When Trish was in town I finally was able to visit Abu Dhabi. Interestingly enough, when I originally moved to Dubai the plan was for me eventually open a branch in Abu Dhabi. But that never materialized. Well, we opened a shop there but everything was baked in Dubai, and thus I stayed there.
Anyhoo, Easter Sunday (which is a typical work day in the Middle East) Trish and I hopped into my little rental car and with a few instructions we were off to visit Abu Dhabi. I was a bit nervous about the drive and figured I would know I made a wrong turn once I hit the Saudi border. Miraculously the drive was quite easy. The only problem I had was the lack of cruise control on my car--and that beeping noise the car made every time I went over the speed limit. Which was, incidentally, 120 km per hour. The cars around us were going 120 miles per hour.
Abu Dhabi isn't at all like Dubai. Dubai has all of that crazy architecture, and Abu Dhabi is more suburban. They do have their wild construction plans, but the Emirate is very conservative in their spending habits--if they don't have the dirhams, they don't build. This is why they can bail out Dubai who is a bit more like the prodigal son when it comes to spending that oil inheritance.
The main attraction in Abu Dhabi is the Sheik Rashid Mosque--which, unlike most mosques, is actually open to the public a few hours of the day. It is gorgeous.
In order to go in, all women had to put on the abaya and shayla--the black robes and head scarves. I was kind of excited to see what I looked like in that traditional dress that I had seen for over a year. Of course the ones they hand out at the mosque are rather generic and lack all the fancy trimming, but it was very cool nonetheless. Well, not necessarily temperature cool...
In a way, the mosque reminded me of our Mormon temples: special clothes, white, chandeliers, and breathtaking details. However, there is a lack of furniture in mosques, but that is replaced with fabulous rugs.
It was hard deciding which pictures to post. I can't wait to see my friend's pictures--since she's a professional photographer...
After the mosque we parked at the beach and decided to walk to our next destination. Five minutes later we were back in our car because it was just too friggin' hot. In no time at all we arrived at the Emirates Palace: a grand hotel, concert venue, and current residence of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan: Ruler of Abu Dhabi and President of the United Arab Emirates. We saw his car. In fact, I may or may not have parked in the guest parking lot. It looked like some guard was trying to flag me down, but since no one came running after me with machine guns, I figured we were fine. What tipped me off to my probable error was the lack of other guest cars, and the presence of more official looking vehicles with the special military license plates. But like I said, no one came chasing after me with any sort of artillery.
I really wanted to run through the fountain at the Emirates Palace, but I was already on thin ice with my parking choices, so I wisely opted against it. Trish and I did have our bathing suits, so we decided to cool off at Aquaventure--the a-mazing water park at the Atlantis Hotel. I was a trifle nervous at first. Water parks have two items that I am a bit scared of: water and heights. So before I entered each ride I repeated the following mantra: "No One Has Died at this Waterpark."
Since I didn't drown, I had a pretty good time. I refused to go on the one that went straight down, instead I re-enjoyed the ride that ends up in a shark tank. Note the above picture so that you will know that there is a plexiglass wall separating the sharks from park patrons. It was pretty cool. And the water did it's job in cooling us off on such a hot day.
