Although the tour is over, I still have so much to share that I’d love to continue posting a little bit here… Let’s see how successful this new attempt will be… 😉
To finish with Dubai, here are a few impressions of my walking tour in downtown Dubai around the Burj Khalifa area. That’s where many office skyscrapers are located. The architecture is often quite interesting as shown below…
The metro line crossing the skyline of the business district
Here the Emirates Towers which were the highest towers in Dubai when they were built beginning of the 2000s… They look tiny now with their 350 meters!
The Emirate towers
Quite often, the architecture is not very original and pretty much inspired from other famous world buildings.
Inspired by the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur?Inspired by the Marina Bay Sands in Singapur?Inspired by… a cylinder in a rectangle?!
I was particularly impressed by the construction site of the so-called “museum of the future”. It combines futuristic shapes and traditional Islamic calligraphy elements. I think it will be quite beautiful when finished. I am curious about the museum content though. I suppose it will only deal with the amazing, tall and big skyscrapers Dubai will build in the future…!
Believe it or not but one of the main reasons why people visit Dubai is for shopping! And it’s true that Dubai has infinite options. Most of the stores are in shopping malls. I don’t know how many malls there are, but for sure way enough! The 2 most famous ones are the Mall of the Emirates and the Dubai Mall… And seriously, I cannot understand why people are so enthusiastic about these places. Of course the architecture is quite impressive… They are huge… but the stores are exactly the same as anywhere else!!! Why would you go to Dubai to shop in the same stores you can find back home?!
The Dubai Mall is the biggest mall in the world! What a surprise! But at the end, it looks like 5 normal malls that were put together! The view from the top of the Burj Khalifa gives a good impression of the megalomaniac dimensions…
Top-view of the Dubai Mall. It looks better from the top than inside…!
From outside, it already looks like a weird patchwork… with many catwalks connecting it to the metro and other buildings… but it is nothing compared to inside!
Each zone has a different architectural style and nothing matches together. It’s a really tasteless mix, and so pretentious and bling bling! In the food court, instead of 20 restaurants as usual, you will find hundreds… You can find, in random order, a big ice rink, a traditional Arab-style area with a dinosaur skeleton in the courtyard (so random, I know!), and a huge aquarium tank! Useless to say that it is so big that you get lost, walk hundreds of kilometers and cannot find the exit!
Here a few pictures… and in case you wonder… yes, it’s one single mall!
Of course, the Dubai Mall provides prayer rooms and the Adhan (call to prayer sung by the muezzin) is amplified over the Mall speakers, as it should be in an Islamic country 😉
The other famous mall, the Mall of the Emirates, is a bit older. Since it is smaller, it has a better architectural unity… They basically copied the Grand Palais in Paris, and got world-famous for having an indoor ski park!
A third little Mall, the Marina Mall, with human dimensions, is also quite popular and was my favorite. Less is more sometimes!
In this last mall, I found an interesting fastfood chain… Döner from Berlin!!
Although I am quite critical towards these malls, I must admit I was there more than once… but not for shopping… Just because they have 1/ nice toilets and 2/ air conditioning! Haha!
Free like a bear 