{"id":32,"date":"2009-03-30T15:31:38","date_gmt":"2009-03-30T06:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.konyagi.org\/blog\/?p=32"},"modified":"2009-03-30T15:40:01","modified_gmt":"2009-03-30T06:10:01","slug":"walking-to-burj-dubai-from-deira","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.konyagi.org\/blog\/uncategorized\/walking-to-burj-dubai-from-deira","title":{"rendered":"Walking to Burj Dubai from Deira"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was a monumentally stupid idea. You can see from the photo in the last entry the two of the reasons why I should never have tried this. It’s a long way away and the air is full of sand and smog. The final reason is hinted at by the picture below. Duba is the domain of the car. I think I spent as much time trying to cross roads and work out which of 5 exits from an intersection was the one I wanted.<\/p>\n

\"Burj<\/a>
Burj Dubai from highway overpass - what was I thinkng!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

Strictly speaking, this next photo is first chronologically and introduces you to the game of “Is that the Burj or a smudge” that you can play with the first few photos. This was about 30 minutes in as I was crossing the creek. The<\/p>\n

\"Burj<\/a>
Burj Dubai from Al Maktoum Bridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Missing from the photographic record between the photo above and the next one is an hour of me traipsing up a hill to an overpass, trying to see which is the correct path to take then returning down to an intersection, walking 500 metres and repeating. During this stage I was cursing the cartographers at Lonely Planet, the road builders of Dubai and the weather forecasters who had predicted a mild day of 30 rather than the 37 which a cheerful sign on the freeway informed me I was walking through.<\/p>\n

\"Burj<\/a>
Burj Dubai from Sheikh Zayeed Road<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At this point I had my bearings and all I had to do was walk down Sheikh Zayeed Road until the Burj got real big then turn left.<\/p>\n

\"Burj<\/a>
Burj Dubai from Sheikh Zayeed Road again<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Burj<\/a>
Burj Dubai from Sheikh Zayeed Road one more time<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since I was last here, a number of new buildings have gione up, one of which is the new Telecom building, complete with golf ball on top to match the older one in Deira.<\/p>\n

\"Dubai<\/a>
Dubai Etisalat Golf Ball Building<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sheikh Zayeed Road is something special. Apart from being very pedestrian-unfriendly, it is very good at making you feel small. Currently about 20 buildings in the 300-400 metre range with many more under construction. Again, there were no dead sites here, everything was full steam ahead. First, the Emirates Towers<\/p>\n

\"Emirates<\/a>
Emirates Towers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Emirates<\/a>
Emirates Towers with Palm Tree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And more towers:<\/p>\n

\"Sheikh<\/a>
Sheikh Zayeed Road Towers with Burj Dubai in background<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sheikh<\/a>
Sheikh Zayeed Road Towers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Rose Rotana is the world’s tallest building to be used exclusively as a hotel, overtaking the Burj Al Arab<\/a> and the spooky Ryugyong Hotel<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Rose<\/a>
Rose Rotana Hotel and more SZ Towers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rose<\/a>
Rose Rotana Hotel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And yet more towers, getting quite close to the Burj now…<\/p>\n

\"More<\/a>
More SZ Towers with Burj Dubai in background<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dusit<\/a>
Dusit Dubai with Burj Dubai in background<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’d walked myself into a corner at this point. The Burj was tantalisingly close, but a nest of overpasses stood between myself and Dubai Mall from which I could gain access. I poked and prodded at the roads but made no headway. I decided at this point to award myself the achievment of walking to the Burj and hopped into the nearest cab. 15 minutes later I was dropped off on the other side of SZ road at Dubai Mall, a monumental edifice to consumerism sitting at the foot of the Burj..<\/p>\n

I took a lot of photos of the Burj, none of which came out particularly well. I commend to you the skyscraper-spotters at Skyscraper City<\/a> for some awesome photos\/video of the Burj Dubai and fountain.<\/p>\n

\"Burj<\/a>
Burj Dubai from base<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The mall has some serious attractions to get people in. Those that are open so far: The Aquarium<\/p>\n

\"Dubai<\/a>
Dubai Mall Aquarium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Awesome<\/a>
Awesome creature in Dubai Mall Aquarium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Waterfall<\/p>\n

\"Dubai<\/a>
Dubai Mall Waterfall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anyway, it’s just a mall, albeit on an enormous scale. I stayed to see the fountain testing which was awesome, even if my photos of it aren’t (watch he video on the Skyscraper city page linked above)<\/p>\n

\"Dubai<\/a>
Dubai Fountain Lights<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dubai<\/a>
Dubai Fountain Lights and Water<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally, there was a spot of hail, which seemed to be a novelty as it drew a bigger crowd than the fountain<\/p>\n

\"Dubai<\/a>
Dubai Hail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And to top it off, a photo I’m fairly impressed with given my shaky hands and night time condiions, the Address, a residential tower across the fountain from the Burj.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Address<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And that was the day I walked to the Burj Dubai. I’ll spare you detailed photos and analysis of the next day, the day I rubbed my legs and moaned “Why?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was a monumentally stupid idea. You can see from the photo in the last entry the two of the reasons why I should never have tried this. It’s a long way away and the air is full of sand and smog. The final reason is hinted at by the picture below. Duba is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.konyagi.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.konyagi.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.konyagi.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.konyagi.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.konyagi.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.konyagi.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36,"href":"http:\/\/www.konyagi.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions\/36"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.konyagi.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.konyagi.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.konyagi.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}