Day 4 (2023) Dubai: Butterfly Garden, Miracle Garden, Global Village

4/8/2023

Day 4:

Visited Highlights:

Expo City, Butterfly Garden, Miracle Garden, Global Village

Today is all about sleeping in. We go for breakfast at 10 o'clock and think that we are alone because we are so late. But that turns out to be a misconception, as it is packed. There are no free seats anymore. We wait a good 10 minutes with our coffee in hand until a table becomes available. Ok, tomorrow we definitely have to go earlier. Actually, this morning until noon 'chilling by the pool' is planned, but the view from the window down to the pool does not look good: all sun loungers are occupied and in the pool there is at most a standing place in the water. Oh no.... The frustration about the overcrowded pool is then taken away from us by our adult daughter, who realizes that she flew on vacation without swimwear 🙈 Ok, so Plan B: go to the nearest mall to buy swimwear and a UV shirt at H&M and Decathlon. The husband is not thrilled...
We decide to go to Ibn Battuta Mall, as it is on the way to the EXPO site, where we want to take another look today. The mall turns out to be a really impressive mall with its Asian tower design, divided into different country areas and designed according to the respective country theme. We go to the huge Carrefour supermarket in the mall and buy drinks, then we head to Expo City. We drive around the expo grounds by golf buggy and actually want to see the waterfall, where there is supposed to be a 'wave'. Since no one can tell us exactly when this wave comes, we miss it by 5 minutes and only see it passing by. Darn...
After the 20 minute ride, we get off at the waterfall and cool our feet in the water. Unfortunately, the wave only comes every 45 minutes, so we continue to the Butterfly Garden. At first, we are skeptical when we enter the first building and it's full of 'pinned' butterflies. We quickly move on to the first butterfly house, where there are already some butterflies flying around in all sizes. In a small pavilion, you can take butterflies on your finger, but many of them fly on our shoulder, arms, or stick to our pants or sun hat by themselves.
In the second butterfly house, there are lots of huge blue butterflies flying around. But we can't get them on our finger. The highlight is the 3rd butterfly house. We are not even inside yet and we already have the first butterflies sitting on our back or on our pants. We sit down on a bench and wait, it takes about 5 minutes and we have at least 5 huge blue and orange butterflies sitting on us. Our son even has one on his cheek, which he doesn't find funny at all 😁
After visiting the Butterfly Garden, we walk less than 5 minutes to the Miracle Garden. Here we are literally overwhelmed by a colorful variety of flowers. Under heart-shaped arches of colorful flowers, we pass a real Emirates plane completely covered in flowers. Incredible, who waters all of this???
Everything is represented from fairytale castles to elephants, horses, teddy bears, and various flower figures. Some of it is a bit kitschy, but the many Asians and Indians who are traveling with us right now are totally into it. The constant 'Insta' posing in front of every flower statue is annoying as hell, but that's how it is with social media. After a short time, we have an overload of flowers and crowds of people and treat ourselves to a coffee (4 coffees for 25€ 🙈) on the edge of the action. We relax and wait for the sunset, because that's when all the flower displays are illuminated. Next to us at the table are locals who have the whole table full of food and drinks, but they don't touch anything (the sun hasn't even set yet). At the moment the muezzin from the mosque calls for prayer, the locals attack their food and gobble down all the food in no time 🤷🏻
With the sunset, almost all tourists disappear from the Miracle Garden and we can enjoy the already illuminated flower displays in peace and quiet. Like so many things here in Dubai, the Miracle Garden is much more impressive in the dark than in daylight. At least in my opinion.
Around 19:30 we leave the Miracle Garden and drive to Global Village, which is 10 km away. We've always had Global Village and Miracle Garden on our list, but in the last few years we always came in the autumn when both attractions are closed. So it's even more pleasing that it works out this year.
We reach Global Village about 15 minutes later and we are overwhelmed by the thousands of cars. Wow, it's crowded here!
After parking, we walk to the entrance, a huge domed building reminiscent of the Taj Mahal and illuminated in changing colors. Inside, I don't even know where to look first. It feels like being on the Las Vegas Strip with its themed hotels, only here it's countries presenting themselves. Totally crazy. Past shops, stalls, souks, and food offerings, we walk to the main stage, where a performance and fireworks are scheduled for 21 o'clock in 30 minutes. At exactly 21 o'clock, the first fireworks shoot into the sky. A great fireworks display accompanied by Arabic music. We are thrilled!
After the fireworks, a solo violinist plays on stage, followed by the Arabesque Orchestra. After 2 songs, we leave the main stage and walk through the Asia section past the rides (Ferris wheel, bungee ball, roller coasters, and the Free Fall Tower) to 'Africa' and 'India', where we have Indian dinner. It's crazy busy here! For the first time, we have the impression of visiting an 'attraction' that is visited by more locals than tourists. Emirates are running around everywhere, men in white robes, women in black burqas. Many are here with their families, a huge hustle and bustle wherever you look.
Around 23 o'clock we leave Global Village and drive back to our hotel. After this morning on the 8-lane highway with no traffic, the bear is now dancing here. It's packed. Exhausted, we fall into bed. 13,000 steps today - check 💪🏻