Please check out all my blogs on our trip to Abu Dhabi and Dubai on Exploring Abu Dhabi Block by block:
https://mywalkinmanhattan.com/category/exploring-abu-dhabi-block-by-block
It was an early morning for us on the way to a day of touring, site visits and meetings. After the tire blowing the night before and us getting back late, we were all a little worn out when we got to breakfast.
Marriott opened the restaurant early for us and that was very nice of them. The food is excellent and they do a nice job with the buffet. I had just discovered that you could order an omelet and that was a nice alternative to the runny scrambled eggs that the Europeans love so much.
The breakfast buffet at the Bistro at the Marriott Courtyard World Trade Center.
https://www.diningatcourtyardabudhabi.com
https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/auhcy-courtyard-world-trade-center-abu-dhabi/dining
My review on TripAdvisor:
The Breakfast Buffet offers so much on the line.
The Omelet was cooked to order each morning and it was delicious.
On our way to our first stop we took a quick bathroom break and the rest stop was so amazing. It had a food truck theme and a look of Route 66 theme. Very American and very clever. I wish our rest stops could look like this. I wish our rest stops in New Jersey in the States along the NJ Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway were like this.
The Rest Stop on the way to Dubai.
The Food Trucks at the stop. Interesting concept.
Our first stop when we got to Dubai was the Dubai Mall and a tour of the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa and the observatory on the 124th and the 125th floors. Talk about a view! It was impressive just from the ground.
The Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall
My review on TripAdvisor:
While the Burj Khalifa does not have the same views as its New York or Chicago counterparts it was no less impressive. You could see old Dubai rising from across the highway from new Dubai and the difference in the progress of the city and its extremes. You can see where the city will be developed in what is now desert. The next ten years will bring a lot of changes to the area.
You entered the building from the Dubai Mall, which is an impressive upscale mall that seems to go on for miles. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill architects, this mixed-used development atop Dubai Mall is inspired by the Great Mosque of Samarra in Iraq. This record-breaking skyscraper in downtown Dubai is the tallest structure in the world. Burj Khalifa has several open-air viewing decks and swanky lounges which offer splendid views of the UAE and the Persian Gulf (TripAdvisor.com).
Then we took the elevator up to the 124th floor.
Then we arrived at the sky deck.
The video of the trip to the Skydeck:
The views of the new section of Dubai.
The views of new Dubai.
The views odd old and new Dubai.
The difference between old and new Dubai.
Me at the top of the world.
My video of the 180 tour on the top of the 125th floor:
Me on the 125th Floor. What a view!
I then started to take pictures of the people on the 124th floor. I swear that humans look awfully small in this picture. This picture of me was taken on the 125th floor of the building. All my fireman instincts came into play and I was always looking for the exits.
The people on the 124th floor.
Our NYU group shot on the 125th Floor.
After the tour was over, our Professor treated us to some of the most delicious baklava from one of the oldest bakeries in the business. The Hafiz Mustafa Bakery is located at 1864 Dubai Mall and the beauty of the store matches display of their baked products. Like small jewels in the cases. They were excellent.
https://en.hafizmustafa.com/dubai
My review on TripAdvisor:
It was wonderful. Rich and sweet from the honey, but not overly sweet like in the States.
I love baklava when it is made right. It was sweet and flaky and not overly drowned in honey like its American counterparts are when I have eaten it. This was excellent quality and was delicious.
I loved the few pieces I got to sample. I did not know if we had this in the States.
The logo of the Mustafa company.
We did have some time to walk through the mall which was very impressive. Still, I felt that I was walking through another version of the Garden State Plaza in Paramus, NJ. I did like that there was a branch of “Bloomies” here. I just wondered how a New York department store like this translates in a foreign country.
The entrance sign to Bloomingdales in Arabic.
https://bloomingdales.ae/designers-saint-laurent
Our next stop was the ‘Museum of the Future’, which is a new museum in the city. It was impressive from the outside with its unusual architecture. The unfortunate part was it was like visiting a version of Epcot at Disney World in Florida. Its outside design looked very futuristic but as a museum I was disappointed. There was not much to it.
The outside sculpture on top of the Museum of the Future.
https://museumofthefuture.ae/en
My review on TripAdvisor:
The Museum builds on the visionary culture that has transformed the UAE into one of the world’s most advanced nations in less than 50 years. We are a showcase for the spirit of courage, optimism and innovation that propels Dubai forward. Like our home city, the Museum is a place of tolerance, inviting varied cultural, philosophical, social and spiritual outlooks. Our imagined futures are rooted in the values of the UAE and the Arab world (Museum website).
We spent so much time in line that we did not get to see much of the museum. The lines were huge to get in and it took almost 45 minutes to get inside the museum. They need to get people in and out of the lines and into touring the museum much faster. We only had about an hour and half and waiting in line is not part of the experience. Lines at the Met in New York are never like this. They need to work on this.
While the museum would be better suited for families with small children who like interactive displays, there were a few displays that I enjoyed. To me though, this isn’t the future just some form of glorified future in someone’s mind.
