As today was supposed to be the hottest day for most of our forecasted stay, we wanted to wait until later in the day to go to visit the Dubai Mall and fountain. We got on the red line at around 3:30 PM. There's an enormous amount of walking involved in visiting Dubai Mall. Just getting from the Metro to the inside must be about a two-kilometer hike through an elevated, enclosed. air-conditioned walkway!
We did the sites with a little bit better understanding of the layout. Of course, we'd thought about what to show them first, but found it better to let the sisters explore on their own speed. Jay's elder sister just had a birthday before we left Sri Lanka and will be my elder for just the next four months and then I'll catch up. Jay's younger sister was born in 1964. Both act like the selfie generation with their phones though. In fact, I think Renuka had to pop in a new SD card into her Samsung just for this trip!
We didn't end up paying admission to the aquarium as everyone seemed quite satisfied with the enormous, entire glass wall for free, public viewing. We also found the waterfall wall, and ice-skating rink.
So many people were in the mall! Business is back to normal. When we were here during November and December, things were still a little slow due to COVID. On this trip, we didn't need fresh PCR tests as our completed vaccination certifications were enough to allow us in the country. They have done an excellent job here of dealing with the crisis. The government quickly vaccinated everyone who lives here so the restrictions could be shorter-lived.
We knew by leaving a little late we could see the fountain show. Every hour, starting at 6:00 pm, there is a huge water fountain show choreographed to a song. It is still hard for us to remember that this section of highway to Abu Dhabi was nothing but desert when we worked here during the first half of the 1990s. Nothing. But there we were standing with thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of folks around the 12 hectare (30 acre) manmade Burj Khalifa Lake.
As we were slowly limping back out to the Metro because of so much walking, crowds were still streaming into the mall. The Metro is extremely overcapacity and we were literally cheek to jowl with the passengers coming back after 7:00 PM.
