{"id":26691,"date":"2023-04-15T12:39:52","date_gmt":"2023-04-15T12:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalchildtv.com\/?p=26691"},"modified":"2023-04-15T12:41:00","modified_gmt":"2023-04-15T12:41:00","slug":"dubai-blog-2-the-best-experiences-in-a-single-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalchildtv.com\/dubai-blog-2-the-best-experiences-in-a-single-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Dubai Blog 2 The Best Experiences in a Single Day!"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

I love hanging over the edge of a basket floating thousands of meters in the sky. I especially love the silence that comes as the hot air balloon becomes one with the wind and ceases to resist its flow and rather joins its silent gravity defiant dance. I like floating. I like ascending\u2026 it\u2019s metaphoric and it\u2019s also absolutely stunning. I\u2019d been on hot air balloons in a couple of different places, and much like falling in love, each situation was magical and different. However, here in Dubai, they also had a falcon up there with us! I watched his gleaming eyes surveying the horizon and for a moment I perhaps felt what this magnificent creature felt when it hovered across the sky. We also had a crew of friends who were filming us\u2026 and we also had the most spectacular sunrise I\u2019ve seen in a long, long time. As I witnessed the first gleaming rays of golden light pierce the velvet dawn, I thought how fitting it was that the sun literally rose precisely behind a mountain. The jagged edges of the rock only accentuated the orb waking up to bathe us with its warmth. It was then that I noticed the falcon, calmly resting on the ledge, fully unafraid of the precipice next to him; confidently assured that he had his wings\u2026 and also his claws, in case I got too close! The sunrise hot air balloon experience with a falcon, was truly a once in a lifetime experience. Yet, it had one final surprise awaiting for us upon the descent\u2026 apparently because of the type of topography, the type of basket and the wind speed\u2026 a slight \u201cslide\u201d landing is typical, and let me tell you it was the most fun hot air balloon ride I\u2019ve ever done. The captain explains all the safety protocols, you clip yourself to the balloon with a special harness (we don\u2019t want to lose any of our friends overboard of course) and we hang and from these special leather handles. The balloon begins to descend and the captain begins a heart accelerating countdown, you crouch and give your back to the basket and face away from the land which is coming at you faster than you can imagine. Then suddenly, a thump! And we are sideways\u2026 sliding on the gravel. Of course, a couple of people laugh and nervously giggle as the balloon rises very slightly and then\u2026 thump! More dirt around you and then just like that, everything stops and the laughter begins. You look around the basked and connect with your friends, and even the falcon seems to have enjoyed that eccentric descent. You climb out the basket and it feels like you accomplished something. An easy landing? Who wants one of those! Not me\u2026 not after this memorable experience. The hot air balloon was my favorite experience. It was capped off with a marvelous breakfast in an oasis of sorts with my crew of friends\u2026 just the perfect meal to have before a couple of hours driving back to delightful Dubai.<\/p>

A close second was an experience that happened two hours later, where I was driving a professional racing car around a professional track at the \u201cAutodrome\u201d. I felt as if I was in a movie and in a way we were making one. I\u2019d never been inside a single seater formula one style car. I\u2019m really bad at driving manual and now I was in one of the most efficient and powerful driving machines in the world. On the way there, our guide told me that if I was going to drive that car, I had to really step on it to make it worth my while, otherwise there was no point. After an explanation, a safety briefing and a tour around the lap with a professional driver, I was ready to try it out for myself. As I began to change gears I began to get more comfortable and suddenly it happened. I felt so much adrenaline flowing through me\u2026 and yet here it was, the long stretch where it was safest to really go fast\u2026 and so I think I did, because I floored it and changed gears as quickly as possible. I could feel joy rushing from the pit of my stomach all the way to a smile on my face hidden beneath the helmet! Of course, one has to remember that it\u2019s not the going fast that is difficult\u2026 it\u2019s the slowing down in time! So after a few moments I got that beautiful car under control and made it back safe and sound to the \u201cPitts\u201d where I celebrate with my friends. I broke no record, but I also didn\u2019t break the car! So, it was a great moment for all of us. We were a bit spent from the day, but being our last day in Dubai I told my team that we had to go do an activity together\u2026 one of the tallest zip-lines in the world! One by one the team zipped down over the Marina Area from one beautiful 40 story building to a landing platform across the river. Exhausted but happy we made it back to the gorgeous Atlantis Hotel. We admired the lovely sea creatures floating peacefully in the giant tanks\u2026 one of the largest in the world. We were ready for some well deserved sleep\u2026 but our friends at Dubai Tourism had one final surprise! Did I mention that all this magnificent day was actually Thanksgiving Day! We made our way to one of the wonderful restaurants at the Atlantis Dubai and shared a custom made Thanksgiving dinner. One by one we mentioned what was the highlight of the trip, as we laughed and shared a beautiful moment connecting to each other. Dubai had helped us to connect as as team, as friends and as humans. We\u2019d used that connection to create something beautiful and today\u2026 that connection has created a shared memory that we will always treasure in our collective hearts! Thank you Dubai! That\u2019s the power of connection!<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>

\u00a0<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t<\/i>Prev<\/span><\/span>Previous<\/span>Global Child Dubai: \u201cThe Power of Connection\u201d Blog 1 Dinner with Friends<\/span><\/span><\/a>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tNext<\/span>Dubai: Connecting The Past & The Present<\/span><\/span><\/i>Next<\/span><\/span><\/a>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love hanging over the edge of a basket floating thousands of meters in the sky. I especially love the silence that comes as the hot air balloon becomes one…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26692,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[220],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalchildtv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26691"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalchildtv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalchildtv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalchildtv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalchildtv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26691"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/globalchildtv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26696,"href":"https:\/\/globalchildtv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26691\/revisions\/26696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalchildtv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalchildtv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalchildtv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalchildtv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}