Thursday – February 8, 2018
Burj Al Arab is a luxury hotel built on an island of reclaimed land. It was designed to resemble the billowing spinnaker sail of a J-class yacht, and has become an iconic symbol for Dubai.
Today was our last full day in Dubai and our guide, Maged Salib, presented several options for the group. He arranged for the bus to drive us into the heart of the city to see several interesting sights and then drop off anyone along the way who wanted to spend more time at a particular place.
After a photo stop at Burj Al Arab, we drove to Souq Madinat Jumeirah to see the high-end shopping mall which is part of the Madinat Resort. It is supposed to be “an authentic re-creation of an ancient marketplace with traditional Middle Eastern style and ambiance.” It was a lovely place to shop.
I walked through the Souq to the canal behind the mall and the vista opened to a wonderful scene of traditional styled buildings connected by a green waterway. Traditional wooden boats transported guests from hotels along the canal.
Our next stop was the famous “Palm Jumeirah” which is an artificial island created just offshore in the shape of a giant palm tree. Construction began in 2001 and the island is entirely built from rocks and sand. Our bus let us off at the mono-rail station and we rode to the end of the line to the Atlantis Hotel & Resort.
Dubai is such a huge city it takes time to travel between important sights. Our bus met us at the end of Palm Island and we drove to Dubai Marina.
Gerri, Anne, and I had ventured here yesterday on our own so it was familiar to us and I was happy to see the impressive district again.
In the photos and in reality, this part of Dubai looks like an unreal drawing of a modern city. However, its scale is very human and seems user-friendly with families, children, and moms pushing strollers along the canal.
Most of the people in our group wanted to have free shopping time, so we stopped at the two most famous malls: The Dubai Mall (1200 shops) and Mall of the Emirates (only 700 shops).
We all entered the Mall of the Emirates to see “Ski Dubai,” with its indoor mountain and five ski slopes – including an indoor black diamond run!
Imagine downhill skiing in 120 degree weather in July! Unbelievable!!!!
I chose to return to our hotel to relax and pack instead of shopping. The Hyatt Regency was an excellent luxury hotel for our brief time in Dubai. There was a small mall attached to the hotel complete with an ice skating rink. A young girl was having a lesson when I snapped this picture.
This is a photo of the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Tomorrow we leave for Abu Dhabi, UAE.
