Well, the Tour ended up at the Dubai Mall, which is about 5 miles north of Dubai City Center. I spent the rest of the afternoon at the Mall…caught the shuttle bus from the Mall to the Metro….and had my first Metro trip. Going back to paying for the City Tour, in that I had not yet changed for the local money, which is called AED’s…referred to AED’s. As we were leaving the Museum up drove a young man on a scooter and the driver introduced me and the fellow pulled out a mobile Visa card processor…I gave him my credit card…he processed it, and I was paid up. Off he went…and off we went. Simple. Our driver then said that as soon as we would get to the Mall, he would direct me to one of the banks and I could change the travelers checks. And for the first time in all of my years traveling, the traditional travelers checks are not readily received. Banks refer you to the adjoining Exchange company…and even there, he acted as if he was not familiar…but then proceeded to cash them. Glad this was over, as I had local cash now.
OK, now the malls….and suffice it to say at this point, even though I am an admitted “non-mall shopper”, these Dubai Malls are an experience that I would wish on every man and woman that have ever entered a shopping mall. The Dubai Mall claims to be the World’s largest, which is apparently based on number of stores and square footage…..and the 2nd mall that is a must is known as Mall of the Emirates, and it is about another 5-8 miles north of the Dubai Mall. Each of the Malls has its most unique feature..from the Ice Rink and 3 story waterfall in the Dubai Mall to the Indoor Ski Slope at the Mall of the Emirates (MOE), and also considers itself one of the largest and most modern in the World. I ended up spending about 2 hours then went to the Metro and caught it, in that while I was in the Mall I bought a pass card that would let me go 14 dirham’s worth, and about $3 worth. This got me over to the MOE…and then to the Shuttle, which was suppose to come at 4 PM….but didn’t make it so I took a taxi to the hotel. IN that the hotel shuttle did not make it, they reimbursed me of 47 dirham’s, or about $15 for the taxi ride. I then went up to the room….decided to go for a swim in the bath temperature water….and rested a bit and then caught the 7 PM shuttle back to the EOM to take a better look at it, including the Ski Slope. I caught the Shuttle back at 10 PM….and a good sleep for Tuesday night.
Both Malls are so overwhelming to me, that I hardly know where to start, but here goes.(1). Dubai Mall, with the parking area probably covers 100 acres at least, but it is very hard to measure in that it is in a very congested area. The traffic is heavy and hectic all the time, as this is a major 2 million plus people City. My guess is that the Mall probably employees 18-20,000 employees. Carefour, which is the Mid East Wal-Mart, probably employs 2 or 3 thousands, although the manager would not tell me how many, as I asked him. This store, alone, is about the size of the new Redding Wal-Mart…and is in the middle of the Mall, not an anchor The Mall is at least 5 stories high, and again is so large and so spread out that the only way you can really get around is to look at the Mall plans at each of the common courts. Even though it has a Food Court with probably 25 different restaurants, throughout the Mall are coffee shops with comfortable seating, almost like family room furniture. I think my still and video photos will pretty much show the story of the Dubai Mall…..but certainly the most impressive on any Mall that I have ever seen….and is kind of a combination of our traditional Galleria Centers, the Chicago WaterTower Mall, and the SF Shopping Center in SF. Prior to this I think the largest Mall that I had seen was in Singapore, where there is an underground Mall that covers about 8 city blocks….but the Dubai Mall seems to be much larger and of course more spectacular, combining the flair of Europe with the excessive nature of Middle East marketing.
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