The Only 7 Star Hotel in the World

from afar, across the jumeirah beach, you'll see a dhow, or an arabian vessel seemed to be docking in at the beach. it seemed to have blue sails, and stood very tall.

it's actually the only 7 star hotel in the world, dubbed the most luxurious, and one of the tallest buildings used exclusively as a hotel, built to look like the sail of a boat.

the burj al-arab.

me & azot in front of the burj

opened in 1999, you can stay at the 'cheapest' room for 2k dollars per night. a rolls royce picks you up, driven by your own chauffeur, then a private reception desk on every floor and a troupe of highly trained butlers who provide around-the-clock attention - truly an exclusive expensive experience!

yah, it's so exclusive that, noone can simply walk in if you don't have reservations to stay as guests or to dine at its posh 'under the sea' and 'high up in the sky' restaurants. believe me, this is as far as we can get to the awesome hotel!

but you can't go to dubai without 'visiting' this hotel. setakat sampai depan ni pun jadilah!


the hotel is built on a small man-made island, and connected to the mainland by a private curve road - only accessible to guests. so kalo nak saje-saje amik gamba kat lobby dia, sorry ye encik.

at night, the burj has external lighting schemes that is visible on the white area of the building. from white light to a multicolored one, it changes from one to another every 30 minutes. everytime we pass by, khaleef enjoyed naming the colors - coz it's different everytime!

it can be yellow and purple, or entirely blue. or entirely white! or green and orange!

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yesterday we went to 'souk madinat jumeirah', a gorgeous looking mall that was built to resemble the buildings of the old classic bastakiya - with brown color and wind towers.


it tries to re-create the ambiance of old middle eastern market place, with narrow lanes, arabic awning and high ceiling. the items are so mahal to me, so to me it's just an eye-candy place to take pictures! hihi.


the souk madinat jumeirah stays true to the mid east marketplace ambiance that it feels just like you're transported in the disney animation, aladdin!

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here's us with against the burj al-arab

it has many waterfront cafes and restaurant, which includes the meat & co, where i had my birthday dinner.

it also has one of the best views of the burj al-arab, and patrons can dine, or lunch and munch while admiring the pretty sight of the blue-white dhow-like hotel.

visit the souk, if only for the ambiance, and you can bask in the glory of dubai past-architecture while being able to view the burj al-arab from a nice distance.

Around D World in 4 Hours : Dubai Global Village

with winter in dubai, comes the cool breeze and pakistani workers lepak in the middle of the road divider. winter also marks the opening of a big huge year-long-awaited shopping extravaganza ala pesta pulau pinang - the dubai global village.

long awaited, as it only opens from dec to feb each year. it's a fantastic idea that combines cultures, people, food and unique items from so many countries - from rwanda to indonesia, morroco to egypt. this posting will be dominated by pictures, so if you wanna read more on what dubai global village entails, read my first experience here.


ok kalo malas nak click link posting lama tu, basically i wrote in my old posting what dubai global village is essentially about -

"imagine all the souvenir bazaars you could ever look for every time you travel to these countries? now imagine all those bazaars put in one single place. that's Dubai Global Village."

below are shots of my sisters in front of many, many country pavilions. walking into each one offers unique sights of their clothings, food item and many more. some even have culture shows at the side.

clockwise from far left : kuwait, lebanon, egypt, yemen, palestine, syria and philippines.

if you're a human being secretly wishing you're a bee, or err...if you simply like honey - then the yemen pavilion is the place to be. yemen is known as the land of honey, where the best ones in the world are produced. read about my previous honey experience at the dubai global village here.

at the yemen pavilion : spices, sweet yemeni honey and the traditional jambiya, weapon-turned-acessories

for interesting ornaments that range from cat mummy to the sphinx, egypt has it all. you can even get gorgeous quranic wall-frame, as well as colorful jubah. we also bought this wonderfully yummy assortment of almonds, hazelnuts and all kinds of nuts coated in honey and sesame-seed - deliciously sweet!

at the egypt pavilion : sweet kacang-kacang, sand art, little pyramid and sphinx ornaments and quranic ayat on hard frames

personally i love the african pavilion. they have the most interesting display of items on sale, like a wooden bowl with carved animals around it, and spoons with handles in the shape of giraffe or zebra.

they have funny-carved chairs in the shape of human head for the backrest, that when you put them side by side, they look like they're having a conversation. creepy. but eye-catching.

