United Arab Emirates
Dubai
From August 29th to September 2nd, 2023
Day 1
After an unexpected change in travel plans, we found ourselves on a flight from Kuatiki Georgia to Abu Dabi, United Arab Emirates. We got picked up by the Four Seasons Hotel and it took about an hour to get from Abu Dabi to Dubai.
We checked into our hotel and sat for an early 4pm dinner at Scalini, adjacent to our hotel. We had an incredible caviar pasta, a truffle pizza, and an artichoke & avocado salad.
We then went to the spa and had a 90 minute massage at the hotel spa
Normally around 9pm our evening would wrap up, but The Dubai Mall was open and wasn’t closing for another 3 hours. We hopped in a car and took a 20 minute uber ride to the mall to walk around and sew what the hype is/was all about. In the mall we noticed that coming here in the evening must be some kind of social affair. The men and women, dressed in their traditional attire, walk around the mall to get exercise, greet their friends and neighbors, and shop for whatever they might need. We ran into the Dubai Mall Aquarium and didn’t see a line to get in. We thought that timing must have been on our side, so we got tickets quickly and felt like we had the aquarium mostly to ourselves to explore. Highlights were seeing a saw nosed shark, other extremely large sharks, penguins, seahorses, an albino turtle, a larger than life alligator, massive rays, and exotic fish from around the world.
After the aquarium, we took the opportunity to replenish some of our clothes that had been thrown away in Georgia. (Yes, somebody accidentally threw away our dirty laundry bag, leaving us with half the clothes that we had - on top of already not having much…). Lulu Lemon to the rescue! And a little Pinkberry after the shopping excursion was icing on the cake.
Around 10:30 we walked outside in the 100+ degree heat and saw that a water fountain show in front of the Burj Khalifa was about to start. Much like at Bellagio in Vegas, a coordinated fountain, light, and music show played for about 4 minutes. The 830 meter (2,717 feet) Burj Khalifa was sparkling all over the sky and we decided that since we were so close, we’d walk over to see the monstrosity
Again, we found ourselves at the entrance of the Burj with nobody else in line. We bought the tickets and made our way up to the 125th floor of the tallest skyscrapers in the world (since 2009). With only about 20 others up at the viewing platform, we really got to enjoy the attraction without many others around.
By 11pm we decided to call it a day and hopped in a taxi back to our hotel.
Day 2
After a late evening, we got going the next day with lunch at Amazonico located in the Trade Center Second. We were put on notice that most places around the area require pants and jacket for lunch, so for the next time we should be more prepared from an attire perspective.
After Amazonico we went back to the Dubai Mall to explore other areas we didn’t get to explore the day before.
We found an entire Chinatown built in the mall, and also found a theme park, Play Dubai, that we decided to spend some time in. We played air hockey, punching bags, Dance Revolution, took a few VR roller coaster rides (one driving through a desert, and the other as a drone flying around Dubai), throwing games, basketball games, and so on.
We took a rest for a little while before diner at Avatara, an Indian Michelin meal. We had an incredible meal built around the “chakras of life” - with each dish tying back into your body’s chakras. We took a fancy taxi ride home with lights all over the ceiling.
Day 3
We started our day off with lunch at Orfali Bros Bistro
Directly after lunch we took a 30 minute car ride out to Deep Dive Dubai where we prepared to scuba dive in “the worlds deepest pool” as certified by the Guinness Book of World Records. It is 60 meters deep (~200 feet) of 3.1m gallons of fresh water. We took a tour through the facility to see how it was made, the machinery in use to maintain it, how to clean it, hyperbaric chambers, and other emergency and security protocols.
We got in our dive gear and made our descent into the pool. We took pictures playing pool, sitting on top of cars, playing chess, on a toilet, fist pumping a life-sized lego creature, and posing on a Ducati bike - all underwater.
We cleaned ourselves up and went for cocktails at the Bvlgari Bar at the Bvlgari Hotel.
After cocktails, we went for dinner at The Atlantis Hotel and had dinner at one Michelin star Ossiano which boasted a floor-to-ceiling aquarium that lined an entire wall of the restaurant. The Atlantis Hotel has much more of a Vegas feel to it, with many tourists walking around. We had an incredible meal at Ossiano before making our way back to the Four Seasons Hotel.
Day 4
That next day we took it easy at the hotel until our 3pm reservation at Aura Skypool, the pool club on top of the St. Regis Hotel at The Palm. We spent a few hours on top of the St. Regis, taking in the beautiful views of The Palm, marveled at the construction, then changed and prepared ourselves for another Michelin Indian meal; Trensind Studio.