Dubai – Where Anything is Possible!

I used to hear what a wonderful place Dubai was, from the magnificent Burj Al-Arab, their amazing summer sales to their amazing million dollar raffles where, if you were lucky, could be making your way home with a Rolls Royce! It was a place I’d always wanted to visit but never got a chance to until our last Middle Eastern trip which included a really brief 12 hour stopover in Dubai for a meeting.

If there is any city in the world where the streets seem to be paved with gold, this is it. From the airport, there’s a constant reminder that you’re actually in the middle of a desert as the huge 6-lane roads are flanked with a monotonous scenery of sand and small shrubs. However, when we hit the main city area, it really took my breath away. It is a city with one of the most unique architecture in the world, filled with skyscrapers and display of wealth everywhere. They’re currently constructing the Burj Dubai which is scheduled to be the highest building in the world, leaving our Twin Towers far away in its wake.

Construction is the name of the game here and everywhere you turn are buildings, half finished buildings and beginnings of buildings! Nothing of the desert left at all!

We had a hotel room to rest in for a while which was attached to the new Mall of the Emirates, and just for you May, finally, a photo I got of the Burj from the hotel room!

Don’t blink, Grasshopper, or you might just miss it!

We had lunch in the hotel and what I saw totally amazed me – the world’s largest indoor ski resort with a 5 ski runs up to 400m and temperatures between -1°c to -2°c…all right in the middle of a desert! So while out there it was sweltering 40°c weather, inside were people bundled up in thick ski jackets and snow suits, having a ball of a time skiing, tobaggoning, building snowmen and having snow fights!

Chair lifts to take you up the ski run…INDOORS!

Ski down up to 400m of ski runs…INDOORS!

No more need to head to Europe for your next ski vacation or Winter Wonderland scene, just come over to Dubai for all year round fun of snow and skiing!

Isn’t this the perfect winter scene…INDOORS!

It’s totally surreal! I couldn’t get my head around it at all! Apparently they were in the midst of further constructing a new city which when completed will be totally surrounded by aquariums and fish, just like an underwater world! I think what Bro said was true – when you live out in a desert for too long, you start getting a little strange!

It was a very brief trip but a truly amazing one. Where else in the world would you find snow mountains and sea fish right in the middle of a desert? Only in Dubai where just about anything seems possible! Someday, I’ll be back for the shopping!