Dubai Journal 8 - Ibn Battuta
This is the best looking mall in Dubai, hands down...
Ibn Battuta was a legendary Arab explorer, who now has the dubious honour of having an entire mall in Dubai dedicated to his memory. Perhaps dubious isn't the word, cos throughout the mall are museum pieces and exhibitions covering his travels and discoveries, as well as those of his contemporaries. He alone walked, rode and sailed 120 000km in 29 years. I spent a fascinating 3 hours looking at them all, reading the history, and taking pics (Flickr gallery to follow.) While I was doing this, a couple of educational tours came through - it seems the local colleges send their students to the mall to learn about their history - which should give you an indication of quality of the exhibitions.
Here's an example of one of the hundreds of exhibits dotted throughout the mall - the Islamic Astrolabe:
The mall itself is 1.25km long! (Which means that if you arrange to meet someone there, you'd better specify exactly where - you could face a loooong walk otherwise, lol.) It has 5 "courts", each named after an area the explorer traveled in: Tunisia, Egypt, India, Persia and China. Each court has its own unique decor and they are all exquisite. And there's a Starbucks in every one! Below is the gorgeous Persia court food hall...
This is the Egypt Court:
India Court looks like this:
And then there's China court:
On the way home, I saw a Hummer limousine - what on earth next!
Ibn Battuta was a legendary Arab explorer, who now has the dubious honour of having an entire mall in Dubai dedicated to his memory. Perhaps dubious isn't the word, cos throughout the mall are museum pieces and exhibitions covering his travels and discoveries, as well as those of his contemporaries. He alone walked, rode and sailed 120 000km in 29 years. I spent a fascinating 3 hours looking at them all, reading the history, and taking pics (Flickr gallery to follow.) While I was doing this, a couple of educational tours came through - it seems the local colleges send their students to the mall to learn about their history - which should give you an indication of quality of the exhibitions.
Here's an example of one of the hundreds of exhibits dotted throughout the mall - the Islamic Astrolabe:
The mall itself is 1.25km long! (Which means that if you arrange to meet someone there, you'd better specify exactly where - you could face a loooong walk otherwise, lol.) It has 5 "courts", each named after an area the explorer traveled in: Tunisia, Egypt, India, Persia and China. Each court has its own unique decor and they are all exquisite. And there's a Starbucks in every one! Below is the gorgeous Persia court food hall...
This is the Egypt Court:
India Court looks like this:
And then there's China court:
On the way home, I saw a Hummer limousine - what on earth next!
posted by Zapruder | 18:47
4 Comments:
Dude - you are SCARING me! You sound like tourists who come here and think Montecasino is awesome! Yuk!!!
Yes, I know what you mean, ha ha - it crossed my mind too! Then I realised it's ok, cos this makes Montecasino look just like the pisswilly, culturally bereft, fake little piece of "Tuscany" that it is, lol :)
At least with this one there's actual historical substance and intelligent thought behind it all, so I don't feel QUITE so bad about myself - I think!
Actually, at the cost of sounding really culturally bereft myself, I must tell you that walking around Montecasino, looking at the way it's built, the paving, the detail in the "building doorways" is the one thing that makes me INCREDIBLY homesick and cannot bear to go there unless I am really looking for an evening of tears.
Sabrina
Oh, absolutely - and it's brilliantly done from that point of view. And that's exactly the point - it IS your culture, so it's relevant to you. What I meant is that to duplicate Tuscany in Jhb shows OUR cultural bereftness, not yours :)
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