Going Off...: I'm a little Chippie

We arrived in Dubai Airport at 1am Dubai time, but 4.30 am Singapore time - making it 20 hours without sleep!! Guess who was hot, sticky, grumpy and exhausted? Yep, both of us!!! And it was hot, hot, hot, even at that hour.

But what an Airport! We thought Singapore was huge,but this one was enormous! When we got off the plane, we walked for 20 minutes, then used 3 travellators and 2 escalators. Finally we got to the end, and were hearded onto one of 3 large lifts holding 100 people that took us to a train! Yep, a train! It takes off like a bullet, Bob reckons at least 5 kms. When it finally stopped, we had only arrived at Baggage Collection!!

The airport is very opulent and beautiful! No expense spared, that's for sure! Lots of huge marble pillars, granite tiles, acres of glass and mirrored and colourful mosaics. We were not too tired to admire it and be impressed - but way too tired, and with no spare hands, to take photos of it. Just Amazing!

Here's a glimpse of The Needle for you -

without the scorching heat!!

We braved the extreme heat again (38 deg plus) and did a tour of Dubai. We went to Burj Khalifah, the tallest building in the world, known to tourists as "The Needle". The walk to it is through the shopping mall - about twice the entire length of our Chadstone Shopping Centre and four stories high - all famous brand name boutiques.

It is such a wealthy country, with amazing innovative architecture Australia could learn from.

On the way, they have great interactive displays of the history of the building. Very interesting.

The observation deck is on the 124th floor!!

And for those of you interested in those things - the lift took 53 seconds to get there from the ground floor. It as an amazingly smooth ride, with none of that stomach sinking or rising feeling. If it wasn't for your ears popping continuously, you would have thought you were just standing in a cupboard!

The 360 deg view was amazing, considering that the other buildings around it looked so large on the ground. From the ground floor to the observation deck are hotel rooms, shops, and private apartments. From level 124 to 160 are offices, and 161 to 200 is vacant prime Real Estate!!

These are the "burbs," original old houses and
new apartment blocks. Unfortunately, it was
too hazy to see the Dubai CBD in the distance.

Burj al Arab

Some of you may have heard me say that a visit to the lobby of Burj al Arab (pictured above) - the hotel shaped like a sail, was high on my Dubai to-do list. Sadly, this was not to be. Apparently this 7 star Hotel is not for the hoi polloi. We were told the security guards would not let us near the building, let alone the foyer, unless we had a reservation for either accommodation, a meal, or a drink at the bar. The cheapest way was the drink option, at only $A188 a pop. There was also the small matter of the required dress codes that our travellers wardrobe could not provide, so we agreed to give it a miss this time.

Pop Quiz ... On the way we saw lots of these.

We reckon they would be great back home.

What do you think they are? Any ideas?

Other than that, we have enjoyed accosting locals and tourists at every opportunity. There is an important Indian religious event here at our hotel today, and lots of Indian people - dressed in their finery - have arrived for a special lunch. So Bob and I sat in the foyer to watch the arrivals..and got chatting...