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Published: June 16th 2010
I am a little behind on my blogs, so a lot of these past entries are not quite for the day that they are posted on. In fact currently I am sitting on flight EK770 from Dubai to Cape Town as I am writing this on a word document with the intent of copy and pasting once I obtain internet access. This places me in a slight writing predicament as I would have this urge to describe my current situation as I write this blog but will refrain till I write the blog entry for this day (Monday June 14th). I am posting this on Wednesday June 16th in Cape Town. (the first time I am getting a good signal for wireless in Cape town. probably b/c it is 3 am)
So imagine a movie or tv show like “How I Met your Mother” as I go back to the year 2010 on June 12th…. Having bought our tickets to Burj Khalifa yesterday we were now guaranteed a chance to see the Burj at 1030 am. I woke up, as normal and had to wait for kabir to finish with the restroom. To pass my time I pulled out a
one time magazine that was produced in Dubai on the World Cup. I started reading the articles on the numerous soccer subjects. When the bathroom was finally free I went to take care of the traditional morning routine. To reasons I will not go into any further my morning routine took longer than expected and I found myself rushing at the end knowing that I may be holding up everyone for our departure to the Burj. Sure enough near the end I heard a friendly knock and a reminder “hey we have to leave pretty soon, breakfast is ready.” I hurriedly finished my morning doodies and rushed downstairs for breakfast. (wow I wrote a lot about the morning….)
After breakfast we all piled into Kabir’s Dad’s Mercedes. I would like to take the time now to describe this car. This car first of all is a Mercedes, so obviously nice. In addition it is a little better than the Mercedes we’re used to in the US. In fact the back seat is the best seat. This car is a car that you are meant to be driven in. The back row has more leg room than the front seats,
there is a large sun roof in the back row, and each window seat in the back row has controls to recline, lower, and raise, the seats, backing, and headrests. Pretty awesome…
As we left the house I noticed that the Dubai summer haze/fog was in full force, which was a little disappointing considering that the view from the Burj Khalifa would be limited. However, as we neared downtown the fog seemed to clear up just a little, which provided some hope for decent viewing at the top. The entrance to the Burj Khalifa was in the emirates Mall, and there was a very informative and intriguing hallway that one must go through to get to the elevators in the Burj. Once we entered the hallway we started to read about some of the facts on the burj. For example there are >50 elevators in the Burj Khalifa. But we didn’t spend too much time at this waiting area as Kabir’s dad, much like my father, hurried us along saying, “come on let’s keep going.” The whole walk towards the Burj was fancy and the elevator up to the top floor was even fancier.
We entered the elevator
that would take us to the top and as soon as the doors closed, all the lights went off. Suddenly I was surrounded by flowing fluorescent lines of the Burj Khalifa symbol. LCD screens lit up with the picture of a dessert and panning upwards to the sky and eventually to space as we neared the top of the Burj. Fascinated by the lights and LCD screens I also realized a cool breeze flowing up my shorts, and realized that there was also a vent forcing air into the elevator to create the effect of flying upwards.
The view for the Burj was quite amazing as the people below looked smaller than ants and were hard to find, although this also could be due to the fact that in Dubai at this point in time 11:00 it was 105degrees and not many people in the right mind would be walking around outside. The views were many and great, and in addition they had binocular LCD screens where you could see out from the Burj and zoom into further objects. Not only did these LCD Binocular systems allow to you see what was happening live, they also had a pictures
of dubai at night and during the day taken on a clear day. These options were amazing as it allowed you to see Dubai from the Burj point of view from all times of day. Furthermore they even had a past option that allowed you to see Dubai before all the development. The views and pictures were amazing and now I can say that I have been to the tallest building in the WORLD! It appears I am doing many worldly things on this vacation. Tallest Building in the World, World Cup, and possibly the highest bungee jump in the World, what a World class vacation. Yes a little corny but appropriate.
