A Day At The Mall

I spent all day yesterday at the Mall of the Emirates. It's the largest shopping mall in the Middle East - the entire thing is 6.5 million square feet.

The most amazing thing about it is Ski Dubai, an indoor ski area. Snow- real, powdery snow and not the artificial stuff- is produced every night. There are parts of the mall where you can look through the glass at the people bundled up and having fun:

I couldn't get a good shot of it from the outside, so here's one from wikipedia:


You can find anything at this mall. There are a lot of "American" stores, plus many that cater to local interests.

I found what could be the GREATEST THING EVER - it was extremely hard to resist buying this... it even came in a tin collector's case:


I had lunch in one of the food courts, which had a lot of American fast food restaurants... with slight changes...


I settled on pizza, which was VERY good. Certainly better than any pizza in Cleveland (but that's not saying much.)


When I saw them giving those packets to everyone, I thought they were cheese or seasoning. They aren't. They're KETCHUP!

The mall also has a gigantic grocery store that was very busy. It had 60 checkout counters, and there was a line at EVERY one of them. I took a few pictures before one of the security guards told me to turn the camera off.




I walked into a Border's book store, and, out of curiosity, looked for the "religion" section. I found one section labeled "Islam", but that was it. So I asked one of the clerks and he said, "Sir, we are not allowed to sell religion books." Wow.

Before leaving the mall, I walked into something called "Magic Planet." I had no idea what it was. It's a massive, two-level entertainment area full of games, rides, restaurants, a bowling alley, a rock wall, and a lot more. It's like Dave and Buster's, but bigger and full of a lot more stuff.






A lot of people were huddled around what looked like an ice cream stand. I started to get in line when I realized it wasn't ice cream. It was....

I had to try it. It was the best damn corn you can imagine! You can get different flavorings- I just got butter and salt- and every kernel was sweet, crisp, and piping hot. Seriously, I am bringing the idea of corn stands to America.

I was about to leave Magic Planet when I noticed a line to go upstairs. It moved pretty slowly, and when I got to to the top I realized why. It was one of those tunnel-type things where you're surrounded by a moving cylinder, so you get really dizzy. Basically, the thing from the "Sasquatch" episode of "The Six Million Dollar Man." Plus, the whole thing glowed in the dark. It was very disorienting, but luckily I didn't spill any corn.