The day started as easy as it could be. We decided to treat it like an ordinary day. And where did people go on their ordinary days in Dubai, except to offices to work? Schools and Shopping Malls. Of course.
Braden and Alex had a Winter Concert in their school. This was a Christmas concert to open their holiday season. That would be our first destination for the day:
It was a private school which had established as the international school of choice in new Dubai. The campus was built on 350,000 square feet of land and was (is) a home to about 2000 students from more than 55 countries and 80 nationalities. So you could bet we saw flying colors around. And our ears did catch our beloved language in the middle of some conversations (mixed with a very thick, irreplaceable, undeniable Javanese-accent English). *sending love from Indonesia. Don't forget to come home once in a while*
The Primary Students Winter Concert was a success. Well organized, easy to watch and listen to, making the proud parents prouder. Some students did have a quality to become stars one day. I was always fond of any Christmas-themed events, and this was no exception.
After the event, I noticed some parents rode bicycle to home. Aha. We could find bicycles among fancy cars. While police rode Lamborghini in Dubai, it was breezy to see there were people who still carrying an old-school tradition (while the weather permitted it).
After school, where else? Lunch at home and .. as if we hadn't got enough of The Dubai Mall ..
Located inside The Dubai Mall, it was one of the main attractions there besides The Dubai Fountain and At the Top. The aquarium and the tunnel was on the Ground Floor, while the Underwater Zoo on 2nd Floor.
There was an age restriction for children under 3 years old, it's gotta be something to do with the thickness of the acrylic tunnel that could mess up with your eye-sight. I had to let Mathieu went in with his dad, while I stayed outside with Owen.
They bought the Ultimate Aquarium Package that covered ..
The aquarium was claimed as one of the largest suspended aquarium in the world at 51m x 20m x 11m, featuring one of the world's largest viewing panel at 32.8-m wide and 8.3-m high. It had more than 33,000 living animals, representing more than 140 species, including over 400 sharks and rays. Dubai Aquarium had the largest collection of Sand Tiger Sharks in the world.
The tunnel itself was a 48m long with 270-degree acrylic walkthrough.
After getting out at the other side of the tunnel, Mat and Dad went on to enter the zoo. They took a bunch of pictures of otters, piranha, penguins, crocodiles, lionfish (remember those fierce fish in Feeding Frenzy?), seahorses, Arapaima (anybody who doesn't know, this fish is the largest fresh-water fish. Huge! The maximum recorded weight for the species is 200 kg, while the longest recorded length was 4.52 m) and snakes!! (Snakes live on land, on trees, in fresh water, in sea water, on planes .. o, wait no, the last one was just a movie. But it's official we can never run away from them, they are EVERYWHERE! ) and many more aquatic animals in 40 individual aquatic displays.
It's selfie time!
- Aquarium Gift Shop Voucher
We didn't get this voucher, it's subject to availability. No worries, didn't intend to buy anything anyway. Just wanted to take a picture of the shop ..
 |
| Look at that shark head. Impressive, huh? |
Talking about sharks, I was saving these photos for the best of it.
Back in February 2010, the shark-filled aquarium
cracked and leaked that caused evacuation and closure of that part of the mall. Imagine the sharks (the one in the picture above, in particular) escaped and chasing people down the shopping arcade .. *the effect of shark movies overload*.
So .. ordinary day? Not so, apparently.
.. to be continued to Day #6: .. that Ended with an Extra-Ordinary Evening.
0 comments:
Post a Comment