Behold the Atlantis!

The last two days were a fantastic experience at the Atlantis, the new hotel/adventure park at Dubai which has captured the world’s imagination. Themed on the fabled city of Atlantis, the hotel combines cutting edge technology, ultra-modern architecture and landscaping techniques with world-class family entertainment options to create one mind-blowing experience, which has tourists thronging from all over the world. Atlantis comprises several accommodation options, with executive suites offering fantastic views of the Arabian Gulf and the Palm Dubai, presidential suites large enough to accommodate a joint family, and the super special Lost Chamber suites, which have 3 floors of floor-to-wall view into the Ambassador lagoon, a 35000 gallon ‘aquarium’ comprising 30000+ fish of 125 species. The adventure park, Aquaventure has superb water rides, with the showpiece being the Ziggurat, having a 100 foot vertical slide into shark-filled waters! Dad’s company ran a special 2 day stay package at Atlantis for its employees at a small fraction of the original cost. And Boy did we have a good time!

We left Abu Dhabi around 10 and landed first at the Mall of Dubai, which is basically a small city posing to be a mall. Mom bought a mobile phone, I had a cold stone sundae and we rushed to catch the bus to Atlantis. 20 minutes later, we were being ushered into a new world, with architecture inspired by the ocean. 10 minutes and as many photos later we were in our suite and we immediately proceeded for lunch to the ‘Saffron’ dining room below. This was a contemporary dining place with stylish red neon lighting and red and wood seating areas. The food , oh the food! Even though it was predominantly (yuck) non-veg, there was an over-abundance of choice and quantity. There were 30 items in the salad bar, around 100 dishes, a bakery stocking 15 varieties of bread and nearly 40 desserts. Some of the stuff which I could sample included superb Japanese sushi with wasabi and 

soy (thanks to abhilash for introducing me to these in Bangalore, and thanks to hemant for teaching me chopsticks), 2 cheese selections, risotto, double choc chip muffin, blueberry muffin,  dark chocolate mousse, crepe suzettes, labneh zatar, hummus, thin crust original Italian pizza, and some more. The service here has been exceptional too, and we have had bright, smiling staff sensitive to all our requests. Post lunch we visited the ‘Lost Chambers’ where the legends of Atlantis come alive. It is a labyrinthine passage inspired by the atlantis style of architecture. Part-historic, part-fantasy, the structures built inside the chambers - including the Kings court, the Sages council, the mining counter, the emergency exit – were colored with the vivid stories which the tour guides enthusiastically narrated. Also on display were fish from every major ocean in the world, thronging multi-hued in their 

schools. We finished the trip and headed to our room. I went to the fitness center and left after a tough but invigorating 1.5 hour workout. Mum, dad and I headed for our dinner to the ‘Kaleidoscope’ dining hall, and we enjoyed another gigantic spread covering 150+ dishes and 7 different cuisines. We then had a night stroll by the beach, with the ocean contrasting brilliantly with the glittering hotel building.

 

It was interesting to see how the hotel has attracted tourists from all over the world. A majority seemed to be Asian – Japanese, hong kong, Singaporeans, etc. Plenty of arab and European visitors too. And fashionable crowds too, which means that the boots covered more than the skirts did. The nightclub, Sanctuary, had a cool red and black theme, and the DJ was really smooth.

Saturday morning saw us getting ready for the Aquaventure. I had a nice jog by the ocean and went to the gym for a while. Then we moved to the Aquaventure, specifically to the Ziggurat, as I wanted to do the slide on an empty stomach. The life guards were mostly Kenyan and were ready with bright smiles for all instructions. The service throughout the facilities was amazing,

 polite yet very attentive. They really put us all at ease. The Ziggurat, which is a Sumerian word for temple, has 7 different rides and slides. The most famous of these is the Leap of Faith, a 30 m near vertical dip, which requires us to climb up 3 storeys. I literally ‘fell’ in love with it, the only regret being that it was over too soon.  After 2 nearly heart-stopping runs down that slide I went to the shark lagoon, where you can float through a transparent tube surrounded by shark filled waters. We caught the golf cart back to the hotel , stopping by at the dolphin beach on the way. Breakfast was again at Saffron, with an overwhelming choice of fruits, cereals, fresh breads, Indian, thai, Japanese, Arabic and Italian delicacies. The waffles and pancakes were great. We packed and checked out of the hotel after that, headed to Abu Dhabi.