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<\/a>View from our hotel room.<\/p>\nOur guide, Mohammad (Egyptian), picked us up about 9:20am.\u00a0 We joined a single woman from Karachi, Pakistan (spoke decent English), and a family of three (4-year old boy) from Italy.\u00a0 Our guide gave all the information for the tour in English, and then repeated it in Italian.\u00a0 As the tour progressed, the Italian family spoke enough English to converse about the fact they were from Sicily, Taormina, specifically.\u00a0 Our guide told us he sometimes has as many as three languages for tours off a cruise ship, English, Italian, and Spanish.\u00a0 And of course, he speaks Arabic.<\/p>\n
Our first point of interest is \u201cThe Palm of Jumeirah Beach\u201d.\u00a0 It\u2019s the famous man-made islands built in the shape of a palm tree.\u00a0 A large Atlantis hotel (same company as Bahamas Atlantis), is at the very tip of the islands.\u00a0 A monorail runs the length of the trunk from the mainland out to the hotel.\u00a0 There\u2019s a really nice boardwalk (18km) along the rock breakwater protecting the entire complex.\u00a0 Thousands of trucks were required to haul all the rocks in from Oman.\u00a0 This was a HUGE project.\u00a0 Lots of building still going on, hotels, residences, etc.<\/p>\n
Next stop was a viewing of the Burj Al Arab hotel, the iconic \u201cSail\u201d.\u00a0 You can\u2019t get on site without a booking or restaurant reservation.\u00a0Our hotel concierge worked to get us a reservation in the restaurant at the top of the hotel, but the starting price for a fixed meal was nearly $300 USD per person.\u00a0 I guess pictures from afar will have to do.\u00a0 The only rooms in the hotel are large suites encompassing two floors.\u00a0 It\u2019s very exclusive.<\/p>\n We had time to visit a shopping area nearby.\u00a0 It\u2019s part of a complex of three hotels connected to each other by canals, referred to by the locals as Dubai Venice.<\/p>\n Next stop was the Marina District.\u00a0 It\u2019s a man-made waterway with some very exclusive hotels.\u00a0 We walked around the boardwalk, admiring the boats, and amazing spiral tower.<\/p>\n The Dubai Mall and the Burj Al Khalifa is our next stop.\u00a0 The mall is advertised as the world\u2019s largest with more than 2500 name brand stores.\u00a0 It contains a lake with fountains that \u201cdance\u201d similar to the Bellagio in Las Vegas.\u00a0There is a light show that displays on the Burj Al Khalifa \u2013 the world\u2019s tallest building.\u00a0 There\u2019s also a huge (5 stories) indoor waterfall at one end of the mall. The mall is huge.\u00a0 We walked our legs off. \u00a0As we entered today, we saw some of the huge aquarium that’s also part of the property<\/p>\n Our tour ended around 2:00 after our trip to the top (125th\u00a0<\/sup>floor) of the Burj Khalifa.\u00a0 We decided to stay at the mall and eat, walk around, while we wait for the fountains and light show that began at 6:00.\u00a0We ended up in the Five Guys restaurant enjoying a vanilla shake, with a view of the fountains and light show.<\/p>\n The water show seemed average to us, nothing special.\u00a0 We finally decided to head home, and as we were leaving, a light show began, displayed on the Burj Khalifa.\u00a0 It was something!\u00a0 With only 10 minutes left when it ended before the next fountain show, we decided to wait.\u00a0 The 2nd<\/sup>fountain show was much better.\u00a0 Different music and fountain actions made a difference.\u00a0 After the show, we walked to a taxi stop, bound for home.<\/p>\n Day 1 in Dubai has been one amazing thing after another!\u00a0 What a blast, and our guide was good, getting us in and out of places quickly.\u00a0We can\u2019t wait till tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Breakfast in our hotel was good.\u00a0 There were lots of choices on the buffet, both Western, and Arabic.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never seen so much lamb turned into breakfast foods.\u00a0Pork bacon or sausage, are not to be found. View from our hotel … Continue reading <\/a> <\/a>Atlantis, and they’re building and even bigger one next door<\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a>Burj Al Arab<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>The Waterfall<\/p>\n<\/a>Burj Khalifa, 828 meters<\/p>\n<\/a>It seems so much better when we stand in front of it.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0From the 125th floor observatory<\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a>\u00a0Lake where the fountains dance<\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Light Show!<\/p>\n