{"id":341,"date":"2010-10-03T12:17:39","date_gmt":"2010-10-03T16:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/?p=341"},"modified":"2011-01-07T14:48:58","modified_gmt":"2011-01-07T19:48:58","slug":"to-the-emirates-palace-as-fast-as-lightning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/to-the-emirates-palace-as-fast-as-lightning\/","title":{"rendered":"To the Emirates Palace as fast as lightning!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over the weekend, Meg and I ventured to the Emirates Palace Hotel for lunch.  Costing over $3 billion to construct (reportedly the most expensive hotel ever), the Palace Hotel is pretty impressive and home to some great restaurants, a private beach and the world&#8217;s first gold vending machine.  <\/p>\n<p>Yes &#8211; you read that correctly &#8211; a vending machine that dispenses gold.  The machine gives you a selection of about 12 different options.  Each one is like a little pendant and branded with a country.  For example there was a piece that had the Swiss flag, one that had a picture of the Emirates Palace, etc. The cheapest you could buy was a gram for a few hundred dollars&#8230;all the way up to several ounces (i.e. thousands of dollars).  And the best part &#8211; it was cash only!!  <\/p>\n<p>The food at Mezzaluna (Italian) was superb and helped fill a dietary void we had for several weeks.  Speaking of food, we found it interesting that the Hotel uses over 5kg of edible gold per year in some of its desserts.  Also interesting &#8211; before the guard at the front gate would let our cab onto the property, he inspected our dress.  There is a strict policy of conservative dress on the grounds.  After we were waved through, Meg and I quietly pumped our fists in victory!  Score one for the Yanks!<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_344\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-344\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/in-front-of-hotel.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-344\" title=\"in front of hotel\" src=\"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/in-front-of-hotel-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/in-front-of-hotel-225x300.jpg 225w, http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/in-front-of-hotel-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-344\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">So this is what $3 billion buys you?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_345\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-345\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/meg-in-front-of-the-hotel.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-345\" title=\"meg in front of the hotel\" src=\"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/meg-in-front-of-the-hotel-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/meg-in-front-of-the-hotel-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/meg-in-front-of-the-hotel-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-345\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Megan looks beautiful (and was apparently dressed well enough to get in!)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_343\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-343\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gold-vending-machine.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-343\" title=\"gold vending machine\" src=\"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gold-vending-machine-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gold-vending-machine-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gold-vending-machine-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-343\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gold Vending machine - just in case you thought I was making that up<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gold-vending-machine-write-up.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-342\" title=\"gold vending machine write-up\" src=\"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gold-vending-machine-write-up-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gold-vending-machine-write-up-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/gold-vending-machine-write-up-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><object width=\"480\" height=\"385\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/mo4fiWRIQkg?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/mo4fiWRIQkg?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"480\" height=\"385\"><\/embed><\/object><br \/>\n<object width=\"480\" height=\"385\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/nCVAJrf6t2I?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/nCVAJrf6t2I?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"480\" height=\"385\"><\/embed><\/object><br \/>\n<object width=\"480\" height=\"385\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/UHU0nItxNyI?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/UHU0nItxNyI?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"480\" height=\"385\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the weekend, Meg and I ventured to the Emirates Palace Hotel for lunch. Costing over $3 billion to construct (reportedly the most expensive hotel ever), the Palace Hotel is pretty impressive and home to some great restaurants, a private beach and the world&#8217;s first gold vending machine. Yes &#8211; you read that correctly &#8211;&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/to-the-emirates-palace-as-fast-as-lightning\/\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[7,15],"class_list":["post-341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-picture","category-video","tag-food","tag-out-and-about"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1406,"href":"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341\/revisions\/1406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tuckers.cc\/brian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}