Trip to Dubai - Part II

What else is there in Dubai for the sight seeing? Malls, Malls, Malls, Jumeria Beach and Malls. Yes, Dubai is packed with shopping malls and every famous mall has some unique feature with respect to theme, size, shape etc.. I didn’t get a chance to carry my camera to all the malls I visited, but most of them have their own well designed websites explaining the details.

Mall of the Emirates – This is supposed to be the biggest mall in Dubai and is famous for its first in-door ski resort in Middle East. I visited this mall after my office hours and due to the limited time factor didn’t get a chance to try skiing. But managed to take few pictures.

I never visited a shopping complex of this size before and it was quite tiring for me to roam around. After an exhaustive walk I felt like having a good coffee. Few months back, I read the book The Starbucks Experience and wanted to find out what’s so special about the Starbucks coffee. I started searching for Starbucks in the store map and followed the directions as given in the map. Getting fed up of searching the shop for nearly 20 mins, I decided to go back to my hotel and went to the taxi stand. Not able to give up, I gave one last try and enquired the security standing near the taxi pick up area. He pointed towards the exit gate. Oh my gosh, the shop is just adjacent to the exit gate outside the mall and I have been searching inside for such a long time. I tried Frappucino (blended with banana flavour) and the taste was amazing.

One of my colleagues introduced me to his friend Sachin in Dubai. Sachin is a very enthusiastic person and was quite patient enough to roam along with me in Dubai. He took me to some interesting places which he himself has explored recently. We went to an amazing place called Century Village. It should be on the must do list of everyone visiting Dubai. The Century Village is a small oasis of fine dining restaurants, in a relaxing atmosphere of fountains and greenery which allows you to almost forget that you are in Dubai. First I and Sachin went to the Irish village tried Guinness (dark beer) and had good time chatting in a typical Irish country side setup. It is one of the very few places in Dubai that you are allowed to sit outside while having an alcoholic drink. After having couple of beers we went to an Arabic restaurant few meters away from the Irish village. We had an awesome feeling as soon as we entered the restaurant. The room was filled with flavoured smoke from hookahs, an Arabian singer playing Oud (Arabian guitar), singing and people were dancing for the music. The experience was enthralling and didn’t miss an opportunity to try strawberry flavoured hookah. After a great evening we came back to our hotel at around 2:50 AM.

Next day we went to Ibn Battuta Mall, the largest themed mall in Middle East. The architectural inspiration behind the distinctive design of the shopping mall is based around the travels of renowned 14th century explorer, Ibn Battuta, a man who travelled over 75,000 miles during his lifetime. The mall is segmented into six distinct architectural zones, representing key destinations visited by Ibn Battuta.The six courts are comprised of the Andalusian Court, the North African Court, the Egyptian Court, the Persian Court, the Indian Court and the Chinese Court. I liked the Chinese court very much because of its rich colours and architecture.

We also went to City Centre in Dubai. The place is as busy as the City Centre in Chennai with its size 5-6 times bigger than the complex in chennai. It has got nearly 4-5 multi storied buildings for car parking alone. Don’t miss to try Cinnabon in Cinnabon shop. The taste was awesome.

I missed to visit the famous open Jumeirah Beach. Heard from my friends the place is good to play volley ball and other water sports.

Even though I stayed in Dubai for a short duration, it was a happy and eventful experience.