From Sea to Shining Tower

Dumbai, United Arab Emirates – Day 2

Hello, it's Kylie. Today we went from sea level, the warmest most salty water I’ve ever been in, to the124th floor of a magnificent and tallest building in the world.  Wow.  Like always, we hadn’t planned anything, so we just woke up and made up our minds to spend the afternoon at the beach, and the nice Uber driver took us there.

The moment we got to the beach, we noticed an obstacle course floating out on the water, but we decided to skip it.  Dex had felt the water and spread the news that it was as warm as bath water.  We all agreed, and before you knew it, everyone was having fun jumping and playing in the Persian Gulf.   We didn’t play many games, just floated and let the waves roll us around.  It was very easy to float because the water was so salty.  Unfortunately, it stung your eyes and didn’t taste very good.  It was a super hot, hazy day but still felt good to be in the water.  The water didn’t make you cold, it was when you stood up and could feel the slight breeze that you felt cooled off.  

After a while, Dad told us we could have 10 minutes more and then we were going to go out and get some lunch.  We decided to eat at a place we’d seen on the way to the beach, House of Curry.  We ordered samosas, green fish curry, and a Goan Prawn curry with two orders of Basmati Rice.  The prawn dish was a little spicy and my Mango Lassie was nice to help wash it down.  Everyone but Dex agreed that the green curry was better. 

Dad decided that we could all go back to the beach before heading back to the hotel to rinse off and change clothes for the trip to the Burj Khalifa Tower.  By the way, it felt much better to be in dry clothes and desanded!  Dex and my faces were all red, but luckily they didn’t hurt.

Hazy view of distant hotels

Dad used Uber to get us to the Burj Khalifa.  After some traffic, we got dropped off at a huge mall, where we needed to pick up our tickets.  We had 15 minutes to figure out where we needed to go.  When we found out that we were on the wrong floor and the opposite side of, apparently, the biggest mall in the world, we had another mad dash on our hands….same old story.  As we ran through the mall, Dex and I both agreed that it seemed like a shopping mall at Christmas, with lots of people, and red, white and green colors (Dad's note, the colors in the UAE flag).  We didn’t have much time to admire it, because we still needed to get to the ticket stand.  After only a couple wrong turns, (including a view of the outside world), we made it to the ticket office with 1 minute to spare. 

With tickets in hand we made our way to the elevator that would take us to the 124^th floor.  We were stunned when we determined that it was moving us up at 4 floors a second.  So much for those wimpy hotel elevators!  We got up to our floor and the views of the city were astonishing.  I had brought a map of Dubai with me so that I could find landmarks and spot which places we were looking at.  I felt nervous at the edge by the windows –- it was quite a long drop below me.  But not to worry, we made it back to the ground floor in less than 60 seconds.

With lots of guidance and directions, we found our way to the restaurant where Dad had purchased dinner for us.  As we first entered the dinner area, we were surprised at the fact that we were outside and that there was a big beautiful pool, nestled in the corner of the deck.  To the right of that was the tower going straight up.  To the left were a lake and fountains.  As we waited for our meal, the waiter explained to us that the small blinking dots on the sides of the tower would change color and design.   Little did we know that one whole side lit up and looked like tie-dye, squigglies, water currents, stripes, dots and just plain colors.  Just imagine a tower that is ½ mile tall, lit up and changing colors.  It was incredible! 

Just as we settled into our chairs again, the fountains started shooting 10, 20, 30 feet of water into the air.  We scurried out of our chairs and found the best viewing area.  Surprisingly, not many other people tried to get a better view… but then again, there weren’t that many people in the restaurant to begin with.  Because it took so long for our dinner to be served, we got to watch 5 different water shows. (Dad's note: water and light shows every half and hour, staggered by 15 minutes). It was great day in Dubai, so great that both Dex and I fell asleep on the way back to the hotel.