We woke up rather early today as we planned to go skiing in Ski Dubai. The Ski Dubai isn't that far from where we stay. When we were about to get the tickets for the Ski Dubai, the lady at the counter informed us that we must be able to at least ski decently, if not she would not sell the tickets to us. Since neither of us can ski, we gave it a miss and went shopping around Mall of Emirates instead, since we have about 2 hrs to kill before our high tea at Burg Al Arab. Nothing eventful happened and we hopped onto the cab once the time comes.
Soon we found ourselves driving towards Burj Al Arab, once passed the tourist infested main security gate, the surrounding seem peaceful. As we alighted the cab, we saw a bunch of Mainland Chinese snapping pictures around the main entrance of the hotel. We did like wise and proceeded into the lobby. As we entered the lobby, the luxury of the hotel was immediately felt. Walking inside here really gives one a feeling of VIP. The water fountain rhythm greeting visitors at the main gate was smoothing. However this tranquility was shattered by the hordes of visitors who either paid to visit this hotel or is part of their tour package. Nonetheless we headed up the escalator heading towards the lift that would take us directly to the Skybar for our high tea. While waiting for the lift, we saw the same bunch of Mainland Chinese chattering and commenting loudly (very typical of them) about their posture for their pictures and such. The lift had came and we soon found ourselves heading upwards towards the Skybar.
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| The Burj Al Arab |
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| View of the nearby beach from Burj Al Arab |
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| Inside Burj Al Arab |
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| Inside Burj Al Arab |
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| Inside Burj Al Arab |
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| Inside Burj Al Arab |
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| A crystal model of the hotel |
The lift was facing the Arabian Gulf, riding inside simply gave me the feeling of propelling towards the sky. The same bunch of Mainland Chinese were in the same lift with us, they can't contain their excitement about this hotel and I can hear "Wows" from their mouth, as if for the moment that is the only vocabulary that they can find to describe their feeling inside the lift. The journey upwards only took 50 sec and soon we were talking to the waiter about our reservation. The Chinese who came with us in the same lift were disappointed when they were refused entry into the Skybar as they did not have a high tea reservation. We were introduced to Glenn, who took care of our stomach while we were up there in the Skybar. Our seating was apparently one of the most scenic ones as I can see Burj Khalifa afar. The Jumeira Beach Hotel and Wild wadi is just next to Burj Al Arab and they were in nice view of us. The view was not only stunting, it also gave me a sense of carefree. Glenn came by pouring us champagne and filled our table with appetizers and the teas that we ordered. Glenn appeared about 10 mins later with our tower of finger food. We only managed to cleared 2 level of the 4 level tower container that was shaped to resemble the Burj Al Arab. The level of service in here was amazing, felt very much like the business class of an aircraft when Glenn remembered my surname, and using my surname to address me every time we interacted. The service felt personalised.
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| View of the surrounding from the Skybar on top of Burj Al Arab |
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| The Arabian Sea from the Skybar |
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| View of the surrounding from the Skybar on top of Burj Al Arab |
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| Appetiser |
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| Champagne |
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| High Tea is great here |
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| Me in the Skybar |
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| Tea Time |
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| High Tea in the Skybox |
We initially thought High tea probably will not fill our stomach too much, geez how wrong we were. We did not even managed to touch the scones that Glenn brought to us before we gave up and surrender to the food. We spent about 2 hours at the Skybar, enjoying the view and the food as well as the service and the live music. Felt like the world was without worries. However such relaxed feeling was about to end when we had to head towards the Burg Khalifa as we had bought tickets for the 4 pm entrance. As we were at the main entrance and saw some buggies ferrying people in and out of the hotel. We curiously asked the driver if it is for everyone, the driver sternly told us that it is for hotel guests only. However after 5 mins of waiting, he decided to give us a lift. Perhaps he was thinking no harm giving us a lift since he is heading the same way as well. The ride on the buggy facing the Hotel as we exited it was good. We managed to take some good shots of the hotel. As we exited from the hotel, it is not tough to see the envious faces of the people outside taking picture. They probably thought we were staying inside the hotel.
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| View of the surrounding from the Skybar on top of Burj Al Arab |
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| View of the Palm Islands from the Skybar |
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| Light music in the Skybar |
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| View of the surrounding from the Skybar on top of Burj Al Arab |
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| The hotel entrance |
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| Causeway driving out of Burj Al Arab |
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| Burj Al Arab from the causeway |
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| The Burj Al Arab |
We were about 1 hour later when we reached Burj Khalifa entrance. The guy at the door merely asked "why so late". This question feels more like asking for the sake of asking, I replied "we were held up at the hotel" (well in some ways we were held up soaking the ambience at the Burj Al Arab). He passed us 2 tickets and we find ourselves at the lift lobby waiting for the lift to ascend the tallest building in the world. Though this is my 2nd visit in my short stay in Dubai, I was still excited about visiting this skyscraper and watching sunset. Today don't seemed as crowded as the first day I visited. We went around snapping our cameras away and watched sunset (or so I think, since we did not see the sun physically going under the horizon). We stayed up till the first fountain showtime. I managed to get a good spot that allowed us to see the whole of the fountain. I took a video of the 3 min show. Then we headed down for dinner as it is close to our hotel check out timing. After dinner, we went back outside to see the fountain show once more time. Very coincidentally, the music (or song) they used was "Time to say Goodbye". I was telling my friend how appropriate this song came accompanying the fountain dancing, as though they knew this was our last night in Dubai. We stayed for 2 shows before heading back to the hotel to pack up for our flight back to Singapore.
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| View of the surrounding from Burj Khalifa |
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| View of the surrounding from Burj Khalifa |
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| View of the surrounding from Burj Khalifa |
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| Arabian coastline from Burj Khalifa |
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| Panoramic view of the coast from Burj Khalifa |
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| View of the surrounding from Burj Khalifa |
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| Awaiting sunset |
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| Sunsetting over the Arabian Sea |
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| Sunsetting over the Arabian Sea |
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| Sunset |
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| View of the surrounding from Burj Khalifa |
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| View of the surrounding from Burj Khalifa |
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| Musical Fountain show from Burj Khalifa |
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| The Arabian night sky |
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| Night view from Burj Khalifa |
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| Night view from Burj Khalifa |
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| Night view from Burj Khalifa |
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| Musical Fountain performance |
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| Musical Fountain performance |
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| Musical Fountain performance |
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| Musical Fountain performance |
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| Musical Fountain performance |
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| Musical Fountain performance |
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| Night view of Burj Khalifa |
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| Musical Fountain performance |
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| Musical Fountain performance |
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| Musical Fountain performance |
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| Night view of Burj Khalifa |
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| Night view of Burj Khalifa |
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We took a cab to the airport after checking out. The queue for the flights was horrendous! Only 2 counters open for the snaking queue of passengers, but this was solved shortly after one of the staff told us to head to the other side where they had just opened another 4 counters to process the check-ins. We loitered in the airport for the next 3 hours for our flight back home. The flight was delayed by another hour, making flying at this hour seem sleepy.
Flying back concludes my 18 day trip to this part of the world which I wouldn't even have considered if not for my friend's suggestion. Comparing Iran to Dubai, I prefer Iran as the people are (ALOT) friendlier and less stuck up as The people in Dubai (be it The emiratis or the migrant workers). Dubai feel like man-made to me, where one can see what wonders money can buy. I have seen quite a bit during this trip, flying home gives me a mixed feeling. On one hand I very much wanted to go home, on the other hand, going home means going back to reality! The past 18 days has been enjoyable. My next trip will be around Sep next year, not too sure which country I will end up visiting, only time will tell......
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