Oh…and I forgot to tell you I touched the Titanic at the Dubai Mall last night. And tonight we stumbled across the Emir of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
After dinner last night we went for a stroll through the Dubai Mall. Featured there is the largest aquarium I have ever seen. Full sized sharks are just some of the residents, along with huge rays and thousands of fish of all sizes. A walk-through tube is available for those who want to pay. But Neil takes me to an area of the mall that specialises in watches and flashed-up mobile phones. Watches are a huge status thing here as they are elsewhere but in this particular shop there are watches that are like no others. Not diamond adorned ones because that is so last season. These watches are truly unique. One line has rusted metal from the Titanic in it’s styling. Another has actual moon dust in it and another has it’s band made from the astronaut suits from one of the moon landings! They are limited releases and cost around $12000 dollars. Neil thinks Karen is going to buy him one. Karen doesn’t think so! Such is the opulence on offer in Dubai for some. Tourists come here to shop and that us what Dubai wants.
Neil and I visit Atlantis today. Atlantis is a holiday resort built on the man-made palm-shaped islands. We catch a special monorail that takes us up the stem of the palm. From the monorail you get views of the islands that make up the fronds. A single access street runs down the middle of each frond with residences built either side so they all have water fronts. It’s all very impressive. And of course the frond islands get shorter as we move to the top of the palm. I cant help thinking it wont take much global warming to cause problems here. These islands are only just out if the water. Amongst the residences are holiday resorts and planned shopping malls but the GFC has left huge holes in their place. The Atlantis Resort is one that was completed. It’s busy at the moment with families from around the world. It has a spectacular feature. Huge aquariums take up the centre of the resort and they are decorated with sets of a crumbled Atlantis, the lost city. Very impressive and the main aquarium is so large they did have a whale shark in there for a while. Concerned citizens eventually forced the resort to release the shark back into the wild. Some of the resorts rooms actually back onto the aquarium so that you could wake up with a shark staring you in the face!
Neil has to check in on the Dubai Airshow practice sessions so Karen and I wait in the carpark. We get a clear view of the action. Planes fly past in formation doing all sorts of air acrobatics and trailing coloured streams of smoke. An F16 and a Phantom fighter jets do their amazing solo acts in a cloud of exhaust and noise. It really is exciting stuff though Karen’s levels of excitement are less than mine. ‘It must be a guy thing’ she says! These amazing fighter jets do this thing where they perform a slow flyby. Like a dog dragging it’s bum on the ground they too are bum down and head up, passing by at the minimum speed required to not stall. From my vast experience with flying fighter jets, this would require great skill from the pilot and exert enormous stresses on the craft. Karen is still not that impressed.
The day is not over. For dinner tonight we head out into the desert. It’s a 70 kilometer drive through a lot of beautiful beautiful nothing. The sun is setting and the colours are mesmerising as is the mood. We pass a base for the Dubai endurance horse riding. Endurance horse riding is a big sport here and is a favourite of the Emir of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. He is very good at it by all reports and travels the world competing.
Our restaurant is part of a resort out here in the desert by itself. It’s luxurious and very comfortable. We start with a visit to the bar. It’s packed with the ‘UAE Black Eagle’ biker gang. On the way out Neil recognises a large black car wearing the number one number plate. That belongs to Sheikh Mohammed. On our way into the restaurant after enjoying the desert air from beanbags we are asked to step aside and coming out is the Sheikh. With his all-male entourage, he walked right passed us! He even acknowledged Neil. I’m very impressed.
The dinner is buffet style specialising in traditional Arab foods and it comes with and Arabian styled show including music and dancing.
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