15 May Part 2

Palm Jumierah was created in the shape of a palm frond so that every property has a waterfront.  Built on created / reclaimed land, it is still a major construction site after five years of constant construction.  It is linked to "mainland" Dubai by a monorail.  At the end of the mono rail is the Atlantis Aquadventure Hotel and Water Park.  Along the outermost fronds, are hotels – the best brands from every country are represented here.  At the Atlantis, there is a Gordon Ramsey restaurant along with all the high end designer goods stores.  We sat down for coffee and a slice of carrot cake at the Starbucks because it is airconditioned and there is promise of free WiFi.  The WiFi, however, was not working.   As we sat sipping coffee, we came to the conclusion that the whole Palm Jumierah has this feeling of "extreme consumerism".

We were going to walk along the outer most palm frond till we can see Burj Arab.  After 5 minutes, we realised that the heat and humidity was way too much for us.  We were not English after all (Mad dog and Englishmen would have walked said the well-known colloquial quote.)  There were two operators of hop on hop off buses.  The City Sightseeing and the Big Bus.  They were both as bad as the other in that they were trying to sell us more features than what we want.  They kept throwing sweeteners in.  In the end we settled for the City Sightseeing and ended up buying 48 hours when we originally thought only of a 24 hrs pass, and only so that we can see the entire outer most frond of the Palm.

With an hour to wait before the next bus comes so we sat crowd watching.  It was interesting to note that Dubai is probably the place to go for holidays for Indians and Africans – sort of like Vegas for the Americans.  We did not see too many traditional Arabs holiday makers here although there were a few families.  The most interesting encounter though was with this group of relatively elderly Uighers from China – all dressed in the traditional Arabic / Turkuric fineries and costumes.  Their guide appeared to be Chinese but was speaking to them in Uigher – we could make out that it was not quite Arabic.  My travelling companion ventured to ask where they were from in Mandarin and they answered China … not too different from the Uzbek she met some years back at the border of China and Uzbekistan on the shore of Lake Karakul.

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It was already 3pm in the afternoon when the bus out of Palm Jumierah took us to Dubai Mall.  We were going to get there early so that we had plenty of time to make "At the Top" visit to the top of the tallest building of the world – the Burj Khalifah – 820m up in the air from the ground level.

City Sightseeing bus offer included the entrance to the Aquarium and the Marine Zoo in the 48 hr ticket.  We had two hours to spare so we had to have a look although I can tell that my travelling companion really hated the idea of so many fishes in so little water.  It is a huge mall but it is nothing like the ocean.  All these fishes are in water had either been brought or were born there.  The pelagic fishes and the rays looked happy enough although some fishes could be seen harassing the rays.  We wondered why the fishes here were way more restless than the usual ones we see in other aquariums – in Singapore or in Australia.  They were constantly moving rather than taking a rest. 

On the second floor of the mall, there is a marine zoo with exotic fishes and sea creatures – turtles, reptiles, and even two huge salty crocodiles.  It is really sad to see how little space and nature these creatures have.  At the regular zoo, at least they had access to nature - natural light and air.  The saddest event was to see a kookaburra, a white face owl, some rainbow parakeets and chickadees among the captive residents.

To say Dubai Mall is huge would be an understatement.  It is a hulk of a mall.  At one end of it was the entrance to the Burj Khalifah.   The reception for At the Top which include visit to both floors.  We were treated like VIPs.  They served us Arabic coffee and sweets while we waited.  The security was similar to that for airports.  Then there was this long walk with bite sizes of trivia about Burj Khalifah on the walls of the path.  Branding and marketing were very professional.  First stop after that was right at the top in the fastest elevator in the world complete with visual presentation as one rode up. 

View at the top was exquisite.  820m above ground level.  One can really see the Arabian Desert and observed how man had carved out of it the city of Dubai.  Every plant living is attached at its root to an automatic watering system.  Every lake is man-made.  Even the Creek which was natural is man-enhanced.  On the one hand, one can see the sheer effort that molded this city.  On the other hand, one wonders how many calories were poured into its creation, how many more are required to maintain it and whether it is sustainable.  There is an incredibly huge fountain in the forecourt.  We watched the fountain show from up above, a totally different perspective.  The high humidity caused a haze which made Burj Arab look more surreal and far away than it is.  The sunset though over the Islands of the World is a unique sight.  Islands of the World are still in progress and thus far no buildings can be seen as yet.  Visitors to At the Top also get first priority to come back down after sunset when other visitors have to queue for remaining spots on the elevators. 

We then rushed to catch the Night Tour which started at 8pm.  There, standing in a queue, were representatives from three states in Australia – Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.  I thought it rather interesting that the Chinese family from NSW asked my travelling companion if she spoke Mandarin.  They went on the night tour of the old town while Shane and Heather from an hour west of Warnambol, Victoria and we took the conventional tour.  City Sightseeing Bus stopped at Shopping Malls rather than interesting sights.  We guess the culture this side of the Creek is about shopping and consumerism.  The Creek is the natural divide between traditional and modern Dubai.  The city lights were interesting and reminded us of Vegas – a single strip is where the majority of the malls concentrated.  Heather and Shane made really good companions on the night tour.

At the end of the 2 hr night bus trip, it was time to run for the metro trains as the last train was at 11pm.  Dubai Mall is next to the Metro Station on the map.  In reality, though, it is 7 travellators away and a very long distance.  It took almost 20 minutes to get to the metro from the Mall walking at a really fast speed.  At least it was cooler than running along the street outside.  We managed to get to Al Ras station (the station nearest to our hotel) by 10.30 pm.  It was a good thing the trek back to the hotel was not so complicated as on the first day.  This late at night though, we stuck out even more.  Solo female going anywhere other than the mall and the international area is quite uncommon.

There is probably a lesson to be learnt in tackling corporate mazes from tackling these mazes of old souk towns.  We decided to go on the outside edge until we absolutely have to enter the labyrinth.  And there it was, much easier to find than the path my lady cab driver took at the instruction of the hotel reception.  Having spent now more than 48 hrs then in Dubai, we realised that using the GPS is better than asking for directions.  Dubai residents method of direction giving presume that the listener actually know the layout of the streets and all landmarks in the labyrinth, hence their instructions were at best incomprehensible.


The best looking building at night in Dubai had to be Burj Arab. It looks like a fat dragon sitting on its hind legs and its nose pointed to the sky.  It remains our favourite.

Footnote :  It is interesting that a recent article in a flight magazine I saw today on Smartwings (6 June) referred to Dubai Mall as the temple to consumerism.  Guess I could not have said it better.