This is, of course, the real reason I decided to accompany Hannah on her conference here. And I was not disappointed. The shuttle bus from our hotel dropped us outside the north entrance (you need GPS to navigate inside) and in we went.
The place is pretty sizable. If you spent 10 minutes in each shop, the promotional literature tells me, it would take you 86 hours to get around it. Why did I waste all that time since arriving here?! We only made it through a little of one of the half-mile-around floors, but did catch a trampoline display that was taking place in the "Rotunda". Oh, and there's a theme park in the middle too.
In Europe we have our cathedrals, but here they have their skyscrapers and malls. The effect is somewhat similar - the sudden revelation of being a tiny part of a larger universe that you can neither comprehend nor tame. I'm sure the thousands of other people in the consumer mayhem crush of shopping bags and push chairs were contemplating the exact same thing.
Yeah baby, this is what it's all about.
Reading the store directory is a major achievement in itself.
Designed by M.C. Esher.
Hannah is in awe. Or maybe just disgusted.
And here's the theme park.
In one small corner, The Skyriders were entertaining the crowd with their trampoline show. Look at all that wasted space you could fit more shops into!
