A nice day trip down to Abu Dhabi, the only Emirate that I haven't visited yet so completing my "collection" so to speak. We had thought about renting a car and had planned to use it yesterday to drive to the dive center and then today to drive to Abu Dhabi but really, everyone on the road seems to think they are training to be Formula One drivers so I didn't want to partake of that training. We hired a tour and thought we were going by a bus with other people but we ended up with a car and driver and our own private little tour. OK by me. Imrod (and seriously, I thought he first said his name was Nimrod) picked us up a bit after 8 and away we go. Our itinerary is: Sheik Zayed Mosque, the Emirates Palace Hotel, The Presidential Palace, the Art Institute, a walk on the Corniche, lunch at the Marina Mall, the Heritage Village and finally Yas Island where the Formula One race track is located. Sounds like a full day to me.
As we are driving out of Dubai, we continue to pass the small cities that make up the larger Dubai, stands of skyscrapers sticking up out of the sand like sentinel stands of redwoods all connected apparently by the monorail and the multi-lane highways. And we finally saw a couple of the monorails. So far we have driven beside the tracks for miles and nary a monorail one to see so check that off the list now. yea.
Dubai has a haze hanging over it. We know it is the beginnings of being a very polluted city and if they aren't careful, they'll end up like Beijing on a hot day. We did ask our guide, Imrod, and he stated that it was sea haze. yea, right. We'll cover the energy consumption later but we did pass the power plants and the aluminum plant and both were belching a reddish haze into the sky.
Finally we hit the border between Dubai and Abu Dhabi and the buildings slow down to a minimum and we get some desert scenes again and my hubby and I both take a nap. I think it is a defense mechanism in order not to go crazy scared at the driving . If we sleep, we don't see the near misses and can't tell quite how fast we are going. The speed limit is 140 kph (about 86 mph) and I can hear the "beep, beep, beep" as we hit it. Our driver today though just ignores it and pushes down the accelerator harder. Yes, sleep is definitely a defense mechanism plus we will be all limp and bendy in a crash and able to tumble better. gulp.
Our first stop will be the mosque and oh what a mosque. It is magnificent and just incredible. We are told we have 1/2 hour. I think it takes at least that long to walk up to it and walk through it. I know we were longer than 1/2 hour. so much for timing. We had gotten a phone call last night that informed us that I needed to wear long pants and long sleeves but that an abaya (abbaya - seen it spelled both ways) would be provided if I didn't have on the proper clothes. We are let out at the side and we walk around to the front where my hubby enters through the main door and I am directed to the side where I can get my abaya. We've also been informed that after Dec 1, the mosque will no longer provide abayas for women who are not properly dressed as they had too many being stolen! rather ironic. So if that's true, anyone showing up without a scarf and proper covering will just have to stay outside and that would be a shame because it is so worth going inside . And they let you take photos throughout which is really nice.
The columns appear to be marble and they are each inlaid with stones of varying types to make designs of flowers going up the columns. The place is huge, possibly the biggest mosque I've ever been inside, and the prayer niche inside is covered in gold leaf or gold paint. There are three chandeliers inside with iridescent glass works on them and are beautifully designed like hanging flowers. It was a beautiful place inside. We walked through, following the path set out by the ropes and then back outside and back around to where I relinquished my abaya, not stealing it, and then back to the car. Not sure how anything else in Abu Dhabi can compare with this.
So our next stop is Emirates Palace Hotel. It is also a huge place and magnificently built but hard to photograph. We are trying to get a photo as we drive up to it but we kept getting things in the way and then we are at the front door with "You have 1/2 hour to look around". It's not near as impressive inside as say, the Grand Mosque or Burj Al Arab, but still quite nice. I really wanted a better shot of the outside with it's cascading waterfall from the top of the drive (it is built up on a hill) but not sure we ever got what I wanted. Later we were across a small waterfront area and had a much better of the hotel and also of the Presidential Palace. The Emirates Palace hotel has something like 140 domes on it, from very tiny to the large one over the main part. But the only way to get a good photo is from across the bay.
