Prior to going to Dubai, I always had the impression that it was this city whereby everything was mega-scale. After all, all that I read in the news about Dubai was its attempts to create islands of the world, and the tallest building of the world. In short, I was expecting one-upmanship architecture.
My first impression based on contact did not change much, as we first set foot at the airport. Everything – elevators, arrival halls – was mega scale. They had like goldish Roman columns in the baggage retrieval area man.
Anyways, we scored a deal on Holiday Inn Express on Jumeirah, which worked out to be about 50 SGD per person for a triple, inclusive of breakfast. It was a deal, considering how much everything else cost in Dubai. While getting there was a little bit of an adventure, as the cab driver didn’t know where to go, otherwise, we were pretty happy with our choice – it was comfortable, and just big enough for the three of us. After dropping our luggage and freshening up a little, we hopped on to their complimentary shuttle to Dubai Mall, to explore the land of mega malls filled with everything.
Eh, well, I’m not a huge fan of malls, but Dubai Mall was big. I like how parts of it were designed like a traditional souq. Some of the other crazy things they had in that massive mall included a full-sized aquarium with a human conveyor belt, and an ice-skating rink. I basically chose to induce my krispy kreme madness, and chilled with a book there. I think H and B both got something. We also took a peek at the Burj Al-Dubai, the tallest building in the world that is being constructed. It was insane trying to photograph it. We had to stand like really, really, really far away just to get it all in.
Anyways, after spending some money on a Nando’s chicken lunch, (and others burning a hole in the wallet with shopping) we decided to save money, hit Waitrose, and packed back some potluck dinner. It was definitely a lot of fun having dinner in our cosy hotel room. So, that ends our first day in the Middle East.
Dubai Airport
Burj Al-Dubai
Krispy Kreme Collection
Our Potluck Dinner
Wanderlust 