A Tale of Three Malls

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates --- Followers of this blog may have expected to read about life on the cheap, 27-hour bus rides, youth hostels, backpacking and street-vendor lunches.

This is not that kind of trip.

Today, GlobeGators went to not one, not two, but three malls. To those of you who think, “Three malls? I could have done that in Boca Raton!” well, clearly you are not familiar with the malls of Dubai. They are spectacular. Tour buses stop at the high-end malls. The three malls we visited today illustrated Dubai culture at three levels. We deliberately sought out two that promised deals rather than designer duds:

Lamcy Plaza: As our Time Out guide said, this is “the mall that time forgot,” which was lucky for us because we were able to buy necessities such as a 5-liter jug of water and cargo pants at very reasonable prices. Families shop at this mall without walls, a five-story edifice with a supermarket in the penthouse and an open floor plan in which one retailer ran into the next. We found the lobby décor frightening yet intriguing: a mock Tower Bridge ran from floor to ceiling and an Animatronic clown climbed up and down a wire in perpetual robotic motion. Mall motto: “Good feel, Great deal.”

Dragonmart: A cab took us to the low end of Dubai mall culture, a warehouse packed with goods from China. We had hoped to find paper parasols and cheap decor, but the mall was short on cultural artifacts and long on fake designer handbags. Great place to cheaply furnish your Dubai apartment, but nothing that would fit in our suitcase (we have a temporary self-imposed ban on knockoff bags). Mall motto: “Quality. Value. Choice.”

Wafi City: This is mall design on a spectacular level, typical of the over-the top Dubai scale. Wafi has an Egyptian theme: The roof peaks into pyramids evocative of those at Giza, two-story-tall statues of ancient Egyptian gods greet visitors at the door, and, the best part, visitors can rejuvenate at “Cleopatra’s Spa,” an experience so decadent it would have pleased the queen herself (a relaxation room features pools and hot tubs). Stores here run to the designer end; Ferraris, Lexuses and Range Rovers fill the parking lot. The place weirdly reminded us of the Egyptian-theme Muvico at the Arundel Mills Mall in Maryland. Do you still miss the experience of the authentic open-air marketplace? No worries. Wafi has an underground “souk” where vendors sell exquisite textiles and handicrafts -- with none of the inconveniences of an actual souk and at what were most likely vastly inflated prices. Mall motto: “A Rare Collection of Wonderful Things.”