Visitor Adventures: Shopping!

No trip to UAE is complete without a little shopping. We saw the Dubai Mall and the Mall of the Emirates - the huge mega-malls with every fashion designer you can think of and most stores we can't even afford to go into, let alone buy something from. We also spent some time haggling in the Dubai Gold Souk - gold everywhere and some of the gaudiest pieces you could possibly imagine and yet, both ladies found something they liked and bargained for a fair price. We spent some time in the Souk Madinat Jumeirah, which is  a newer souk made to look like an old souk. And we ended our shopping at the Dubai "Antique Museum" which is really just a HUGE warehouse of all kinds of souvenirs - some nice and some tacky. Here are a collection of photos from our shopping excursions. Enjoy.

Visitor Adventures: Trip to Al Ain

On Friday (the first day of our weekend here) we rented a van and took the group to Al Ain, a neighboring city in the Abu Dhabi Emirate and about a 90-minute drive. The trip was great with lots of sand dunes and a few camels to see.

As it was Friday (Muslim holy day) we had to plan our time to coincide with the museum openings, which were later in the day. So, we started off our adventures by driving through the Al Ain Oasis. The Oasis is a lush green area in the desert (actually the middle of town, but this whole place is a desert, remember) with thousands of date palms. The area is broken up into plots which are owned by local farmers and each plot uses the traditional irrigation system you'll see in the photos below. It was gorgeous and so interesting to find this in the middle of the city. Here are a few photos.

This is the road through the whole Oasis, which was a fairly large area. You just wind around and get a little lost and eventually come out the other end. You can see a gate on the left, which is the entrance to one of the plots.

This photo is taken through the gate of one of the plots. The cement trough in the middle is the irrigation system. This particular plot had a lot of grass and open space, some of the others were packed with trees.

After the Oasis, we climbed the Jebel Hafeet "mountain". No, it's not very tall, but in the land of flat sand, it's pretty impressive. At the top, we stopped at the Mercure hotel and had a nice buffet lunch outside with a wonderful view of Al Ain.

The winding road to the top. Unfortunately, it was really hazy that day with sand so the views weren't too great.

 The group at the top.

This was taken INSIDE the Mercure hotel. A whole wall of living vines hanging down from the ceiling. Wonder how they keep them watered and looking so nice?

After lunch, we headed back down the mountain and stopped at the Al Jahili fort and visited the small museum there. Then, we stopped in at the National Museum, which was really nice. Definitely the nicest museum I've seen so far in UAE. I guess it stands to reason that a country only 40 years old hasn't invested heavily yet in museums. ;)

One of the amazing photographs in the Jahili Fort exhibit that chronicles the travels across the desert of Wilfred Thesiger before oil was discovered. A really interesting and informative exhibit.

Also an interesting cultural experience. We arrived at 4:40 and the fort was scheduled to close at 5:00. When we walked in, the guard alerted us to this fact - okay fine. Then, he proceeded to follow us through the photography exhibit and continued to remind us about every 2 minutes (okay, I exaggerate a little, but only a little). When he did it again at 4:45, I said, "we have 15 minutes right?" "Yes, madam" and he stopped ... for about 5 minutes. The guard was an expat.

After the photos, we walked around a bit and then went into the other side of the fort where we were warmly greeted by 3 Emirati women (the guard was still following us to make sure we didn't overstay our welcome). It was now 5:00 and we were getting ready to leave. The Emirati woman asked if we had seen the exhibit about one of the former UAE rulers, and we said no. She said we must go see it and were welcome to do so. I shot a look at the guard and told her, "but it's late, I think we need to leave." She replied, "no problem. I wait for you. Please go and see." We did, and the exhibit was great and we learned another lesson about the hospitality of the UAE culture. Never would an Emirati rush a guest or shoo them out before they were ready.

 The two guards who were late for dinner because of us.

 One of the nice exhibits in the National museum.

Another exhibit of a traditional Emirati Majlis. Think of it as the guest living room in a traditional home. They had one set up as an example.

At by then it was after 6 and time to head home. A great day and some interesting sights.

Visitor Adventures: We worked, they played

The next few days, our visitors were on their own and Brian and I were both working. Here are a few of the fun things they did:

Falcon Hospital Tour
I've written about the importance of falcons to the UAE culture (some even have passports!) and this hospital is one of the facilities that cares for these amazing birds. They offer a tour or a tour and lunch option for visitors and from the descriptions that evening over dinner, it was well worth the visit. They got to learn about the falcons, see an operation in progress and tour the whole facility, finished off with a nice Arabic lunch. Definitely a 'must-do' for anyone coming to the area.

Big Bus City Tour
The Big Bus company operates in a lot of major cities including Abu Dhabi and Dubai. It's a nice way to get to know the area and included in the ticket is an audio tour in a variety of languages. It's a 'hop-on, hop-off' tour that visits the major attractions in the city and allows you to jump off and explore and catch the next bus when you're ready. The benefit was it gave them a good sense of the major tourist spots (and made sure we didn't forget anything on the tour schedule. :) Despite a bit of wind, everyone seemed to really enjoy the tour.

Trip to Sharjah
On Wednesday, they ventured out of Abu Dhabi with our reliable taxi driver, Mohammad, to a neighboring Emirate and city called Sharjah. Sharjah is about 2.5 hours from downtown Abu Dhabi where they were staying and allowed them a nice view of the UAE desert - and they passed through Dubai on the way, which is a always a treat. The destination in Sharjah was the Blue Souk. This is technically the Central Market of Sharjah, but because it's made of these beautiful blue tiles, everyone calls it the Blue Souk. It's a mall, but offers traditional stuff as opposed to high end fashion designers. They got to wander around the shops and see silver, carpets, pashminas, tourist junk and a whole floor of gold jewelry stores. I think they had a good time here, but not sure it was worth the 5 hour round trip. These are a few photos from my visit back in Spring 2011.

