Dubai - II

Unable to sleep due to time changes and a terrible cough, I decide going for a jog would be the cure.  Prior to arriving I had this brilliant idea of jogging the outer perimeter of the Palm so my route was already chosen.  At 6, under the cover of darkness, I got myself ready and sketched my route on a napkin for Julie -- "just in case". After a few detours in the hotel I was finally en-route via taxi to the Palm.

Driving the 'trunk' of the Palm with Atlantis Dubai in the distance.

As we drove East on the Palm the driver kept asking, "not here?" to which I replied "keep going to the end".  He seemed to understand but wasn't sure how to reply, simply saying "huh". The end happened to be outside the One & Only Palm -- where we planned to have dinner later that night.

Before heading off I snapped a few shots.  The skyline view is amazing. This isn't downtown Dubai, it is, I think, the Marina District.

View from Eastern tip of the Palm to mainland.

Unfortunately all the earlier messing around with finding cash for the cab resulted in me starting my run almost an hour later.  That burning ball of fire in the leftmost section isn't as hot as it looks.  It's significantly hotter and more humid than one can imagine. The weather network tells me it's 44C w/  humidex at 6:59am. I don't believe them  It's hotter.

Requisite self-pic

Off I go.  My plan is to run the approximately 11km to the West-end of the Palm and take a cab back to our hotel.

Protecting cab fare from disintegrating from sweat.

Long story, short -- it was hot and only got hotter.  With no escape from the sun I tried running along construction fences to get some shade.  It didn't help as that required me to run on sand.  It was interesting to see the bus loads of workers come in to work on the countless hotel projects still taking place on the Palm.  As I approached the Atlantis MapMyRun was telling me I was almost 6km or half way through my trek.  No stranger to the effects of running in the heat wisdom prevailed and I took the exit for Atlantis to cut my losses. Making my way through the Atlantis staff parking lot I ended up in the empty pool area (it's still early).  Grabbing some towels off the chairs I make my way inside past the guards who keep snoopy tourist out of the guest only areas -- like the pool. Tip: if you want to sneak in Atlantis go the back way. If you're already in the guest area they assume you're a guest.

Lobby of the Atlantis

I walk out the front door and ask of one the attendants to grab me a cab.  Still feeling queasy with the odd cough makes me think I may need to pay the cleaning fee before the end of this cab ride.  In the end, thankfully, all I can think of are the poor fares who will sit in this soaked seat after me.

My disappointing route

Back at the hotel Julie is amazingly still sleeping.  With our no-sleep on the flight, I guess I'm less surprised and let Julie keep sleeping. I get showered and finally wake her.  Making our way to the lounge for breakfast we enjoy the endless views over the Gulf.

After breakfast I still wasn't feeling the love from my run and finally was able to get some rest -- which meant cancelling our lunch reservation at the Burj Al Arab's restaurant.  You can't actually enter the Burj unless you are a guest or have reservations at one of their restaurants/bars.

Later that day we  grabbed a chance to 'talk' to Owen by dialing him up on FaceTime.  I asked my aunt to have the computer on when she's feeding Owen and when we had a chance we'd call.  Voila, opportunity and we're seeing our little guy while sitting in the hotel lobby.  It was exciting to see him smile when he saw us.  The dog too was losing her mind.

 

Afterwards we took a cab to the Dubai Mall -- the world's largest.  We've seen a Discovery channel show about the building of the mall so it should be interesting to connect the two.  The first thing we notice are the massive atriums.  While the mall is the world's largest, it isn't the largest in terms of leaseable space, as evident by all the open areas with no stores. Also, for anyone wondering, the indoor ski hill is in the Emirates Mall and not the Dubai Mall.

Dubai Aquarium in the mall

A highlight for Julie was being able to buy Owen's "baptism" cufflinks that I pointed out a year ago.  (No, not the pinup cufflinks I suggested). Searching locally got us no where and surprising, or maybe unsurprisingly, we found them here. Julie also picked up a new bathing suit for the Maldives.

After cruising around the mall we headed outside to check out the Vegas-inspired Dubai Fountains that sit between the mall, the Address (hotel) and the Burj Khalifa, world's tallest building. Having been to Vegas, my opinion was that they were less impressive.  Not sure if it was the fountains themselves, the music or the vantage point. 

Dubai Fountains

Some signs of home below.

A Tim's employee checking his email

Warming up after a few minutes outside we passed a Tim Horton's employee -- yes Tim's has a strategy to grow it's presence in the Middle East -- on our way to the Address for some drinks with a great view of the fountains and the Burj as a backdrop.

Dubai Fountains and Burj Khalifa

After some mojitos we grabbed a cab back to our hotel to get ready for dinner at the 101 Lounge  on-site at the One & Only Palm hotel.

Originally opting to sit out on the terrace I quickly changed my mind.  There was no breeze here and the heat was overwhelming.  Inside we enjoyed a great meal.  Since we were late for dinner a 'buggy' took us out to the restaurant which is out on a pier.  We decided to walk back and take in the views that I enjoyed earlier in the day.

Pier out to 101 Lounge

The hotel grounds were very nice with the pool being the highlight.  Only thing topping the pool was the man (I believe a guest) walking around the hotel lobby with a falcon on his arm at 11pm.

Amazing pool @ One&Only Palm

Back at the hotel we've already checked out as we're taking the red-eye to the Maldives to maximize our time there. The club lounges include shower facilities so I order up our luggage and we get cleaned up.  The Gulf Tours guy shows up at 1230am on the spot and we're off to the Maldives, or at least the airport! We got a last minute offer to upgrade to business class for a fraction of the cost so we'll be riding in style and most importantly, hopefully able to sleep on the overnight flight.