The sun, sea and shopping...

We took a free shuttle service from our hotel to Jumeirah Beach Park the next morning.
This doesn't look like Dubai with all the greenery, no?
The sun was out but the skies were still dusty from the minor sandstorm. Only Zhongx and I took advantage of the waters and had a dip.
We met Evy's friend Jay Shah who ferried some of them to Souk Madinat Jumeirah:
Li-En cracks me up all the time...:
The insides... fake, air-conditioned and expensive souks:
The outsides... fake wind towers which act as lanterns at night:
It was so quiet...:
Another group shot with Jay Shah:
Then we decided to walk towards the Burj Al Arab:
Wild Wadi water themepark (120 AED for the whole day):
HOT!!!!!!!!!!!:
Then it was off to Mall of Emirates a.k.a. M.O.E.:
The Ski Dubai where billions are spent to keep the temperature at -1 to -2 degrees Celcius:
Where the toys in the toy stores are LARGER than life!:
Then we took cab to the Metro for Palm Jumeirah:
Jay Shah's dad used to work with SMRT while they were living in Singapore. They then lived in Delhi where he was also working for the Metro. And now they are here while he works for the Metro in Dubai as the consultant.

Do these look familiar?:
The ride on Palm Jumeirah:
The symbol on the train:
The 'trunk' of the palm has apartment blocks:
The 'fronds' have single unit houses and there are huge villas on every tip:
The Atlantis...:
The water themepark with the rides (the one where you 'dive' into a pool of sharks; entry 200 AED for the whole day):
Inside:
The huge-*ss marine-life aquarium:
Yes, that is a whale shark:
Zhongx:
Wenhui:
Binghui:
Weiqi:
Me:
Me again:
While we seperated so that each group can do whatever we want and to travel around Dubai, Jay Shah drove us (Weiqi, Zhongx and I to Jebel Ali area) since she had time to spare (and we are so grateful!).

Back on the Metro:
The division, the privileged and the not-so-privileged:
Dubai Marina, home to 180 skyscrapers from which a handful are above 100 storeys:
Jebel Ali, the port town, 35 km from Dubai city:
Apart from the Jebel Ali port, there is the Ibn Battuta Mall:
The petite driver and the monster truck:
Ibn Battuta is unique in that the shopping mall is divided into 7 huge malls with Asian themes. This is Chinese obviously:
This is Indian:
This is Persian:
Egyptian:
Tunisian:
And then we went back to our hotel.

Speaking of hotel, lemme show you my humble room:
And the huge-*ss tub!: