Dubai cont.

Ice skating rink in the middle of the worlds biggest shopping mall - the Dubai Mall
Fatburger in Dubai
the worlds tallest building!!!
Anyone for belly dancing??

Tues Dubai tour - today we toured the new part of Dubai. We went to the palm island that they've made. On the island is the Atlantis Hotel, which is the only open hotel on the palm islands. There are three palm islands - this one completed & people living on it (but still also lots of construction), one which has been fully reclaimed (but no building construction yet) & the third one is half way through reclaimation. The world island has also been reclaimed but no building construction yet. The only way to fully appreciate the islands is by a helicopter flight. I would have done it no matter what the cost had we had more time!!! To really see everything you need at least a week here! If you can survive the heat!

We went to the worlds biggest mall today - the Dubai Mall - which has an ice skating rink inside. It also has one of the worlds largest aquariums, with the largest viewing panel on earth . It has over 33000 aquatic animals in it. Next door to the mall is the worlds largest building - Burj Dubai. (Burj means tower in Arabic) Can't remember the specific details but it is massive & will be completed by September!

Also on our tour, we went to the sales office of Dubailand!! Dubailand will be bigger than Florida Disneyland or world (I don't know which it is) It is actually going to be bigger square metreage than Dubai itself! There are going to be many different worlds there! Legoland, Universal studios, Tiger Woods golf world, Dinosaur land,& so on. I'd think it would take at least a month to see everything! They have done a model of the finished product & it is huge. Construction has commenced & the initial projected finish time was 2015, but since the economic crisis, things have slowed & they are now hoping for 2020. Each year a new attraction world will be completed. eg. Legoland in 2011. It will be something else - worth coming back to see!!!

This afternoon we are going on our desert tour - can't wait for that. We have some rare downtime & mum & dad are sleeping, I'm doing this & Emily is doing puzzles!!

Chou for now!
Yvette