Underwater Love: Design Features At Atlantis, The Palm Dubai (and my wee visit to the hotel!)

Me, blending in like a piece of the furniture at The Atlantis Palm Dubai

I love a good theme and I love water so a water themed hotel is bound to be my kind of place right? Atlantis, The Palm Hotel in Dubai is indeed that 'water themed' hotel but I had no idea it would also be such a creative destination. There are crafty touches in the design and décor everywhere you look, starting with this exquisite glass centrepiece in the entrance (made by Dale Chihuly the same artist who created the jaw-dropping Rotunda Chandelier the V&A Museum in London.) It consists of 3,000 handblown pieces of glass and measures 9.75m in height. The good news is you don't need to stay at the hotel to enjoy the art, so if you're ever in Dubai it's worth popping in just to admire the views...

Dome ceiling in the lobby with top view of the sculpture

Underwater themed painted ceiling in the hotel

Another painted ceiling in the hotel

And another one!

Sea urchin lampshade
So that's a taste of when you look up....when you look down, the floors are works of art too...

Then there are the giant prawns in the corners ...

and random features around the place like shell vases...

That's just some of the water themed décor touches, but what about water itself? Well there is no escaping 'The Element' and the 65,000 sea creatures that live within it at the hotel...

From my room (I was lucky enough to spend three nights at the hotel earlier this month) I could look down onto sting ray from my balcony, while around the hotel there is no escaping the sharks and giant leopard print sting rays swimming passed thanks to The Lost Chambers Aquarium that stretches throughout the hotel...

She's in fashion

If that's not enough, you can also dine next to fish at Ossiano underwater restaurant (I should point out it's a seafood restaurant so it's a bit strange eating fish while they are looking at you!)

Oi! Is that my cousin you're munching into?

Or if you have £8k spare you can sleep with sealife in one of the hotel's two dreamlike under water suites....

I don't mind if I do...

But if that's too overwhelming you could simply stick with visiting the aquarium and just watch the fish swim by for hours.

Who needs a telly? 

I spent one afternoon doing just that and spent my other two afternoons hopping from flume to flume at the hotel's Aquaventure Waterpark (which included going down one of the longest and scariest flumes in the world!)

Ahhhhhhhhhhh! Splash!

As well as a dip in the 'fake sea' that Dubai is known for

 I also had a dip in the pool...

This is the life!

...fed some stingray, and most exciting of all, got to hang out and swim with a dolphin called Tina at the hotel's Dolphin Bay. 

Holding on!
Could a hotel got more water themed? I think not! I went with little expectations (other than I hoped the flumes would be good and thankfully they were!) so it was a real pleasure to discover that I would love staying in the hotel so much. 

Should you visit Atlantis, The Palm Dubai? If you get a chance to then yes. If you can stay overnight then even better - there's just so much to enjoy and take in, from the surroundings to the little details, and so many people to talk to - staff are everywhere (especially around the waterpark) and they always at the ready to strike up a conversation.
This trip is going down as #funtimes : )

With my fellow travelling companions

Oh go on then! 

Here are some snaps of what I ate while I was there (I took so many photos that it would be a crime not to share them...be prepared you may get hungry!)

Delicious Chinese lunch with bubble tea at Yuan

Teatime at Plato's Tea and Coffee Lounge (over 120 teas to choose from!)

A mere snapshot of the 100 desserts on offer at Saffron buffet restaurant

Yummy global breakfast

Sipping a mocktail at Nasimi Beach Bar

April showers? Whatever......

 1. Flew a kite in Maidstone

Determined not to let the incessant April showers get me down any longer I decided to spend the weekend enjoying the elements. Over three days I experienced about an hour of sunshine - the rest was bleak, grey, wet & windy....

 2. Chased a windfarm

I tried to get as close as I could to Little Cheyne Court windfarm but a local farmer was having none of it so I had to settle with watching the hypnotising and beautiful windmills from a distance.

 3. Visited a nuclear power station

Well from the outside. I drove right up to it for a close inspection then got blown down the seafront in Dungeness, which is apparently one of the most treacherous stretches in the UK.

4. Boarded world's smallest public railway

The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway looks like a model train. It's tiny!!!!! It's the first steam train I've ever been on...it was like riding on Thomas the Tank Engine.

5. Counted seagulls 

In Cambersands. A peaceful stretch of beach and sand dunes.

6. Got up close & personal with a peacock

In the grounds of Leeds Castle. It was too expensive to go inside but the peacocks roam in the entrance and the park is open for picnics. 

7. Discovered the joy of keyrings

Thousands of key rings cover the celings at The Dungeness Inn. Individually keyrings look like tack but together they are a work of art!

8. Saw a whale's tail

Made of rocks in Folkestone.

9. Investigated Flotsome & Jetsome

Though I knew the names, I had no idea what flotsome & jetsome were until I came across a whole host of sculptures made from the things that get washed up on shore...talk about finding treasure!

10. Battled the elements in Dymchurch

Just as the sun looked like coming out, it decided to stay indoors. Ahh well. It may have been miserable but spending time alfresco on the days when you'd rather be having a duvet day & watching DVDs can be strangely satisfying - it makes you feel so much more proud of yourself. I wish that the sun would come back & brighten up the UK but until it does, I vow not to sit inside grumbling anymore....after all, what were wellies and thermals made for if not to enjoy on the beach?

10 things I love about Kuala Lumpar

During my recent new year expedition to Bali I also spent a long weekend in Kuala Lumpar, one of Asia’s most bustling and modern cities. But while some visitors head to the iconic Petronas Towers I discovered some other remarkable things about the city that will always be dear to my heart.

