::ThoughtFarm::

Dubai offers a kaleidoscope of attractions for visitors. In a single day, the tourist can experience everything from rugged mountains and awe-inspiring sand dunes to sandy beaches and lush green parks, from dusty villages to luxurious residential districts and from ancient houses with wind towers to ultra- modern shopping malls. But what stands apart in this range of attractions is Skiing.

I mean this has to be most captivating contrast of all the attractions of Dubai. Ski Dubai is the world’s largest indoor ski slope, measuring 400 meters and using 6000 tons of snow covering 22,500m² which is equivalent to 3 football fields. It is located right in center of a famous mall in Dubai, the Emirates Mall.

We ( Me, mom , tushar and deepti bhabhi) went there on Friday which happens to be a holiday in dubai and had to wait in line for about half an hour just to get the tickets which costs about 120 dirham per person. They provide all winter clothing like gloves, shoes, Ski-cheaters and even snowboard equipment. There is also a professional Snow School where instructors guide through the simple, fun process of learning to ski or snowboard. But since those were full fledged classes of about 2-3 hours each, we decided to chuck it and went straight in the snow park.

Ski Dubai features a revolving ski slope, an artificial mountain range, an ice bridge, a cable lift, a snow maze, an ice slide, polar bears cold water-aquaria and special sound and light effects. And as usual with all Dubai attractions, there is a themed shopping retail outlet inside called St Moritz Café. (These guys have an entire economy that’s dependent on shopping).

The sight of foreigners going up the slope in the cable lift to ski down the slope is reminiscent of the Alps that we see on ESPN or Discovery. But since that requires prior skiing skills, I had to be satisfied with clicking snaps of those firangs. Though there were small slopes where we did snow skating.

Inside there are very beautiful snow statues in the snow park which also double up as good photogenic places (check out the snaps below). Also inside the snow park, there was a small room, where small kids were watching the movie “Ice Age II” on a projector screen.

If there is such a thing as an international shopping Mecca, it is in Dubai. Since 1996 the Emirate of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates has held the annual two-month-long event. The festival annually draws about three million people to Dubai to shop…

As part of a larger approach to developing the city as the tourist capital of the Middle East, Dubai is trying hard to rival Hong Kong and Singapore as a shop-till-you-drop destination. They’ve made shopping largely tax free and allowed merchants to import products from other countries with very few duties or tariffs. The result is that everything from gold chains to IPods, Gucci purses to Persian rugs can be found in the malls of Dubai.
The city has at least 25 malls and then there are the ‘souqs’, the tradition open air markets around the city. The event was spiced up this year with “international theatre and street performances, fashion shows, nightly fireworks and laser shows, prize draws (this time there were banners of DAMAC offering a private Jet as a bumper raffle ), film festivals, children’s events and handicraft shows.”

1. Ibn Battuta Mall
It is a large shopping mall on the Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai close to Jebel Ali Village. It is named after famous traveler and explorer Ibn Battuta. The mall is split into six main courts; China, India, Persia, Egypt, Tunisia and Andalusia linking shopping and circulation areas. I spent something like 4 hours to just see the mall since shopping was not an option in this mall. My personal favorite were the Egypt and Persian sections of the malls with superb caricature on the walls and ceilings (Check out the snaps below)

2. Mercato Mall
” Mercato” is the Italian word for “market,” and this mall is modeled after the Italian Renaissance. The structural design is intended to create the feel of the Mediterranean. I could see that it was filled with all European tourists which is not surprising given its medieval architecture.

3. Wafi Shopping Mall
The word ‘wafi’ translates from the Arabic as something like “everything you ever wanted”. This mall is as big on entertainment as on shopping. I personally enjoyed the food section of this mall which invariably has the best varieties of food in the city.

4. Lamcy Plaza
Well, honestly speaking, one of the few malls in Dubai that I visited for actual shopping rather than photography. It is home to about 150 stores and offered great discounts during the festival which I utilized the max but which left my brother fretting

5. Global Village
The global village is by far the most exotic attraction of the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF). It’s a wholesome experience for the visitor to enjoy since it brings together diverse customs and cultures from many nations covering a broad spectrum of activities including music, dances, arts and handicrafts, theatre, costumes and cuisine of different countries.
It has big pavilions of different countries and inside these one can get art crafts, garments and other country-specific items including cuisines. I even enjoyed a nice thrill ride here. However the sheer magnitude of the village makes it next to impossible to cover it in a day.