Hey guys, I have been running a photo blog for a while and have been forgetting to link it here. All I do is post photos on this one [max three at a time]. Thanks for viewing.
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“Bulletproof” by Solillaquists of Sound is a hip hop track about the life of Martin Luther King Jr. At the end there is an excerpt from the powerful “Mountaintop” speech by King. This is one of my favorite hip hop tracks ever.
This post is a little bit late, but here are some pictures I took of the memorial on the UT campus for one of the greatest.
Dubai Day 2: Burj Al Arab and Desert Safari
Five Star Dishes, Different Exotic Fishes
We had a bright and early start on the family’s second day in Dubai. Macy turned eight years old that day and we celebrated her birthday by having breakfast at the Burj Al Arab. How many eight year old kids can say they had cake and a happy birthday singing at the world’s most luxurious hotel?
Meh. I think she would have rather gone to McDonald’s.
The restaurant we had breakfast at was… it… it was a… it was an Asian Buffet. I know, I know. Hey, this wasn’t your usual Super Buffet off of the Dallas North Tollway. This was Junui located inside the Burj Al Arab. Much classier. The waiters were always there to change your plates, your silverware, refill drinks, help you bring food back to the table, fold your napkin every time you left the table, serve birthday cakes… whatever you want! I think all of the chefs were Chinese, and one of them is about to emigrate to Houston, Texas! I’m still not sure if that’s a good thing or not.
The food? Pretty dang delicious. My favorite dishes were their BBQ and oyster sauce pork buns, tea eggs, glass noodle soup, assortment of fruits, and SWEET, DELICIOUS YOUTIAO!
I also took a picture of the restroom in the restaurant. Don’t judge.
…Ridiculous
I wanted to take some pictures of the hotel so I headed down to the lobby while everybody was still busy with breakfast.
The hotel lobby was one of the most awe-inspiring modern interiors I have ever seen. The view extends all the way up to around 600 feet to one of the top residence halls and each floor ceiling gradually changes from a shade of blue to yellow. The pillars, the spandrels, and parts of the ceiling are gold colored and the floor decorations are a combination of the blue, yellow, and gold. The interior, along with the fact that the hotel is shaped like a sail, encapsulates the ocean and beach theme in a far more subtle way than other ocean and beach hotels (e.g. Atlantis Hotel). That is about the only subtle thing about it, though. Everything else is just ridiculous.
For starters, hotels with chauffeur services are already pretty high class, but the guys at the Burj Al Arab thought it would be best if guests rolled around one of the world’s most luxurious hotels in one of the world’s most luxurious cars, the Rolls Royce Phantom. Of course, you have your Cartier jewelry stores and personal jet services tucked in the hotel hallways, and the Al Mahara is also rated among the top ten hotel restaurants. There is also a Skyview bar facing towards the endless sea, and a tennis court located on the roof helipad. Roger Federer and Andre Agassi sure had fun at the Burj. Oh, by the way, those pillars and spandrels are actually gilded in 22-karat gold. One pillar is probably worth more than my entire college tuition.
Just sayin’.
Cruisin on a Desert
After we dazzled our stomachs and our wallets at the Burj Al Arab, it was time to go on a desert road trip! We hired a driver who takes people on routes across parts of the desert in his Toyota Land Cruiser. 30 minutes into driving out of Dubai we finally reached the desert and met up with more desert drivers. A lot more. I mean, I have never seen so many Toyota Land Cruisers at once in my life. At every ‘break’ (the cars had to cool down) there would be at least twenty land cruisers around you and you could still see dozens and dozens of Land Cruisers driving the same routes off into the distance. I was surprisingly impressed by what the Land Cruisers could do on the desert terrain.
The ride itself was the craziest car ride I had ever been in. I have come to the understanding that this is the new desert horseback riding for the young guys in Dubai. The drive consisted of accelerations up sand dunes, accelerations even faster down sand dunes, drifts across sand banks, slides down sand dunes sideways at steep angles, abrupt breaks midway through downhill accelerations, and ‘splashing’ sand across bystanders we would drive by. Our driver was a U.A.E. military veteran, and I don’t know if that translates into anything but he seemed to be one of more skilled drivers out of the bunch.
Everybody ended their ride at a desert festival that involved lots of free food and performances. After some kabobs, some pita, a belly dance performance by a Russian named Julia, and a 30 degree drop in the weather, it was time to go back home.
We still had a lot to do.
(I swear I am going to finish this.)
Dubai Day 1: Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa
What Happened To Day 0?
