The Emirates Palace Hotel

On Friday afternoon, we decided to play tourist and visit the Emirates Palace Hotel - yes, the hotel with the famed $11M Christmas tree! The tree was down, of course, but we were still able to check out the hotel grounds and the gold vending machine (which was surrounded by tourists like us taking photos). Here are a few of the pics from this extravagant place.

This is one of the sitting areas just inside the main entrance.

A shot of the domed ceiling of the main lobby area - the Christmas tree sat under this.

We heard some traditional music as we were coming up the hall and then realized it was live musicians!

A coffee/tea area within the hotel.

Another lavish sitting area. 

This is a view of the back of the hotel and just the center part - imagine each side is even bigger than this - the place is huge!!

Live orchids in this decorative area - there were a number of these throughout the hotel.

Yep, it's the gold ATM!

These were the choices, the smallest piece is about $300.

But good news ... if you're not satisfied, you can return it! :)

The hotel also has a number of very high end shops, nice restaurants and a hallway of artifacts, which are for sale. It's really a beautiful place and maybe if we win the lottery (or I get a job?) we'll have dinner here one night!