Money, Money, Money (25/06/11)

Our first trip this morning was to Jumeirah Mosque, here four times a week they take interested people inside for a look and an explanation of Islam. It was something you don't often get the opportunity to do, and was very interesting and informative. They also had time at the end to field questions, whether they be about dress, worship or any aspect of culture. The slogan is "Open minds, Open hearts" and it is really about building bridges between Islam and foreigners by creating understanding. Following that, we hopped back onto our big red bus and completed the beach tour along the coast. The amount of development is staggering, and the amount of money going into these projects is mind boggling. In one project they have created over a hundered islands 4km offshore - that's created them from scratch - and now are selling them off for development. And just to make it interesting they have created them all in the shape of a map of the globe. We passed the Burj Al Arab Hotel, the one in the shape of a dhow under sail, which is the world's only 7 star hotel. Passing other lesser lodgings we drove onto the The Palm project : another huge man-made island but this time in the shape of a palm tree, with eleven fronds each being an island connected to the main trunk, which by road has an underwater tunnel connecting it all. The main hotel there so far is Atlantis on the Palm, a huge development with its own marine enclosure including dolphins and seals. It also connects back to the mainland and the city with a monorail. It would be interesting to see what the room rates are ..... After that we turned inland and we were back on the main highway, Sheikh Zaved Road , passing the Mall of the Emirates - similar in size to the Dbai Mall but including an indoor ski slope ( with seven descents of increasing level of difficulty) as well as the usual shops, cinemas, restaurants and entertainment. Then on past the Burj Khalifa, until relatively recently the tallest building in the world ; then back to our starting point at the Dubai Mall where we had lunch at their Dome. The afternoon was spent at the Gold Souk, were I bought Carmel the necklace after they modified it to what we wanted while we walked around the Spice Souk. In the evening we walked back to the Dubai Mall for tea and watched the fountain show in the 37 acre Burj Kahlid courtyard lake : it is a synchronised water and light show based on the famous Las Vegas fountains. Looked impressive in daylight and even more impressive lit up at night - it gats dark by 7.30pm here. So now we are waiting for our transport to the airport, and soon we will be winging our way home.