Upon arriving at our Dubai hotel, the Mecure Gold, I tried to exchange some of my money for the local currency, but I couldn't interest the next-door Islamic Bank on Al Mina Rd in my AUDs. They directed me to another bank "five minutes" down the street but after walking for more that five minutes in the extreme heat and not spotting any banking establishments lurking amongst the sand, I gave up, retreating back to the hotel and decided to wait till later in the day when we made the trip into Downtown Dubai.
At the supersize Dubai Mall we found a money exchanger just inside the entrance. The woman inside the glass booth thinking I was trying to change USDs at first offered me AED2.63 to the $ but when I clarified that I had AUDs she offered 2.65 (to my surprise!). I gratefully and swiftly accepted lest she realise her error (a very rare victory over the money changers!). Equipped with my enhanced sum of dirhams I found we could only shop, not eat or drink (alcohol) in public, ie the Mall was public ... Ramadan was still going on!
Dubai Mall or "Sandy Malldom" as I prefer, is a massive place, numerous elongated passageways crisscrossing each other all over. The Mall is a tourist epicentre of course - "The Diver" waterfall fountains, an Airbus simulator, Arab-themed village, etc. The thing that gets most attention though in the Mall (unless you're a terminal shopaholic) is the Aquarium. Interestingly one side of the Aquarium is fully visible from outside through a huge glass wall facing the passageways on several levels ... so you don't actually need to pay and go inside to see unless you want to experience the special features - eg, tank dive with the sharks, etc.
All manner of piscean life can be viewed from the transparent wall - sharks, hammer-heads, stingrays and multifarious smaller fish. We saw scuba divers swimming among the sea creatures, cleaning the gigantic pool with long blue hoses. The neoprene-clad divers were getting unnerving dead-eye stares from the sharks. Hopefully for their sake the human "Creepy-crawleys" do their work AFTER the members of the lamniade family have been fed!