Day 0 was a rather uneventful day, although I still had fun plenty of fun. I hanged out with the daughter of the family, Lu xi er (I’m bad with writing in pinyin so I will call her Lucy from now on), and some of her friends from Oman that she met through a high school band competition.
They have high school band in the Middle East. Awesome!
We went to the Dubai Mall, the largest mall in the world, and watched Tron in 3D. What better way is there to spend my time in Dubai than watching Tron in 3D with 3D subtitles in Arabic? Don’t answer that.
Dubai Mall
In case you haven’t figured it out, the Dubai Mall is huge. If you are a numbers kind of person, the Stonebriar Centre in Frisco has a total of 165 stores and services, the Galleria in Houston has 375, the Mall of America in Minnesota has over 520, and the Dubai Mall has over 1,200 stores. Here are some more numbers - the Stonebriar Centre has 1.6 million sq ft of retail area, the Galleria in Houston has 2.4 million sq ft, the Mall of America has 2.77 million sq ft, and the Dubai Mall has 3.77 million sq ft of retail floor area.
Most importantly, you can pretty much find anything you could possibly want from a mall in this three floor behemoth. They have outlets for nearly every major fashion brand from the middle (Gap, Levi’s, H&M) to the high-end (Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Versace), and there are specialty shops for a multitude of hobbies and occupations. Oddly enough, only in Dubai will you see a shop selling burqas at one end of a mall and a shop selling lingerie at the other.
If that’s not enough, you can also find an indoor aquarium containing the world’s largest acrylic panel, the world’s largest candy shop called “Candylicious”, an Olympic-sized ice skating rink, a 22 screen mega cinema, and a 76,000 sq ft indoor arcade/theme park center called the “SEGA Republic”. Now, all they are missing is an indoor ski slope! I mean, it’s not like the other mall across town has one.
The Burj Khalifa
The Burj Khalifa, known for being the world’s tallest man made structure at 828 meters (2,717 feet), also has a few other (some random) records under its belt. It has: more floors than any other building with 160 floors, the world’s highest observation deck at 452 meters on the 124th floor, the world’s highest mosque on the 158th floor, the world’s highest swimming pool at the 76th floor, the world’s highest nightclub on the 144th floor, the world’s highest elevator installation that goes to the very top and the world’s fastest elevator that has a speed of 40 mph (64 km/h).
Before I describe the view from the 124th floor, I have to tell you about the elevator ride. It was the most epic elevator ride ever, and I mean epic in all of its classical meaning. It was an adventure:
It’s been a long wait for the elevators and finally it’s our turn. The moment I step into the cool and sleek room, I immediately notice mirrors are placed along all of the sides and the ceiling. This is a good design technique to make the elevators seem larger. *ding* What’s that? The doors close. All of the lights go out. It’s pitch black. What’s going on? *rumble rumble* -BANG!- The floor starts to push against my feet. Flashing neon lights are swimming and pulsing all over the elevator walls. Intense music that reminds me of Hans Zimmer flushes out all other noise. This elevator is going fast! How long have I been in here? My ears are popping! WILL WE MAKE IT? MORE FLASHING LIGHTS! MORE INTENSE MUSIC! BURJ KHALIFA, WE KNOW DRAMA!
*ding*
Welcome to the 124th floor of Burj Khalifa. Enjoy your visit.
As for the view?
I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Click here for full screen version of the slide show.
Dubai: First, an introduction
Today, let’s begin with an introduction on Dubai.
Complicated Government
Dubai is one of the seven Emirates located along the borders of Saudi Arabia and Oman and in between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman that leads to the Arabian sea. The other six Emirates are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain and together they form the nation known as the United Arab Emirates. The term ‘emirates’ comes from the Arabic word imarah, which means land or territory governed by an emir (prince or governor).
Like the other Emirates, Dubai is an Islamic nation ruled under an absolute monarchy while the U.A.E. as a whole is led by a president and a prime minister. Currently, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan is the president of the U.A.E. as well as the emir of Abu Dhabi. The current emir of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, also serves as the vice president and prime minister of the U.A.E. This is all very confusing, I know, so we’ll just leave the government be for now.
More Change Than A Gumball Machine
Dubai is one of the fastest growing cities in the world, and it is evident that society is having a hard time keeping up with its traditions while adapting to the modern world. You will see places that encourage modest clothing, stores that sell burqas, and a lingerie shop right next door. You can find integrated mosques in many large facilities such as the mall so that adult Muslims may perform their daily salahs when the time calls.