clockwise from far left : turkey, thailand, africa, nepal, senegal, sudan and rwanda

syida wanted to look for turkish delights, sweets that look like marshmallows with pistachio bits inside. it tastes as yummy as it looks, squishy and chewy.

at the turkey pavilion : the lights, turkish baked potatoes, and syida and azi picking up some turkish delights

we were also looking at the awesome colorful wall and table lights and vowed that before we return to malaysia for good, we're definitely gonna get one of those ceiling turkish lights for our malaysia home. they're gorgeous! and surely a great conversation opener - "well you might think that we got this on our trip to turkey but..."

pashmina shopping

bargaining is a must when at dubai global village because something that costs RM250 can go down to RM150 if you play your cards right.

at the indonesia pavilion

indonesia pavilion was a quiet one, with only one stall open inside but has one of the most craved food item for mr. khairul - the indon bakso.

he ordered one, and had it right there and then at the tables and chairs inside the pavilion. we spoke malay with the salesperson, and it was a nice touch to our international experience here at the dubai global village.

i myself left with a handfull of keropok ikan, keropok udang, keropok palembang and sweet indofood kicap. yah, i'm a keropok freak!

clockwise from far left : bahrain, pakistan, vietnam, morocco, china and jordan

so now do you understand why going to dubai global village is like going around the world in mere hours? mr. khairul and i took syida and azi practically to no less than 20 countries! haha.

unfortunately, while countries like yemen and egypt have amazing items on sale that speaks volume of their countries' culture and identity, our very own malaysian pavilion has very little uniqueness to offer.

so sad yet true. i mean, we can have something as simple as tikar mengkuang or tudung saji on sale. (i wanted to say batik first, but then we might have to fight for the right to sell with the indons hihi) or we could have sold keropok lekor. or durian! throngs of people would be walking in, hypnotized by the strong pungent smell of the king of fruit that beckons them!

hey, the twin towers are in dubai!

i mean, who is the person in charge of this 'malaysia' pavilion, really? can't they rake in a couple of companies or persons from malaysia to sell our unique items to the dubains and the expats who come here?

what's more sad - we shared the pavilion with singapore! with malay, chinese, indian, iban, kadazan, portugese and baba nyonya cultures that we have, we certainly have A LOT of unique items to offer, amazing cultures to show and wonderful food to be savored - we can have pavilions twice the size of saudi's just to put our stuff. and yet, and yet...

when i walk in, i ask myself as a foreign person - "so, this is malaysia. hmm. what are they selling? is this what malaysia is all about?" and what did i see is on sale? pajamas. pashminas that looked like the one in the pakistan pavilion. the only thing malaysian was this stall that was doing a cooking demo - selling cookery that are "made in malaysia". tu je. sedih.

nanti tourists and local pun ingat, "ini ke malaysia? boringnye. jom blah gi pavilion lain."


the boys were simply angels -because they slept the whole way through, especially khaleef who slept in the car on the way, and woke up only when we're at the car park about to leave! as far as he knew, he had never been to dubai global village that day!

if you notice the picture above, azi was posing in front of rows of 'trailers' that were actually toilets. they were fairly clean and well-kept, and if you want an extra sanitized toilet, you can go to the paid-toilet - for RM5 per-entry.

wow. golden toilet bowl?

me, azi & syida @ the mock eiffel tower

owh, this is a special picture dedicated to abah. hihi. abah just came back from a european tour with umi - visiting london and switzerland among others, as well as paris.

well, kita pun gi paris ari tu, abah. haha. ni gamba kitorang kat eiffel tower. enjoy! and thanks to mr. khairul for bringing my sisters around the world - in 4 hours!

Liyari, Central Perk then Atlantis

i took my sisters to get the best briyani in dubai, then to the 'friendliest' cafe in the world, and then to the awesome hotel built on the biggest man-made island.

we went to liyari briyani in naif, then to central perk of jumeirah, and finally to atlantis on the palm jumeirah island.


we took this shot right in front of the restaurant, where the singles mingle. family will be ushered to eat upstairs, passing by the mouth-watering smell of grilled chicken, up a darken stone staircase, and out into another makan section for families.

i don't agree that liyari has the best briyani in dubai, but so it says in many, many, MANY travel-blog! read about my first liyari experience here.


azi and syida shared a plate, and enjoyed every ounce of the smooth-bead rice cooked literally along with curry-like chicken.

