A VIST TO THE TALLEST BUILDING AND LARGEST SHOPPING MALL IN THE WORLD

When I was last here in 2015 I featured the 2717 feet tall Burj Khalifa, the highest in the world, here relative to competitors.

That's because the Saudi Arabia Jeddah Tower had just begun construction, and will become the first 1 KM (3281 feet) building. Both this and the Burj Khalifa were designed by American architect Adrian Smith.

In 2018 construction was halted and the project today has not yet been re-initiated. There remains hope that operation might still occur in 2026.
In 2020 I had another posting, showing that China had most of the really tall buildings. But no more in the future, for they recently banned super-tall buildings. Read this article explaining why.

In the meantime, not to be outdone, Dubai announced their 4300 feet observation Dubai Creek Tower, which began construction in 2016, and is also stalled.

However, there might have been some criticism for not having people live in the structure, so Dubai announced the tallest residential tower of 104 stories. They already have the tallest residential tower, the 101 story Princess Tower at 1358 feet.

On our tour, it looked like Dubai had a lot of air pollution. The guide said no, that is fog. So I checked, and there is significant air pollution, which today is a dangerous 172. Honolulu, for example, is 13. Dubai gets some night fog 50 nights a year, plus there are sandstorms.

So on to our tour today, first, views from various levels of the Burj Khalifa. I won't bother to identify the structures, for I don't remember any details. But the architecture is fascinating, just like Qatar, but a lot more towers.

I sat and had a glass of champagne, then noticed in the background the Museum of the Future, and just adjacent, the Jumeirah Emirates Tower Hotel, where we will next stay.

We stopped at three levels, and each had free drinks and tidbits.

Then onto the largest shopping mall in the world. I rechecked into how many stores were in the Ala Moana Shopping Center, and the answer is 290.

The Ashok Terminal 21 shopping tower next to our hotel in Bangkok has more than 600 shops.
The Dubai Mall has over 1200 stores, known as the largest in the world.
So I checked, and it is the largest in terms of area at 12 million square feet.
The SM Mall of Asia in Manila has 3500+ shops.

In addition to shops, The Dubai Mall has an ice rink, a SEGA game centre, a five-star hotel, 22 cinema theaters, with the largest indoor aquarium in the world and is the gateway to the Burj Khalifa.
Coming soon is Dubai Square, which will be larger.

We then went to the Aquarium.

A very large fish. Note size of the lady.

Saw an Emirates Air A389 simulator, where you could sit in the cockpit to stimulate flight.

All in all, a really tall building, very large mall and okay aquarium. I stood around a lot waiting to enter certain venues, and my hams and lower back muscles today hurt. It took us an hour in line to wait for a taxi to get back to the Le Meridian.

Today, we move on the Jumeirah Emirates Tower Hotel.

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These a...

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Well, the day finally came for us to go to the Osaka Expo. We were told ahead of time that the long walks would be fearful, giant lines will need to be tolerated just to get into the Expo, with those ocean breezes, it would really be cold, and so forth. Maybe it was pure luck, but we avoided all the above warnings We had a grand day, and are looking forward to Sunday, our second day at the Expo. So come along for an enjoyable ride. Our hotel is adjacent to the Tennoji Station, a very large one with several lines. We upgraded our Suica card and caught the Misosuji red line towards Umeda. Transferred to the Chuo green line at the Hommachi Station. This Osaka Metro train took us to the Yumeshima Station at the Expo site. It was a very large mob leaving the train and heading to the entrance. Took only a few minutes to get to the entrance. This mob was multiplied by at least a factor of ten of those already waiting to enter. However...

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO A JAPANESE HIGH TECH TOILET

Did you know that Oktoberfest in Germany is mostly in September? The very first day of Oktoberfest 2021 was supposed to be today, September 18, extending into October 3. Well, as in 2020, Oktoberfest was cancelled. So why is it called by that month when it is held mostly in September? The first celebration in 1810 was in October. Did you also know that Oktoberfest is held only in Munich? These days seven million drink more than a liter ( about three typical cans ) of beer each, costing around $11. Except for my wife and I when we followed the crowd to board the S-Bahn to the fairgrounds near Old Town. It was drizzling a bit. We bought a large pretzel outside of a typical barn where beer is served. We did not know that you needed to get this inside the hall. So no one came to serve us beer. After a while we decided to have lunch, and the restaurant we settled on only served wine. Thus, we might have been the ...

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