After the Burj we went to the mall where we did a little shopping, I bought something for someone back home (ha…I won’t say who or what b/c then that might spoil the surprise, I know you want to know….). I found out that the mall in Dubai has a small aquarium within it, which we were able to see. In addition I walked into what they claimed to be.. wait for it… the World’s Biggest Candy store. But there wasn’t anything too spectacular about it,
and they didn’t even allow you to take pictures, how odd. I suppose the flash of my camera may cause the chocolate to ferment or the candy to all stick together…. =/ Either way the candy shop was not more than a.. hmm cool.
We grabbed lunch at a little café/bakery, where Kabir and his family seemed to be upset that it was self-service. You see.. well before I get into that, I wanted to point on the length of my blog today, I realize it is much longer. I think I am beginning to enjoy writing in my blog and furthermore the fact that I am stuck in a plane with nowhere to go and movied out after watching 3 consecutive movies (Sherlock Holmes, Book of Eli, How to Train your Dragon) I need to do something more productive and stimulating. Going back to self-service, you see in Dubai service is most amazing. They are very kind and very helpful and do a lot of things you wouldn’t expect. Furthermore, they don’t even expect a tip. It actually makes me upset that the US almost requires you to leave a tip when the service is less than satisfactory,
due to the fact that many people in the industry expect a tip and thus don’t work for it as hard as they should. So naturally seeing as how the service in Dubai is amazing and self-service is a practice that is almost unheard of in Dubai, I could see how Kabir and his family were not pleased with the workings of this café. Despite the self-service the desserts were amazing! I had some sort of chocolate firm mousse that had a chocolate coconut bottom crust, and maraschino cherries inside, and then was covered in a chocolate outer almost like marzipan layer. DELICIOUS! In fact I think that was the first time I’ve had dessert since I’ve been out of the US, yes I am sugar deprived but perhaps it is better so that I reduce my chances of diabetes.
Almost done with this day… After the mall we watched the Argentia vs. Nigeria game at Kabir’s house with some friends and had a few beers. Shortly after we went to a golf club that Kabir is part of to watch the US/England game. We left for the club at 8pm to ensure we got a table for the
10:30 game. I proudly wore my new US Jersey as we entered to club only to hear “boos” from the members within. Surely Kabir and I were the only US supporters in this mainly English club. Enjoying to boos I chanted USA.. USA.. USA, just to draw the attention of more England supporters. The tables were all standing tables covered by soccer ball mats and flat screen TVs lined the sides of the club. There was a further roped off section at the front of the club for reserved tables where you could sit, and outside there were tables and bean bags in front of a large screen. Unnaturally it was still blazing hot and humid even at 8pm, so we found a table inside that was in the 2nd row from one of the TVs. We soon fixed this problem as Kabir, his friend Raul, and myself slowly but surely pushed our table into the first row by the beginning of the game. (we thought we were extremely slick slowly moving our table inch by inch every few minutes, although I’m sure someone noticed and just didn’t care.) We ordered bucket after bucket of beers, and waiting anxiously for the game to start. As we waiting more and more people crowded in front of our table, blocking our vision. Lucky for us they were also US supporters so we encouraged them to join our humble bucketful table and stand behind us, since they seemed to have injected themselves with growth hormones as kids and now grew to 6’+.
The game was ridiculous with the shouting and yelling and ooos and ahhs! I have to admit that I think that the US was lucky in their goal, and I can’t comment too much on the game for other reasons but definitely was more than excited jumping for joy and yelling at the English supporters when Dempsey put one in the back of the net for the US. At the end of the game we attempted to use a walkover to get across the freeway, but were denied by the security guard. After an intense effort to persuade the security guard to let as cross we finally gave up and called a cab to get to the other side of the freeway where we entered a hotel in hopes of getting a sheisha on the roof. It was here that I saw another brilliant trick of Dubai. A candle located between a couple mirrors/glass that made it appear that there were an infinite amount of candles down an infinite corridor. The roof sheisha was closed and we found another shiesha place at the Dubai Marina, where we stayed until closing at 2am and then headed home. All in all the day was very exciting. And that is the end of probably my longest blog entry.
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atul
non-member comment
dude.
so, 3 things. 2 questions. why did it take you so long in the bathroom? who is this special gift for and how do i not know about this? and, GO USA!!!!!!