The flight was painless and we arrived at 2am then had a 20 min trip to our hotel. As part of the hotel deal they picked us up at the airport – we were picked up in a Bentley. It was very fancy, I didn’t even know that the car was running it was so quiet. The seats at the back had their own air-conditioning functions with so many climate selections for the seats – see display in photos. We both had a selection panel, we could heat our bums and backs, air condition our bums and backs, have the air come from the ceiling, onto our faces from the headrests in front, at neck level, each have our own climate zone – talk about detail….
The hotel were very aware that we were tired so they checked us in whilst we were being taken to our room – all very slick. We showered and then were off to bed (after admiring the view of course). The hotel is in the Burj Khalifa which is the tallest building in the world and at over 828 metres (2,716.5 feet) and more than 160 stories, Burj Khalifa holds the following records:
- Tallest building in the world
- Tallest free-standing structure in the world
- Highest number of stories in the world
- Highest occupied floor in the world
- Highest outdoor observation deck in the world
- Elevator with the longest travel distance in the world
- Tallest service elevator in the world
There you have it.
It also beats all 3 records in tallest structure and highest street view for Googlemaps – watch this video of google doing their street view of the Burj Khalifa.
It is hard to take a photo of the building as it just doesn’t fit, without using the panorama function (thanks Carolyn for the idea). Here is another video which will help to demonstration how frigging tall this building is – it dwarfes everything around it. Sydney’s Centre Point Tower is 305m tall, this is 2.7 times the Centre Point Tower.
We overslept and only woke at 11am, missed breakfast – but clearly we needed it after the hard days travel and the come beds and pillows. That is the last time I will mention the bed and pillow – I promise.
I have heard of snow blindness but John got Sun blindness this morning when he opened the curtains, thinking it was 8:15am (which was Portugal time) and it was actually 11:15am. The rooms are quite dark and sectioned off, when you walk in you have a “vestibule” posh word for coat room and golf club storage room. That is on the right then a guest toilet on the left, the guest toilet is as big as our bathroom at home! Then you have the lounge and bar/tele area. The walls slide open and shut, slide back a wall then you get the bedroom, walk in robe and bathroom with everything you need in a bathroom. All rooms are scented with Armani. BUT, back to my story… John got up this morning and it was pitch black, he didn’t want to wake me up so he slid back the door to go into the lounge and used the iPad (everything is controlled by the iPad) to open the curtains. When he came back into the bedroom – he was walking into everything complaining that he couldn’t see has the sun/glare/brightness had blinded him.
Having missed breakfast, and seeing that it was another Dubai scorcher – we gave the golf clubs a miss and went to explore the Dubai Mall – more world records here.
Over 13 million square foot (equivalent in size to more than 50 football fields), it also has a 250-room luxury hotel, 22 cinema screens plus 120 restaurants and cafes. The Mall has over 14,000 parking spaces across 3 car parks, with valet services and a car locator ticketing system (I would need that)!
John and I broke a PB today as we have never spent as much time in a shopping centre, we were browsing, soaking up the Dubai shopping life, seeing what it had to offer, looking at different shops, searching for a leather Jacket for John. Great to see Marks and Sparks there, couldn’t walk past Lakeland. We have done over our target of 15,000 steps – just didn’t think that it would be in a shopping centre. The shopping centre is that large that it has a taxi service within it, yes you can hire a golf buggy taxi to take you where ever you want. Some photos of the shopping centre.
We finished with a look at the Dubai Fountain, which means you have to walk outside – man o man it is hot! The Dubai Fountain is the world’s largest choreographed fountain system set on the 30-acre manmade Burj Khalifa Lake, right in front of our hotel. It was designed by the same company responsible for the fountains at the Bellagio Hotel Lake in Las Vegas. Illuminated by 6,600 lights and 25 colored projectors, it is 275 m (902 ft) long and shoots water up to 500 ft (152.4 m) into the air accompanied by a range of classical to contemporary Arabic and world music. It was built at a cost of AED 800 million (USD $218 million). We only saw the last 2-3 minutes of a show and it was pretty spectacular, see the photos and videos.
This is a photo in panorama (that is why the building looks like a banana.
Here is a photo taken by a professional.
Then a rest and out to dinner at the Armani signature restaurant. Glamming it up, we were – it was ever so romantic with a table window overlooking the fountain and our own private deck (too hot for everyone else) to view the fountain when it went off every 30 mins. We saw it 3 times and here are 3 videos – different each time.
Did we make Patty laugh? No, she is probably frustrated as the FaceTime kept disconnecting, we have since found out that it is barred in UAE.
Categories: Portugal
Shaz Thompson
Mad about golf, enthusiastic about life, totally in love with my husband and just having fun.
Sharon Thompson 
Can’t believe it, amazing photos.