Remember how I said I hate posting about the same thing for a long time? We are at a point where I am getting lazy and careless (more than the usual amount). So instead of respectfully categorizing my posts, I’m going to write about the experience of a place in multiple scales:
At the largest and most distant scale, the Burj Kahlifa is an iconic anchor to the city. It is impossible to miss and is a landmark for the entire region.
At the foot of the tower, you find that you and everyone around you is constantly looking up. Everyone is crouching to try to capture the entire building in a single photo, and photographers are being scolded by their families for cropping out the top of the Burj.
A fountain show begins every 1/2 hour. People stop in their tracks to watch water dance to music in a show that is (of course) larger than that of the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
It is perfectly reasonable to expect that a visitor to Dubai would like to enjoy the view from the top of the world’s tallest building. But first, one must journey through the world’s largest mall to reach the base of the tower. If you survive the Dubai Mall, then you may scale the Burj.
Restaurants in the Dubai mall are plentiful and beautifully themed.
Even the cafes sport brand names.
The Dubai Mall also features a massive “Underwater Zoo” that is not to be confused with a lowly aquarium.
Nearly every store in this mall rivals a high end retail store in any other place in the world. An ordinary book store is raised to the status of a high fashion shop. This simply means that the high fashion stores are designed to make a very wealthy person’s home look like a cardboard box.
I am similar to the stereotype of the average man in that I don’t particularly enjoy shopping. Especially shopping for shoes. However, I could spend several hours wandering around the “Shoe District” of the Dubai mall.
This “district” features architectural details the likes of which I have never seen.
Assuming you survive your journey through the Dubai Mall, you may then consider going to the top of the Burj Khalifa. If you are lucky you can purchase a ticket to go up at sunrise.
It may not seem to be that high up once you reach the top of the Burj, but the massive buildings that you had previously been surrounded by now seem like they’re a small architectural model.
Before you know it, a massive red/gold egg is rising in the sky.
And you are left kinda speechless…
Eventually it is day and all of the HVAC systems of all the towers in Dubai are revealed on the tops of all of the buildings.
But you’re still left a little speechless.
If you are ever in Dubai, do not miss this.
Though I suppose if you ever go to a country that is home to the World’s Tallest/Largest/Fastest/Smartest/Greenest/Smelliest things, you’d likely know to visit them. It isn’t really a secret that required my divine insight, is it?
OH! 