Not only is Dubai rapidly growing, but the population of Dubai has become fairly diverse. As of 2005, 71% of the population were identified as Asian (largely Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Filipino) while only 17% were actually U.A.E. nationals.
Everything is Biggest in Dubai
They say that everything is bigger in Texas, but everything is biggest in Dubai. Okay, not everything, but quite a few things. Here are some of the things found in Dubai: the Burj Khalifa (world’s tallest man made structure), the Dubai Mall (world’s largest mall by gross leasable area), the aquarium located in the Dubai Mall (world’s largest acrylic panel), Jebel Ali (world’s largest man-made port), the Burj Al Arab (world’s best honeymoon resort according to the Five Star Alliance and fourth tallest hotel in the world), and the Palm Jumeirah (the world’s largest man made island). Additionally, at one time one fourth of the world’s supply of cranes were located at Dubai.
Dubai Days -2 and -1: Is this trip really going to happen?
Day -2: Christmas is Ruined
Our family trip to London and Dubai was scheduled to take off on Christmas Eve. About three hours before our flight to London my dad asks me about my passport. My thought process pretty much went like “Oh yeah it’s in th- OH. SHIT.” That stupid little blue booklet with that photo of me and my awesomely bad haircut was my only way out of the country and it was left BACK. IN. AUSTIN.
“Noooo Christmas is ruined!”
After an hour of mass chaos, my dad miraculously managed to book a flight for me to Dubai on Christmas Day and wait for their arrival from London two days later. On Christmas day I was to fly from Dallas to Atlanta, from Atlanta to DC, from DC to Kuwait, and then from Kuwait to Dubai. I’m going airport hopping and there’s no happy hour of any kind. Not even the sushi kind.
To be honest, I was extremely thankful that most of our trip was still intact (plus I get to skip the below freezing weather in London). I have not gone traveling with my dad since middle school. However, I still had to drive from Dallas to Austin and back to Dallas on Christmas Eve. Jolly.
The drive to Austin was not all too bad. I like long drives alone in the car anyways because I get to sing out loud in any ridiculous manner I like (there was plenty of Bill Withers, Florence + the Machines, and Ewan McGregor a la Moulin Rouge going on in the car). It was also interesting listening to the kind of people who do live radio on Christmas eve. One group of radio hosts got drunk on red wine and eggnog and another sports radio duo sounded depressingly cynical.
“Why am I on the radio talking about random Christmas day sports facts? Because we’re losers! (To his partner) You’re a loser, too!”
That’s the Christmas spirit!
The Austin campus and West Campus pretty much looked like a ghost town. Even Kerbey Lane was closed! I had never seen that before! Thankfully, my apartment appeared just like how I had left it - messy. Nothing got stolen, broken, or burned down and none of the left over food got moldy. Also, John, I took the red bull that was sitting on the table all of December. I hope you don’t mind.
One xynergy, one rockstar, one red bull, and two bags of beef jerky later I arrived back home in Dallas. The total drive lasted from 5pm on Christmas eve to 2am on Christmas Day. Good thing packing was easy since I was already packed for the trip…
Day -1: Triple D’s
On Christmas morning my ride dropped me off at the airport 20 minutes before my flight and check-in for the flight was closed. Basically, I had just missed my flight. Christmas day bonus!
Is this trip even going to happen? I had been playing Bill Withers’ “Lean On Me” all day long the day before, and it looks like it’s going to be on repeat for a little longer.
But wait! Shuffle my ipod and slap me silly - it’s a Christmas miracle! The wonderful lady at the United check-in desk managed to book me a new flight arriving at Dubai at around the same time and with just one transfer!
My new flight routes were from DFW airport to Dulles airport at DC and then from Dulles to Dubai International Airport. Both flights 100% packed, and I still wonder why the airline let me transfer. Oh well, lucky me! My Dulles to Dubai flight on United included one of those personal touch screen TVs! I didn’t use it much since I just slept most of the way.
My arrival in Dubai was kind of a surreal experience. I was in Dubai, but my senses were telling me I was in China. Firstly, there was the the long flight and the large time difference, which I usually associate with trips to China. Secondly, the Dubai airport restrooms had faucets with Chinese instructions on them and flat ground toilets that you see everywhere in China (it was hilarious seeing the airline passengers going from stall to stall looking for a ‘regular’ toilet). Lastly, I was picked up by a Chinese family and greeted in Chinese.
Díbài huānyíng nǐ.
I’m done venting. On to the actual trip!
