April 2 (Monday)
Camel statue in front of our hotel
After eating breakfast in our luxurious hotel we went to see the tallest building in the world, Burj al Khalifa. I also got tickets a few weeks before the trip since they are cheaper that way. One annoying thing was that our cab driver didn’t know where to drop us off. You would think that Burj al Khalifa is a very popular spot for tourists and every cabbie would know the drop off points like the back of their hand… Never mind though. We managed to find the right entry (through the mall) pretty quickly.
Burj al Khalifa
Our reservations were to be on top at 10am, but we ended up there at 11am. The crowds were huge and the lines to get on the elevator very long, however, not too boring. The Arabs kept us entertained by numerous displays comparing Khalifa to other tall buildings in the world, as well as little tidbits about the process of construction and the actual building stats.
The elevator ride was crazy fast and we were finally on top of the highest man-made structure, at 2722 ft (830m) high. The horizon was very hazy again, either to the surrounding sand in the air or to smog. We still enjoyed looking at the surrounding buildings though.
view of the buildings from the top of Burj al Khalifa
view of our hotel, Jumeirah Towers, from the top of Burh al Khalifa
view of Burj al Arab we splurged at last night
picture of a poster of Burj al Khalifa at New Year’s Eve. Now that would be something to see!
Before we went back to the hotel we decided to see the biggest mall in the world (can you see the trend here yet? Most luxurious hotel, tallest building, biggest mall, highest mountain…), situated right outside Burj al Khalifa (the entrance to Khalifa is from within the mall). I imagined that the mall would be very different from the ones in the States but it turned out to be almost exactly the same!! Except that it went on and on and on… And then when we tried to leave, there were more stores outside the mall!! Like a huge mall within an even bigger one!
this incredible fountain is inside of the mall, not too far from the entrance to Burj al Khalifa
We went back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and *tried* to get to the airport. I say ‘tried’ because our cab driver was again confused!! (And it was a different guy too). He kept asking which airport we wanted to go to, and he just couldn’t understand that there is only one! I guess he meant which terminal, but how in the world were we supposed to know which terminal our plane leaves from??!!! Again, for a touristy place like Dubai, you would think the taxi drivers would know the airport pretty well…
We finally got to Kathmandu where we went through customs very efficiently. However, we got royally ripped off when it was time to tip the Nepali boys for carrying our bags to the van (Alpine Ascents, the outfitter we went with on this trip), and they literally grabbed $25 from my husband’s hands… Welcome to Nepal… LOL :). Hopefully tomorrow will bring a better day!
Gosia Treks 
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