The Presidential Palace is our next stop, or rather our drive by . We didn't get our invitations in time to go in and meet the President so we just drove up his entryway drive and turned around at the gates so as not to bother the machine gun toting guards. Not supposed to take any photos but of course we snuck in a few as we were driving up to the gate, before we saw the machine gun toting guards. My hubby is getting me to hide the camera just in case. And as huge and magnificent and grand and ornate and rich as this palace looks, it was the current president's father's palace so the current president is building a new palace which will be even more OTT.
We're doing good on time for Imrod and he gives us some extra time at the next stop which is the Art Institute. We were under the impression, for some mysterious and unknown reason, that this was an art gallery which would display art of the area, like a museum might. Well, it certainly displayed art of the area which was all for sale at very inflated prices but wait - of course it's an investment to buy a gold threaded embroidered tree of life with semi-precious stones set it the branches to protect and guard your family and wealth. We had a very oily haired gentlemen following us around and presenting the many "paintings" of embroidered work which were lovely but we finally explained that it just wouldn't fit into our decor as we were "Old Masters and Impressionists" fans . I'm sure he thought we probably had a Monet or two and a Van Gogh at home. He assured us that his work would go with these rather well but we declined and ended up leaving well within our time limits.
Ah, the day just gets better and better. Next stop, the Heritage Village which actually seems to still be under construction but yet is open and had about 8 different school groups there, all of whom were speaking English and all of whom had many horns and whistles (the boys must have all had an allowance to spend). There was a small row of shops with the usual tourist kitsch junk and then a small area with desert tents to show what would have been used before concrete and aluminium and skyscrapers. They had one camel, one horse, and one donkey. At the other end, they had 3 sheep, one bull, and a couple of goats plus some ducks wandering the grounds until they'd get chased under a bush by one of the school groups only to come out later and get chased by a different school group. There was also a small row of traditional craftsmen who had their equipment actually in the shops and were actually making the items for sale in the shops. Woodworking, leather, glass blowing, pottery, boat building, carpet weaving, We finally have made a purchase! We got a nice little blown glass camel Christmas tree ornament. Huzzah!
That took about our entire time limit to go from one end to the other and also to find the toilet area which only had squatties. always my favorite kind - NOT. And on to our next big adventure of the day, a walk on the Corniche. The Corniche is quite an item with all the Middle Eastern countries it seems . I haven't been in one yet that doesn't advertise a walk on the Corniche as quite the thing to do to see and be seen and enjoy the ocean. hmmm. Almost got hit by heat stroke walking the Corniche in Doha, Qatar. And this one turned out to be a stop by the Corniche, not a walk. My hubby's side of the car had the child protection lock on it so he couldn't even get out of the car. I hopped out and dutifully took a couple of photos of the Corniche view and then we are off to the mall for lunch.
Lunch is included in our tour package. Kind of figured we'd go to some nice Arabian type restaurant for some typical food. We park at the Marina Mall, which might be the smallest mall in UAE, and follow our guide, Imrod, into the mall. He leads the way up the escalator and leads us to - wait for it because this was so exciting - a food court!!!! TADA! He says we can pick anything and he will pay for it. wow. such a choice. We ended up with shrimp and fish at Popeye's and they still got the order wrong and we only got one drink. oh my. Then we had 1/2 hour (what is with the 1/2 hour everywhere) to wander the mall before heading out for our last adventure on our day tour of Abu Dhabi.
My hubby thought to check and see what was on at the movies . Looks like pretty much the same things that are on at home but we don't know if the movies are dubbed or subtitled. anyway, no time to go to a movie now anyway. We did have to go by a perfume stand twice that just about knocked us out with the strong smell, almost stench, of the perfume. As we have had to stand upwind of several of our guides and drivers, possibly there is a reason for the overpowering perfume.
