::: Dubai, Burj Khalifa ::: 2013 Dubai - Thailand Trip (Part 3)

Burj Khalifa or Burj Dubai is the tallest tower in the world (as in 2013). The building is 829.8 meters or 2,722 feet. The construction began in 2004 and finished in 2009. Mohamed Ali Alabbar, chairman of the project's developer estimated the total cost of the project to be about 1.5 billion USD. (credit Wikipedia) :P

It's always a good idea to make a reservation online prior your trip. I'm not sure about other time of the week, but when I was there in January, there were so many people and ticket ran out. We brought tickets online from http://www.burjkhalifa.ae/ . A ticket costs 125 EAD or about 34 USD. The average visit time is 60 minutes. We book tickets for 5 pm so we could get to the top around 5.30 pm which was sun set time that day.

Long line at the ticket office	Here are our tickets :)

After we got in, we still had to wait in another long line. At the entrance, there are displays showing the building's structure and facts.

The building model showing its structure	some facts about the building
Burj Khalifa compared with other tall building	some of them were the tallest building in the past

On the window panel, there are stickers showing other tall buildings in the world  such as Shanghai World Financial Centre, Central Plaza and Petronas Tower. We can see that this is a never-ending competition. One day, your building could be the tallest one, some day you could be an ex champion.

When it was time, we walked through the hall way to the elevator. During this time, they put animation presentations on a wall. The presentations were about the Arab Emirate

Long line at the ticket office

Here are our tickets :)

After the hall way, we were in front of the elevator up to the top of the building.  The elevator can take up to 15 people. The elevator, with the speed 22 mph, is one of the top five fastest elevator of the world. (number one and two are in Taipei101 and Yokohama Landmark Tower http://www.businessinsider.com/the-8-fastest-elevators-in-the-world-2013-1?op=1) The highest level we can go is 124. It took us about a minute to go up to level 124, pretty fast!

In front one of the fastest elevators of the world

Here we are at the top

Even though we plan to be up here at sun set time, unfortunately, there was very thick fog at that evening. We couldn't see much. Dubai is a new city. There were a lot of construction going on at the time. We didn't see much traffic even it was around 6 pm. Dubai City looks very organized from up here.

People from around the world visiting At the Top

View from up here

We spent about 45 minutes up there taking photos and enjoy the scenery. We came back to the ground. Next to the Dubai Mall is Souk AL Bahar. There are restaurants around the mall. We stopped at Zahr El Laymoun  Restaurant to have some grilled Kabab and minted lemonade.

Chicken Kabab

Rose Sharab and minted Kabab

After the meal, we were pretty much done for tonight. I missed the bed... we headed to the hotel... Goodnight Dubai :)