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THE Burj Al Arab
Entry 17 of 23 | show all | print this entry |
Yea yea yea, I know, I've been slacking on my entries, its been awhile, but not much has been happening, I've been trying to save money, so my time has been spent bumming around. Until, quite a glorious oppurtunity arose. A friend of mine, just so happens to be closely linked with some members of the Royal family. And too my luck, he invited me to tour the Burj Al Arab with them. If you don't know the Burj Al Arab, just google Dubai and undoubtedly the first picture to come up will be one of the Burj Al Arab. It's the center piece of Dubai, one of the most expensive hotels ever built, it is the tallest hotel in the world and sits on its own personal man-made island. It typically costs about $50 to take a tour of the hotel, but with the right connections, you can see everything for free, which was the case for me. A room for one night here ranges from $1,000 up to roughly $10,000. So we pull up to the entrance gate and with a wave of the hand, the gates open and we are allowed in, while tourists stand at the entrance snapping off pictures. We pull to the front, where our doors are all opened by a team of snazzy dressed men. Right at the entrance to the hotel sits its fleet of brand new, white Rolls Royce's which are used as private taxis for members of the hotel. Also there, are a couple of lambourgini's and other ridiculously expensive cars, available for daily rental. The Hotel itself, is MASSIVE, you feel belittled standing beside it. And it only gets worse when you step inside. Immediately in the doors are these undescribable water fountains, that dance around to music. The entire interior is trimmed with gold and you feel like your in an authentic palace. Two ginormous aquariums are located on each side of the room, filled with tons of fish and other sea life. You go up an escalator, and then you can see straight up to the top of the Burj Al Arab. You get dizzy looking up at it. We wandered the down stairs for a bit, took a ton of pictures, then went up to the rooftop bar, which had some amazing views, and the glass elevator ride up was incredibly scary. We continued to meander around the hotel, most of which I can't even describe in words, but hopefully the pictures will show, and then sat down and had some traditional arabic coffee and dates while we waited for our car to be brought back. Our hosts decided to take us to the Jumeirah Beach Hotel as well, which is another famous hotel, sitting directly across from the Burj Al Arab, in the shape of a wave. It is owned by the same company, and has just as many luxuries. The hotel was beautiful, finally, we were ushered to yet another place, Al Saqir, meaning The Palace, which is located near Madinat Jumeirah (which is like a HUGE reconstructed old style Arabian City, full of malls and night clubs) Al Saqir had an AMAZING view of Madinat Jumeirah and the ocean. And we sat down at this great cafe and dined on $20 tuna fish sandwhiches and a $18 virgin Pina Colada (don't worry they picked up the bill). The decor of Al Saqir was just stunning, noticeably more of an Arab vibe to it, I enjoyed it more then the Burj Al Arab or the Jumeirah Beach Hotel. All in all, it was one not that will not quickly be forgotten. My explaination of that evenings events do not even come close to doing justice to just how amazing of an experience it was. It pays to have friends in high places, Over and out.
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