On Monday morning (January 20th), we went to Dubai Mall and did a bit of shopping. This was the mall whose basement we ran through on Friday night to get a taxi to the Mall of the Emirates. Today we would actually get to experience more than the basement! Dubai Mall is absolutely enormous. There are over 1,200 stores, an aquarium, and an ice skating rink, among other things.

I felt incredibly overwhelmed by the number of stores, almost to the point where I actually didn’t want to shop! I would say that I am more of a goal-oriented shopper, not a browser, which is probably why I felt so overwhelmed. Some of the highlights of the mall for me were the Fashion Avenue, which features luxury shops like Chanel and Hermes, and the Level Shoe District, which is a 96,000 square foot space that “takes shoppers on a journey of beautiful shoes.” We had coffee at the Armani Cafe in Fashion Avenue and did a bit more browsing before heading back to the hotel to change for our tea reservations at the Burj Al Arab.