Dubai Fountain playing Michael Jackson

Take a look at these videos of the Dubai Fountain show with Michael Jackson “Thriller”.

The first video is shot a little higher than what you would normally see from ground level. On the ground it is very hard to see what is going on in the back. The second video gives a very good overview of the show and you can take a good look at the patterns.

Video 1

 
Video 2

Dubai Burj Al Arab

One of our destinations on our list of Dubai was the Burj Al Arab – the most luxurious hotel in the world. The hotel is built on an artificial island and only accessible by one bridge. You must have a reservation of some kind (room, drinks, restaurant) to enter the hotel. This is checked just before you can enter the bridge. We chose the least expensive reservation: Afternoon tea in the Skyview Bar. The Skyview Bar can be seen in the top left part of the building.


Driving to Burj Al Arab

The interior of the Burj Al Arab is decorated with gold leaf and bright colours, and of course extravagant.

Stairs to upper level

 
Burj Al Arab Interior


Burj Al Arab Lobby

 
View inside the Burj Al Arab while looking up

From the Sky View Bar you have a good view of the surroundings.

Jumeirah Beach Hotel

 
Souk Madinat

Outside the hotel you can see the Teflon Sail which forms the front of the hotel.

Burj Al Arab Teflon Sail Front

The hotel has its own special logo in stone.

Burj Al Arab Stone Carving

Later that day, we could see the Burj Al Arab from the  Souk Madinat during the sunset – a beautiful end of a nice day.

Burj Al Arab at sunset


Burj Al Arab from the Souk Madinat

Jumeirah hotel guests can enjoy free abra rides on the water canals of the Madinat Souk. During the exposure of the photo above an abra passed by. You cannot see the abra itself, just the red and white lights on it.

Panorama Dubai Ibn Battuta Mall China Court

The Ibn Battuta Mall has a wonderful China Court. A full size Chinese sailing vessel can be seen, and of course the wonderful decorations inspired by Chinese temples. You can also see the Tony Romas Restaurant where we had spare ribs, Dubai style.
The panorama was shot ‘guerilla style’ (no tripod, rotate on your left foot), so parts of the panorama are not so sharp as I wanted them to be. Click here to see a larger version of the panorama.

Click here for a HTML5 version of the panorama.

Dubai Ibn Battuta Mall

I wanted to visit the Ibn Battuta Mall because of its Chinese court. Before I show you the photos, let me tell you more about this mall. The Ibn Battuta Mall is on the way from Dubai to Abu Dhabi (Sheikh Zayed Road) past Dubai Internet City. The mall is named after the famous explorer Ibn Battuta. The mall’s theme is based on the countries he visited.

The mall has six courts:

1. Andalusia
2. Tunisia
3. Egypt
4. Persia
5. India
6. China

Our taxi dropped us off at the Andalusia side of the mall.

 
Taxi Stand at Ibn Battuta Mall

In the background you can see the giant arch entrance of the Ibn Battuta Gate Hotel.

Somebody told me to look up inside all the Dubai malls because the roofs are also decorated. They were right!

Roof decoration Ibn Battuta Mall

The decorations were beautiful. This one reminded me of the Alhambra in Andalusia:

Fountain Andalusia Court

The roof of the Tunisian Court looks like the shopping mall of Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas:

Tunisian Court

 
Tunisian Food Court

The Egypt Court

Entrance Persia Court

 
Persia Court

Roof Persia Court

 
India Court

The India Court holds a special reproduction: The Elephant Clock

Elephant Clock

This clock is powered by water and weights. Inside the elephant a bucket is slowly filled with water. This takes about 30 minutes. When the bucket is full a system of strings and balls pulls out the bucket and a drum is sounded to indicate a half hour has passed. The clock keeps running when there is enough water and balls available to empty the buckets.

Finally we arrived at the China Court:

China Court

 
China Court

Roof China Court

The Main China Court holds a Chinese Junk – a sailing vessel:

Chinese Junk at China Court

The mall also houses a Tony Roma’s. Beef ribs are served here, much larger than the regular ribs in the USA:

Dubai Burj Khalifa

The Burj Khalifa is the highest building in the world (as of January 2010). It is so high you can see it wherever you are in Dubai. It does not seem to get any smaller when you move away.


The Burj Khalifa is near the Dubai Mall (just right of the tower), the Dubai Fountain and the Address Hotel.

The Address Hotel reflected in the Dubai Fountain.

Construction of the Burj Khalifa was not completed when we were there. Unfortunately, the observation deck was closed, reason unknown. So I had to settle for some photos from the ground floor.
Click on the photo below to start the slide show or follow this link.

Dubai Metro

Dubai is building one of the most futuristic looking metro systems I have seen. When finished, the metro system will be the longest, driverless and fully automated metro system in the world.

The metro stations look like rail guns which fire off metro cars.

 

They also look like star ships docked to the buildings, ready for take-off.

 

Entrance of Dubai Metro Union Square Station.

 

 
Dubai Metro Union Square Station stair and escalators.

 

Inside Dubai Metro Union Square Station.

 

 
Dubai Metro Station at night (charging for the next blast?)

Dubai Fountain

 
Just outside the Dubai Mall one of the most beautiful attractions of Dubai can be found: The Dubai Fountain. Modeled after the one in Las Vegas, the Dubai Fountain is the world largest and one of the world’s tallest fountains.
Taking photos of the show was a little bit tricky. How to expose for the bright fountain show, while maintaining detail in the buildings in the background? I eventually settled for a high ISO to get a relatively fast shutter speed to stop the water motion while still getting some details in the buildings.
Click on the photo below to start the slideshow:

The two videos below were shot from the Waterfront Promenade.
[ Technical details: Panasonic DMC-TZ7, HD format, Motion Jpeg compression.
Make sure you select the YouTube HD format when your computer supports it: ]

Dubai Mall

When you are in Dubai, the Dubai Mall is of course a must see.  Opening times are daily from 10-22. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday the mall opening hours are extended to midnight.

The Dubai Gold Souk has some interesting decorations:

Entrance Gold Souk

 
Dubai Mall Gold Souk Hall

Dubai Gold Souk Lamps

The Hall has a very interesting dome which is lit in several colours. Click on the photo below to start the slideshow, or click here.

Dubai Mall Gold Souk Hall Lighting

Dubai Mall Gold Souk Lamp

Other parts of the mall have an interesting architecture:

Dubai Mall Roof Top Floor

 
Dubai Mall Top Floor

Dubai Mall Waterfall

Dubai Mall Atrium

Dubai Mall Atrium

Dubai Mall Atrium

Besides the obligatory fashion stores the Dubai Mall has some unique attractions:

Dedicated Canon Shop

A full size Olympic Ice Rink

The largest in-house aquarium with sharks and a visitor tunnel.

Outside the Dubai Mall are the Dubai Fountain and the worlds largest building the Burj Khalifa. More on these in a future post.