotel, collected our bags and took a taxi to the Etihad terminal to board the courtesy bus back to the airport. We were booked on the 7.30 bus for our 10.30m flight. Our bags were actually checked in for the flight at the bus so we didn't have to worry about them again. At the terminal we cleared immigration then looked around at the shops and got something to eat.

Our flight back was relatively eventless, except for me. We had some turbulence as we approached Melbourne airport and I was airsick just as we landed. Welcome home! I guess I did well not being sick the whole trip and once I was sick I felt better so better out than in!

So that was our trip. I'm still in the process of uploading photos. I have a couple of more 'impression' posts to add as well.