Dubai

I had lunch today at the Mall of the Emirates. As Malls go, it's fairly large. Not quite as ginormous as the Dubai Mall, but still bigger than what you would consider a huge Mall by American standards. One thing that the Malls in Dubai all have is every type of food outlet you can imagine ranging from typical fast food all the way up to fine dining. Probably at least 50 choices in Mall of the Emirates, maybe 200 in the Dubai Mall. The Dubai Mall actually has two food courts and they are so far apart that you can eat at one and by the time you walk to the other, you're hungry again.

I decided on the Cheesecake Factory for my lunch. It was by far the biggest Cheesecake Factory I have ever been in. All done in Marble and gold. It's so big that there is perspective in it. The people at the other end look small (you can get this effect in Asia in a much smaller restaurant). Now outside the mall, it is blistering hot because this is the edge of t he Arabian desert after all. Inside though is comfortably air conditioned. But there are windows in the Cheesecake Factory that look inward on another part of the Mall that is way beyond air conditioned, it is frigid. That is because you are looking into "Ski Dubai", the worlds largest indoor snow skiing slope. It also has sledding and toboggan runs and other frozen delights. But what I find the weirdest thing is that nobody seems the think this is weird at all.

Ski Dubai, complete with chairlift, toboggan run and other snowy activities: