Hello Middle East...
We made it! After a 16 hour non-stop flight from San Francisco to Dubai - we arrived. The flight was fine - I have done this flight before and it always amazes me that a red- eye to the East Coast is harder than a 16 hour flight to the Middle East.
The first two nights of our trip we stayed in Dubai on Palm Island - I am sure you have seen it, but they are man-made islands off the coast of Dubai in the shape of a Palm Tree. Totally crazy and beautiful all at once.
On Sunday, our first full day here - I wanted to see everything and anything. So we started off the day with a trip to the....mall. Weird right? but everything in Dubai seems to rotate around a mall of some sort. And these are not just any old malls - they are big and beautiful and attractions in themselves.
Our first mall was the Dubai Mall which was huge - it literally is the world's largest mall. It is also next to the Burj Khalifa - the tallest building in the world. ( I am sensing a theme here). After our Burj Khalifa viewing I hoped on a bus tour of Dubai. Cheesy but totally helpful in getting the layout of Dubai. The first stop was in old Dubai - where I stopped at a spice souk and a gold souk. It was a little touristy but had some beautiful things. **This was the coolest vending machine - not sure if you can see it, but it literally squeezes fresh orange juice from real oranges!
After the souks, the bus tour took us to the new part of Dubai(me and my fellow tourists below taking pictures).
You got to see the full Palm Island, the Burj Al Arab and stop by the Mall of the Emirates which has a ski slope in it! Here is a picture of the ski slope - since I did not want to pay to get in, this picture is not the best but you get the idea. It is totally insane - they have a ski lift and everything!
The Burj Al Arab(here is a nighttime pic) is home to the most expensive hotel in the world. It is also where Andre Agassi and Roger Federer played tennis on the roof. Insane - I am scared of heights, so I can't even watch this YouTube, but the building is beautiful, it was meant to look like the sails of a ship.
That is all for now. Stay tuned for more on our time in Dubai.