Saturday, June 24, 2017

Back at the Burj




PCasa GT, Burj Al Arab




In the time my husband and I have been together, we have moved to eight countries in four continents and now, after almost four years in Singapore, we are moving once again.  This time, it's back to a place we lived for two years and a half in the early 2000s when our son was a few months old.
Dubai was already a bustling desert city then with the Burj Al Arab as its' iconic super structure.  Today, numerous skyscrapers dot the skyline with the world's tallest building (the Burj Khalifa at 828 m), the world's tallest hotel (the JW Marriott Marquis at 355m) and the world's tallest residential building (the Princess Tower at 413m) all located in Dubai.  After several despedidas (farewell parties) and tearful goodbyes, we left Singapore yesterday and are now in our new home in Dubai.




What better way to spend our first day back than to go back to the year-old Burj Al Arab Terrace - a 10,000 square meter structure painstakingly built in Finland and shipped to Dubai in its' entirety to create a stunning restaurant, pool, beach and cabaƱa space abutting the hotel with uninterrupted views of the Arabian Gulf.
We began with lunch at Scape with it's seafood-centric California fusion menu - a perfect on this sunny 39C day.  From the Crudo bar, we ordered two raw dishes: the Hamachi crudo with Ponzu, pistachio, olives and capers and the Corvina carpaccio with scallion, nori, ginger and truffle yuzu which we had with some salads; arugula, quinoa, pumpkin seed, Feta salad and the endive, grape, Gorgonzola, pecan as our starters.  We then shared the wild mushroom pizza with goat's cheese and the Baja style tacos.  After our light and mostly cold lunch, we headed out to some sun loungers on the beach and enjoyed the cool saltwater infinity pool where I finally took the chance to take it easy and just relax after the hectic months of packing and moving.  It was warm but not unbearable and armed with 50 SPF Sun Bum,  my new Armani sunnies (which I got online from Smart Buy Glasses), and a stack of magazines, I happily spent the afternoon sitting in the shade catching up on my reading and just taking in the view. And what a view it was!  Happy to be home at last.

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The Terrace at the Burj Al Arab

Scape at the Burj Al Arab

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