Emirates Palace

Before I left the UAE I was able to take a trip to the Emirates Palace.  General Mattis, the CENTCOM Commander, was visiting the area.  One of my cultural advisors and I had to go to the Emirates Palace to pick up his party's passports to emigrate them before they left.

The Emirates Palace is the most impressive hotel I've ever seen.  It should be impressive with a price tag of just under four billion dollars.  Some of the most expensive rooms in the hotel go for $11,500 a night.  I'm not sure what impressed me more... the hotel, or the fact that people can afford to pay that rate for a one night stay.

Anyway, here are some of the pictures I got during my short visit.

It's not every day I get to stand next to a Rolls Royce, so I took advantage of the opportunity.  I'm pretty sure these were hotel cars they use to drive people around.   There were a bunch of white ones just like this sitting in the parking lot.  Only in the UAE do you have company cars made by Rolls Royce.

The view looking out the main entrance of the hotel. 

Inside the hotel.  The first picture is of the dome in the center of the hotel.

This shows the layout of the hotel with the rooms surrounding the foyer, and the dome in the middle.

Different area of the hotel, but I liked how nice it looked.

Video of a group of musicians playing in one of the sections of the hotel.

Me next to Sheikh Zayed, founder of the UAE.

I didn't spend long in the parking lot, but here's a sample of some of the cars I saw while I was there:

I was impressed.  I'm glad I got to visit this place before my deployment was over.