1) Burj Khalifa
2) The Lost Chambers Cove at Palm Atlantis
3) Desert Safari and Dune Bashing
I like the second day better out of the supposedly 5D3N. It was more relaxed and we followed the itinerary! Dubai is really big and understandably, not all areas have access to public transport. So, taxi was heavily relied on in Dubai and do take metered ones. In Dubai, the taxis are creamed coloured with green top. Anyway, back to where we last stopped at, oh ya, we went to the world's tallest free standing tower - the Burj Khalifa.
The Burj Khalifa from a distance but within the Dubai Mall's vicinity. It's the torch thingy behind the palm tree.
Tips to Burj Khalifa
1) Be an early bird. Purchase your tickets online from their website so that you won't be disappointed. It is cheaper, quicker and stress-free. Popular time slots are at 1.30pm and 6pm. They ran out almost immediately even though you just checked it that day but for a week in advance. I got my tickets at AED125 and including administrative fee it became AED130 per person. It will costs around AED400 if you purchase on the spot. That is if you are lucky to buy any tickets. I just purchased mine a week in advance noting that the sunrise slots are only for Fridays and Saturdays starting from 5.30am at every half an hour interval.
2) You just need to remember your name and handphone number because that is how you print your tickets at the ticket machines!
3) If you choose to collect from the ticketing counter, then do not forget to bring your booking confirmation, the credit card which you have used to purchase the tickets and your passport for ID check.
4) Even though we purchased our tickets for the 5.30am time slot, you can't get into the lift lobby until your designated time slot. However, should you have a different time slot with your friends, you can just let the staffs know that you came with friends and they have entered the lift.
5) There is a queue at the lift lobby but noting the speed that the lift took from ground to level 124, you only had to wait at 3 minutes tops. Please be early if you want to catch the sunrise. Sunrise in Dubai in March is between 6.30am to 6.40am but you can see the sky changing colours from 6am. So, it is nice to be out at the observatory deck from 6am.
6) Wear comfortable shoes (could be slippers if you like) and bring a jacket with you. The wind is really strong at the observatory deck outside and no point getting hats.
7) It is always good to bring flash lights or install a flash light app on your mobile phone to take good self-portraits with the sunrise skyline at the back of you as the backdrop.
8) Recommended time spend at the top is about 2 hours or less.
This was around 5.45am. You get to see the night view.
As the day breaks, blue spectrum appears.
Cameras all ready!
Getting brighter in just matter of minutes
O.M.G.
Killer sunrise view
This was the best sunrise ever.
Just before we (L-R : myself, Linda, Keavie, Snowie, Mei and Karen) go back to the hotel for our breakfast
Admiring the height
For this excursion, I am with the KL boys - from L-R : SH, Joe and Calvin.
We shared the same taxi to and fro to the Burj Khalifa.
An artistic impression. My favourite candid photo.
So proud of myself. Perhaps I need to crop out the railings at the bottom of the photo.
Is the sunrise ticket worth all the sleeping hours?? YES! How often can you watch sunrise from 124th Floor of a building and in the middle of the desert??? Price aside, it is THE experience that you can never get anywhere else other than in Dubai. So, it was worth not sleeping more hours. Some who have visited that day may think that it is nothing great but it was for me. ^^
It took just 1 minute. The world's fastest elevator!
Spot the difference between the highways in Malaysia and in Dubai.
Dubai highways/motorways have 5 lanes and at the speed of 120kmph, making it the world's fastest highways/motorways within the city.
And, there are no potholes! The roads were all silky smooth like butter........
Happy girls after breakfast and all ready for our first day in Dubai, ok, second day in Dubai!
We travelled in three coaches/buses labelled as Camel, Abra and Land Cruiser because there were 102 of us in total! In our group, one of our colleagues brought her baby and her 4 year old boys.
Baby Amos dozing off with Snowie jiejie (sister)
We entered Palm Jumeira towards the Atlantis Hotel without realising. Palm Jumeira is a man made island and it was built since 2008. All its 1,600 residential units were sold out within 72 hours of its opening. Amazing. There is an underwater tunnel to be crossed to get to the Palm Jumeira which I found to be awesome. The underwater tunnel does feel different than those through the mountains like in Ipoh. I wonder if it is like this when the one in Penang which connected Teluk Air Tawar and Gurney Drive is completed.
The Palm Atlantis hotel. It must have a world record somewhere. Dubai owns 10 world records in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Nope, we are not staying in the hotel or visiting the hotel. We are going to the aquarium.
First entry is only at 10am.
If you have visited the aquarium in Singapore, you wouldn't be in awe with the one here. But, I was asked to consider about this man made aquarium from another point of view in that this aquarium is located in the middle of a desert city. How cool is that? Err.. ok. I still prefer the one in Singapore.
Like all aquariums, I like the zen feel about it whereby you can just drowned yourself in its peacefulness and hear yourself in amazement at the sight of the deep sea creatures swimming in front you. I found pleasure sitting in front of the aquariums and just admiring them stingrays! It was indeed a nice and comfortable feeling. It was a good rest for both the mind and the body.
We then proceded to lunch at City Max Hotel. Out of the 3 lunches, most of us like this best. Even though it is rice and curry just like all other lunches but it tasted better. Maybe because we haven't got sick of the hotel food yet at that point after all it was just the beginning of the trip. I didn't take photos of our meals because it looked the same or I didn't get the chance to even take any due to extreme hunger.
We were sent back to the hotel for a short break and changed into comfortable clothes (sand proof if possible) for our Desert Safari tour. The desert dunes are about 40 minutes drive away from the city and we were advised to wear clothes with less holes as possible. Haha.. The desert sand were very fine and could easily find their way into our clothes and shoes.
Here we go!
Posing with our land cruiser, and we were assigned to the first one. There were two to three types of experience for the rides - adventurous, average and mild with the first being like a rollercoaster ride but better or the mild being a walk in the park kind of drive. No prizes for the correct guess, we picked the adventurous one. Each dune bashing drive takes around half an hour.
Sand everywhere
Dune buggies!
Desert-ers!
Well, not all are ours.
The desert camp where we will have our dinner. There are also henna artists on site, free Arabian traditional costume to try, free shisha tobacco and sand boarding at AED100!
Sunset at the desert, truly different than those at the beach or at the paddy fields. Ok, I am not saying the grass is greener on the other side but hey, we're at the desert!
This LED man went on for a good half an hour just spinning and changing lights on his body.
Can you see Polaris starlets? It is a string of 3 stars pointing north.
Joe did ask a good question, which way is north?
So, the desert dune safari took about 6 hours and we reached back the hotel around 10pm. The night is still young and some of us gather at one room to have some chit-chat over alcohol. FYI, alcohol is really expensive in Dubai and you can't just simply get alcohol anywhere without having a licence. Only licenced bars can sell alcohol so luckily we got ours from Changi Airport.
Vodka with honey. Sweet.
It was yet another sleepless night. Last night, I got up early for the sunrise and I would probably wake up around Malaysian time the next day.
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