Dubai, UAE. January 2011
The following pictures are not posted in chronological order! Just random pictures that I snapped while in Dubai 11 - 22 Jan 2011. Hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them! Please click on the actual picture to download/view the picture in larger scale(s) if/when available.
Why couldn't we be on THAT one? This one looks STRAIGHT out of Peter Pan.
I took many more pictures while floating around on the creek but, not surprisingly, they were mostly blurry! The one above of the colored lights against the standard sand buildings is at good as it gets!
This thing is amazing.
Almost worth the 18+ hour flight time...
The correct fountain display she wanted was accurately caught in pictures below! :-)
I'm not sure how I caught the above picture, but it's completely 100% unedited/modified/photoshopped/etc. So... Um... I rock :-)
For anyone who knows the downtown area, this was snapped on the narrow walkway between the water fountains and the circular drive/drop off of the Burj Khalifa.
So, I watched Tron (2010) version just before this trip. I kept staring at this one (above) from across the lake and expecting it to take off. I mean, if that isn't a spaceship, I don't know what is!
http://www.burjkhalifa.ae/the-tower.aspx
or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Khalifa
So what these pics don't catch is the loud decidedly pop-Arabic music blasting over the speakers in the shadowy foreground to a large crowd of quietly, observing non-dancing, non-singing people.
The music was super hyper bollywood and the fountains were dancing in beat to the music but the vast majority of people there (work night, not tourist) were just calmly sitting/standing still watching the show. Much more reserved than you'd see people @ Baltimore Inner Harbor if there were loud music and a Vegas-style water display. Noticably conservative culture/country/city.
You guessed it... THESE are the ones that Mom Cooke wanted pictures of! Hope these suffice!!! :-)
I TOLD you! BLAST OFF!!! (Okay, slightly misleading, this is the water fountain display in the foreground and the building much further in the distance but HEY! IT LOOKED GREAT!)
This picture was taken from "At The Top" of the Burj Khalifa. This wavy rooftop is the ceiling of the indoor-ski arena at the Dubai Mall. Crazy Emirati.
The downtown major intersection and the Gulf! It was kind of sandstormy (lol, yes. sand-storm-y) but still neat pic to see the gulf!
Yes. The "world's largest". This is exactly why this is as close as I got to the building! For a guy who abhors shopping what ON EARTH could be more tedious, exhausting and physically/mentally/emotionally draining than the worlds-largest-mall!?!? Ugh. SO happy I skipped this one ;-)
More spaceships! I'm telling you! These "pods" were the train stations. They're awesome. Emeratis, I love 'em. The more the merrier.
Another pic from 124 floors up. Yes, for the record my ears popped passing the 48th, 84th and 108th floors. Yikes! Some say the elevator ride is so smooth you cannot feel it (I disagree). My body knew when it was >100 floors up!
The infrastructure for the water fountains can be seen snaking around in the lake below. The "Dubai Mall" is on the left.
Again, sandstormy but this is facing inwards towards "the rest of UAE" vs. the Gulf.
The narrowest part of "At The Top". Pretty cool but not for those afraid of heights!
GOLD-TO-GO! This has GOT to be the most photographed GOLD ATM in the world. Wait... what!?!? An ATM that dispenses GOLD????? Yeah. Emeratis, this is bragging just a little. I would've gone w/o on this one at the top of the Burj Khalifa. It's a little "over the top".
This is the inside of the elevator that lifts you to floor 124. The TV screen in the corner lets you know what floor you're on along with regional advertisements but the elevator is completely dark and those rows of lights circle around you on flat LCD-like monitors (that ARE the walls) of the elevator. It was pretty cool. A little Willy Wonka "when's the elevator going to stop" ish but it was nevertheless a fun ride.
My flight was the top one. Supposed to leave @ 0500. Delayed until 0635. Ugh. Good thing the terminal was a fun shopping mall!!!
That's my airplane wing and the moon (actually) over Dallas on the way back! Trinity river snaking through!
Fun picture I took from outside my hotel room window. I love taking from-the-hotel-window shots on travel. Just never know when you'll be randomly assigned a good one! Yes, yes, yes. Edited a little, cropped, straightened, etc but all good! :-) This was dawn, just before a jog around town, not dusk.