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stop for advertisement. melbourne, australia. another great holiday destination (ceh ceh. mentang-mentang abah, me & syida melb grad)

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after the incredibly filling meal at liyari, we took the girls around naif and karama for a little pashmina and scarf shopping, as well as some souvenirs for those mama wombats back home. naif souq (market) is a great place to get kain and tudung, as well as the traditional arab wear the black abaya. it's a long stretch of shops much like our jalan tar, but with more diversity.

while jalan tar focuses on kain and tudung, naif souq also has tons of shops selling myriads of stuff from fake channel bags to kids' toys and clothings.

and memang terasa macam ade kat india or pakistan, because everywhere you look - they're either pakistans or indians!

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my sisters are all fans of friends, but syida and i are super f.r.i.e.n.d.s freak. we've got pretty much the entire episodes etched in our heads, along with the minute-est detail of every scene (from what pants was rachel wearing when she got that heart tattoo on her hip, to what's the meaning of joey's "it's a moo point",

and on top of that, eeriely able to know what the gellers or ms buffay is going to say next. (to the point that it even scares mr. khairul! hihi)


so it's only like, a MUST - that i bring my fellow f.r.i.e.n.d.s maniac to the show's namesake cafe, central perk. there are 3 known central perk location to me - one in mirdiff (read about my first manic central perk experience here), one in dubai marina (which i have yet to visit) and another in jumeirah.

we went to the one in jumeirah, a little cafe in one of the shop lots there. just look for jumeirah's spinneys and you're on the right track.


well, let the pictures speak for itself. syida the friends freakazoid. enjoying the setting of one of the best shows on earth!


azi is not as cuckoo about f.r.i.e.n.d.s, but she likes the gellers, bing, green, tribianni and buffay just as well.


so the girls got themselves a couple of central perk caps for their significant other. aww. and syida got her dream central perk mug! too bad they're not the big fat coffee cups that the friends use in the show.

we just had cups of hot choc and coffee for mr. khairul as we're still full from liyari briyani - but we went back that day happy that us sisters got to lepak together at central perk, 'where friends meet'.

*smile*

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the night is young, and the girls ain't tired yet, so mr.khairul drove us on top of the palm jumeirah island - the biggest man-made island in the world - shaped like a palm tree. click here to read more about my experience at the amazing atlantis hotel and this extraordinary defyiance to orthodox architecture and engineering - the palm jumeirah island.


the atlantis had been 'home' for the stars of hollywood during its big-bash party opening which was dubbed the 'last party of the millenium' sebab lepas ni takde sapa ade duit nak buat party yang huge scale macam tu!

paklah and wife also stayed at its best presidential suit, siap atlantis put up our pride jalur gemilang at its laman, as a mark of respect for the visit of our prime minister and to honor their stay at atlantis hotel.


the girls take time to appreciate the wonders of the ocean at one of its many 'aquarium windows'. khaleef had been here so many times, yet he still was amazed by the myriads of sea-creatures behind those glasses.

read about khaleef's and also kahfi's first visit to atlantis here.


usually there would be a long line, or a huge bunch of people around this atlantis 'throne' waiting to sit on it and take pictures. fortunately there was only this one couple taking picture when we were there with the girls, so we took no chance for others to realize the lack of crowd too - so we rushed in!

queen syida and azot, on a throne of king tritons, ruler of the mer people (ok, that's a line from the little mermaid) - oh, well. great food, great company, great ambiance - i'm sure they feel like queens of the world!

3 Sis @ Mall of The Emirates

what's a holiday without some serious shopping?

the mall of the emirates was the biggest mall in the world - before dubai mall opened its doors and took the title. big or not, this was the day they receive two extra guests from malaysia.

we took a cab there, and planned that mr. khairul would pick us up after work. we paid 25dhs, which was more than i expected. oh, well. takpe la nak bawak adik-adik. hihi. but i didn't tip the cab driver because he didn't even have the courtesy to help fold the stroller and put it in the trunk!

3 lovely ladies and a kid boarding his cab, and he didn't even help! huh!


we stopped right by kempinski, and walked right into mall of the emirates, and straight away saw ski dubai, one of the 'hottest' cool attractions in dubai.

it's the biggest indoor ski resort in the world. it probably makes up to the huge size of the mall itself - the size of 3 football fields to be exact - every inch covered in real snow. we went inside, up to the actual entrance, and visited the gift shop. the girls bought some magnets for the other wombats back home. haha tak surprise dah!

personally i think the ticket and warm suit rental are too expensive, but if you're interested, click here for the official website of ski dubai.

khaleef found this smashing hat. looks good on him. hihi.

jalan-jalan.

basically we're easy shoppers. we don't go to one shop, don't buy anything, repeat the cycle in 10 other stores, and decide we wanna buy something in the very first store we went to, and hafta go back.

we see something nice, we buy. if we don't, we go looking for nice stuff at other stores. and buy those.

azi & khaleef striking a pose at the mock-up of a bus in dubai

what else to report on? girls out shopping? went in, went out. see see, look look. window shop, buy. buy, window shop. sit down, rest, lunch.


khaleef had 4 and a half doughnuts throughout the time we were there.

