Dubai, UAE: Burj Khalifa

On our last day in Dubai (again with Tbilisi's early morning arrivals our flight didn't leave until after midnight), we headed to the world's tallest manmade structure....the Burj Khalifa.

According their website, the Burj Khalifa is 828 meters (2716.5 feet) tall. It touts the highest number of stories, the highest occupied floor, and the highest observation deck to name a few.

We opted for the basic ticket that takes you to the 124th floor (you can pay 4x as much to go all the way to the 148th floor).

I am well aware that Dubai was built from nothing in the desert. I still commented to Richard that everything was so brown/sand colored.....from the ground there is lots of landscaping and you don't notice all the sand as much.

 Looking up from the 124 floor to the top of the building.

Note the shadow of the Burj Khalifa.

You can see the 'World of Islands' that I mentioned was across from Jumeriah Beach.

Buildings, buildings everywhere as far as the eye can see!

An ariel shot of the fountain used in the nightly water/light show. We watched the show the night before from the little bridge to the left of the picture.

I found it interesting that construction began in 2004,

and the building was completed in 2010. Those 6 years seem like a long time in one respect, but then when you admire the hugeness of the building, it seems like such a short time.

Afterwards, we had lunch in the Dubai Mall (it is connected to the tourist entrance to the Burj Khalifa). Then we both went our separate ways to explore the mall (I'm not as interested in electronic stores and Richard could care less about going into to Sephora).

Overall, we had a great trip. We brought the kids back some surprises which made their day, but we are definitely planning on bringing them back to visit.

Dubai, UAE: Arabian Gulf

After our sunrise hot air ballooning adventure, we made it back to the hotel in time for the free breakfast and then caught the shuttle to Jumeirah Public Beach. Jumeriah Beach sits on the Arabian Gulf (also listed as Persian Gulf on some maps). On this sunny December morning, the beach was practically empty.

When we climb on some jetties, we could see the 'World of Islands'. These are some 300 islands that were constructed of dredged sand to make a map of the world (see wikipedia for their aerial photo).

Being a marine biologist and all, I must explore the tide pools.....Richard followed me out there.

Limpets, urchins, barnacles, oh my!

Wishing I had brought my snorkel gear....but with the number of urchins in the water that may have been dangerous.....

Barnacles on a limpet.....(I have never denied I'm a science dork)....

My view for a couple hours. Richard went exploring/walking the beach, while I took full advantage of the fact I was at the beach with no kids and I just laid back and soaked up some vitamin D.

By noon, it had actually gotten quite a bit warm. Richard and I walked the shore a bit, I picked up some shells, and then we waded into the water. It was actually pretty warm (mid 70s). We walked over towards the jetties again and checked out some more wildlife.

Close up of urchins.

Fish, fish and more fish......I wish I had a field guide.

We took some photos of the Burj Khalifa in skyline behind us....or maybe I started to grow a unicorn horn....I like that idea!

After our fun in the sun, we showered and the headed down to the Gold Souk (market). 

Its was much brighter and more open air than the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, but we were somewhat disappointed in how aggressive some of the salesman were. If you walked by, they would start inviting you to look in their shop and continue following you and repeatedly invite you in. It's possible we were just overly tired from our early morning ballooning adventure and then 4.5 hours at the beach. We did stop to look in one window, which contained the world record for largest ring!

I'm not sure if it is even possible for a single person to lift that ring, let alone wear it! The Gold Souk is located near the banks of the Dubai Creek. There were a large number of boats/barges as well as mountains of boxes being delivered/loaded along the creek.

Near all these barges you can catch one of the many abras (water taxi) ferrying people across the creek. We were offered a private creek tour for 100 dirham, we opted for the 1 dirham group taxi straight across. 

Another abra crossing the creek.

A mosque we could see from the water.

After wandering around the Fabric Souk. There were still somewhat aggressive salesman, but not as bad on this side of the creek. It looked as if most shops you would pick our a fabric and then they would make to order the garment you wanted. 

Afterwards, we headed back to the Dubai Mall for dinner and to watch the Dubai Fountain light show.

We also go a decent shot of almost all the Burj Khalifa (which gets its own post).

Dubai, UAE: Hot Air Ballooning

Our third day in Dubai, we got up super early (as in the shuttle picked us up around 5:30 am!). The Balloon Adventures Emirates shuttle picked up a group from another hotel and then we headed out to the desert before dawn.

After going over safety and landing information. The BAD boys started filling the balloon (you know the Balloon Adventures Dubai boys). First they started with industrial sized fans just blowing air into the balloon.

Then comes the fire to heat up that air.

Almost ready for boarding. As soon as the basket was upright Cap't Mike yelled to jump in....and we did!

Close to our highest, about 4000 feet. Unfortunately, there was no wind up there so we spent most of the time only several hundred feet above the desert.

Bedouin farm land. There is no water in the desert, so all water for irrigation is piped in from Dubai.

We made it up in time to watch the sun start rising over the Hajjar Mountains.

It took about 2 minutes and the sun was up!

The Sheikh wrote Dubai into his personal lake.

Here is a little video clip of the fun we were having.

View of the morning sunlight hitting the tops of sand dunes.

A group of Arabian Gazelles we flew over.

Good Morning!

Flying near the UAE military facility.

Lots and lots of camel farms.

Camels heading to the race tracks.

As I mentioned in the desert safari post, during camel races there is a electronic jockey being controlled by someone driving nearby in a truck. You can see the camels running on the wet race track. On both sides of that track there are trucks and SUVs next to their camel racing. 

Another shot of the racing camels and their owners car.....

Selfie in the sky :)

Beyond the balloon shadow, you can see downtown Dubai.

When landing on windy days, the basket will tip over.....I think this made the ride more fun actually.....

The balloon deflates super quickly.

I think Richard had a good time....

because I had a good time too!