Dressed in jackets and geared with two tumblers of hot coffee and hot chocolate, at 9 p.m. we were ready to go to Global Village. (Owen was not joining us, it's his bedtime. We got him some babysitters: his uncle and aunt).
My sister was just gonna drop us and pick us up in about 2 hours.
Claimed to be the world's largest tourism, leisure and entertainment project covering 17,200,000 sq ft (1,600,000 m2), it's a seasonal cultural (and shopping, for sure) destination.
We were in its 18th season, opened on 5th October 2013 and would be closed on 12th April 2014.
Why only 6 months? Because during summer time, no body would go there to fight the heat of an outdoor village. And tonight in the winter, it was windy.
The village opens as early as 4 p.m. and closes around midnight.
With an admission of AED 15 per person, we entered the village and immediately captured by the lively fair. Similar with our own Jakarta Fair, only this sat at international scale. We saw a big lake, surround by kiosks or pavilions representing countries around world were opened in the village, showing and selling their things.
Visitors could ride on abra - a traditional boat made of wood, across the lake to see the pavilions and the park from a different perspective.
The participants:
Afghanistan, Africa, America, Bahrain, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Forsaty, Europe, France, Germany, Tunisia, India, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Khalifa Foundation, KSA, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia & Singapore, Morocco, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Spain, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, Vietnam, Iran and Yemen.
Because its' so big, you might need this
guide and the
pavilion gallery I found on the net.
We should have come here with an empty stomach, because we saw a lot of food. Like, a lot of traditional food waiting to be tested.
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| Yemeni Honey World |
To buy: honey, silver jeweleries, antique jeweleries, stones, spices and nuts.
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| Turkish Lanterns |
To buy: teapots, textiles, jeweleries, lanterns, potteries .. and food (baklava - a rich, sweet pastry made of layers of
filo filled with chopped nuts and sweetened and held together with syrup or honey .. and of course, Turkish Delights!).
I spent some time in a lantern shop.
The biggest pavillion in Global Village, with the most attractive gate.
To buy: textiles, footwear, jeweleries
I saw this across India gate. (Yes, Dubai's very aggressive in re-cycling.)
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| A creative sign from Coca-Cola |
Then, I saw a site where some women were cooking traditional food under the shade. I didn't ask they're from what country.
And .. at this point, the woman in purple stopped whatever she was doing, shot me with her glares that could kill a thousand camels (myself included) and said in a very harsh tone, "Excuse me. No picture!!"
Whoops!
I looked far at the corner there, saw some visitors taking picture with professional cameras, even some were holding video-cameras .. and she didn't even give a slight turn toward them. Seriously, woman? Me and my little smartphone?
Alright. I would walk away from you, but I would still post your picture in my blog. Here. *evil laugh*.
We would not be able to visit all pavilions in the given time, so we just stop here and there, just to get a picture of what they're offering. China Pavilion was typical, Africa Pavilion was .. well, tribal, then we stopped at ..
I was so tempted to order one t-shirt for Mathieu. But there were too many cute design samples, I ended up ordering nothing and watched the artist instead. This guy worked like magic. He painted some t-shirts in literally no time. He made a mistake once, misspelled a name, then he covered it up expertly. And he could draw a perfect circle!
To buy: Thai food, of course!! And massage!
I took a lot of time playing at one kiosk that were selling artificial flowers with lights. Nobody shot me with anything. Yay!
Then after stopping by some other pavilions, we finally reached
Fantasy Island. It was a section for fun and thrill rides. However, there was a freak accident involving a piece of metal falling from a Ferris Wheel and a crushed skull of a local visitor happened in January (this very same year). My sister had warned us not to ride anything, because we couldn't be too sure about the safety of the rides.
So I just watched in awe - while drooling for the adrenaline, especially triggered by these two thrill rides:
2Extreme and
Sky Swing.
Sky Swing is the world's tallest portable swing attraction in Global Village Dubai, this ride offers spectacular views of Global Village’s pavilions and the amazing musical water fountain, all while being suspended 60 meters in the air. Similar with the Wave Slinger at our very own
Dunia Fantasi, only this one was so high, and surely it didn't look that safe. What if one of the suspenders broke .. at that height .. *shudder*.
While 2Extreme is a disorientating 8-seater ride that swings around at speeds of up to 65mph at a maximum height of nearly 40 meters. I watched the riders, 4 of them were local Emiratis, dressed in their long white robes. This ride sent chills down my spine and I believed I dropped my jaw somewhere when I saw the swing went 360 degrees. Crazy. I wanted to try. But I was scared of the warning. Shoot.
After the show's over, we walked into the children's ride and entertainment area. We saw a snow dome, displaying some children and a reindeer. As we approached closely, the children moved! Holysnow!! So that's how it worked. The snow dome was opened for children to go inside and play. Mat wanted to try .. but it was time to go home. His auntie had arrived at the parking lot to pick us up.
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| Snow Dome |
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| They're alive! The children, not the reindeer. |
We really had to say goodnight to the villagers. It was 11 p.m. already and tomorrow we would need to leave early for Abu Dhabi.
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