I cannot begin to imagine just how much spare land Dubai has in order to come up with such massive projects. Currently coming up with such feats in built projects, such as the Burj Khalifa, and the Burj Al Arab, it just seems that Dubai is such a huge clean slate with so much spaces and opportunities to conceive ideas and build on them. For today, we visited just one of those kinds of projects–a massive theme park called Global Village.
I do not know what Dubai has planned out for the future of the entire lot that Global Village currently occupies, but, what I do know that it is an intermittent project that is usually put up every winter season. To those who don’t know, Global Village is an outdoor theme park that exhibits all different kinds of pavilions and booths that represent many different countries from all over the world; thus, the word “Global.”
The massive entrance facade that functions as the main highlight for Global Village changes every year. For this year, I think it was India.
View of the entrance
Once stepping inside, we were welcomed by a miniature (still looked big to me haha) Burj Khalifa, and other famous landmarks from all over the world.
When you enter a pavilion, what you will find inside usually ranges from either: shops, stalls, and exhibits. Performances are usually found outside the pavilions. They do sometimes have food stalls inside the pavilions, but I noticed that most of them are placed outside, or just right by the entrances of the pavilions.
After having gone through several pavilions, I noticed that Global Village strongly reminded me of the Shanghai Expo back in 2010. Though, the Shanghai Expo is an event of a much grander scale, as it only occurs every four years in varying host countries.
There was a Mexican culture dance performance ongoing while I took this photo.
At a different zone of the Global Village, you will also find an amusement park. I didn’t go to ride any of the rides though, as most of them were extreme rides. (haha! Excuse my wimpy self.)
Most of the food courts and restaurants were located adjacent to the area of the amusement park.
Spotted a Philippines pavilion. It felt more Spanish than ethnic Filipino to me.
Took a photo of the Singapore pavilion for our family friend’s Singaporean friend (currently residing in Dubai), Roby!
I think we spent almost the entire day there! It’s best to come a bit earlier in the afternoon (most people come towards the evening), so that you won’t have such a difficult time lining up for tickets. The weather was perfect too, since winter in Dubai was not that cold–a sweater was enough; a normal jeans and t-shirt get-up was also enough to tolerate the cool weather. If you’re coming to Dubai any time during the winter season, then I suggest for you to check out Global Village if given the chance!