Lobby of Layia Plaza Hotel. Pretty nice place! Forgot to snag a pic of the pool on the roof. Shucks. Next time.
Sunrise City Supermarket! ALL signs in Dubai are written like this with English on the left and Arabic on the right with commonly a logo in the middle. This was in between DGH and Layia. I ate a side-shop called "Quick Bite" right near here. On the menu? Mostly Indian/Pakistani food. I chose Prawn Fried Rice (Yes, like shimp but not quite).
The Indian guy thought I was hysterical going in there. Laughing at me beginning from across the street as I eyed the place up. They don't see many Yankees apparently. His English was limited to uh almost, "Hi" and my Hindi is limited to... well... I'm a dumb American and don't know Hindi BUT he knew "hi" and he talked at me a bunch and so I talked back at him a bunch too :-)
Beautiful thing. People. He was amazingly friendly, his food was great and he'll remember this dumb American who liked his friendly (albeit unfamiliar) banter and doesn't know what a 'good tip' is so I just left him a boatload over the bill :-)
Standing in the open-air section of "At the top" (124th floor) of the Burj Khalifa. At my feet, forever lays the camera bag, where I accidentally left it that high in the sky. I guess the altitude got the better of my short term memory skills! R.I.P. camera bag. Those skyscrapers in the background are quite aways away and I'm uhh... still almost 2x higher than all of them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Khalifa
The music was super hyper bollywood and the fountains were dancing in beat to the music but the vast majority of people there (work night, not tourist) were just calmly sitting/standing still watching the show. Much more reserved than you'd see people @ Baltimore Inner Harbor if there were loud music and a Vegas-style water display. Noticably conservative culture/country/city.
The infrastructure for the water fountains can be seen snaking around in the lake below. The "Dubai Mall" is on the left.
The Indian guy thought I was hysterical going in there. Laughing at me beginning from across the street as I eyed the place up. They don't see many Yankees apparently. His English was limited to uh almost, "Hi" and my Hindi is limited to... well... I'm a dumb American and don't know Hindi BUT he knew "hi" and he talked at me a bunch and so I talked back at him a bunch too :-)
Beautiful thing. People. He was amazingly friendly, his food was great and he'll remember this dumb American who liked his friendly (albeit unfamiliar) banter and doesn't know what a 'good tip' is so I just left him a boatload over the bill :-)
Let's not forget this was a "business" trip and the vast majority of my time was spent negotiating contracts, facilitating existing agreements, touring commercial space(s) and meeting with people. So, I will close with a photo I call "Dubai Meets Andrew Cooke".
Random shout out: That suit is so freakin' comfortable. Thanks Banks and to the older gentleman who fit me for it in downtown FTW with a handlebar mustache and bolero necktie. You knew my dims when I walked in the door. You called 'em almost spot on. You rock.
Dear Tim and brothers-in-law aka "the boys" (especially J), don't you even think about photoshopping my face from above on to any dancing squirrel in a polka-dot bikini dancing the Irish jig at the north pole or parachuting from the Burj Khalifa. I know you were thinking about it, you little monsters.
Mom Jen, Mom Sue & Lisa, please feel free to talk, Fb and blog about how gorgeous, wonderful and perfect I am. You've almost got the world fooled ;-) I love you beautiful ladies. Humble and modest too ;-)
Most of all and I should've started the post with this... I'm so incredibly blessed and grateful for my loving wife and kids who tolerate me disappearing for a week a couple times a year. So fortunate to have a family who understands that my job helps support our men & women overseas and who knows my passion for diversity, cultures and international business [yes, I'm a dork]. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
Also very thankful for our friends and family who help while I'm out and about! You are acknowledged and very very much appreciated!!! THANK YOU!
To the faithful readers of P&B, thank you for your readership and I hope you've enjoyed this lengthy, wordy, rare and unusual post from the all-too-commonly-quite Mr. Andrew Sean Cooke, aka "dad" aka "husband" aka "loverboy" aka "dirty rotten scoundrel"... I've been called even worse (it's true!), but I'll stop here ;-)
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