Construction History

Its construction started on September 21, 2004 and was officially inaugurated on January 4, 2010 which means that construction of this marvelous tower took 6 years to complete. Its developers were Emaar Properties and Burj Khalifa was designed by Adrian Smith, Skidmore, and Owings & Merrill (SOM). Burj Khalifa is designed with the concept of a multi-purpose building that includes 30,000 homes, 9 hotels and 19 residential towers.

Interesting Facts about Burj Khalifa

I visited this wonderful tower and came to know that has many world records like world’s tallest building, the world’s tallest free standing structure having highest number of stories. It has highest outdoor observation desk. I was also amazed to know that it has the tallest elevator service in the world. Other facts about Burj Khalifa are:

• More than 160 floors
• 57 elevators
• 8 escalators
• More than 26000 glass panels

What’s inside Burj Khalifa?

Observation Deck

When I went inside this tower, I was astonished to see its super splendid décor and beauty. I started visiting it from the top of tower. So, firstly I visited observation desk which is on level 124. I was entertained with the multimedia presentation about the striking history of Dubai and the miracle of this tower throughout my journey from bottom to top. When I reached at the observation deck I was captivated to see the view.

Dining Experience

Then I came down to level 122 and find that there was a restaurant at this level. It was beautifully decorated. I had lunch there and enjoyed a lot. It was a fine dining experience.

Burj Khalifa Residences

I also visited Burj Khalifa Residences. In these residences, high living becomes a reality because they are located at level 19 to 108. There are 900 residences having studios and suites. I had no intention of staying in it but I visited them just for sake of pleasure. I came to know that high quality services and amenities are provided in the residences like indoor and outdoor swimming pools and Jacuzzis. A recreation room is also built for gatherings and events. I found that some other interesting services are also provided such as resident’s library, cigar club and Burj Khalifa gourmet market.

Club

There I  saw a four-story health and recreation club. It was opened for general public but mostly the preference is given to the residents. Here I was very happy to see luxurious facilities. There were outdoor and indoor swimming pools and separate gyms for ladies and gents. The gyms were fitted with modern equipment. I was very impressed after seeing the facility of modern spa equipped with all the accessories.

Corporate Suites

There are also corporate suites in Burj Khalifa. They are located on one of the highest level of this building, occupying 37 floors. The entrance lobby is featured with the reception team. There are lifts that take away the visitors to the lounge lobby directly. Lounge lobby is located at level 123 and it serves as ‘meet and greet’ point. I was stunned to see the modern facilities provided with the corporate suites. Innovative technology is provided to the offices and corporate suites. Each suite has advanced telecom services. Another interesting fact which I noticed was that there was no interruption in using mobile phones even on the elevators; you can use mobile with no signal breakup issue.

A very good system of security is provided in the corporate suites as well as in the whole building. I saw that there was professional and trained security staff. The in-house security staff was patrolling in the interior and exterior of building to ensure safety.

Armani Hotel

Armani hotel in Burj Khalifa has 160 guestrooms and suites. I came to know this when I visited level 5 through level 8 because guest rooms were located throughout these levels. I was looking for suites. A staff member told me that they are located on floors 38 and 39.

Armani Residences

The Armani Hotel Dubai is complemented with Armani residences. Armani Residences are located on level 6 to 9. I decided to visit Armani Residences. For the convenience and ease of the residents, elevators are provided in each floor. There was also an entrance lobby for the same purpose. Armani Residences had full-glass windows to provide a fascinating view.

The Park

I visited the amazing park that was recommended by my friend. Its area is 11 hectares having greenery and water features. This park has dual purpose. It is used as an entry as well as it provides outdoor living area. Six water features were in this garden, which are designed by WET, the designers of The Dubai Fountain. The park is too huge that it contains 2 tennis court, a children playground and a wading pool.

Keeping it shortly, I want to mention that it is one of the most amazing buildings of the world. It is so perfectly constructed and maintained that it must be added in the list of wonders of world.

Before describing my experience, I would like to share some information about the fountain. It was named Dubai Fountain after conducting a contest. The final name was announced on October 26, 2008 and its inauguration took place on May 8, 2009. Dubai Fountain is designed by the famous company Wet Design and it took 218 million US dollars to complete this project.