We are off for our last visit which is also a drive by. We drive over the bridge to Saadinay (might be spelled wrong) Island which, like Dubai, is a man made island and has been made strickly to provide a place to build more villas and apartments and shops and stores. And it was huge. They (Dubai and Abu Dhabi) have both chosen to dump sand and rocks into the sea and build islands rather than going inland. Yas Island, next to Saadinay, is also man made and is busy building up the villas and places to live. Just think, we could probably get in on the ground floor and buy a villa or two.
Oh what a day. now we are heading back to Dubai and both of us fall asleep as quickly as possible to protect us from the harshness of the speed of our journey . Abu Dhabi is a poor relation of Dubai in terms of skyscrapers and development. But in both Emirates, everywhere you look is more and more construction. I don't see that they will ever stop building things and making more islands and more houses and such until they run out of money and then both places are going to be very ugly indeed with such large needs of water and such huge buildings that are going to end up empty.
We tell Imrod to drop us at the Mall of the Emirates. That is the location of Ski Dubai and we figure it is as much an attraction as some of the other man made things we have gone to see. We walk into the mall and the first 8 or 9 shops we see are English: Harvey Nickels, Debinhams, Zara, TopShop, etc. How funny is that. We are looking to find something nice for my daughter but every jewelry shop we approach is selling items from France, Italy, Turkey, etc. It is rather hard to find something actually made here!
We find Ski Dubai and there are a few people riding the ski lift to the top and then we can barely see them returning down the slope. There is a man doing the penguin encounter show for a small group that is inside the area . They look to have about 5 or 6 Emporer penguins which are walking around in their tuxedos and then are herded back into their pen. There is also a luge ride which looks to be a bit too short and sharp on the turns. The people we saw using it were bumping rather hard around the turns we thought. And also a zorbing on the snow slope in a giant snowball. All looking like good fun.
The mall is looking decidedly sparse though. At the Ski Dubai end, there is a huge entertainment and game section and no one using the games or entertainment at all. And maybe 8 or 10 people riding the ski lifts. The best visited area and area getting the most business was Carrefour with people coming out of there with full carts. Anyway, we walked the entire mall several times and saw almost all of the shops, I am sure. Found a pharmacy where we could buy antibiotics without a prescription so they will be good for some of my trips that are in some odd countries. And then we took a taxi back to our hotel and my hubby sat in the front seat like an old hand at traveling around in these Muslim countries and for his self preservation, he fell asleep. He needed to as we were weaving in and out of traffic like a slalom skier, and at a high rate of speed, and we got the special long way around route too. Oh well. it was a fun and interesting day to see all the contrasts between the two biggest and most prosperous Emirates.
As we are driving out of Dubai, we continue to pass the small cities that make up the larger Dubai, stands of skyscrapers sticking up out of the sand like sentinel stands of redwoods all connected apparently by the monorail and the multi-lane highways. And we finally saw a couple of the monorails. So far we have driven beside the tracks for miles and nary a monorail one to see so check that off the list now. yea.
Dubai has a haze hanging over it. We know it is the beginnings of being a very polluted city and if they aren't careful, they'll end up like Beijing on a hot day. We did ask our guide, Imrod, and he stated that it was sea haze. yea, right. We'll cover the energy consumption later but we did pass the power plants and the aluminum plant and both were belching a reddish haze into the sky.
Finally we hit the border between Dubai and Abu Dhabi and the buildings slow down to a minimum and we get some desert scenes again and my hubby and I both take a nap. I think it is a defense mechanism in order not to go crazy scared at the driving . If we sleep, we don't see the near misses and can't tell quite how fast we are going. The speed limit is 140 kph (about 86 mph) and I can hear the "beep, beep, beep" as we hit it. Our driver today though just ignores it and pushes down the accelerator harder. Yes, sleep is definitely a defense mechanism plus we will be all limp and bendy in a crash and able to tumble better. gulp.
