Page 7 of 11
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
To the actual size of everything, the desert is the sand
Almost a thousand feet higher than the antenna atop the new One World Trade Center, Burj Khalifa in Dubai (at 2,722 feet high), sure is tall. Until the Kingdom Tower opens in Saudi Arabia (at 1000 meters or 3,300 feet high), it is the tallest man made structure on earth. Take that, everything else.
The Shanghai World Financial Center (from a few pages back) is the world's sixth tallest building and 1,100 feet shorter than the Burj Khalifa, but still its observation deck is higher. While you can go up the Burj, you can't go all the way up. The observation deck (ironically called "At the Top") is on the 124th floor, but the building keeps going up to 163 floors. But even at 124 floors, it's not like there's anything to block your view of the endless desert and sprawling towers and distant gulf waters.
Your At the Top experience starts in the basement where you pick up your advanced timed entry ticket. When I was there, the advanced timed entries were sold out for days on end. Luckily though since it's Dubai, there's an option to buy yourself out of your troubles. Instead of a $30 advance ticket, I was able to buy a $100 instant VIP ticket, one which allowed me to cut every line and almost instantly find myself 124 stories above the endless desert.
This picture is from the outdoor section of the observation deck, where you have a chance to look back at the building and even a chance to look up to see some of the 40 floors above you that remain so close and yet so far away.
The view from “At the Top” is impressive if you look straight down to the fountains and lagoon, but otherwise you’re pretty far removed from anything else to see. The built parts of Dubai make up a long, linear city, so no matter where you are, everything else feels really far away.
When I arrived in Dubai it was a Thursday night, already dark, and I took the efficient but overcrowded subway from the airport to my hotel. I chose intentionally to stay in the older section of the city (near the Dubai Museum and Old Souk) since my first full day in the UAE was a Friday. On Fridays things shut down in Dubai, and when I say "things" I really mean everything. Even the subway stays closed until 2pm. Staying in the old town at least allowed me a chance to wander around in the hot, hot sun past busy mosques and closed souks until everything slowly started to open up.
With a subway day pass in my hand and a city and Emirate now open to enjoy, I headed out way, way past the old city and way, way past the Burj Khalifa to the other Burj in Town. The Burj Al Arab is a hotel and a shockingly expensive one at that. A cheap room there will set you back about $2000 a night, which honestly is a bit too obscene for my taste or budget. Plus if you're inside you don't get to see the building from the outside, a magnificent, iconic sail right on the water in Jumeira.
The subway (when it was after 2pm on Friday) was actually pretty convenient and also not a subway- a lot of it was above ground, running along the side of a massive highway, with well designed stations and a lot of people, although not necessarily a lot of (or even any) Emiratis on board.
Dubai is physically huge. From the creek and the Old Souk out to the Marina is something like twenty miles. Those twenty miles are organized a little like Las Vegas around a central strip where all of the development is. Sometimes there are large scale developments with towers and malls with ski slopes on this strip, while just a few blocks away are empty lots or one story buildings with parking lots.
If you do make it all the way out to the marina, chances are good that you'll see this. SOM's other big tower (the Burj Khalifa was designed by Adrian Smith while still at SOM) is the Cayan Tower, also known as the Infinity Tower. It's easy to spot because it's tall, it's twisting and, unlike some of the other nearby towers, it actually has a little breathing space. Even though there's plenty of open, undeveloped space nearby, the cluster of tall skyscrapers on the right is super dense. The area advertises itself as the "tallest block" since there are so many tall buildings so close to each other, which I guess is fine even though it seems pretty claustrophobic to me.
Dubai was as clean and felt safe, although while walking I may have spotted the only piece of graffiti in all of the entire Emirates. I won't say exactly where it is (no need to call any extra attention to it), but, if you compare it to the street art in Melbourne, it's not too hard to see that living in Dubai might, just might, be a little rougher than living in Australia.
The Burj Khalifa is part of a larger development and is connected to a mall, and since it is Dubai and everything needs to be big- the world's tallest structure is attached to the world's largest mall. The Dubai Mall has 1,200 stores, an aquarium, an ice skating rink but no indoor ski slope (that's at a different mall I visited in Dubai). It also has just about every American restaurant you can think of, from Shake Shack to Steak & Shake to IHOP, something that is both comforting and somehow disturbing at the same time. It also has a Galleries Lafayette with a food hall that actually sells pork, although it is in a separate room under a large sign that says "No Muslims Allowed."
Outside between the Dubai Mall and the Burj Khalifa, there is a large artificial lake with a monstrous fountain that is quite similar to the one at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Every hour after dark, the lights dim, the music comes on and the fountains work their synchronized magic.
Goodnight, artificial lake. Goodnight, Burj Khalifa. Goodnight, all those self righteous machines are quietly watching over us. Goodnight, Dubai.
