Dubai Desert, the Burj Khalifa, and the Beach in Dubai
One day, we drove out into the desert to take a tour of the “1 GW solar park.” The first thing I noticed during the drive was the fact that the development in Dubai did not reach to far inland from the sea (although we did drive by some leapfrog developments under construction). During the drive, I enjoyed looking out the window and watching the sand dunes go by. There were even yield to camel signs, but I did not see any camels. We saw a really interesting “bike park” that featured a clubhouse, bike shop, parking racks, and a clinic out in the middle of nowhere. The cycling course ran parallel to the freeway for a few miles. The solar park was somewhat of a disappointment because there were no solar panels up yet, although it was interesting to see that the local company “First Solar,” based in Tempe, Arizona, was hired to start the project with a test phase of thin film panels on mountings that do not move. I later found out that there is a much larger, operational concentrated solar power park somewhere else in the United Arab Emirates.
I was happy to visit the iconic Burj Khalifa. When we started the tour, I saw a list of the tallest buildings in the world. I realized I had been on the top of a few of them, including: the Empire State Building in New York City, the Willis (previously Sears) Tower in Chicago, the Petronas towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and the Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan. Interestingly, five of the ten tallest buildings in the world are now located in China. The next stop was a great view of the top of the building looking straight up from one story below the ground. When we got to the top, the view of Dubai was breathtaking. There were some cool looking buildings around the Burj Khalifa tower (the area known as Business Bay). Interestingly, only about 2/3 of the area around Business Bay was developed, the rest of the land was waiting to be built on. I was also surprised how many floors of the Burj Khalifa tower were still above us. It seemed that you could fit the Chase Tower in Phoenix between the observation deck that we were standing on and the top of the building. While I was waiting for the sun to set, I gazed out at the young city and “The World”, my first view of the new islands. I also saw the fountain show far below in Business Bay. The sunset ended up being a disappointment compared to the ones in Phoenix. I would like to watch the sun come up on the other side of the observation deck, which is in the open air and can be viewed when the observation deck opens at 4:30 a.m. After the sunset, the city slowly transformed into glimmering lights. It was beautiful. After I left the tower, I went inside the Dubai Mall and stared at the two story aquarium that holds the Guinness World Record for the largest single piece of acrylic. There were all kinds of fish, some big, some small. There were a few different kinds of sting rays, manta rays, and sharks as well. One of my best moments of the trip was watching a shark come straight at me while I had my nose pressed up against the glass. I watched the shark swim by as he or she watched me. The shark looked like a machine and it was pretty intense. After the aquarium, I walked outside to watch the next fountain show, which occurs every thirty minutes. I stood right next to an Emirate, and the Burj Khalifa was glittering in the background because it was covered in strobe lights. The fountain show was synchronized to music and lighting, and the water fountains had powerful pumps that sprayed the water really high! When I got back to the accommodation, I noticed that there were light shows on the Burj al Arab as well that featured multicolor projection on the white exterior with strobe lights dotting the structure, too.
On one of our free days, I decided to walk to the nearby beach. I was a little nervous because I had learned about the city’s wastewater being dumped into the sea when the city’s single operating wastewater treatment facility was processing far beyond the capacity it was designed to handle. The dean of the Emirates Academy (the place we were staying) had told us that the quality of the water was now fine and it is monitored frequently for pollutants. He also informed us to cover-up, so I wore my pajama pants over my swimming trunks because I had noticed many people wearing their pajama pants at the nearby grocery store. I got a little sweaty on the walk there, which was probably about ½ mile from our accommodation. When I got there, I was happy to be greeted by a nice and cool sea breeze. I looked around the beach and noticed people playing ball, which seemed to be a good way to socialize and meet other people from the extremely diverse crowd. I also saw an interesting sight of a woman wearing some sort of swimming suit that covered her whole entire body, including her head. I looked out to the sea and saw sailboats, surfers, a standup surfer with a paddle, jet skis, and a paragliding kite way out in the distance. I layed out in the sun and enjoyed the perfect weather. When I walked into the sea, I was pleased that the water temperature was just right, not too hot and not too cold (unlike the Pacific Ocean water, which is ice cold). I was also surprised that the water was much clearer that I expected it to be. Somebody on the trip had mentioned they could float easily, so I tried it. Since it’s normally hard for me to float, I was happy to experience a kind of weightlessness. I almost felt like an astronaut. I looked to my left and saw the Burj al Arab tower, which was within a few hundred meters of the beach. With a turn of my head, I saw the Burj Khalifa behind a mosque. The waves were absolutely perfect size for body boarding, so I had a great time swimming around like a fish for almost two hours straight. I even learned some new tricks! I had not been to the ocean in a long time. One of the downsides to the super salty water was the fact that it got in my eyes, nose and throat, which was a little irritating, but was easily ignored because of all of the fun I was having. When I got back to the Emirates Academy, I washed my sandy sandals off in the shower by the pool. Kids were playing a game called “Marco Polo” in the pool, which reminded me of the times that I used to play that game when I was younger. It also made me think of the real Marco Polo and the fact that I was in Arabia, one of the places he visited, and somewhere I never thought I would have the opportunity to see.