Dubai - All Malled Out

I have travelled to Dubai twice in the period of a month. The first time I went with my friend Ann to see Cirque de Soliel. I had never been before and it was an amazing experience, I would certainly go to any other productions. The one we saw was Alegria and it was astounding. The whole atmosphere is hard to describe. I can’t say I understood the story but I enjoyed the acts.

Next I went over with Lynne Thomas our ICT specialist to a conference on ICT. The conference was so - so but I did manage to get in some more sights especially as the Friday was a day off and some of the team from Abu Dhabi took as around in their car. The traffic is certainly lighter in Dubai and some of the building sites have just been abandoned because of the recession. I looked at lots of malls but didn’t help their economy much as we can now get nearly everything there in Qatar now. I did have a new phone follow me home from duty free though.

Over two trips I managed to get in visits to most malls. One of the newest and most interesting is Ibn Battuta Mall.
Ibn Battuta (1304–1368 or 1369)[1] was a Moroccan Muslim Berber scholar and traveller who is known for the account of his travels and excursions called the Rihla (Voyage). His journeys lasted for a period of nearly thirty years and covered almost the entirety of the known Islamic world and beyond, extending from North Africa, West Africa, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe in the West, to the Middle East, Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China in the East, a distance readily surpassing that of his predecessors and his near-contemporary Marco Polo. This information is thanks to Wikipedia.
The mall is set out in five sections that show his journeys China, India, Persia, Egypt, Tunisia and Andalusia. I don’t know about the shops but the displays are great. It is well worth visiting.

I have also managed to go to
· Dubai Mall (new with huge aquarium covering two levels and walk through)
· Mall of the Emirates (full sized ski field and other amenities)
· Festival City Mall (as quite new and nicely set out with inside and outside spaces)
· Wafi City – Egyptian theme and underground souq area that is impressive and covers many different groups such as Moroccan, Tunisian, Egyptian, Syrian etc
· Souq Madinat at Jumeriah which is lovely with canals of water around it and the Burj Dubai in the background
So I am all “malled out” for quite some time! Didn’t get to the Creek or beach area this time but I did that last year with Chris Jager. Time to go somewhere else I think , it was nice to get home to Qatar and I still like our Souq Waqif best.