This is a little glimpse of the interior of the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai.

Here is a shot of the indoor downhill skiing facility that is part of the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai. Inside, it's a frosty, snowy winter wonderland. Outside its walls, the desert sun makes daytime temperatures soar above 100 on any given day.

This waterway is called Dubai Creek. The boats you see in this picture are called "abras" and people use them to get from one side to the other. The fare is 1 dirham (about 27 cents US), which is collected by the pilot sometime during the three or four minute crossing.

Dubai has a large, modern commercial port that services container ships. At the same time, the old port is still very active and this ship is typical of the ones that berth and unload at the city's dock. These ships ply the coastline, some of them coming all the way from the East African cities of Dar Es Salaam and Zanzibar.

Pistachios from Iran. Probably not something you can find in your market in America. As a matter of fact, my flights into and out of Dubai both flew directly over Iran.

There's a little district in Dubai where you can go into shops and buy various spices from around the world.

These next photos are of the inside of the new Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport. My outbound flight was one of the first to use the terminal, which opened the week I was in-country.

This is the Airbus 380-800, the world's largest commercial passenger aircraft. It was parked at the next gate over from my jet, a relatively "small" Boeing 777-200LR.