The Green Planet

We have had the whole week off school this week, thanks to the holiday of Eid Al Ahda (the second most important festival in the Muslim calendar). Even though we had only been to school for two weeks, it's been quite nice to get some extra time off.
We have mostly spent it at home. The kids have had playdates and sleepovers, I've covered some Zumba and Lucas went to the new 'Bounce' trampoline park, but other than that we haven't done much.
So today Pia and I took the kids and went on an excursion to Dubai. I had heard of this newly opened place called 'The Green Planet' and I was eager to check it out. A fascinating project, a "fully immersive vertical rainforest"!

I must say I was a little bit disappointed at first with the size of it, I was expecting something along the lines of 'Gardens by the Bay' in Singapore, and this was nowhere near that same size.
It was still fascinating, and I must admit it managed to make me rather homesick for Brunei... All the lovely green jungle, the noises and the animals.

We traveled to the top of the canopy by elevator, and then walked down a spiral ramp to learn more about each different level of the rainforest. Check it out - a four-storey exotic jungle inside a biodome, complete with the world's largest man-made tree!

We did the whole thing, walked about and saw everything worth looking at, it took us a little less than an hour to have a good look around, so it was good for a morning activity.

Even though I found it a bit pricey (95 AED/adult and 70 AED/child), it was a fab visit. We were all enthralled and learned a lot. The kids were all keen on reading their way through the different exhibits and took tons of photos.

We saw many different birds, beautiful blue Hyancinth Macaws (the longest parrot species in the world), Solomon Island Eclectus, Toucans and more; we saw ant and reptile exhibits - and even sleeping porcupines:

Greeeeeeeeeeen!

Emma and Sofie both held some big cockroaches, yuk...

The resident sloth, hiding away sleeping in a bush down at the forest floor:

We saw many birds around as they flew freely around the dome, but we didn't see any butterflies at all, even though the information boards indicated there should be loads. Booo.

The bottom layer of the rainforest, the flooded rainforest:

To finish off our visit - a groupie outside in the sun!