The United Arab Emirates: Dubai

A few weeks ago Chris and I were talking about how fortunate we were that all of our trips had gone exactly as planned. It would seem our luck ran out a little. We decided to go to the United Arab Emirates so that we could see Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It was a good trip, but a trip with some some bumps along the way. Below is a map of the UAE with the two cities we visited. It took an hour and a half flight to get there.
We rented our car and had it brought to us at the airport. As we drove into the city we could easily see why Dubai has the good reputation it does. I first learned about Dubai 3 or 4 years ago. I had no idea such an amazing city in the Middle East existed at that time. It is filled with some incredible modern sky scrapers.
Not only are the buildings amazing, but the city is immaculately clean. Dubai attracts people from all around the world. It is a very popular city for business.
Unlike many big cities in the US that has all the sky scrapers next to each other, Dubai has patches of sky scrapers - then small buildings - then more tall buildings. I kind of like it that way.
One lucky thing about this trip is that Chris knows a nice family from his mission now living in Dubai. This family was nice enough to take us in during our stay. What was even cooler was that our host family lives on the famous Palm Jumeira, a man made island in the ocean shaped like a palm tree. You can see a drawing of it below.
Here is the Palm Jumeira, a very nice and rich part of the city. It is filled with apartments, homes, and some incredible hotels including the Atlantis hotel. The house we stayed in was on one of the palm leaves on the right side of the island.
Above is an actual camera photo of the island. Isn't it amazing that people make islands like this?

Confused by the above photo? Though Dubai is in the desert they have built a ski resort in the Mall of the Emirates. It was the first time I had felt winter and seen snow since I left the US.
Isn't it funny that I am from Utah, but the first time I ever went skiing was in a mall in the Arabian Peninsula? I say I went skiing, but rather, I went falling. I basically just went down and then fell, and then fell again, and fell again.
It was still fun though. I liked seeing the women in Abayas wearing huge jackets and skiing as well as the men in Thobes skiing. The UAE is not nearly as strict as Saudi Arabia. People of all different cultures and lifestyles live there.
Behind me in this picture is the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. Are you surprised to know the tallest building is in the Arabian Peninsula? This country loves impressive and rich things. This building was recently featured in the new Mission Impossible movie.
This picture is taken from atop the Burj Khalifa. The elevator is amazingly fast to get to the top. We had to buy our tickets in advance. The weather was not very good while we were there. It was pretty hazy most days so it was often difficult to see very far in front of you. It was also pretty hot and humid, but that wasn't surprising.

Here I am at the top. It was very high.

Below is a picture of the pool of the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall, the biggest mall in the entire world, or at least that is what they tell me. Everything is so little.

Here is the evidence of the decadence of Dubai. The above machine is a gold ATM. You stick in your credit card and you literally buy gold. You can choose the size of gold you want, but it is pricey.

Back on the ground we went to the pool. Every thirty minutes they have a dancing water show with music. The water actually does look like it is dancing when you watch it.

More of the dancing water show. The two malls we went to in Dubai were packed. It was crazy. They say Dubai isn't doing well because of the economic crisis, but you wouldn't know it by looking at all the customers at the mall and surrounded areas. It took us awhile to find a parking spot.

The beautiful fountains in front of the Burj Khalifa.

Very cool. This was still our first day, but after our time at the tower, things took a downward turn.

This is the picture of the car wreck we got in. Chris rear ended a nice family from India. This one event caused us a lot of running around town trying to pay fines and getting a new car for many hours of our trip. It was very frustrating. Nobody was hurt except for our car. It wouldn't have been too bad if not that our anti-freeze was leaking and therefore we couldn't drive because the engine would overheat.

Here is the Burj Khalifa. This is the view from our car wreck. Its not everyday you wreck in front of the tallest building in the world.

Here is our view from the back yard of the place we stayed. The water was probably the best I've ever swam in. It was perfect. The family we stayed with was very nice to allow us some time with them. They showed us around and helped us when we needed it. Thanks to the Gubbays if you are reading this!

Here is a pic of the city from the Palm Jumeira.

This ice skating rink is at the Dubai Mall.

The mall also has an incredible aquarium inside.

Here I am walking around the aquarium. This aquarium has the largest acrylic panel of glass in the world.

Here is a shark swimming around.

Here I am vomiting the fish.

Here is Chris and Lightning McQueen from Cars.

Here is a cool fountain inside the Dubai Mall.

The metro stations throughout Dubai look like alien spaceships.

And here is one last shot of the sweet buildings in the city. It is weird to think that none of this was here 50 years ago. It was just a sad looking desert back then. Oil sure does wonders for a country. We spent 4 days in this country - 3 in Dubai, and 1 in Abu Dhabi the capital. We mostly spent our time in malls. We also went to see a movie while we were there - Transformers 3. It was mostly nice just to get away from Saudi for awhile. It is like a breath of fresh air. More to come about Abu Dhabi!