Our first stop will be the mosque and oh what a mosque. It is magnificent and just incredible. We are told we have 1/2 hour. I think it takes at least that long to walk up to it and walk through it. I know we were longer than 1/2 hour. so much for timing. We had gotten a phone call last night that informed us that I needed to wear long pants and long sleeves but that an abaya (abbaya - seen it spelled both ways) would be provided if I didn't have on the proper clothes. We are let out at the side and we walk around to the front where my hubby enters through the main door and I am directed to the side where I can get my abaya. We've also been informed that after Dec 1, the mosque will no longer provide abayas for women who are not properly dressed as they had too many being stolen! rather ironic. So if that's true, anyone showing up without a scarf and proper covering will just have to stay outside and that would be a shame because it is so worth going inside . And they let you take photos throughout which is really nice.
The columns appear to be marble and they are each inlaid with stones of varying types to make designs of flowers going up the columns. The place is huge, possibly the biggest mosque I've ever been inside, and the prayer niche inside is covered in gold leaf or gold paint. There are three chandeliers inside with iridescent glass works on them and are beautifully designed like hanging flowers. It was a beautiful place inside. We walked through, following the path set out by the ropes and then back outside and back around to where I relinquished my abaya, not stealing it, and then back to the car. Not sure how anything else in Abu Dhabi can compare with this.
So our next stop is Emirates Palace Hotel. It is also a huge place and magnificently built but hard to photograph. We are trying to get a photo as we drive up to it but we kept getting things in the way and then we are at the front door with "You have 1/2 hour to look around". It's not near as impressive inside as say, the Grand Mosque or Burj Al Arab, but still quite nice. I really wanted a better shot of the outside with it's cascading waterfall from the top of the drive (it is built up on a hill) but not sure we ever got what I wanted. Later we were across a small waterfront area and had a much better of the hotel and also of the Presidential Palace. The Emirates Palace hotel has something like 140 domes on it, from very tiny to the large one over the main part. But the only way to get a good photo is from across the bay.
The Presidential Palace is our next stop, or rather our drive by . We didn't get our invitations in time to go in and meet the President so we just drove up his entryway drive and turned around at the gates so as not to bother the machine gun toting guards. Not supposed to take any photos but of course we snuck in a few as we were driving up to the gate, before we saw the machine gun toting guards. My hubby is getting me to hide the camera just in case. And as huge and magnificent and grand and ornate and rich as this palace looks, it was the current president's father's palace so the current president is building a new palace which will be even more OTT.
We're doing good on time for Imrod and he gives us some extra time at the next stop which is the Art Institute. We were under the impression, for some mysterious and unknown reason, that this was an art gallery which would display art of the area, like a museum might. Well, it certainly displayed art of the area which was all for sale at very inflated prices but wait - of course it's an investment to buy a gold threaded embroidered tree of life with semi-precious stones set it the branches to protect and guard your family and wealth. We had a very oily haired gentlemen following us around and presenting the many "paintings" of embroidered work which were lovely but we finally explained that it just wouldn't fit into our decor as we were "Old Masters and Impressionists" fans . I'm sure he thought we probably had a Monet or two and a Van Gogh at home. He assured us that his work would go with these rather well but we declined and ended up leaving well within our time limits.
Ah, the day just gets better and better. Next stop, the Heritage Village which actually seems to still be under construction but yet is open and had about 8 different school groups there, all of whom were speaking English and all of whom had many horns and whistles (the boys must have all had an allowance to spend). There was a small row of shops with the usual tourist kitsch junk and then a small area with desert tents to show what would have been used before concrete and aluminium and skyscrapers. They had one camel, one horse, and one donkey. At the other end, they had 3 sheep, one bull, and a couple of goats plus some ducks wandering the grounds until they'd get chased under a bush by one of the school groups only to come out later and get chased by a different school group. There was also a small row of traditional craftsmen who had their equipment actually in the shops and were actually making the items for sale in the shops. Woodworking, leather, glass blowing, pottery, boat building, carpet weaving, We finally have made a purchase! We got a nice little blown glass camel Christmas tree ornament. Huzzah!