I participated on some of the interactive active display run by a fellow NYU student who went to college in the Abu Dhabi branch. I thought it was a little to Disneyfied for me. I really didn’t care to know what I wanted to be on the planet Mars. Would we ever get there?
Me as a “Space Ambassador” at the Museum of the Future in Dubai.
The best part that I liked about the museum outside the ‘Meditation Room’ was the restaurant on the seventh floor of the museum. It had been highly recommended by one of my classmates who was from Dubai. She said it was excellent and the best part of the museum. She was right.
The Public Pizzeria in the Museum of the Future was lovely and breezy to sit in. It is a very relaxing restaurant after all the craziness of the lines and crowds of the museum. Even though it was on the Seventh Floor of the museum, it was like eating in a private garden.
My review on TripAdvisor:
Most of my classmates chose to forgo the museum and had lunch. After standing in those lines and dealing with the crowds, it was not worth it to tour around. I did not blame them as the restaurant was gorgeous with the most amazing breezes, a nice garden setting and excellent wood-fired pizza.
I sat down for a moment after rushing through the museum and ordered a SweetPeppe, a pepperoni/honey pizza. Just as I started to relax after walking through crowds of families, I was told we had to leave. I ate one slice before it was boxed up and paid for with me racing to make the bus. I just enjoyed at my seat on the bus. Not the garden setting but the pizza was excellent and made it worth the trip to the museum.
The pizza is worth the trip. While I was indulging on the bus to our next stop making everyone jealous with the delicious smells, you could really taste the honey they swirled on the pizza. The savory taste of the pepperoni and the sweetness of the honey matched perfectly.
The pizza was a real treat on the bus ride. The taste of the honey pepperoni pizza was amazing!
After the museum visit and lunch, we had a series of meetings with the travel offices of Mastercard and Google. Mastercard is mastering the use of the Metaverse. I have to say I am not the biggest fan of the Metaverse. Those goggles are a pain, it kills your eyesight and it still needs some work in the comfort department. Mastercard explained how they are using it in their travel area for its customers. The company is creating some interesting programs with its use. After the demonstration with the goggles, we took a tour of the Mastercard Headquarters. It was very impressive.
Our group being dazzled by the advancement of the Metaverse at Mastercard Dubai
Touring the Mastercard headquarters in Dubai.
Our NYU group shot with our hosts at Mastercard in Dubai.
After our tour of the Mastercard Headquarters and our interesting talk it was then off to the Google Dubai headquarters. This was the first time I had been in a Google office. I pass the one in Chelsea all the time in Manhattan but had never been inside.
Our tour of the headquarters of Google Dubai.
We started the afternoon first with a tour of the office by one of the employees who gave us the ’embellished’ day in the life of Google employee starting with his breakfast, morning break, work out in the gym, then lunch, afternoon break, time in the relaxation pod and then starting work around 3:00pm. We have an expression for this in New York City and its “And the cow jumped over the moon.” I know how hard Google employees work and the 16 hour days some of them put in. I know he was kidding us around by the end of the tour. Still it was fun to hear what people ‘think’ is a day at Google.
We then sat in one of the lecture rooms and an alumni of NYU gave us a talk on the developments going on at Google and the advancement that the company wants to make in travel and tourism. With Google Travel, Google Reviews and Google Maps helping now I can imagine what direction that the company will want to make in the future. What they are doing now is leading the industry.
Our meeting at Google.
Our NYU group shot at Google Headquarters.
It really was an interesting office visit. It is a company I would love to work for and coming from the ‘Macy Machine’ and Hyatt, the hours would not bother me. I think working with other people who have the same ideas of innovation and creativity would make a person better at what they do and foster more engagement in the industry. There is too much stifling in corporate and there needs to be more a free flow of ideas.
Our last stop of the evening was at the Global Village, a Disneyland themed type of park that represented all the countries of the world. I have to say that it was an elaborate complex. The layout was huge and I was only able to visit a few countries and still have dinner.
Arriving at the Global Village at 38C5+F57 in Dubai that late afternoon. The view from the parking lot in the early evening.
https://www.globalvillage.ae/en
My review on TripAdvisor:
At Global Village, their motto is ‘they celebrate diversity and creativity that makes the world so wonderful! This is why every season they invite the most incredible artists, performers, and creators from all over to join us in Dubai and share their talent with our guests all day every day’ (Global Village website).
The Global Village is huge and I mean HUGE! The complex would take about a week to really explore and enjoy it. With the countries that I visited, it was almost a glorified Epcot Center in Florida’s Disney World. They must have wanted to try to be authentic in the beginning but got caught up in the ‘Fantasied’ view of what a country should be. Almost a watered down version of someone’s life. To be honest it was not ‘authentic’.
Inside the main entrance to the Global Village at twilight.
A little bit of home.
The Main Street of the Global Village at night was impressive with its lively stores and entertainment. More impressive than Main Street USA and a bit more depth.
