Dubai Creek and Dubai Mall

Monday
Today, it was on to stage 2 of our vacation. Our taxi driver showed up in good time, and took a great route to the airport, avoiding most of the traffic, and we arrived there in record time, so we had plenty of time to get a coffee and a pastry. Our flight was at 9.50, and got us into Dubai at 12.40. We had decided to treat ourselves while in Dubai- call it an early anniversary present - and were staying at the Sheraton on the Creek. Our room wasn’t quite ready, so while waiting we went to the bar overlooking the creek and the city, and enjoyed a beer and a glass of wine, accompanied by a little snack - Kuwait being a dry country, we hadn’t had one in a while! Having settled into our room, we went for a walk along the Creek. The Creek is the city’s original centre of commerce and is still today a hive of activity, with boats of differing kinds and size plying their way up and down. We enjoyed a great walk, admiring some of the modern architecture, manicured gardens, beautiful flowers, as well as all the boating activity. At 6 pm, we took the hotel shuttle across to Dubai Mall to see the Fountain display and the laser light show on the Burj Khalifa. Featuring over 1,200 retail stores, two anchor department stores and hundreds of food and beverage outlets, the Dubai Mall covers more than 1 million sqm – an area equivalent to 200 football pitches. In addition, the Mall is the ultimate family entertainment destination with the Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo, an Olympic-sized Dubai Ice Rink, children’s ‘edutainment’ concept Kidzania and a massive indoor cinema complex! We wandered through part of the Mall, particularly enjoying the amazing waterfall shown in my collage and the huge viewing wall into the aquarium, before coming out to the lake, location of the Fountain Show. We watched one performance from as close as we could get, then went and had dinner at one of the nearby restaurants, which was a great vantage point for the amazing laser light show on the Burj, as well as later fountain displays. We then walked part way around the lake and eventually found our way to the metro to return to our hotel. A fantastic evening!