1. one from dunkin donuts, courtesy of aunty da - a super pink raspberry doughnut, super-sweet lookin piece with blue icing lined across.
2. another one is from krispy kreme - a sugar laced round doughnut with strawberry filling.
3. and two and a half more are big christmas-special doughnuts - snowman and chocoman - doughnuts in the shape of snowman - one with choc icing, and another with white - hence the name.

man, he's got a sweet tooth!


this is my shmiley kahfi. still itching to get out of his prison stroller but we've yet to get him decent shoes. yes, he lost one of his nike sneakers - that little cute brown ones he wore on hari raya.

i remember khaleef's first ever shoes - we simply bought a pair at the pasar malam - a blue spidey pair of slippers - the one with the annoying high-pitched squishy sound whenever the wearer take steps.

now i wish dubai has a pasar malam so i can get a spidey pair for kahfi too...


oh, it's getting late and the boys grew tired! we got a trolley from carrefour eventhough we didn't even go inside. we dumped all our hasil shopping inside and let khaleef munch doughnuts and take a rest on it. and then he slept. with the shopping bags as pillows. my poor lil tired khaleef!

kahfi on the other hand, refused to sleep, refused to keep still, and refused to stay in the stroller. we took him out, and sat him on the edge of the trolley. it really is his favorite spot - it gets his eye-view higher, and he's closer to the trolley-pusher so he won't feel that lonely.

budak manja!


by the end of our shopping spree, both boys were out. kahfi slept easily in his stroller, while khaleef was still in la-la land in the stroller, cozyed up among shopping bags.

my sisters the wombats

what better time to catch a snack than when both tiny terrorists were asleep?

i sat at the edge of the table, just watching my sisters chatter non-stop over fries and coke. their giggles, their stupid jokes and serious rantings. i didn't speak, i didn't even bother to understand what they were gossiping about - i was just sitting there, enjoying the moment.

my sisters, with me. in lonely dubai planet. i still couldn't believe it sometimes. sigh, thanks abah. for bringing them here.

i hate it when this ends.

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oh heck, happy thoughts, yah! which mall, next?

Wombats Walkin The Walk

the rain has stopped, the sun was shining again and the birds were a-flying. what a great day to have a walk! what's more - it's a cool, breezy day!


'the walk' at dubai marina is a string of cafes, restaurants and boutiques opposite the beach, right underneath the jumeirah beach residences. it's just walking distance from my home so it's about time i took them there.

find out more about 'the walk' here.


we just had lunch (i made nasi minyak hihi) so we were just looking for nice sweeties. the only good ice-cream-- oh, gelato place i know in the place is 'the cone street' gelato so we went there to have some scoops. read about my review of the place here.

yum. khaleef picked a weird bubblegum flavor. and the last time we ate ice-cream, i think he chose the mint flavor. well, well. unlike me - he's adventurous when it comes to food!


khaleef thoroughly enjoyed his ice-cream, while kahfi was stucked in his stroller with his milk cracker.


the view from our makan place. the walk, the beach, the sea, and the atlantis, on the biggest man-made island in the world - the palm jumeirah. it's quite a sight!


we went up to the JBR (jumeirah beach residence) courtyard to walk around some more, and yes - take pictures! tons and tons of memories etched on our olympus.

to know more about JBR, read about kahfi's letter to my abah about his first visit to this JBR area here!


jumeirah beach residence - the pride of dubai marina. though sadly, banyak apartment yang kosong!


my sisters getting goofy, cozy and lovey dovey with their nephews. sigh. i'm gonna really hate the coming weekend after this one when they leave...


the walk also housed a host of stalls in its daily evening bazaar, selling all kinds of staff from the boring 'friendship band' (a ah ade orang jual benda ni kat situ!) to pasminas and unique items from their own countries.

kalau jual kain batik kat sini pun jalan ni!

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it was just a simple outing, but the company was the best. we'd probably jog there tomorrow. probably. maybe. haha.