The Dubai Mall: Part 1

So Dubai has two things to offer: food and shopping. It has shopping strips, outdoor markets, and then there is The Dubai Mall. The Dubai Mall is the world's largest shopping mall based on total area and sixth largest by gross leasable area (Thanks Wiki). This place is massive. It is four floors and is as large as 50 soccer fields. It has a full size indoor ice rink, an indoor Aquarium and underground Zoo, a 250-room luxury hotel, 22 cinema screens plus 120 restaurants and cafes--basically its got it all.

I did a quick tour of the place, well part of it. I was dragged out of bed, in an attempt to reset my circadian rhythms, and was groggy. Yet I still was amazed by what I saw. In the middle of the a sandy wasteland was  a state of the art, modern, and luxurious retail space that defied all. When I walked in first thing I noticed were how many employees there were. General Mall employees wear red, and it seem like it was a sea of them. Those sweeping, mopping, polishing, and stocking. Store employees opening gates, in the jewelery stores removing hundred thousand dollar pieces from the safes they spent the night in and putting them back on display. Next I noticed how empty it was. Its 11am in a Muslim country during Ramadan, people are still asleep. They go to sleep after Fajir and wake up at 1. I had the mall nearly to myself. I felt less embarrassed to whip out my camera and take pictures.

When I have registered my body to Dubai time and have a wider attention span, I'll go back to Dubai Mall and really see what the 20 billion dollar project has to offer me. Till then, here are a few of the sights within.

Many store fronts are written in Arabic and English

Aquarium has over 30,000 marine species living within (this particular fish is about 6 feet long)

The Ice Rink, They were playing a hockey game. Sheikh Mohomed looks pleased.
 (btw that is both his pleased and dis-pleased face)