This was an unintentional trip yet it was fantastic given to the fact that time spent was less than twenty four hours. It also holds as the shortest visit I have made to any city as a tourist. My stop over on the return leg of India trip was in Dubai. Dubai is renowned to have a significant migrant population as compared to the local. Within that migrant population a high percentage of them are from the native State where my parents hail from. The state of Kerala, also known as "god's own country". It does not come as a surprise that very many of my relatives live there. In the past five years many of my first cousins have also moved to Dubai.
Now that I am an Irish man, its far easier for me to visit quite a few countries. Using this stop over when I am flying back my self seemed like a good idea. Checked with my cousins if they can accommodate me and the plan was set. Few days before heading to Dubai from Bangalore, I was wondering what Could I do for less than one day there, and which is the most effective way to see most of the city. Now that its common knowledge that the tallest man made structure is in Dubai as of the year 2015, it seemed to be the best option. Looked up , on how to get ticket. Checked with my cousins if they can join me. Booked tickets for all of us and all I had to do now is get into the Plane.
It was hard bidding good bye to my family especially my little one. Even the thought of visiting Dubai was not enough to excite me over the thought that my next few months in Dublin will be lonely.
Off from Bengaluru international airport and Dubai is a short three hours flight away. Reached there by midnight. My cousin brother, Mani was waiting outside to pick me up. The first impression I remember was the punch in my face by the heat as soon as I stepped out of the Arrival gate. Extremely hot! It was the middle of the night and the temperature was forty degrees. My brother, got me into his car and turned on the AC to full blast and went about paying the parking fee. Apparently, sitting inside an idle car with doors and windows shut will kill anyone. I was more than delighted to see him. He is the second oldest after me in my first circle of eighteen cousins on my mother's side.
He was driving me to my other cousin's apartment where he and his wife lives. The city at night looked busy with cars zipping on the roads, My cousin was telling me, missing one single exit means an extra twenty minutes on the road and he did just that. We got to the apartment by half past twelve. My sister in law and brother greeted us and offered some food. We had the usual family chit chat going on for a bit and then hit the bed. The cousin , Jitin, who I was staying with is the third oldest in the group.
Slept like a log, must be due to the heat only to realise in the morning that the whole apartment block is fully, centrally air conditioned. Like how in Dublin, some apartments have heating as part of the rent, there they have air conditioning system. My cousin was tip toeing in the morning not to disturb me to let himself out to head to office. My sister in law, Uthara whom I had briefly met just once before had prepared some fine Indian breakfast. My cousin Mani had taken a day off work and he came around to pick me up by ten. meanwhile Uthara and I got to see some family photographs and shared stories about my daughter and how the whole experience was for me off being a father.
My brother had some plans of showing me few places and he set the schedule. The quickest way to get to Burj Khalifa was by train, so we parked the car at the Metro station and took the train. The whole infrastructure was spic and span. While in the train, I noticed that not a soul was walking on the pavements or in the park benches. The sprinklers in the park were full on, still not a person in sight. That is what heat does. It was forty two degrees. People either inside buildings or inside cars. For all those blue collard workers, it must be such a tough life. Its a rule, that no outdoor work will be done during the peak noon hours.
In twenty minutes we got to the Dubai mall. This Mall connects to the tower. It was quite a long walk in spite of many moving walkways within. Took around fifteen minutes to get to the reception. flashed my booking ticket and there we were, the three of us to get to the top of the tallest tower. one hundred and forty five floors. The highest one can go to is one hundred and sixty five floors, but for that it will cost me an arm and a leg. Its not that like there is a tree branch at floor 145 that will block my view so, floor 145 was fine with us.
