Mauritius, September 29, 2012 Dubai

We arrived in Dubai almost an hour early! By the time we figured out how to use the public phone, called Patti, made it through passport security… it was a bit later. We met Patti and grabbed a cab and off we went to the Dubai Mall. It was dark by the time we started out, so we got to see all the buildings lit up.

The mall is HUGE and very modern and clean and a true mixing pot of nationalities of people. Our first stop was the dancing fountains. Beautiful fountains dancing to music. I was surprised that there were not colored lights on the water. The surrounding buildings are pretty. But every chain (food, chocolate, clothing, jewelry…) from anywhere in the world can be found in Dubai.

We ate some wonderful ice cream, saw the massive indoor aquarium and the indoor ice skating rink. Never have to leave the building!!

 

 

 

 

We said goodbye to Patti, then we headed off for our elevator ride to the top of the world’s tallest building: Burj Khalifa. Takes less than a minute to go up 124 floors!!! And it is as smooth as silk. The views from the top are amazing. They have telescopes at the top with large viewing screens and you can view “real time”, day, night or historic. It was neat to see the day time and historic since we are only here at night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patti was extra special to us.  She covered the cost of the cabs and treated us to the ice cream.  Hope she comes back to the US for a visit so we can reciprocate soon!

About midnight, Blue and I headed back to the airport.  Glad we left pretty “early”, it took a while to get back through security and find our gate.  Had a nice sandwich for dinner then waited for our next, shorter, flight.

Fun way to spend a long layover!

Until tomorrow!

OK, internet is extremely hard to get on... and then incredibly slow.  So, only a few pictures will be in the blogs until I find a better connection!!