As promised I will give you an overview of my trip to Dubai, the second-largest of the seven emirates which make up the United Arab Emirates.
This city is only 43 years old in its present state, even though the Bedouins would tell you it is over 3,000 years old. The city itself covers only 35 square kilometers, but the urban area extends to over 3,800 square kilometers. The population is 2.1 million and said to double by the year 2020. Three-quarters are male; only 5 percent are locals.
What an amazing place. We seem to have walked continuously for the week we were there. We even went up 124 floors, as far as you can go, on the elevator at Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. It took all of 61 seconds to travel that far. And the view lets you see it all, out across The Palms (manmade islands), over the city to the desert and to the outer limits where nothing else seems to exist.
We walked the Ibn Battuta Mall with sections depicting China, India, Persia, Egypt and Iran; the Mall of the Emirates with the Ski Dubai indoor ski slopes; the Dubai Mall with a three-story indoor aquarium, a water wall, 1,200 shops and 160 food outlets, as well as a spacious manmade lake with a fountain that dances to opera. We walked the grocery stores and parked in underground parking where they come around with portable car-washing machines. Imagine having your car washed while you buy groceries.
We drove to Abu Dhabi in order to tour the Grand Mosque where we had to put on an abaya, the long black dress and head covering worn by muslem women. Beautiful white marble with inlaid flowers and elaborate designs, chandeliers with crystal and gold trim, columns and arches throughout. No penny-pinching here.
There just isn’t enough space here to tell it all but everything was amazing. It is why we travel the world. Now we are off on the Panama Canal trip which I will you about next time.
Join us in the future for a short trip to Leavenworth or in October a more exotic trip to Israel. How about Christmas in the Carolinas or South Africa? Contact Linda Finch at 253-927-8207 or linda.finch@gmail.com