Early to rise Friday morning, Kim and Nick had come up with the great idea to go skiing, yes, snow skiing in the mall, because this is a thing. I had heard about this and seen on those travel television shows, but didn’t really think much of it, something for the uber tourist. Well, the next thing I know, we are all renting skis. Having been in Tahoe the weekend before, I was ready, and this was surprisingly much colder than our California skiing. I think they say it “slope” goes up 25 flights and even though it was early, there were quite a lot of people there! Up and down we went, my review? It was awesome. Would I do it again?? Absolutely. We had a blast and I really enjoyed the two hours of it we had. The other “skiers” there were a mix of kids taking lessons to learn, and very advanced skiers who probably miss the snow and this is the easiest and closest way they can get to a mountain. A lot of them even brought their own equipment!! We rented everything, including snow pants and jackets since we obviously did not pack for this!

Then it was time for our next tour!! We went back to Kim’s hotel, which was conveniently located in the Mall of Emirates where Ski Dubai is, had some tea and the appropriate sandwiches, and were picked up by Platinum Heritage for our desert safari. In our car was a young couple from Norway, along with a Swedish guy who was in Dubai working for a 6 month stint with his two friends visiting, and the three of us. We drove about 45 minutes out to the desert, which was actually private land that the Sheik owned which was neat, jumped into our very classic open air Range Rover, and we were off. Driving further into the sandy desert, we stopped a few times to check out some of the wild animals running around, and to run (and roll down) the sand dunes. It was such a neat experience, I felt like I could just run forever! Or until my calves gave up I guess! We had the opportunity to see a falcon fly and dive in for some food and learn about their history and why they are so important to the people of the area. Our last stop through the desert was at camp that was set up for dinner. Here we were able to hang out and ride camels, get henna, smoke hookah, watch a few performances from the locals, and had a traditional feast! Basically, we had an Arabic Luau! This was a huge highlight from our time in Dubai, we all had a great time!!

It was then our final day. We kept it low key and somehow ended up spending 6-hours at the mall. Embarrassing yes, but it really is the thing to do!!! The stores are all incredible; think of any high-end brand, you will find their store there. But we really didn’t spend the time in the stores, we were just walking around, they squeeze a lot of attractions into the mall, and given the hot summer temperatures, it makes sense.

Nick and I, along with my other friends in Dubai decided to go to the top of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world!!! It worked out perfectly because I had another good friend, Nameeta, who was stopping into Dubai from NYC on her way to visit her family in Bangalore, and wanted to join as well. Nameeta are good friends from London, so it was fun to see her in Dubai! The views from Burj Khalifa were awesome, however it seems more like they are currently doing a lot of city planning and building to make the views from the top amazing as most of what you see is desert. The scariest part of the whole experience for me had to be the elevator ride up. I can’t believe some people LIVE that high, and ever HIGHER! We were on the 125^th floor and there were still about 40 floors or so above us!!!