That took about our entire time limit to go from one end to the other and also to find the toilet area which only had squatties. always my favorite kind - NOT. And on to our next big adventure of the day, a walk on the Corniche. The Corniche is quite an item with all the Middle Eastern countries it seems . I haven't been in one yet that doesn't advertise a walk on the Corniche as quite the thing to do to see and be seen and enjoy the ocean. hmmm. Almost got hit by heat stroke walking the Corniche in Doha, Qatar. And this one turned out to be a stop by the Corniche, not a walk. My hubby's side of the car had the child protection lock on it so he couldn't even get out of the car. I hopped out and dutifully took a couple of photos of the Corniche view and then we are off to the mall for lunch.
Lunch is included in our tour package. Kind of figured we'd go to some nice Arabian type restaurant for some typical food. We park at the Marina Mall, which might be the smallest mall in UAE, and follow our guide, Imrod, into the mall. He leads the way up the escalator and leads us to - wait for it because this was so exciting - a food court!!!! TADA! He says we can pick anything and he will pay for it. wow. such a choice. We ended up with shrimp and fish at Popeye's and they still got the order wrong and we only got one drink. oh my. Then we had 1/2 hour (what is with the 1/2 hour everywhere) to wander the mall before heading out for our last adventure on our day tour of Abu Dhabi.
My hubby thought to check and see what was on at the movies . Looks like pretty much the same things that are on at home but we don't know if the movies are dubbed or subtitled. anyway, no time to go to a movie now anyway. We did have to go by a perfume stand twice that just about knocked us out with the strong smell, almost stench, of the perfume. As we have had to stand upwind of several of our guides and drivers, possibly there is a reason for the overpowering perfume.
We are off for our last visit which is also a drive by. We drive over the bridge to Saadinay (might be spelled wrong) Island which, like Dubai, is a man made island and has been made strickly to provide a place to build more villas and apartments and shops and stores. And it was huge. They (Dubai and Abu Dhabi) have both chosen to dump sand and rocks into the sea and build islands rather than going inland. Yas Island, next to Saadinay, is also man made and is busy building up the villas and places to live. Just think, we could probably get in on the ground floor and buy a villa or two.
Oh what a day. now we are heading back to Dubai and both of us fall asleep as quickly as possible to protect us from the harshness of the speed of our journey . Abu Dhabi is a poor relation of Dubai in terms of skyscrapers and development. But in both Emirates, everywhere you look is more and more construction. I don't see that they will ever stop building things and making more islands and more houses and such until they run out of money and then both places are going to be very ugly indeed with such large needs of water and such huge buildings that are going to end up empty.
We tell Imrod to drop us at the Mall of the Emirates. That is the location of Ski Dubai and we figure it is as much an attraction as some of the other man made things we have gone to see. We walk into the mall and the first 8 or 9 shops we see are English: Harvey Nickels, Debinhams, Zara, TopShop, etc. How funny is that. We are looking to find something nice for my daughter but every jewelry shop we approach is selling items from France, Italy, Turkey, etc. It is rather hard to find something actually made here!
We find Ski Dubai and there are a few people riding the ski lift to the top and then we can barely see them returning down the slope. There is a man doing the penguin encounter show for a small group that is inside the area . They look to have about 5 or 6 Emporer penguins which are walking around in their tuxedos and then are herded back into their pen. There is also a luge ride which looks to be a bit too short and sharp on the turns. The people we saw using it were bumping rather hard around the turns we thought. And also a zorbing on the snow slope in a giant snowball. All looking like good fun.
The mall is looking decidedly sparse though. At the Ski Dubai end, there is a huge entertainment and game section and no one using the games or entertainment at all. And maybe 8 or 10 people riding the ski lifts. The best visited area and area getting the most business was Carrefour with people coming out of there with full carts. Anyway, we walked the entire mall several times and saw almost all of the shops, I am sure. Found a pharmacy where we could buy antibiotics without a prescription so they will be good for some of my trips that are in some odd countries. And then we took a taxi back to our hotel and my hubby sat in the front seat like an old hand at traveling around in these Muslim countries and for his self preservation, he fell asleep. He needed to as we were weaving in and out of traffic like a slalom skier, and at a high rate of speed, and we got the special long way around route too. Oh well. it was a fun and interesting day to see all the contrasts between the two biggest and most prosperous Emirates.
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