Dubai Marina

I intended to do the JBR walk today but a bit of confusion with the taxi driver took me to the Marina waterfront... not a major problem but since there's no way to walk from the Marina waterfront to JBR (Dubai isn't big on pavements and isn't really the sort of city you can walk around sadly) I spent most of the day exploring the marina and the amazing skyscapers which front the waterfront!

There are pictures of the Leader of Dubai all around Dubai, there's a painting of him in my hotel lobby and I've seen pictures all over places, on posters etc. Thought the fact they plastered his face on a side scraper was really interesting though!

Anyway I ended up finding the Marina Mall. It's one of the smallest mall's in Dubai with only 160 stores - it was nice not getting lost in a shopping centre for once!

It was one of my favourite malls as it felt really spacious, with a good range of shops and I loved how most of the shops had floor-to-ceiling windows - so there was a lovely view out over the marina as you shopped!

They also had a Waitrose there too, just like at Dubai Mall, so I popped in to grab a few things including a 'prickly pear' and some African Avocados!

Dubai Mall

Today I hit the biggest mall in the world. It was massive. 

It was also torture to someone travelling on a budget! But even without being able to splurge on the variety of goods available (although it was pretty hard as we're right in the middle of Dubai's Shopping Festival so everything is slashed) it was really enjoyable with the beautiful surroundings, indoor aquarium and not to mention the amazing Dubai Fountains!

A glimpse of what one section of the mall looked like

The indoor aquarium was stunning, with all sorts of different aquatic creatures swimming arounds

The ceiling above the aquarium was almost as beautiful too!

Opposite the aquarium was a massive sweet shop which sold pretty much every kind of sweet imaginable and had some lovely decorations - including this candy tree!

All 50 flavours of jelly beans

The world's tallest building through the ceiling 

Every so often there would be these dangling butterflies which I loved as they were so pretty!

An indoor olympic sized skating rink! 

One of my favour architectural features!

Lunch was sushi and a pinkberry!

Another interesting feature in the mall was this massive indoor waterfall that spans 3 stories!

As soon as the sun started to dip behind the skyscrapers everyone headed out to the Dubai Fountains as the show starts as soon as the sun sets. 

Even before the shows started the setting was pretty lovely, with everyone gathering along the waters edge. T

The show was amazing. It was very short but it was great! After that I wandered about the mall a little more before heading back to the hotel (catching a taxi was crazy was there was just so many people trying to get one, it was organised though, just a little manic)

Despite being on a budget I did pick up a few bits! :)