We were shown our way, by not one , but at least a dozen well dressed members of staff. By the time we were waiting for the lift we were given some briefing about the height and other statistics. One point mentioned was that the lift takes one minute to get to floor 145. I did not believe her one bit. Its impossible! The building is one kilometer tall, so imagine going up at sixty kilometers per hour. 60 kmps is actually understating, because the lift cannot hit 60 on the word go. So for it to average that sixty kilometers in one minute, it has to hit at least ninety kilometers per hour. This was all the math that was going on in my head. I asked my sister in law to video the whole thing. I had the stop watch on my phone set to zero. The lift had a dark ambience with some fancy lighting effects inside. There was music played. It did not actually it feel like getting into lift, it indeed felt like getting into a theater. Honestly all three of us were giggling like a bunch of girls. As the doors shut, we hardly realised it was moving. Looking at the display inside the number initially incremented at a very slow fashion, and I was thinking we are never going to make it to the top in one minute at this pace. But then it ever so gradually sped up at a feverish rate. We could have held a glass of water in a tumbler and would not notice a single ripple on the surface I bet you not! The most obvious observation in that one minute was our ears kept getting blocked. Every time we yawned to get rid of the block, it blocked again. Floor numbers kept ticking away as fast as one can count numbers. By floor one hundred, it decelerated at the same rate it accelerated. Engineering at its best! There is no other way to describe that single one minute of experience in the list. In total awe we were to look at the stop watch at one minute.
There we were at the top of the highest man made structure. lucky we were that it was a clear sky with so sand storms. I definitely was not expecting a view like what I get from my home for most of the year. ( Cloudy and rainy ). Spectacular is one adjective. For hundreds of kilometers it was clear view. My brother knows the city like the back of his hand. He pointed out most of the landmarks of the city. The cars looked like ants crawling up the beaten path. The people were very hard to notice. If one peered really hard, we can notice dots moving and that would be the people. There was an open viewing area and we could see all of the city. We could see tall builds at oen direction, each one with an inspiring architecture. The view from an other end showed the endless crests and troughs of the sand dunes. The origin of the city. The third view offered the magnificent blue sea extending into the horizon. What better way to check out Dubai in the most effective way. Man has truly conquered nature, amidst the sea and the fiery hot sand he has created a heaven with parks and hundreds of trees. Sprawling pools and water fountains all over. Bloody Impressive at the resolve of those visionaries and engineers who set out to build this city.
The staff were so courteous , that they walked up to us and asked us not to hurry and take as long as we would like to be up there to enjoy the magnificent views. My sister law the charming person she is, very much into selfies. I joined her and indulged myself into selfies. That has to be the first selfie that I ever took.
We were allowed to take the stairs to floor one hundred and forty six. There was an exhibit of the history of the building and pointers to the various landmarks of Dubai. As any other tourist hot stop , a gift shop as well. We were also reminded that this is the same place where Tom Cruise performed the stunt himself by hanging outside the windows for "mission impossible". The three of us would have spent a little more than an hour absorbing all the views and the trivia.
We decided to make it way down at twelve, since I had the four O'clock flight to Dublin. The one minute way down , did not fail to impress on the way down as well. One the way out there was scale models of the building in construction at various stages. Mani, had other ideas of showing me the displays within the mall. There was one large aquarium. Even the famous London aquarium is dwarfed by this one. Three storeys high and more than a hundred feet.
It was mesmerising to see the shoals of fishes of all different shapes and sizes swim by. He also took me to a Dinosaur exhibit. He knows what I like to see. It was not a mock up of a Dino bone, its the real one hundred and fifty million year old Dino bone. its not a moulded piece. This was a teenage Dino, if fully grown, it would have been twice this size. Now its 80 Feet long. The Dubai mall by itself was another massive structure with beautifully decorated domes. There were more than one such domes to be amazed at. It occupies a space more than fifty foot ball fields. The tallest building in the world to one of the largest shopping mall in a single day. How about that!
It was almost close to two PM by now and I had to kill the idea of my brother treating me for lunch at one of his favourite restaurant. we hurried back to the flat. Lovely Uthara made sure that i don't get on to a plane hungry, so packed some food for me. Mani dropped be at the Emirates terminal. I did not even have time to say a proper good bye to both of them, but indeed i owe this whole Dubai experience to them. Every minute of it. With just thirty minutes to spare I was at the departure gates.
Now if some one asks me have you seen all of Dubai in under a day, I can say with confidence "I saw all of Dubai in under an hour and I am going back for more"
Now that I am an Irish man, its far easier for me to visit quite a few countries. Using this stop over when I am flying back my self seemed like a good idea. Checked with my cousins if they can accommodate me and the plan was set. Few days before heading to Dubai from Bangalore, I was wondering what Could I do for less than one day there, and which is the most effective way to see most of the city. Now that its common knowledge that the tallest man made structure is in Dubai as of the year 2015, it seemed to be the best option. Looked up , on how to get ticket. Checked with my cousins if they can join me. Booked tickets for all of us and all I had to do now is get into the Plane.
It was hard bidding good bye to my family especially my little one. Even the thought of visiting Dubai was not enough to excite me over the thought that my next few months in Dublin will be lonely.
Off from Bengaluru international airport and Dubai is a short three hours flight away. Reached there by midnight. My cousin brother, Mani was waiting outside to pick me up. The first impression I remember was the punch in my face by the heat as soon as I stepped out of the Arrival gate. Extremely hot! It was the middle of the night and the temperature was forty degrees. My brother, got me into his car and turned on the AC to full blast and went about paying the parking fee. Apparently, sitting inside an idle car with doors and windows shut will kill anyone. I was more than delighted to see him. He is the second oldest after me in my first circle of eighteen cousins on my mother's side.
He was driving me to my other cousin's apartment where he and his wife lives. The city at night looked busy with cars zipping on the roads, My cousin was telling me, missing one single exit means an extra twenty minutes on the road and he did just that. We got to the apartment by half past twelve. My sister in law and brother greeted us and offered some food. We had the usual family chit chat going on for a bit and then hit the bed. The cousin , Jitin, who I was staying with is the third oldest in the group.
Slept like a log, must be due to the heat only to realise in the morning that the whole apartment block is fully, centrally air conditioned. Like how in Dublin, some apartments have heating as part of the rent, there they have air conditioning system. My cousin was tip toeing in the morning not to disturb me to let himself out to head to office. My sister in law, Uthara whom I had briefly met just once before had prepared some fine Indian breakfast. My cousin Mani had taken a day off work and he came around to pick me up by ten. meanwhile Uthara and I got to see some family photographs and shared stories about my daughter and how the whole experience was for me off being a father.
My brother had some plans of showing me few places and he set the schedule. The quickest way to get to Burj Khalifa was by train, so we parked the car at the Metro station and took the train. The whole infrastructure was spic and span. While in the train, I noticed that not a soul was walking on the pavements or in the park benches. The sprinklers in the park were full on, still not a person in sight. That is what heat does. It was forty two degrees. People either inside buildings or inside cars. For all those blue collard workers, it must be such a tough life. Its a rule, that no outdoor work will be done during the peak noon hours.
In twenty minutes we got to the Dubai mall. This Mall connects to the tower. It was quite a long walk in spite of many moving walkways within. Took around fifteen minutes to get to the reception. flashed my booking ticket and there we were, the three of us to get to the top of the tallest tower. one hundred and forty five floors. The highest one can go to is one hundred and sixty five floors, but for that it will cost me an arm and a leg. Its not that like there is a tree branch at floor 145 that will block my view so, floor 145 was fine with us.
The staff were so courteous , that they walked up to us and asked us not to hurry and take as long as we would like to be up there to enjoy the magnificent views. My sister law the charming person she is, very much into selfies. I joined her and indulged myself into selfies. That has to be the first selfie that I ever took.
We decided to make it way down at twelve, since I had the four O'clock flight to Dublin. The one minute way down , did not fail to impress on the way down as well. One the way out there was scale models of the building in construction at various stages. Mani, had other ideas of showing me the displays within the mall. There was one large aquarium. Even the famous London aquarium is dwarfed by this one. Three storeys high and more than a hundred feet.
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