I have to admit, now on the road all alone it was a bit sad sitting there, knowing I wouldn't have anyone to share this with immediately.
It was the first time for me to properly travel alone and it was different than I had expected. The hostel wasn't a hostel, the room was empty besides on sleeping guy. I never had this before, anytime I arrived at a foreign place I wanted to get out and explore, see the place and if it was just for a quick wander around.
There was no way around it... I had to get up, have a shower and get out there. At 1 pm the Metro started running again and my first stop was the Burj Khalifa, the highest man-made structure at the moment (828m). I booked the ticket in advance on the net for 3pm. On the way to Al Fahidi Station I noticed the area I had my hostel was buzzing with life and loads of Indian and Pakistani immigrants had their shops around there. I still didnt't quite feel comfortable yet and didn't feel the travel mood coming up.
The Metro system is still small in terms of lines and stations (compared to London or so) but stretches quit a distance and runs overground most of the time. I got a day pass for 3 €.
The Burj Khalifa is directly attached to the biggest mall in the world (Dubai Mall) and the way from the Metro station is elevated, entirely enclosed and (surprise, surprise) air-conditioned. If I had to guess the distance of this glass tunnel I would have said at least a kilometre. This should give me some indication of the size of everything in Dubai. I already knew this from Abu Dhabi but Dubai will take this to a new level. It's nearly impossible to explore the city without a car (unless you want to take one of the BIGBUS city tours - these are quite expensive and with already spending 3 or 4 hours in the mall and on the tower they wouldn't be worth the money. Maybe when you stay a week in Dubai you can do this one of the days).
Anyway, the Burj Khalifa wsa ok, the lift brings you up to the 124th floor (of 160) which is somewhere around 452.... so it's not the highest in the world... But you do still get a good view of the desert and the closer buildings around. It's impressive but not as much as I had thought. Back down again I bought my book "Oman Off Road" which was recommended by Basti (you can go and pick up your copy at my parents place again - Thanks) and wandered around the mall a bit. It's really an impressive building, with and Ice skating rink and even an Aquarium (not something you have at your Chinese restaurant, but pretty much an entire Sea world) in it. The main tank is visible from the outside (for free) and has sharks, stingrays and other fish in it (some of them larger than men). This really was great to see but the rest was pretty much a large mall.
Outside the mall is a large basin where that hosts a fountain water play in the evenings. Guess where this ranks in size on a world list... right the biggest again (apparently up to 150 m). Nice was the newly build but traditional looking bazaar or souk that was surrounded by canals and palm trees. From here I had a good view of the Burj Khalifa and it does look pretty impressive from the outside. After I checked out everything in the mall and had some Iranian food it was time to watch the water plays and since I had a day ticket I felt to take the train a bit further down the coast to Dubai Marina, which is a huge development of luxury apartments and boat docking places. It's probably 3 or 4 km long and flanked with Skyscrapers all built in the last 10 years or so. It was impossible to walk it all so I did a short circuit of it. I also spotted a few Bugatti Veyrons (one the road and another one in the shop), a couple of Ferraris and Maseratis (not many Lamborghinis surprisingly).
After this I headed back to the Apartment and tried to look into booking the bus and accommodation in Oman. That should be my next destination. It wasn't easy to work it out online but finally I found some information about ONTC (Omani National Transport Company) which has buses twice a day to Muscat.
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