I’ve Been to the Top of the Tallest Building in the World
The Burj Khalifa in 2015
Dubai was never meant to be part of our European trip in 2015–16. It was simply somewhere to break the very long flight from Brisbane-Perth-Dubai-Dublin. A place to rest my legs, to get some sleep, and recover from the stresses of flying with a 6-hour wait at Perth Airport from 12 midnight to 6 am where everything was closed. No coffee until 5 am! Ah, the joys of travelling from Australia to Europe — well anywhere really.
After arriving mid-afternoon at our apartment hotel, the first thing I did was take off those flight pantyhose and jump in the jacuzzi. Ah, the hot jets on my back were just what I needed. Our apartment is spacious and comfy, but quite old-fashioned. There’s a king bed, with a firm mattress, and a full kitchen, dining, lounge and bathroom. We’re on the 10th floor so have a view too. I lay down on the bed and fell asleep within seconds. I woke up at midnight starving. I hadn’t eaten since lunch on the plane. Breakfast wasn’t until 7!
My partner is online researching and planning what we are going to do today. My plan is to sleep but I’m looking forward to being surprised, as it’s usually me who does all the planning. After a couple of days of visiting The Mall of the Emirates and the Dubai Mall and the Old Souk and the New Souk and the Museum, we decided we might as well go to the top of the Burj Khalifa. Easier said than done!
We followed the signs to the Burj Khalifa booking office, no mean feat: you can have no conception of the sheer size and complexity of this Mall unless you have been here. They say it’s the world’s largest and I’m not disputing that. When we finally reached the booking office, we discovered that this was a popular attraction and the first available time for a tour to the top was at 11 am tomorrow. After enquiring about the possibility of leaving our suitcases here tomorrow, we booked it! We could head straight to the airport from here for our flight to Dublin at 2.25 pm.
It’s our last day in Dubai and we plan to make the most of it, so we’re up early to pack, skip breakfast, check out and in a taxi by 8 am, headed straight to the Dubai Mall to drop off our suitcases and have a coffee before our tour to the top of the Burj Khalifa. We asked our taxi driver to drop us as close as he could to the Burj Khalifa office, but of course, it was miles away. We found a section of the Mall we hadn’t seen before including the aquarium. Words cannot describe it! We also found touchscreen maps so we could find anything we wanted including Costa Coffee.
We still had an hour before we could line up, so went to look for a charm for my collection - the collection I haven’t started yet. I have enough silver spoons to sink a battleship, and enough fridge magnets to cover several fridges, but do I get to enjoy them or reminisce about my adventures?
We finally found a Pandora shop, and settled on a palm tree charm - the palm trees are everywhere here in Dubai. It’s the first of my new collection — much lighter to carry than spoons or magnets, and more fun to display, especially since I love bracelets.
The Burj Khalifa was a one-of-a-kind experience — no lining up while waiting: we were ushered to a room with comfortable lounges and were served coffee and the most delicious dates I’ve ever tasted. Our group was then taken to a large lift, which sped up to the 125th floor where we disembarked.
A screen show was displayed on the walls of the lift to take one’s mind off the speed of the lift as we were ascending the building. My stomach was definitely not in its correct place when we trooped out and entered another much smaller lift to travel up even higher to the 148th floor where we were served refreshing lemon and mint juice and an assortment of sweets: we chose macarons.
We spent some time taking photos and being amazed at how high we were, before descending to the 125th floor where there were “telescopes” showing what the view was like live, and recorded day and night views. We walked the four flights of stairs down to the 124th floor before catching another lift back down to the ground floor.
What a magnificent experience! I’m so glad I was encouraged to do it! We could have stayed longer but had to get down, collect our bags, and head to the airport.
This is a writing prompt response to Globetrotters’ monthly challenge:
Veronica Llorca-Smith visits Dubai more recently.
And this one by Ramzi Cheaib gives a little of the history of Dubai.
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