I woke up early to have breakfast before leaving for the airport.
I ate at WG Diners; affordable and decent food
The staff at the guesthouse booked me a van taxi for a drop off at Busuanga Airport. I packed up my bags, said my goodbyes and left Coron Backpackers Guesthouse when it was time.
It was the same road back to the airportThere was a discerning lack of cows in the fields this time thoughA fewBusuanga airport, paid for by the Koreans
Immigration took it’s own sweet time. This is as basic as a small airport can get, so not every passenger can get in all at once.
Oh, and don’t even try to smuggle coral shells out of Coron. It’s against the law… but that didn’t stop many from trying.My ride back to Manila was a Cebu Pacific flightBeing a Cebu Pacific flight, in-flight games were in orderThe sights out the window on this flight were nothing spectacular
I arrived in Manila at around 3pm. I had lunch at a Burger King at the terminal and then stepped out of the airport to catch the bus going to Pasay. From there I hired a taxi to get to Bonifacio Global City (BGC), where I would be staying a condominium my friend Janet had access to.
I wasn’t allowed to take any photos of the condo nor allowed to share any details as it didn’t belong to Janet. But it sure was nice to stay here! 🙂
After freshening up, Janet and I went out for a walk around BGC in the evening.
The previous day (26th November) was spent… nowhere. When I woke up, it was raining heavily. I had breakfast from the hotel restaurant and then just stayed indoors for much of day, doing some work online. The plan for today was to go to Maeklong ‘Railway’ Market, but it was far out and given the weather conditions, there was no guarantee I would get there in time for me to see the trains pass through.
Today (27th November), the weather only got slightly better.
I had a Magnum for ‘breakfast’
I decided to have an early lunch and walked around the area heading towards Asoke BTS.
I ended up find this spot on Soi 11, choc full of restaurants and a few pubs
I ate at Shalimar Sharma’s (pictured above) simply because I had reached that stage when I missed Indian masala. It had a North Indian thali which cost ฿250. Feeling full, I then began my day by going to Siam Center.
I had seen a huge billboard stating Psy would be appearing on stage here todayEven though I was officially sick of the song, I thought why not just get a glimpse of the guy in person at this press conferenceBeing a work day, there weren’t too many fans either. Mostly press, and tourists.I heard way too much “Gangnam Style” in Thailand. Like, every-freaking-day!“Gangnam Style”-fever reached fever pitch in Thailand, they even made elephants do the dancePsy was finally in the building!Before taking to the stage, Psy left a message for the King of Thailand, who was hospitalizedEven passengers waiting for the train were looking at what was going on
But I was just too damn excited about today. And so, as Azhad headed off to work early in the morning, I too got ready to set out early for the Downtown Dubai site.
I took the metro (from Union Station) to Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall (of course they were going to get their own stop). As soon as I stepped out…
… there it was!
It really is a beauty, unlike the last building that earned the title “tallest building in the world”.
There’s a bit of a walk to be had to get to Dubai Mall (there’s a bus service too but I chose to walk just to see the surroundings)
EMAAR is the company behind the Downtown DubaiOffices, (empty) offices, and more (empty) offices everywhere…Thousands of people like him build that
I got into Dubai Mall through the parking lot — because I couldn’t find any other entrance that side.
Parking capacity: 14,000 cars
I had gotten to Dubai Mall quite early. Most stores hadn’t opened or were just waiting for the first customer to walk in. I was going to check out the mall of course, but first things first. I wanted to buy tickets for the observation deck on Burj Khalifa. The observation deck was closed just a few weeks after it had opened due to some technical snags. It had re-opened only a week before, so I knew there was going to be a mad rush for the tickets.
But finding the ticket counter for At The Top proved a bit difficult (at first). Since there wasn’t anyone at the information desks, I simply followed the signs out to the Burj Khalifa thinking, well, that the counter would be at the ground floor of the Burj Khalifa itself.
What US$1.5 billion gets youThe Address hotelon the leftA panorama comprised of 5 photos
Problem is, when I tried to get to the entrance of the Burj Khalifa, that didn’t seem possible either. Everything was cordoned off due to construction work still going on or was restricted access. I asked around but ended up back inside Dubai Mall.
Once inside, I finally found a security guard and asked him how I could get to the At the Top counter.
I followed his directions and took the lift near the Ermenegildo Zegna store
I was instructed to go to the food court at the ground floor.
The ticket counter only opens at 10am but at 9:45am, a few had already started a queue. I asked if tickets were available for the morning but they said only ‘Immediate Entry’ tickets were available.
You see, they have two types of tickets. The regular admission ticket costs Dhs 100 (Rs. 1200/US$27/€21) but needs to be booked a few hours/days in advance. But if you need to see it “immediately” or (truth be told) just show up at the ticket counter, you have to pay Dhs 400 (Rs. 5,100/US$108/€86) if you wish to go in then itself.
I ended up buying tickets for the 4:00pm slot (they let people in every 30 minutes) and also three tickets for a later date.
And now that I had plenty of time to kill until then, I began checking out the empty mall.
But as I got up to the first floor, I got distracted by the Dubai Aquarium. So I bought the Dhs 50 (Rs. 630/US$13/€10) ticket to see the largest (& probably the only) indoor aquarium in the Middle East. (The Dhs 50 ticket is the aquarium plus the Underwater Zoo. The standalone ticket for the Aquarium is Dhs 25)
This holds the Guinness Record for the ‘World’s Largest Acrylic Panel’There’s over 30,000 species of fish in this tank (or so they claim)
And then you enter the tunnel.
They have a lot of sharks…
… and a few stingrays
You can check out the HD video I took here:
Once you step out the tunnel, the path takes you past souvenirs and a themed restaurant.
… before leading out to the escalator that takes you up to the first floor.
There, you find the entrance to the Underwater Zoo.
OttersWater rats
Dory and Marlin are still friends^, awwwww…
The operations at the back
The aquarium was obviously very popular for school kids.
JellyfishEels
There’s more coming
Here’s a video I took:
From outside the Underwater Zoo
After that, I checked out the rest of the mall.
Pucci: Poor man’s Gucci*
*not really
If there ever was a material used in construction, you’ll find it used for Dubai Mall
It took advantage of these everywhere around the mall
After nearly an hour of window shopping, I decided to have lunch at the food court at the basement, near the At The Top counter.
Lunch was at Fatburger, which I never tried before
The burger was okay, nothing exceptional. Of course, I only had the regular beef burger. (Not really ‘Fat’, just regular)
After lunch, it was back to roaming around a bit more. This time I explored the Gold Souk.
As the name suggests, this is the section of the mall dedicated to just gold stores and other pricey items.
It was also the quietest part of the mall.
Given the high price of gold now and the fact that there wasn’t a whole lot of folks shopping anyway, it wasn’t surprising to see very few customers walk through these corridors.
And with that, I was out.
I also walked past the only Olympic-sized Ice Rink in the Middle East.
It was 3:30pm by this time, so I decided to make my way back to the lower basement.
I waited near the At The Top counter for my turn to get in
The At The Top gift shop
(This is just part 1 of what I saw today, part 2 is when I went up to the Burj Khalifa observation desk)
