Dubai IS all that! pt 4

After a few hours nap and shower, we were up and headed to the world famous Dubai Mall, still in search of the Garmin cable for Ronnie's (specific model) watch. We took a shuttle bus to the outside of the port, then switched over to a different mall shuttle.The bus itself was brand new (like everything else around) and the seats were a high quality leather. A bus with leather seats? Really? I post these 2 photos just to contrast the difference between the bus we rode in South Africa with the one here in Dubai. It's amazing what oil can do for a country!

 

our ride in Madagascar

our ride in Dubai

In addition to having more than 1,200 shops, the Dubai Mall houses the Dubai Aquarium, the world’s largest indoor aquarium with an acrylic panel that is 108 feet wide and 27 feet high, plus it is 29.5 inches thick.

Dubai has many malls. Another one we heard about (but did not visit) is the Mall of the Emirates. That mall is home to Ski Dubai, an indoor ski resort complete with cafe, children’s play area, snowboarding and even offers ski lessons. Ski Dubai is considered the world’s second largest snow park with 5 runs of varying difficulty, height and gradient. It also houses a snow park for activities such as tobogganing and tubing. Needless to say, Dubai does things BIG!

The good news is that we were able to find the correct charger for Ronnie's watch so it was well worth the trip there. There is absolutely no way I could have walked or even seen that entire mall. We were both exhausted, but on a mission and thankfully it was successful. By lunch time we were starving and managed to locate the food court (HUGE, with every kind of food imaginable) and got a bit of a Mexican food "fix" there. 

As always in Muslim countries, there are calls to prayer several times a day over loud speakers and there are prayer rooms inside the malls as well. Also, the music that is played in the larger stores is very different from what we would hear in malls or other public places in America.

Had we not been so tired, it would have been fun to see the entire mall but in reality there was just no way. In a nutshell, everything in Dubai including the mall is "over the top."

Below are just random photos I took as we walked around the mall looking for a Garmin watch charger. Hope you enjoy them.

 

mall entrance where bus dropped us off

inside mall entrance

Tiffany & Co.

many high end stores

which way?

lots of jewelry stores!

perfume and incense are really big here

mall houses 1,200 stores

Dubai Aquarium

aquarium from 3 levels up

I don't believe we've met

looking down on front of aquarium

90% of the Emirati population are Sunni Islam

athletic store

 

I read online that Islam is the official religion here, with over 90% of the Emirati population are Sunni Islam. The vast majority of the remainder 5-10% are Shia Muslims, who are concentrated in Dubai and Sharjah. Christians and other religions are allowed to have their places of worship in Dubai. However, they cannot convert a Muslim into their religion, but they can convert to Islam if they want.