Interesting Features

The length of Dubai Fountain is 275 meters and it can shoot the water at a height of 150 meters which seems unbelievable. Amazingly it is equal to a 50 story building. The fountain is designed in such a way that it can squirt almost 22000 gallons of water in the air. When I came to know that it is illuminated with 60,000 lights and 25 color projectors; it’s really unbelievable! More interestingly, its light beam can be seen from a distance of 20 miles. Isn’t it amazing? This fountain can spray water in different patterns and styles which looks very beautiful. Many jets and shooters are installed that help to create a magnificent show. There are vey interesting names and purposes of these jets and shooters. Let’s take a brief description of these shooters.

All these types of shooters make a great noise after they are evicted in the air. They produce different types of noise like boom and bang which makes the sound of a drum and boost the music. The fountains naming extreme and super shooters are not used frequently because they require more energy and pressure to operate. Much time is required to build the needed pressure. I watched the performances and enjoyed a lot standing in front of it.

Fountain Performances

I reached there at 6 pm sharp which is starting time of show. I watched the mesmerizing performances and had a great time. 14 performances are shown daily and I watched all of those. Here I need to mention that between 8 pm and 11 pm the music-water show occurs every 20 minutes. The performances which I enjoyed the most are as follows:

Baba Yetu

This song is composed by Christopher Tin. Actually it is a Swahili song that was composed for a computer game. It was quite interesting.

Con Te Partiro’

This song is prepared by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman. The performance and patterns on this song really touched my heart.

Dhoom Thana

This song is taken from an Indian movie called Om Shanti Om. It is a Hindi song with great music and beats. It added to the beauty of performance of fountains.

Sama Dubai-an Emirati

A tribute was given to Sheikh Mohammed’s leadership by Emaar Properties. It was quite heart touching. It changed the environment completely.

Shik Shak Shak

I enjoyed this performance the most as I am an Arabic music lover. This Arabic dance song gave a complete dose of enjoyment.

Some other songs were also played during the fountain show as per the taste of different people. After that, music was stopped during different intervals and performance was displayed. It was a nice experience to watch the fountains dancing without music.

In short, I was so happy after watching the Burj Khalifa Fountain Show. I had a memorable and remarkable time for me. I can never forget this wonderful night in my whole life.

Brief Description

The Dubai Mall is the most renowned mall in the world; I realized this when I visited there. It is so popular among the visitors that it has been estimated that more than 750,000 visitors visit it during a week. Before sharing my experience, I would like to mention some of its features that attract most to the visitors. Its features include a luxury hotel having 250 cozy rooms, more than 120 restaurants and cafes which give you a pleasurable dining experience. The mall has 14,000 parking spaces, which to me was amazing. Moreover the largest Gold Souk, Fashion Catwalk Hall, Oasis Fountain Waterfall are some of the attractions of this mall. Other attractions which I liked include an indoor theme park named SEGA, food and beverages facilities, gold jewelry shops, and super market.

Now I would like to share my experience of visiting Dubai Mall.

Entertainment Places

My visit to this mall started with going to the entertainment section. First of all I visited Dubai Aquarium and UnderWater Zoo. Here I saw some fascinating underwater animals which I had never seen before. It was a great experience of walking in a tunnel and watching the animals close to me. It was just awesome. A lunar-cyclic lighting system is also fitted in the tank which changes the environment completely. While I was walking along the Rain Forest and Rocky Shore I felt that I am diving in the sea and the dangerous underwater animals are just close to me. I had a close encounter with the giant Catfish and Piranha. The experience was out of this world. I would never forget this experience in my whole life. In my opinion, providing such an entertainment needs a lot of appreciation. Another remarkable thing is the reasonable charges of visiting this wonderful place. The charges were different for aquarium and underwater zoo, but this cost is too low as compared to the entertainment provided. The timings of visit were also very convenient.

Then I visited Reel Cinemas which are located on the second floor. It had 22 screens and 2800 seats. It also contained four luxurious Platinum Movie Suites. While visiting it a tourist told me that it is largest cinema in the whole county.

After that I visited my most favorite place that was Dubai Ice Rink. I loved to skate and there I was free to fulfill my desires. There was also the facility of learning how to skate. It offers 1800 pair of skates which can be fit to all people of any age and size. The thing that inspired me the most was that they were using very advanced technology to maintain the thickness of ice bed. Here you can also play ice hockey which shows that this venue can be used for various activities. More importantly, the charges and timings are quite reasonable. This place remains coolest in the mall throughout the year and keeps the visitors spell-bound.

