DUBAI'S TOP SEVEN

I’m currently back home in Dubai visiting my family and interning at the Golf Digest ME, the region’s most widely circulated golf magazine. I'm also doing some stuff with Stuff Middle East, a hip gadgets and technology magazine.

Our office is in Media City, which is quite far from where I live. So instead of driving the 40 odd kilometers to work every morning,  I drive to Rashidiya Metro Station, park my car in one of the 2,714 parking spots available there, and hop onto the Red Line which takes me all the way to Nakheel Station.

Yesterday it struck me how many touristy landmarks I pass on my way to and from work everyday. So below is a list, in no particular order, of the top seven (ten is too mainstream) materialistic monuments I sleep through every morning (naps on public transport are the best): 

1 – Airport Terminal 3 – Number one on the list is an airport terminal. 'Big whoop', you think. But at 1, 713, 000 square meters, Dubai International Airport Terminal 3 is the largest building on the planet in terms of floor space. 

2 – Burj Khalifa – 829.3 meters. That's how tall the tallest tall tower in the world is. Developed by Emaar, the Burj Khalifa has 163 floors which hold offices, apartments, restaurants, and even the first ever Armani Hotel. 

3 -  Emirates Mall – Probably the only mall in the world where you'll find a fully functional ski slope. In the summer while the temperature outside can reach up to 50 degrees Celsius, inside Ski Dubai it’s always a chilly -3.

4 – The Dubai Mall – This creatively named mall is the biggest in the world. Nuf’ said. Oh, and this one has an Olympic sized ice rink inside it.

5 – Emirates Golf Club - As prestigious as golf clubs come, the Majlis course at the Emirates is home of the Dubai Desert Classic, a marquee event on the European Tour. It's where I got Tiger Woods' autograph five years ago, and where Rory McIlroy thanked me for finding his ball in deep rough as a marshall. 

6 - Burj al Arab - Welcome to the only 7-star hotel in the world. Royal suites go for as much as $18,000 a night, but if that's a little pricey, you can always opt to stay at one of the cheaper rooms which can be anywhere between, um, $1000 to $2000 US a night. They also do stuff like this every now and then too. 

7 – the Lost City of Atlantis - Okay technically it's called Atlantis, the Palm. It's the first resort to be built on the Palm Jumeriah - you know, Palm Jumeriah, one of those funny shaped man-made islands where people jet ski to their neighbour's house for dinner.

Atlantis features several high end eateries and there's also a water park where legend has it, there is a slide in which you actually pass a hungry bunch of hammerhead sharks on your way down.

So there you have it - a small glimpse of the craziness that makes Dubai ... Dubai.