hello, Dubai!

lobby fountain at Raffles Dubai

On the other side of the world, Dubai is 12 time zones away from San Francisco. After a 15 hour Etihad flight to Abu Dhabi, I am amazingly not feeling jet lagged.

First impressions of Dubai... it's like Vegas on steroids. A large city with huge skyscrapers, busy freeways, and even a smoggy skyline, Dubai boasts the world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa, 2722 feet high, as well as Ski Dubai, the world's only indoor ski resort. Watch here for some pictures tomorrow.

We're spending our first two nights at Raffles Dubai, a 252 room hotel connected to the Wadi Mall with an Egyptian decorating motif. The lobby is especially grand, and the photo above is the view of the hotel's front door as seen through a cascading water fountain.

Today will be a busy day with five hotel site inspections and the afore-mentioned to Ski Dubai.

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