August 24th

We did not wake up until 0915!!! We were so tired when we went to bed last night. Yesterday right before we arrived back at our hotel- 130pm; it was 104 degrees with a heat index… 134 degrees! No wonder we were so tired- lack of sleep night before and just so hot. Anyway, we got up and around. Brunch was some yogurts, cake bread, and the half of the leftover watermelon from last night (Jeff had bought take out Indian food and about a 1/4 section of the melon.)

We went out noonish. It was 100 degrees with heat index… 137 degrees. Absolutely crazy!!! Anway, we went to a coffee museum and they had coffee sampling- nice way to get some coffee. Another couple was there, and we struck up a conversation. They were from USA- Chicago, but now live in Abu Dhabi, which is the capital of UAE (United Arab Emirates). It is just down-the-coast so to speak, from Dubai. The man works here since April, and the woman moved here when her school ended. They will be living here full time now. (It's not where I would pick, c'est la vie.)  It was a nice coffee museum. They had all sorts of coffee makers, percolators, even old tins to place on a fire. Then the tasting was of two kinds of coffee: first, was an Ethiopian coffee; second, was an Arabic coffee with cardamom.  Jeff actually tolerated this one (he got a tasting also, so I could have more coffee. He loves me  😉 ).

From there we caught a water taxi across the Dubai Creek, a canal. We alighted and walked to the Dubai Spice Souk. We wondered and explored. All the little shops are air-conditioned, but that means you have to go in! Having our fill of “aromatherapy”, we boarded another water taxi and headed back to our hotel. We were only out couple of hours, but we were soaked. I really don't know how people can live here. Cooled off and showered.

Around 430pm, we went back out, and caught the metro to the Dubai Mall. We have 7pm tickets to go up the TALLEST BUILDING IN THE WORLD, the Burj Khalifa!  At the mall, we opted for the food court, Pad Thai place. I had chicken pad see ew, medium spiced. Jeff had a chicken curry, medium spiced also. Both were good and spiced just right for us. Now, we had to find where to go. This mall is so huge.

Found it- we had to go to the lowest level to go up, up, up! We splurged here. Our tickets enable us to go to the top, under VIP privilege, which is 148 stories up! Sunset over Dubai from a dizzy height! Jeff was even having some issues this far up. This is an outdoor observatory, as in open air but has a lot of glass around us. Okay some stats: 828 meters (2,716.5 feet) tall-tallest building in the world; tallest free-standing structure; highest number of stories- more than 160 stories; highest occupied floor; highest outdoor observation deck; elevator with the longest travel distance. The top of the building can sway 3m/10 feet each direction. We could definitely feel movement! The basic design-structure of the building is like a Y shape, inspired by the Spider Lily. There were more than 12,000 workers who worked on-site, and more than 22 million man hours to build the tower. It took six years- time of excavation to lunch opening January 4, 2010. There a so many more stats. We enjoyed the exceptional views (even though it was still hazy in Dubai). We timed it so we could watch the fountain/light display. Fantastic! The whole city is lighting up now, very sparkling! We were treated to juices, water, tea, dates and cookies. Next, we took the elevator down to the other observatory areas, stories 124 & 125. ( BTW- the elevators are very smooth and fast!) From here we watched the fountain/light show again. This level has a bunch more people milling about, and has touristy items to buy. Finished we went to elevator to go down. There was a huge line for the elevator, but one of the perks with our tickets we could skip the line and were escorted into the next elevator. Back down we watched the fountain/light show our fourth and last time (second time from ground level). Each time they play different music. Took metro back to our hotel cooled off the bed. It was exceptional to go up – to the top of the world in a building, but Jeff and I both agree maybe, just maybe, we should not be up that high up in a building.