Retail Dubai Style...

On our first day in Dubai we went out in the afternoon to the Dubai Mall. We aren’t really into shopping these days but this place was recommended as a good way to see the wealth and ostentatious lifestyle of this country. Dubai itself was originally a small fishing village but has transformed into a progressive uptodate nation over the last 40 years or so. 

The hotel Concierge recommended we use a taxi to get to the Mall. What a wonderful suggestion! The thought of walking the 600 metres to the nearest Metro station in 42 C heat had filled me with dread! Lol

The Mall is a huge complex of 1200 shops (no I didn’t get around to counting them 😉) attached to the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. It’s on the right in this photo. 

So the Mall...the first attraction we noticed was the Underwater Zoo! There were  coral reefs, rays, fish and even a few sharks. We didn’t pay to go into the inside viewing area, just looked in the big windows from the mall walkways. So I would suggest an even bigger variety of sea creatures could be viewed inside.

Then we saw a sign showing the way to The Waterfalls! Yep! Inside the Mall were several sections of artificial waterfalls that went on for hundreds of feet  and the water ‘roared’ just like real waterfalls. The falls also featured sculptures of divers...

I took a few photos of shops...

Everything is on a grand scale! 

Then I saw that there was a Hamley’s store which is the iconic toy store in London. We had a little look through...

Photos were taken of Buzz Lightyear, a favourite of #1 and #2 granddaughters 😉 And I fell in love with the toy cars although the price was a bit daunting; nearly $2000 Australian. Lol

Another shop’s window display piqued my interest. It was a maternity clothing shop and the store models had little ‘baby bumps’. I’ve never seen them before, but then again...I don’t go shopping for maternity clothes! 😉

You can imagine how many hundreds of clothing shops there would be in this giant Mall but I only took a photo of one other clothing shop. It was a Japanese clothing shop and I wondered who’d be game enough to wear this! 

I took a photo of a Cheesecake Factory restaurant, familiar to DH and I from US holidays. 

The only thing we ate on our visit was a frozen yogurt sundae from Yoghurtland. 

Talking of frozen...we found the ice rink in the mall and watched the skaters for a while. Yes, Dubai has an ice rink in a shopping centre. Just imagine the electricity used to keep the ice from melting! 

We walked and walked to the back of the Mall to get a view of the marina and Souk ( old style Arabian market) which are part of the complex. 

And after that we walked and walked to find where the taxi rank was. After the cab ride back to the hotel, we staggered up to our room and had to have a bit of a lie down after all that excitement and walking. Lol