For example, what the heck is that?
Before I get into that, however, a word from our other blogs.
Sergey's Karibuni Tales continues with Mozambique and Kenya.
Ginger has been busy with insights on life lately, while Nithin always has some great philosophizing going on.
And last, but not least, at Neal's request, his first appearance on mikekimtravels...
... in snowy Utah! He is on the left and says hello, along with Stu (in yellow helmet and also first appearance), Eric (of eating live octopus fame), and Forrest, who is actually saying hello.
Here is a picture of the crew (Neal on the right) at a lip of the crater halfway down Junior's Powder Paradise on the left side of the below Mineral Basin map at Snowbird Ski Resort. It's been a low-snow global warming kind of winter in Utah, but we lucked out into a couple storms right before we got there, so all the slopes were open and very passable, especially to this East Coast skier used to ice! Cool view on the above photo aye?
(Photo courtesy of Snowbird.com)
Now Mineral Basin is probably my favorite run in Utah, but a close second is Honeycomb Canyon at Solitude Ski Resort, which is pictured below with Eric at the bottom. Thanks for the intro Oppolds!
Don't let the camera work fool you. That mountain behind Eric is over 1,500 feet high, and the canyon is pretty narrow; I am actually about halfway up the wall on the other side. Eric and I came down the slope to the left. All the skiers were aiming for the slope in the middle, but got lost in the trees, and so had to do some touch-and-go glading. Nevertheless, they survived.
(Courtesy of skisolitude.com)
The canyon closes way early and is difficult to get to, so if you have the chance, do it often!
Okay, back to the land of sand.
What the heck is this?
Is it the cannon portion of the Terminator T-X from Terminator: Rise of the Machines? Sadly, no. Although she is smokin'.
Is it one of Ironhide's cannons from Michael Bay's Transformers? Closer, but no cigar.
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| (Courtesy of DV8PDX@AOL.COM) |
The answer in a bit. What, you thought it would be that easy?
So, we woke up on Day 16 and decided it was finally time to get some "culture" and explore the center/historic/business district of Dubai, better known as Deira. After breakfast, we made our way to the subway. On the way, we passed the canal, so we stopped to admire the crazy ultra modern buildings everywhere,
Cool triangle building, and one with what looks like a glass tube in a concrete shell.
Chrysler building look alike, complete with tons of empty office space. And two of them to boot!
Can't even begin to explain what the heck those are. But they are cool.
These sort of look like a sprouting plant. I wonder if those are balconies at the top of the white extensions?
As we got the highway, this was the cityscape. What struck me as strange is that in a normal cityscape, you have lower buildings sort of filling in the gaps, and the locations of the buildings are not uniform next to each other. Here, however, you can clearly tell it is planned, which lends it an artificial air. But the designs are still amazing.
Looking down the road, where buildings continue for a loooooooooong way down.
Now, we saw the cool buildings above. But the even stranger thing was all the half finished skyscrapers, with cranes to boot, due to the global downturn. Hit Dubai HARD. When we photographed this, there was no work being done on these buildings, and looked like it had been that way for awhile.
When this twisting building is completed, it will look awesome. Sort of reminds me of the Prudential Tower (better known as "The Prud") in Boston.
We stopped at the bridge over the canal. This is facing north...
... and this is facing south. I think. 50-50.
Me walking. Not much traffic this morning.
William and Resha looking ecstatic... and squinting because the sun is BRIGHT!
And hot.
One thing we quickly noticed is that once you got even 100 meters away from the beach and the slight ocean breeze, the temperature quickly got very hot. In fact, the weather report said 100 degrees and sunny each and every day we were there (with a low of 80), and we could definitely feel that now.
After walking about half a mile, however, we finally reached our destination... and the answer to my trivia question.
That crazy futuristic looking thing above is a subway station of the Dubai Metro. We are at the Dubai Marina station. The Red Line sort of follows the coast and Sheikh Zayed Road, while the Green Line goes inland from Deira. In a bit of super-duper future planning, however, on our way to the Jebel Ali Golf Resort & Spa, we passed a bunch of these stations in the middle of nowhere with nothing around them. Wonder if the trains actually go that far?
Anyways, here is the station. Perhaps not as futuristic as the exterior, but squeaky clean nonetheless. And notice how sweaty I am. I wasn't joking. The 15 minute walk was HOT!
We bought our tickets at the kiosk to the right. The price? 2 dirhams - or about 60 cents. For a 30 minute ride. Talk about subsidies!
Ecstatic William.
The doors to the station while we wait for the train. Also super modern. They installed these things in Seoul on the busy lines to prevent people from being shoved on to the tracks. Don't think they have that problem here.
Our station. And map. We are near the Palm Tree, and we are heading out to where the Green Line crosses the Red Line.
This is the view out of the front of the station toward Deira.
Finally, the train came and we got on. Interesting crowd. No Emirati that we could see. More of a mix of guest workers, professionals, and tourists. You would think at the low price a lot more workers would ride it, but kind of like the subway in LA, I guess it doesn't really connect where regular people live to where real people need to go.
The Burj Al-Arab sail hotel in the distance. I covered that in a previous post.
Another view of the Burj Al-Arab and the Madinat Jumeirah.
But definitely the highlight of our journey was our proximity to the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, now of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol fame.
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| (Courtesy of movieblogbuster.com) |
Until next time...
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