Burj Al Arab

Burj in Arabic means tower, therefore the hotel’s name is the Arab Tower. We made reservations at the Skyview Bar for Friday the 8^th at 7 PM. Earlier that day we went to the mall so I could find a dress to wear and so Derek could find a shirt. After the mall we came back and ate dinner and got ready to go. A taxi picked us up at 6:30 and we headed to the hotel. About 15 minslater we arrive at the hotel. You have to have a reservation to even drive up to the hotel (they have a security guard and a list at the gated front entrance). You walk into the front lobby where everyone you walk by greets you- “Hi Sir/Madam, have a good evening.” There is some open space in front of a collection of water fountains. On either side are fish tanks the size of walls. An escalator takes you up to the second floor where there are elevators to the guest floors and the restaurant floors. The Skyview Bar is on the 27^th (top) floor of the hotel. We arrived just as the sun was setting, which made for a great view of the ocean. The express elevator to the bar was incredibly fast. It took less than 30 seconds to climb 27 floors!

Window seats were available first come first serve. We were among the first people to arrive at the bar that opened at 7 PM and were lucky enough to receive a window table. From the windows you could out for miles of the gulf. To the left was the Palm Jumeirah. It was really cool and totally looked like a palm tree! We were shown to our table and then were handed menus that I swear weighted 10lbs! They of course carry a large variety of drinks and offer a mixologist that will make a special drink to specific to your tastes. Since we were celebrating being in Dubai, Derek and I each started out with a glass of champagne. Of course it was delicious. During our first drink a waiter came by and gave us a complimentary sample of “snacks”. There were mini chicken burgers, mushroom tarts (they looked like keishes), and a humus type dip. For our next drink, I order a peach Bellini and Derek had a King Fisher beer. His drink contained rum, whisky, something fruity, and for an extra kick, some curry. Both once again were very good.

The next thing the waiter brought to us was a mixture of nuts. They used a 4-tier display type dish where each tier was something different. The top one was a water chestnut cracker type thing that had a spicy flavor. The next two tiers had cashews and the bottom tier had glazed roasted almonds. For our next round of drinks I ordered a glass of red wine called Billie Billie Shiraz and Derek had a King Fisher beer. We were going to go home after this but decided we’ll probably only do this once in our life we might as well stay for a little longer. The wine I had was so fantastic I just had to have another glass and Derek ordered another beer, but this time it was a German beer called Erdinger.

Next we headed home. The hotel has taxi’s that are available for all of their guests and diners. So we took a taxi home. This was no ordinary taxi- it was a Lexus! What I found most interesting was that the fair was very similar if not exact to that of a regular taxi. Our ride there cost 40 Dhs and the ride back in the awesome Lexus taxi was 50 Dhs (Derek told him the wrong exit for our apartment so we were driving a few minutes extra!) After drinks we came home and changed to go out with some people from work.