Thursday, May 9th to Saturday, May 11th, 2013
New Year's was a pretty decent success so I decided to hop on board with a few other people from King Faisal and catch another addition of Sandance at The Atlantis in Dubai. I once again had heard pretty much nothing the main acts had played but everyone raved about how good they are so I thought it couldn't hurt to go. There seemed to be a mass exodus of nurses from King Faisal going as everyone you talked to was going. Not sure anyone was working at all.
Most of us flew out Thursday morning.......0930 flight with Fly Dubai. Dubai has a different weekend than Saudi (Friday-Saturday) as does most of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council.......plans are in the works for Saudi to change their weekend to align with the rest of the GCC, but it hasn't happened yet). If you wonder why Friday-Saturday it's to try to balance the Islamic and western worlds. Friday is of course the Muslim holy day so you have to have that day off but moving the other weekend day from Thursday to Saturday you better match up with the weekend in the western world. But back to my point, because of the weekend, concerts get held here on Friday nights.
So we flew in Thursday. The large group of us were staying in different locations and all had different ideas of how Thursday should look so we mostly went our separate ways at the airport. Lola and I headed to our hotel and then it was off to Dubai Mall. We did a bunch of shopping and then had some dinner, bought out a large supply of the Hershey store's supply of premium white chocolate chips (we can get them so inconsistently in Riyadh and they really are the best) and then caught a movie (Iron Man 3 .......in 3D). I'm sure you know we don't get movies in Riyadh so it was a nice treat. Plus last time we were here there were no good movies playing so we were excited for a few action options.
The Moscow Ballet was in town performing Swan Lake. I would have loved to have been able to check it out but this little show in the mall would have to do.
For Lola and I, it was an earlier night, although many of the other girls were out and about for most of the night. Sandance is a very long day and we didn't feel the need to head into it tired. We grabbed a few items from the grocery store and then it was back to the hotel for some sleep.
Overnight a few more people joined us in our apartment so we all got up and had some breakfast, opened a bottle of champagne and then headed off to a restaurant to meet up with a bunch more of the group. The plan was to meet for some pre-Sandance food and drinks and then head to the show around 1700 (it starts at about 1500 but we normally skip the first few bands.) The group got much bigger and at about 1630 a few of us headed off.
Sarah, Kate and I enjoying some pre-Sandance food and drinks. Always a long day, so always important to go into it with some food in your stomach.
Pru, Lola and I on the way to the show.
A few of the buildings you'll find in the Jumeriah Beach Area of the city. No matter where you find yourself in Dubai, you'll find lots of tall shiny buildings.
This time around the headliner was Florence and the Machine. I had heard of her but never heard any of her music until about a month ago. I did some quick downloading and had been very much looking forward to the show. I had heard nothing but good things.
A look at the view of the stage from the VIP area. Most of us went with VIP tickets again. It was just so much nicer than being stuck down in the crowd all night.
As expected the place was packed and the atmosphere was great. And the show......well let's just say I wasn't disappointed.
Florence and the Machine.
Security trying to get that guy down. I think he figured it would be a good spot to view the show. I assure you, it did not appear to be very easy to get him down.
A little sample of the show. It was really good.
A few of us decided that once Florence and the Machine had played we were done for the night (and hungry and the food line was like an hour long) so at about midnight we headed back to our respective hotels.
It is Dubai.......never know what you might find on the streets.
I had to leave on Saturday (back to work on Sunday....I only took one day of leave) although most peole took the extra day. I had a few things planned to do on Saturday however before my evening flight.
I got up nice and early.....before mostly everyone else had even started stirring, and headed back towards Dubai Mall. I thought I would do at least one touristy thing this time around and really wanted to check out the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. My timing worked out perfect as entry to the tower is by time only and I got there with about 20 minutes before the ending of the only available entry of the day. I got myt ticket bought, my suticase stored and then I started my way up to the observation desk . It is a pretty spectacular building.
Looking up. Due to the building's design, you can't actually see the top from down here at this angle.
The top figure in this picture is the original six petalled design of the building. The lower figure is the current design. The architecture features a triple-lobed footprint, an abstraction of the Hymenocallis flower.....which I find pretty awesome, that something as delicate as a flower could be the inspiration for a building design such as this.
I know I've listed some of the specs of this amazing building in a previous post, but so you don't have to go looking for it I've listed the records it holds again:
- Tallest building in the world (828 metres or 2716.5 feet)
- Tallest free-standing structure in the world (a record previously held by the CN Tower in Toronto).
- Highest number of stories in the world (160).
- 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.
On the observation desk. This observation desk sits on level 124. The high speed elevator that brings you here travels at 10 metres per second. As you expect, you don't really feel it......but your ears will certainly pop. It's a long way in a very short amount of time.
Not much to look at other than the city but considering Dubai sits in the middle of the desert I guess that is what you would expect. Visibility is not that great on this day. Lots of dust blowing around out there.
From the observation tower, looking down at the Dubai Mall and the Dubai Fountain. This early on a Saturday the fountain is not on but there were some little boats out there performing some maintenance.
The water does look a little inviting on this day. Of course being this high up, the only thing obstructing the view of anything was the sand.
A big building will cast a big shadow.
Once my Burj tour was done I headed to the mall, found myself a seat at a table at a little outside cafe and had a nice leisurely brunch. It's things like this that I really miss in Riyadh. I just love sitting around with a cup of tea relaxing.
Not a bad brunch time view if I do say so myself.
Ok yes, and then I went and did some more shopping....mostly for shoes....for work. I needed them. Eventually I made my way to the airport and then it was back to Riyadh.
A very quick, but a really fun weekend away.
Julie
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