On the top of the World !

What is it that wants man to soar over all ?

To be in the top of the worlds tallest building and look down at Terra firma is almost philosophical ,it makes your worries vanish without trace !

Me with my son and daughter did just that last week .

I had seen the Burj Dubai coming up over the years whenever I drove to Dubai its pencil like spire growing taller and taller lost in the hazy horizon of the Manhattan like skyline of modern Dubai .

And one fine day it was complete and opened with a bang with a new name the Burj Khalifa .

An architectural marvel it is the tallest man made structure ever built at 2717 feet

( 821 m) ,

construction began in 2004 and it opened in 2010 ,part of the flagship development Downtown Dubai 420 acres big .

The largest mall in the world the Dubai mall ,with the largest book shop in the world the Kinokoniya ,and a huge aquarium spanning two floors ,

The Adress Downtown Hotel facing the Burj itself

( where yours truly had the opportunity to stay for a day in the 64th floor gazing at the Burj coming up ) ,the Dubai fountain ,and a heritage shopping mall .

The total cost of the Burj Khalifa is around 1.5 billion dollars the whole downtown Dubai costing around 20 billion dollars !

An Armani hotel occupies fifteen of the lower 39 floors .

Floors through to 108 floors will have 900 residential apartments which got sold out in eight hours flat !

Rest have corporate offices except the 122 ,123 ,and 124 floors which house the At Mosphere restaurant ,sky lobbies ,indoor and outdoor observation decks ,

It would hold 35000 people at any time and would have 57 elevators and 8 escalators rising at 59feet /second ,

2990 stairs upto 160 th floor ,with state of the art exterior cleaning equipment it would take 36 specialised cleaners 3 to 4 months to clean the outside of the building !

so much for the trivia thanks to Wikepedia

The tickets to the top was 100 dirhams if bought in advance ( at least a day before )

At present no online booking is available and we made a trip to Dubai mall the previous evening to do the booking as immediate booking was a costly 400 Dirhams per head

( as tall as the building )

The entry was from Dubai mall .

One went through a moving platform and reached a small hall with amodel of the tower and touch screen comparisons with other towers .

One has to go through a security check almost similar to an airport check in

( naturally security is important ) and then is ushered into an elevator ,surprisingly small and closed ,unlike the one in Burj Al Arab another tall hotel in Dubai ,which had a glass side and glass floor and one could see the sea on descending .

We zoomed up quite fast and the pressure pooped our ear buds close and the we reached the top .

The view was scintillating

Dubai lay below us in its afternoon summer haze ,we could see the top of the Dubai mall and many high rise buildings in ShiekZayed road far below us .

The toy cars were snaking in the desert mirage

The Jumeirah beach and its lashing waves with the Palm strutting out like a proud peacock were a sight to behold .

There were telescopes where one could focus on buildings which were labelled .
We spent more than an hour leisurely taking photographs for the posterity .

A souvenuir shop sold items at Burj prices ! ( we have been there souvenuirs )

we came down ,the corridor full of videos that showed the building process and photographs of many workers and engineers ,

I could spot many Anthappans ,Sukumaran pillas ,Noushads and Joy mathews there !

and was a bit proud of myself and our Mallus !