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
Hands down a highlight of the trip. I've heard it twice compared to the Taj Mahal. I've posted on the Grand Mosque before so won't repeat myself. They went in time for the 10am tour and loved it. Ladies have to don traditional Abaya and Sheila to enter the mosque and everyone has to remove their shoes. It's a really great experience and another 'must do' if you're in Abu Dhabi. A few of my favorite photos of the Mosque.

High Tea at Emirate's Palace
As you know, we'd been having difficulty getting in to the Emirate's Palace and on the Big Bus tour, the group found out that they no longer welcome visitors. To get in, you have to have reservations for and event or tea or dinner or ... So, the group decided to sign up for High Tea. Yes, it was expensive, but judging from the fact that no one was hungry for dinner that night, it sounds like it was worth the dirhams. A spread of sandwiches, meats, cheeses and of course loads of deserts kept them busy for almost 2 hours and they really enjoyed the experience.

So, there is lots to do my friends! Have you booked your tickets yet?

Visitor Adventures: Lost in Abu Dhabi

If you follow my blog regularly, you know that Brian and I have a knack for getting lost while on vacation. Now, one would think that since we live in Abu Dhabi and it's not technically our vacation, that we would be spared the 'getting lost adventure', but alas, no.

Brian was in Dubai for work for the day so I had charge of the visitors and a great plan to take a tour of the Falcon hospital where they care for and operate on falcons. I rented a car big enough for the 5 of us, looked up directions on Google Maps and left in plenty of time to make our 10:00 tour.

And all was going well ... until the Yas Island interchange. Where I took a wrong turn - and as you know, a wrong turn in Abu Dhabi means at least 15-20 minutes to get back to where you started. I laughed it off and made the best of it by pointing out Ferrari world, the Yas Viceroy hotel and the IKEA on Yas Island.

Back on track and the correct turn this time. But then things went awry again and the road we were on didn't seem to be listed on the map I had printed. Things didn't look good and I didn't have a phone number for the hospital. So, we tried to flag a taxi, which didn't work and stopped alongside an accident to ask for help ... which didn't help. More driving around and I decided to 'phone a friend'.

A few embarrassing phone calls to Brian, friends and a co-worker later and I got a phone number for the Falcon hospital ... it was now almost 11:00 (our tour was supposed to start at 10). They kindly suggested we re-schedule for the next day after having no clue where I was or how far I was from the hospital. I knew it was bad when they offered to pick us up at the Airport terminal so we could follow them to the hospital the next day. To heck with that, I was turning in the rental car and calling a reliable taxi driver!

So, the Falcon hospital tour had to wait for Monday, and since I had to go back to work, we sent the visitors with our taxi driver, Mohamed (who found the place with no trouble whatsoever). And good thing too as the tour was one of their favorites of the whole visit.

Now, what to do with the rest of our Sunday? We tried to go back to Emirate's Palace, but were again turned away since we didn't have reservations. They found out later on one of their bus tours that Emirate's Palace hotel no longer lets tourists just wander around - the only way to get in is to make reservations for lunch, dinner or high tea (more on that in another post).

It was way past time for lunch so we headed for The One, which is a furniture store with a wonderful restaurant. Yes, you read that right, we had lunch in a furniture store, and it was delicious. Then, we stopped at Zadina to buy some fancy dates, then to the Central Market to do a little souvenir shopping and then back to the apartment.

Not quite the day we had planned, but everyone said they really enjoyed the almost 3 hour drive to nowhere as it gave them a chance to see the scenery. ... I'm pretty sure they were just being kind. :)

Visitor Adventures: Desert Safari

The Desert Safari is one of the most popular tourist adventures over here. First, you do some dune bashing, which is basically driving up and down the sand dunes in a Land Cruiser, hanging on for dear life, and hoping and praying the driver doesn't roll the truck. My dad asked our driver if he had ever rolled a truck, and the driver just nodded quickly and silently - I don't think you're supposed to ask them that until AFTER you're safely finished with the ride.

Dune bashing is not for the feint of heart or the sensitive of stomach, and if you've got a bad back, forget about it. I, personally, am not a fan of the dune bashing as I tend to get car sick and just don't enjoy fearing for my life in that way, but our visitors loved it. I'm not sure everyone would do it a second time, but they loved it. :)

During a break in the bashing (to let the trucks cool off a bit, I'm sure), we stopped at what seemed to be a camel farm. Lots of friendly camels very willing to be on film.

Back for some more bashing (ugh).

Next on the agenda were the camel rides. Pretty short, but an experience nonetheless. The ride's not so bad it's the getting on and getting off that's the real adventure!

And then it was off to the BBQ - complete with belly dancer, henna painting, shisha smoking and a wonderful Arabic buffet. A good time was had by all as you can see in the photos.

 Henna is a powdered plant material mixed with water and then 'drawn' on your skin to make designs or 'tattoos'. You let it dry for about 20 minutes and the stain on your skin lasts about 2 weeks.

Shisha is flavored tobacco and is smoked through a hooka pipe, which you can't see in the photo. We had apple flavor and had a laugh at everyone trying to smoke without coughing.