My visit continued and I visited Sega Republic which is an indoor theme park. It was a world of fun having five zones of entertainment for people of all ages. There were about 250 amusement games. I played some of those and had a lot of fun. Its entrance is also located on the second floor.

During my visit I came across a section called KidZania. It was just like a city which was made for children. I saw the children working in restaurants, driving buses and flying airplanes. This section facilitates the kids to turn their dreams into reality. It was their own world where they can fulfill their desires.

Since Dubai Mall is a part of Burj Khalifa complex so here you can also enjoy the view of Dubai from the 124^th level and so I did. The scene from the largest tower of the world was marvelous. I enjoyed a lot and shot a hundred of pictures there. I also watched the performance of the Dubai Fountain and was mesmerized by the whole show.

Dining Experience

Dubai Mall also provides an ultimate dining facility. There were a number of restaurants and cafes providing fast food and other cuisines whether local, continental or Asian. I had some fast food there and enjoyed it with the views of Burj Khalifa.

Hotels in the Vicinity

There were some state-of-the-art hotels in the surroundings of Dubai Mall. They included The Address, The Palace, Al Manzil and Qamardeen. You can stay in any of these hotels and visit Dubai Mall as per your desires.

Shops

There are all kinds of shops in Dubai Mall. The shops deal in various products like footwear, mobile accessories, gifts and cards, home furnishing, perfumes, cosmetics, florists, eyewear, departmental stores, books and stationery, fashion accessories, computer and electronic, and much more.

Different Offers Provided by Shops

There were some shops which were providing different exciting offers to attract the shoppers. Some of these were:

These shops present different offers according to the season and other factors. These offers are most probably for limited period of time that keep changing.

That was a brief and comprehensive description of my visit to Dubai Mall. I enjoyed there a lot and had a wonderful shopping experience. I recommend visiting Dubai Mall to all the people who come to Dubai. It is such nice shopping mall having unique features.

Location

As I have mentioned above, Burj Al Arab is located on Jumeirah Beach Strip. It is conveniently located at a distance of just 15 km from main city centre and it its distance from Dubai International Airport is 25 km.

Interesting Information

The previous name of the beachfront, where Burj Al Arab and Jumeirah Beach Hotel are standing today was Chicago Beach. Burj Al Arab is standing on the island on domestic land of the beach of Chicago Beach Hotel. The old hotel was demolished in 1997 and its name changed to Dubai Chicago Beach Hotel. This name persisted during the construction phase of Burj Al Arab Hotel until its new name was announced by Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Basic Information

As I was interested in visiting this hotel, so I collected some basic information about the hotel.

Construction History

I am fond of getting knowledge about the construction histories of world’s famous locations. Burj Al Arab is one of those. I studied its construction history and came to know that its construction started in 1994. Its shape is the most interesting factor of its construction as Tom Wright (architecture) was ordered by his client to build a hotel that can become an icon for Dubai. It is somehow identical to Opera House or Eiffel Tower but its unique shape and structure is far more beautiful than the two of these places. A South African contractor company took the responsibility of construction of Burj Al Arab.

Main Features of Burj Al Arab

After getting such interesting information I decided to visit Burj Al Arab. I had a dream to visit it and finally my dream converted into reality. So I visited this hotel and I would really like to share my experience with you.

Rooms and Suites

I decided to stay in hotel to experience the facilities of seven-star hotel. Different types of suites were available in the hotel like one-bedroom suite, two-bedroom suite, panoramic suite, club suite, diplomatic suite, presidential suite and royal suite. All of those had their own facilities and features. As I was alone on the visit, so I decided to take one bedroom deluxe suite. It was a great pleasure of staying in such comfortable and well-decorated room. From the deluxe suite, I could view the Arabian Gulf. A staircase is also a feature of deluxe suite which let you go from one floor to other floor.

My suite had a living room having large lounge. It was decorated with state-of-the-art furniture of eye-catching colors. At the same level, there was a dining table for four persons which was big enough for me. But its structure was worth seeing. There was a private bar counter at the lower level of the suite where I enjoyed different refreshing soft drinks. The guest bathroom provided at the lower level was well-equipped. As it was my first experience to visit a seven-star hotel, I was impressed by the décor and cleanliness of the bathrooms. Very plush accessories were fitted there. There was clean towels and separate bathing area. At the upper level of the suite, I was provided with dressing room and a bedroom furnished with king size beds. The beauty and décor of the bedroom can not be described in words. It was far better than my expectations. The room was adorned with nice color schemes and I was astonished on looking at the room. At the upper level bathroom, there was facility of Jacuzzi which I enjoyed a lot.

