Nakheel Presentation and Palm Visit
Obviously Mr. Kaser planned the best activities for the last day, and we couldn't be more eager to experience these highlights. Leaving at around 9am, we hopped on the bus and headed to the famous man-made islands of Dubai. Nakheel, founded in 2000, became the world's leading property developer by 2011 when they finished development of 3 of the world's largest man-made islands. We were lucky enough to be welcomed to their corporate and offered a thorough presentation about the specifics of building these islands.
Their vision was to create a world-class destination for tourism, business, investment, and living. What they created was so much more: continuing to build on the rapidly-growing regions of Dubai, and enhancing their portfolio of man-made works in the Emirates. The first development to come to mind is their Palm Jumeriah, but their projects also include Deira Islands, The World, Jumeriah Islands + Village, Discovery Gardens, Warsan Village, and Dragon City. In total, they've contributed over 17million square feet of leasable land to Dubai's coastline.We visited the Palm Jumeriah, whose land is used for over 4,000 luxury villas, retail departments, and entertainment facilities (like Atlantis!). Their extensive coastline is also one of the most popular destinations for investors to buy land.
However, this all needed to come from some man-power. Nakheel put in over 6 years of researching, planning, and calculating to make sure that each step of their development process followed ethical laws and was the safest method of creation. The Palm Jumeriah alone is built from 3,257,212,970 cubic feet of ocean sand vibro-compacted into place. Water was held back using a dam, and once ocean rock and sand was secured in place, it was released.
After the presentation, we hopped on the Palm Monorail, whose track extends 3 miles down the entire length of the island. The 10 minute ride let us take in the beautiful scenery of villas, gardens, and high-end stores, and we quickly arrived at the tip of the Palm, the Atlantis resort.
We ate a quick lunch here in separate groups, explored around, bought souvenirs, and soon hopped back on the monorail to get ready for the night ahead.
Dune Bashing
What is that?! The best start to the end.
A group of 4x4's picked us up from our hotel, and we headed to the deserts of Sharjah for the UAE's most popular sport - dune bashing. Sliding over the soft Arabian desert sand in our jeeps was the experience of a lifetime. We stopped halfway through our rides to climb some of the largest sand dunes and take pictures (if you don't post it, it didn't happen).
Desert Safari
Our evening ended at a final stop at a desert safari back in Dubai. With our admission ticket, we were able to ride camels, get henna tattoos on our hands, surf down the sand dunes, and help ourselves to our last dinner together.
We ate dinner on traditional pillows on the ground with crossed legs, and were placed around a square stage for the night's entertainment. The show included a female dancer, a traditional dance for males, and an insane fire dancer.
We had a sad final night and drive back, and coming back to the hotel with no agenda meeting made it so real to us that our trip was actually ending.
We'd all like to thank Mr. Kaser for putting so much energy and effort into making this one of the best international trips yet. We appreciate the dedication, the planning, and the research that he does to make sure that each trip runs smoothly. Best of all, we had SO MUCH FUN!
THANK YOU MR. KASER !!!!!
In addition, Thank you to Ms. Fuentes and Mrs. Mendelsohn for being amazing chaperones and helping us through each day of the trip. We appreciate you too!