Dubai, United Arab Emirates   November 7, 2022

I got into my room at six this morning and slept until 11:30.  I’ve been to Dubai before so today I just went to The Dubai Mall via the subway which is basically right out the door of the hotel-

Dubai is a desert and any undeveloped land is all sand-

Along the way-

Dubai is an architect’s dream.  If you can imagine it, you can build it-

The Dubai Mall-

is right beside Burj  Khalifa and is second largest in the world behind a mall in Iran, based on square footage.  I thought I walked a lot on the Camino but I am sure I walked just as far today as any camino day. From the metro station to the mall it has to be at least a kilometre and people can be so stupid. There are moving walkways and to ride them properly you’re supposed to stay on the right side and keep the left side clear so people can walk through. Two men were having a “moving walkway rage” incident over being in the wrong lane.  Believe it or not there were people actually standing on the right side. If they were heading for the mall they still wouldn’t be there!

I used to be pretty proud of my map reading skills and sense of direction but it has disappeared. I cannot believe how many times I walked the same hallways today looking for certain stores. I would like to see a GPS of my tracks because it would be repeat after repeat after repeat. But in my defense, the mall is huge and every store imaginable is there including a store of fancy dresses for Andi.  This one cost only $918! She would love this store-

The window display-

There’s a Lego store for Nico-

with flags made out of Lego-

Fabric shops-

Honey stores-

and saffron stores-

The  most expensive saffron costs $117 for 10 grams or .35 of an ounce.

There are caviar stores where a container this size - 

which holds 50 grams of the world’s most expensive caviar called Almas costs $2667!

Other attractions in the mall include an aquarium –

A skating rink-

and a waterfall-

There is a huge food court and I ate at a local fast food place. It probably took 20 minutes from the time I ordered until I got through the line to pick up my food.  I had spicy felafel which is made from ground chickpeas-

It is served with tahini sauce, not ketchup –

You know you just can’t fix stupid.  Outside the mall is the Burj. I asked a woman to take a picture of me and to make sure she got the whole tower in.  I guess she tried her best-

I didn’t do much better-

Finally-

Burj Khalifa is 829.8 m (2,722 ft, or just over half a mile) high and has a roof height (excluding antenna, but including a 223 m spire of 828 m (2,717 ft).  It’s been the tallest structure in the world since 2009.  I didn’t go up because I did the last time I was here.

You can rent a Ferrari and a Lamborghini.  It costs $440 for an hour-

Taking the subway home I had a heckuva time finding the right platform to get back to the hotel. In this one metro station they had platforms 1, 2 and 3 and I needed platform 4. There were no signs for it and I went up and down the escalators more than once looking for it.  Eventually I found it. So frustrating.

I had a great supper of tabouleh and garlic naan-

For dessert I had rasmalai, rosgolla and gulab jamun.  

Rasmalai is made from chenna which is an Indian cheese and served in sweet milk. Gulab jamun is made with milk powder and ground nuts, often almonds.  Rosgolla is made by curdling milk, draining the whey and kneeding the milk solids to make balls which are cooked in hot sugar syrup.  It was all delicious.  Tomorrow I am going back for breakfast to have butter chicken.

Food delivery-

Afterwards I met up with Karen, Will’s wife who is leading the tour and Leanne whom I travelled with in Africa and now works for Madventure.  I also met Carol, a Canadian who worked at the PA pen for many years. And I just learned that we are going to have the coach for the whole trip. We are leaving at eight in the morning providing the bus shows up. It was stuck at the Saudi border. This is going to be great!