 1. Monorail

My inner travel geek surfaced as soon as I disembarked from the coach from the airport into town. To get to my accommodation I had to board a monorail and despite the fact it was 11.30pm and I had just spent 15 hours travelling, I could not believe my eyes when I witnessed the sheer beautiful of this incredible feet of engineering. A far superior version of the DLR (which is a driverless railway in London, of which I am a huge fan), these two-carriage trains zip around the city, high above the streets. A kind of Bladerunner meets Gotham City form of transportation with added sunshine (each carriage door has floral glade air fresheners attached), the journeys were smooth, frequent and most pleasurable. 

2. Women only carriages

In fact, I sampled five modes of transport while in KL – local trains, coach, monorail, boat, taxis and the suburban train. One thing I was completely shocked about was the incredibly high standard of the taxis – I’ve never been anywhere in the world where taxi drivers are so friendly and take pride in turning on their meters and as such, the fares are extremely cheap (at most we spent 80p getting between places). But what surprised me the most was the suburban trains. The main platform at Sentral station looks European, the only difference being there are women only benches, positioned directly infront of where the women only carriages are. Yes this may seem like an alien concept to Westerners but I can confirm, women only carriages are clean, well kept, friendly and make you feel special. 

 3. Batu Caves

Wannabe batgirls like me clearly have to visit batcaves from around the world for research and these ones at the edge of the city were no exception. Ignore the various tourist coach trips and organised visits to the site which will set you back £8-12. You can take a train from Sentral station – 30 minutes, dropping you directly outside for just 10p each way. I think this makes it one of the cheapest tourist attractions to visit in the world and it’s free to climb the 272 stairs to the top too. Add to this the fact one of the best places to eat in town is across the road (an ultra cheap Indian restaurant serving up street snacks, thalis and fresh coconuts for a couple of pounds), it makes a dream daytrip. (You need to pay a few more pounds to go deep inside the caves but I skipped that part…I have to save something for next time!)

4. Curry

Everyone I know who has ever been to KL talks about the food and how yummy it is. From all of the different cuisines I tried, the best by far was the Indian curries. They have the best flavours outside of India – fresh, simple and wholesome. This thali style feast served on a banana leaf was a particular highlight. 

 5. Bubble Tea

Bubble tea is a beverage trend currently sweeping the UK and is a cold flavoured tea or milk drink with small chewy balls at the bottom made from tapioca starch. If you loved screwball ice-creams as a child (ice cream that came with bubble gum) you’ll develop an immediate appreciation. Extremely refreshing and fun to drink, the balls can be slurped up with your straw. Most of the time, it’s a surprise as you don’t quite know when one will pop up. I’ve not tried any of the London cafes yet, but I’m told Bubbleology is the place to go!

6. T-shirts

 Despite the plethora of shopping malls containing miles of clothing shops, I couldn’t buy any as the sizes were so small. I’m quite petite in terms of the UK but clearly a giant in Asia; everything was teeny! Apart from the t-shirts…there were so many incredible designs. I wanted to photograph them all but after I shot this one, the shop assistant told me off and said I couldn’t take any more photos! 

7. Rainy day devices

Speaking of quirky design, someone really ought to import these handy devices into the UK – umbrella hats as worn by children sitting at the back of bicycles to keep their heads dry and modelled here by my travelling partner Janine. 

8. Sunday night market

Sunday markets in the UK are about waking up at 6am to get to a car boot sale. In KL Sunday markets are slightly more sociable, opening from 4pm until the early hours. So while we are at home chillaxing on a Sunday night ahead of the dreaded Monday morning, things are buzzing in Bansar Village. It’s the place to stock up on your essentials and fresh fruit and veg. The one stall that particularly caught my eye was serving sweet steamed dumplings topped with coconut; a dish I haven’t tried for over a decade. They were a speciality my mum used to make, on rare occasions as they were so labour intensive. She ground the flour, had the filling shipped over from Bangladesh and spent hours steaming them inside cloth. My dad and his best friend were the number one fans. Seeing and eating them made me feel incredibly comforted. 

9. A,b,c dessert

As a connoisseur of puddings, nothing could have prepared me for the Malaysian signature dish of A, B, C – Air Batur Campur translated as mixed ice. It’s so advanced even Heston Blumenthal couldn’t come up with something this peculiar. It consists of a tower of shaved ice with different toppings, the most common being red beans, grass jelly and sweet corn. Never, ever have I tasted anything like it…nothing comes close to the sensations you experience when sampling this most bizarre of concoctions. It sounds straight forward, but look at this picture and imagine mixing it all together into a complete mess – that’s how you eat it. The taste sensations are unexpected – smooth, creamy, milky, refreshing – all these things excite your tongue and then you realise the reality, you are eating sweetcorn….in a dessert. Though I consider myself an adventurous eater and though I loved the dessert I still cannot get over the fact the dish contains sweetcorn – something normally eaten with tuna in sandwiches, grilled on bbqs, served with chicken at fast food stores and here it was for dessert. The texture just felt so wrong. I would have this again but I’m not sure I could do it with the yellow stuff included! 

 

 10. Britpop

Call me naïve but I always thought Britpop was a mid 90s music scene that only stretched as far as British shores. There was the occasional band that made it to America (sadly this ended the career for some bands like the Longpigs) but I had no idea is was a scene that was still big in Asia. There’s me getting on down at Nuisance club, the 3^rd Friday of every month in Camden, Londinium, while KL has a Britpop clubnight every Friday night thanks to this fine DJ on right (my friend’s boyfriend, she’s Lee, pictured next to him and they live in KL.) Added to this the fact many Britpop bands have been to KL (Lee’s boyfriend was the official guide for Super Furry Animals and Mogwai when they visited the city), it’s clearly a city I could easily make my home.