Burj Khalifa… Tallest building of the world, One of the iconic places in Dubai

Once you arrive in Dubai, the number of tall buildings will impress you. As you move across the city you see different areas where Skyscrapers are found, for example you have Sheikh Zayed road where you will find many of this Skyscrapers like the Gevora Hotel (Tallest hotel in the world), Dubai Marina were the Marina 101 is located at a height of 425 meters is the second tallest building in Dubai, and Downtown Dubai where the Burj Khalifa is located standing at more than 800 meters high (half a mile!!!)

It is so tall that you can see the building from a great distance

There is no formal definition on a Skyscraper but if we use the reference of 150 meters, Dubai has close to 75 buildings higher than these. The cool thing is that every building has it’s own persona there are no 2 Skyscraper alike making it a great activity on looking for details unique to each building.

A sample of the many tall buildings you will find in Dubai

It took 6 years to get the project completed from 2004 to 2010, at a cost of $1.5 billion dollar one of the most expensive projects in the UAE, it is located next to the Dubai Mall (biggest shopping mall in the world) in Downtown Dubai. You can see the building from many places within the city, is impressive the size versus all other structures. When you look it in a close up it seems that the top floors are fake (like Disney use in the parks to create special effect), but in fact they are real, the Burj Khalifa has 163 floors combined into offices, residential, retail, and entertainment. The 828 meters height is 20% more than the Merdeka 118, second tallest building in the world located in Kuala Lumpur.

Look at night, it is impressive, display on the building is spectacular

The design is derived from Islamic architecture and presented multiple challenges from building efficiently and economically, understanding the winds, elevator systems, electrical and water services. Design challenges were not the only thing that they needed to overcome, there was some financial troubles and with support from the ruler of Abu Dhabi the government lent billions of dollars to continue the project.

A little bit of the timeline to get the building done

You can enjoy by going to the Dubai Mall and get a close up look of the building while the Dubai Fountains play their show, or can have the experience to go at the top of the Burj Khalifa. For this you can go to their webpage and get ta ticket for specific hour, best times are at sunrise and sunset (tickets are more expensive). One interesting fact is that at the top of the Burj Khalifa you see the sun 2-3 more minutes than being on the ground floor (impressive) .

Some of the views at top of the Burj Khalifa

One of the must places to go in Dubai, the Burj Khalifa is an important engineering and architecture masterpiece not only for Dubai but for the world. If you are in Dubai do not miss it. This is all for now, if you just read the post please forward to a friend and sign in to receive our updates; also follow us on Instagram, or Facebook look for #BORICUASLIVINGABROAD . Until next time….

Visit to Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque… Impressive architecture

As part of our year end holiday, we decided to spend a couple of days in Abu Dhabi and get to know more of the Emirate. One of the must places to got is the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque completed in 2007. In Dubai we went to the Jumeirah mosque it is much smaller but you have the opportunity of a tour so you can learn a little bit of Islam, it is a must go in Dubai and will share a post later so you have the details.

You can see the details on the walls and domes… It is incredible the craftmanship

It is an impressive landmark and you can see it from very far due to it’s size. You need to register to get a ticket for access, it is very simple and you do it online ( https://visit.szgmc.gov.ae/). Once you get the confirmation you will receive a QR code that you can use at the entrance and in different points during the visit to track your journey.

From the road, look a the size from the distance

Construction started in 1996 and was finished in 2007, took more than 10 years to get all the details in place. It is the largest mosque in UAE and the 3rd largest in the world, it can accommodate more that 40,000 visitors . It has an Arabic appearance but has collaboration from many countries including Italy, Germany, Iran, United Kingdom, China. As I shared previously UAE is the capital of world records and in the Mosque you will see the biggest hand-knotted carpet done by more than 1,200 Iranian crafters.100,000 tonnes of marble imported from Greece and Macedonia.

A closer look on the carpet, imagine is one piece

Some of the details you will find is the use of thousands semi precious stones embedded into the marble, huge Chandeliers with thousand Swarovski crystals. The Mosque has 82 domes, the largest located in the center of the prayer room.

You can see more of the details inside the mosque, very delicate work

It takes close to 45 minute to walk and see the mosque, with clearly defined areas so you can take pictures. The visit we had was more focus on walking and enjoying the architecture of the building. There was no additional information around Islam, that’s why having the experience on the Jumeirah mosque in Dubai is a great compliment because you will get a high level of understanding of Islam faith.

One of the must places to go in Abu Dhabi, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is a unique place to see. I hope this post provide you with the opportunity to live a little bit the experience. For now if you just read my post, forward to a friend and sign in to receive our updates; also follow us on Instagram, or Facebook look for #BORICUASLIVINGABROAD . Until next time….

On the path to “normal” … Change of Scenery, Day 1 at Dubai

This pandemic has changed a lot the way we work, vacation, or how we do daily life. When I started writing the blog the idea was to on a monthly basis share some experiences of the many great things Mexico has to offer to the people, it changed drastically since March 2020 when COVID took the world by storm.

Trip back to Puerto Rico after more than 2 years, before I go to Dubai!!!

Vaccination is underway but still we have very low levels of vaccinated people in places where the availability is high and even lower in places where is limited supply. If we want to be back to “normal” and enjoy our life and travel, this need to be priority number one…. So, go now and get vaccinated. We already did.

Happy to get vaccinated… easy and safe… Thanks CVS

Getting back to 2021. Change has come in other forms, after close to 10 years of working for Latin America now I have taken a Global role in the company. This is a great opportunity to continue learning around new cultures and places, you cannot imagine the great people we have across the world. With the new role, a new opportunity of collaborating from a different part of the world has arrived…. Will be working on a special assignment for 6 months based out of UAE in Dubai!!!!

Very excited to not only get to work in the AMEA region, but also to get a first person view of what this great place looks. If you have seen images, it looks unreal…. Biggest building, deepest pool, longest …., etc. etc.

Great Exprience traveling in the Q-Suite from Qatar Airways

I am sharing some of the first pics since my arrival to Dubai, very impressive initial sights. Will continue sharing some insights as I settled and my assignment permits.

As you know the idea of the blog is to share a little bit of how we see Mexico, but now will be shifting to Dubai as I will live for 6 months there. I know you will still enjoy. If you just read it forward to your friends and sign in to receive our updates about how Dubai looks and can be enjoyed. Follow us on Instagram, or Facebook look for #BORICUASLIVINGABROAD . Until next time….