Looking Down on Dubai from Berj Khalifa's 148th Floor

I left Abu Dhabi behind for a day trip over to Dubai with the gem of the trip getting to go up to the observation deck of the tallest building in the world!  Dubai is about 87 miles away from Abu Dhabi and there really is not anything to see between these two massive cities – well, unless you like sand!  As I rolled into town, it was clear that Dubai has had a massive influx of building over the years as the following video illustrates.

The crazy looking circular land mass that surfaces is called Palm Jumeirah and we drove out onto it and the outer-most point reaching to the sea is the Atlantis, The Palm resort.

In front of Atlantis is the Arabian Gulf and this beautiful share of blue.  The shoreline spans for over 12 miles on this outer band of The Palm.  What an engineering feat – one that I really don't want to know the price tag for!!

It is really hard to show what this looks like from ground level, so check out the aerial view right after the little picture I took of one of the beaches.

Another icon not to miss is the Berj Al Arab!!

I'm going to star in the new movie – Baywatch: UAE.    Dubai has over 1400 mosques and the Jumeirah Mosque is one of the most accessible and is open to non-Muslims.

Again, 1400+ mosques and most are simply incredible looking.  Here are some worth seeing if you visit Dubai.  Here is another one!

As I said at the beginning of this post (and yes, the title gives it away) the main attraction for the day was Berj Khalifa, so we started heading over that way and you can see that massive spire from far away.  It sticks out like a sore thumb!  It is the TALLEST BUILDING IN THE WORLD!!

It is connected to the Dubai Mall which itself is no small thing either.  It is the largest mall in the world with over 1200 stores.

As soon as you go in this entrance you are hit square in the face with a giant aquarium and I think we all know I love saltwater aquariums.

Damn!  I AM HANDSOME!!   

I finally got to the entrance and splurged for the ticket that takes you all the way up to the 148th floor (555 meters up) instead of the less expensive option to go up to the 124th floor's observation deck.  I'm so glad I did as those 24 floors are just that much higher and hey... this is the tallest building in the world and I'm on the other side of the world – gotta go for FULL bragging rights!!  Besides, there are no crowds up on this VIP level and as you can see, the building still goes up to floor 163 and spire is even higher than that topping out at 828 meters.  That's just over a half of a mile into the sky!

So... let me just end this post with a few photos I took from this insane observation deck.  I really loved it up there!

As Fran Tarkenton used to say, That's Incredible!