Saturday, February 7, 2009

Time To Say Dubai


I spend the day on an inner tube on water slides. At Aqua adventure in Dubai at the Atlantis resort, I realized how much fun water parks are. Even if I went on every slide by myself, stood in line by myself, and screamed on water falls on my own, I had a great time.

Atlantis is a 5 star resort. In Dubai. This alone, I couldn't really get over. Other than the hotel itself being a monument on the Palm Jumeirah Island, It's what's on the inside that counts.

The hotel boasts giant-- and i mean giant aquariums. Filled with more fish than I've ever seen in my life. Now, let me just say one thing. Fish move. they are hard to photgraph...but, I put in some goodies.
He's a biggie.
hahaha oh dad. Messin around with a giant cat fish.
At some point in our first evening, I got lost. I wandered outside, onto the beach, and snapped this picture.
This is the sculpture in the main lobby. It's hand blown glass. One of those dealies.
Me swimming in the pool. I'm pretty sure I was the only one swimming in the pool, as most of the European guests were interested only in completely cooking themselves in the sun.

Due to my parent's snoring, I couldn't sleep, and noticed the sun was rising. I got up and ran out to the balcony to take this shot. In the distance, you can see the familiar Burj Al Arab building. You know, it looks like a sail. Its the building that you see and say to yourself, oh...my god, I'm actually IN Dubai.
The next day, we met up with some friends who lived in Dubai, and they offered to free us from the island and drive us into town. They knew I had my cameras, so drove me as close as possible right up to the building! You have to make a booking to even visit this SEVEN star hotel. That's right. 7. The only 7 star hotel in the world. Which makes me wonder if there's even a 6 star somewhere. This hotel is POSSIMPIBLE. its where possible and impossible meet.
Anything novelty in Dubai exists, like the indoor ski slope inside the Mall of the Emirates. The biggest mall in the world. This part of the world is big on being the biggest of a lot of things.
We went to a mall where they have an ice restaurant. Sure beats East Sides.
My dad took this pic of the Burj Al Arab from the beach of our hotel.
mmm feet in sand. Just in case I forget the feeling.
And what trip to Dubai is complete without seeing DUN DUN DUNNNN!

THE TALLEST BUILDING IN THE WORLD! Ladies and Gentlemen, you've seen it on Discovery, it kicked the CN Tower's ass, The Burj Dubai!
Looking at this building almost makes me want to puke its so big. I mean, this is as close a picture as I could get with the whole building in the shot, but seriously, up close, and i counted, it looked like they piled NINE giant skyscrapers on top of eachother. It's MASSIVE.
Here she is, in the sunet.
This was the beautiful blue-ish view from our hotel room when we got back from the city. that's a monorail track in the water. Monoraaaaail
5 Star Resorts have 5 Star food. As you can see the perfect little tiny desserts above. Some of them had gold leaf. I ate gold. om nom nom.

Everything was done for you. As soon as we rolled up to the hotel, all the doors were pulled open for us, our luggage was carried out of the car and taken to our room in 2 seconds. Guards watched over the elevators 24/7 and remembered us every time we walked by, At one point in the restaurant, One server was pulling out my seat for me, another was pouring me water, and ANOTHER was pouring me coffee. I had a moment there.

At the waterpark, there were lifeguards on duty every 10 meters. I could almost always see 3 at any given time. And if ever anyone at the water park, or at the resort ever saw you struggling with ANYTHING. I'm telling you like, I couldn't open the lid on something at the buffet, 5 men would run over and open EVERY lid on every dish so that I could see everything, or unfold my towel for me getting out of the pool.
This is a shot I took of one of the murals on the ceiling.
Jelly fish!!!
Lobstarrr
Mom and dad checkin out the ginormous Aquarium

Its a PA-RAN-AH! They live in tha A-MA-ZoN!
Nemooooo I found you
I hated this guy. he taunted me. He's ugly. Is it me or a do a LOT of fish just look like they should be food. Other than the cute ones like Nemo.
This is a picture so you can get an idea of just how mother effing huge he was. That's my mom in the picture.
Thought this was a cool shot.
Sea horsies hangin out.
Lion fish.
Anyway, in conclusion, This vacation within a vacation was more than I ever expected (as I did not expect at all) I got to see the tallest building in the world. And hold a live starfish - picture not enclosed as I made the unfortunate decision of wearing horizontal stripes that day eeeee. lol.

Oh giant tube of spinny fish. I have one week in the UAE until I fly to India. It's going to be jam packed! And as always I will keep you all updated on my adventures :)

And remember fish are friends not food!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I AM SO JEALOUS!!! We are going there together one day... maybe my brand new mastrcard will take me there? Any takers? lol. I am glad you are enjoying your trip of a LIFETIME. You deserve it! Is the building free standing? Cause then it can't kick the cn towers ass... The sand pic, your so brown... NOT white as you said before, your brown.. Sounds like your royalty there... so jealous Manda... so jealous!! Have a great time!! What day are you home? The end of the month right? YOU STILL HAVE 3 WEEKS! Can't wait to see you!!

amanda ds said...

I got browner Kait!! and yes, it's free standing, it beat the CN Tower. booo! cuz the CN tower, in my opinion, is a lot nicer looking.

Jae.S said...

BAH!! so this is AMAZING!!! I would give anything to be there with you right now....Kaitlin is right, you got DARK! I have some huge news for you, talk to you soon! Love you!!

Anonymous said...

shmamanda!
i am so excited for you! seeing all this stuff amazes me.

be safe CHICK