The complex is huge and over-whelming and you can visit multiple days. It needs some hotels inside the complex like Disney to bring a ‘real’ factor to it.
We only had about two and half hours to explore the complex and even that is not enough time to experience the whole thing. You would need a week and multiple days to explore the entire complex thoroughly. What might make this work better is that each pavilion have a consultant from that country come in and look at the shops and crafts and food options and give a more authentic viewpoint to it. What also would work is multiple hotel concepts so that people could spend more time in the Global Village and explore it without having to rush. It just too big!
I was able to visit quickly the United Arab Emirates Pavilion because I wanted to see how they portrayed their own country, then Egypt, Saudi, then China, Japan and Vietnam. I visited them so quickly I forgot what was what. The stores inside the complexes were underwhelming and poorly merchandised. It was piles of clothes and trinkets on top of each other. You could not stop to enjoy the entertainment because then you could not get to the next pavilion.
I took a breather in the Chinese Pavilion to look at the artwork and have some dinner. Have the last few nights of barbecued meats and rice dishes, I needed some Chinese food. Unfortunately the menu at Chin Chin in the Chinese Pavilion was a lot of deep fried foods with heavy sauces. The food was good but was more Chinese-American suburban mall type of food. It was still good.
Spending time in the Chinese Pavilion at the Global Village.
This is how I got to know our tour guide, Nimesh, who was eating by himself at the restaurant. I invited him to join me and we talked about our lives and careers and our hopes of what we want to do in the future. He was a terrific tour guide with a wonderful personality but I could not understand why he wasn’t doing this work in his home of Sri Lanka. With the economy and wars I could understand this plight.
Over dinner at Chin Chin, we laughed about the experiences that we had traveling and talked about where we wanted to be in the future. It is amazing how you can open up to a complete stranger who is going through the same transitional experience in life that you are having.
Dinner was more deep fried foods. People out here really love the deep fried stuff and it can be a bit overdone especially since this stuff is so good to eat and so bad for you at the same time. Still every once in a while you have to treat yourself and we did at Chin Chin, the signature restaurant in the Chinese Pavilion.
Chin Chin at the Chinese Pavilion at the Global Village.
My review on TripAdvisor:
The Fried Shredded Beef at Chin Chin for an appetizer could have been the whole meal.
The Chicken in a Sweet and Tangy sauce with Fried Rice made up for the fried stuff.
After a nice dinner and great conversation, Nimesh had to head back to the bus to await everyone returning in about an hour and I quickly finished my tour of the Asian Pavilions as I made my way back to the entrance but not before I saw the Light Show by the main fountain in the middle of the complex. Now that was impressive.
I made my way back to the bus just in time but everyone else had not made it back yet so I got to relax with some peace and quiet. Everyone was asleep on the way back to the hotel. We were all exhausted by this long but productive day in Dubai. I have to say that I am very impressed with how the City of Dubai has developed and it would be fun to explore the old part of it in the coming day. It had been a long day of driving and touring.
I just fell fast asleep and never heard my roommate until the wakeup call woke us up the next morning.
Places to Visit:
The Burj Khalifa
1 Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Boulevard
Downtown Dubai – Dubai – United Arab Emirates
971 4 888 8888
Open: 24 hours
Admission: Please check the website for floor stops and ages.
My review on TripAdvisor:
Museum of the Future
67CP+H4Q – Sheikh Zayed Rd – Trade Centre – Trade Centre 2 –
Dubai – United Arab Emirates
971 4 800 2071
https://museumofthefuture.ae/en
Open: Sunday-Saturday 9:30am-8:30pm
Admission: Please see website for hours and age tickets
My review on TripAdvisor:
The Global Village Dubai
38C5+F57 – Dubai – United Arab Emirates
971 4 362 4114
https://www.globalvillage.ae/en
Open: Sunday-Wednesday 4:00pm-12:00am/Thursday-Saturday 4:00pm-1:00am
Admission: Check the website for group/timed and passes for different age groups.
My review on TripAdvisor:
Places to Eat:
Bistro at the Marriott Courtyard World Trade Center
Hamdan Bin Mohammed Street
https://www.diningatcourtyardabudhabi.com
https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/auhcy-courtyard-world-trade-center-abu-dhabi/dining
My review on TripAdvisor:
Hafiz Mustafa 1864 Dubai Mall
The Dubai Mall Dubai United Arabic Emirates
971 4 584 4694
Open: Sunday-Saturday 8:00am-1:00am
My review on TripAdvisor:
Public Pizzeria-7th Floor Museum of the Future
The Museum of the Future
67CP+H4Q – Sheikh Zayed Rd – Trade Centre – Trade Centre 2 –
Dubai – United Arab Emirates
971 4 800 2071
https://museumofthefuture.ae/en
My review on TripAdvisor:
Chin Chin Khalifa City
Happiness Street Dubai
https://www.facebook.com/chinchinuae
971 56 456 5203
Open: Sunday-Saturday 10:00am-11:30pm
My review on TripAdvisor:
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