Restaurants

There are number of restaurants in the hotel providing different kinds of food and cuisines. I stayed in the hotel for 5 days and tried some of those restaurants. Firstly, I tried Al Mahara which was offering seafood. Here I enjoyed the world’s most delicious seafood. Dining at Al Mahara was a great experience. Here dining was started with a sub-marine dive. Then I entered and took a seat nearby an aquarium where salt water animals were kept. That aquarium was big enough to spell bound me.

The next day I visited Al Muntaha where I experienced dining 200 meters above the sea level. I used a panoramic lift to reach the top. After entering into the restaurant, I simply became speech less. It was just like a fantasy. The restaurant was decorated with a combination of green and blue color which gave a soothing and refreshing feeling.  This restaurant was offering contemporary European cuisine which I enjoyed a lot.

After that I went to visit Bab Al Yam which is a café along the poolside. It was providing international cuisine which I enjoyed while looking at the beautiful sea views.

Once I visited Junsui which is a Far East Asian Restaurant. Here I enjoyed Chinese and Japanese cuisine as well as the dishes of Thailand, Korea and Indonesia. This restaurant provides spectacular views of Arabian Gulf which enhanced the dining experience and the taste of food.

Lastly, I visited Skyview Bar which is 200 meters above the sea level. From this bar the view was absolutely out of this world and awe-inspiring. I had my afternoon tea there in a wonderful environment but couldn’t try other drinks.

Meeting and Events

After dining experience, I decided to visit the places in the hotel that were specific for business purposes. These places are perfect for holding a meeting, launching the products, seminars and cultural events.

First of all I visited Al Falak Ballroom. It was a big place adorned with enormous windows and a chandelier which added to the beauty of this ballroom. I was very surprised to know that the stage in the ballroom was portable. I had never heard it before. Moreover it had audio visual equipment and perfect banquet style lighting. This ballroom is very suitable for arrangement of weddings and such other events.

Then I visited Marina Garden which is an open air place from where I could see the view of Arabian Gulf. I found this place suitable for cocktail and wedding reception. Then I came to know that at special events fireworks are also displayed here for the sheer enjoyment of visitors.

After that, my plan was to visit Assawan Amphitheatre which is located at 18^th floor. Having a seating capacity of 100 guests for cocktail reception, I found it perfect for such events. From this place, I could also view Burj Al Arab reception area.

Assawan Spa & Health Club

On the 5^th day, I decided to try some leisure services and facilities. So I visited Assawan Spa & Health Club. It is also located at the 18^th floor having luxurious accessories. I tried it and experienced a refreshing and fortifying feel.            There were health club facilities too; including different treatments and spa facilities included sauna, steam and gyms.

Other Facilities

Some family and kids facilities are provided too at Burj Al Arab. But the facility which appealed me a lot was a kid’s club named Sindbad’s Kid’s Club providing facilities such as: stuff toys, Disney channel, computer games, board games and children’s TV channels. I was excited to know that hotel provides a room having soft bed and a cot for the youngest guests that is babies.  Another facility provided to Burj Al Arab guests was complimentary access to the Wild Wadi Waterpark which is one of the best water parks I had ever seen. I availed this opportunity and went to this park. I enjoyed a lot as it is a perfect place to get leisure and pleasure.

I hope you would also love to visit Burj Al Arab Hotel which, to my opinion, is the dream place in the world.

Here are some crispy pictures of famous shopping malls in dubai. I am sure you will life them.

I have visited several places like Burj Khalifa, Gold Souk, Soul Al Bahar, Palm Jumairah etc. I have also visited several shopping malls like Dubai Mall, Mall of Emirates, Iben Battuta Mall, Dragon Mall etc. It is very difficult for me to write down details of each and every place here in one post. So I have decided to post one blog post about every place.

I am sure you will convey your opinion by means of posting comments on these posts. Do let me know if I forgot to see something in any particular place. I shall plan it for my next dubai tour.

Be right back with my next blog post.