Abu Dhabi – Fast Cars and Gold Bars

Our Desert Safari

We ended the seven week Middle East portion of our honeymoon/round the world trip with three nights in the city of Abu Dhabi. Our goal was to end this portion of our trip with sun drenched luxury before heading to what we thought would be a cold winter in North America. We succeeded in achieving the sun drenched luxury that we were looking for in Abu Dhabi but were wrong in thinking North America was going to be cold when we got there, at least not in California where it was practically beach weather.

The Sheikh Zayeed Mosque from a Distance in Abu Dhabi

On arrival into the fancy Abu Dhabi airport we caught a BMW 750 limousine from the airport to the Le Meridien hotel which was to be our home for the next three nights. I say caught because the limos are lined up outside alongside the taxi cabs and seem to cost close to the same. We knew we were in a flash place when the fancy BMW was about the same price as a cab.  On arrival at the hotel we lived it up some more and upgraded to the club room which gave us access to the lounge facilities and a top floor room with a sea view.  We’re in Abu Dhabi after all, why not live it up a bit.

Our first stop in Abu Dhabi was the Abu Dhabi Mall which was a convenient 3 minute walk from our hotel. Walking into the mall I distinctly felt like I was in an American mall, a mall in Beverly Hills I might add, that is until I saw all the traditionally dressed men and women walking along and remembered we were still in the Middle East. I think we saw more traditionally dressed men and women in Abu Dhabi than most places we visited in the Middle East. It’s nice to see some of the traditions still present, they may be driving a Bentley but at least some of the customs remain.

Fun on the Dunes

The next day we hailed a cab and went to visit the Heritage Village where we witnessed many of the traditional ways these desert inhabitants survived throughout history. Irrigation techniques and pottery making were both very interesting but I was more interested in the sword craftsmanship. We stopped for a while to rest on the white sand beach while watching the locals race fancy jet skis around at a million miles an hour. Seriously, all these guys/girls seem to do  all day was ride their jet skis as fast as they could go up and down this stretch of beach about 300 meters long. Apparently the area we were in near the Marina Mall was a popular cruising area for fast expensive cars, personal watercraft and large boats. While watching the jet skiers we must have seen the same sets of exotic cars drive by 10 times. After the umpteenth  Ferrari, Aston Martin and Porsche all the cars seemed to blend in and just became obnoxious.

Hanging out on the Beach

Leaving the impromptu car show behind we headed for the Marina Mall where we did some more shopping, checked out the indoor ice skating rink and went up the view tower which sits high above the Marina Mall and offers a coffee bar and restaurant where you can sit and enjoy 360 degree views of Abu Dhabi. We caught an amazing sunset from the tower and watched the Emirates Palace Hotel light up along with the rest of Abu Dhabi’s glamorous skyline.

Enjoying the View from the Marina Mall Tower

The following day we were off to the 7 Star Emirates Palace Hotel for a quick sightseeing trip. We were dropped off in front of the hotel and immediately  felt out of our league as we noticed a Bugatti Veyron parked in the valet. With a price tag of over 2 million dollars, the car, surrounded by photo takers is the fastest and one of the most expensive production cars in the world. Unfortunately I was wearing shorts (it was a warm day) so I wasn’t allowed in the hotel, apparently there’s a dress code for visitors.  I practically begged Pamela to go inside, which she finally agreed to do while I enjoyed the views from outside the hotel and watched bucket loads of tour buses drop off tourists. It definitely seemed like there were more people visiting the hotel than actually staying there.

The Valet at the Emirates Palace Hotel

Looking up at the Emirates Palace Hotel

While inside the hotel Pamela did her best to dodge countless security guards while taking photos of Christmas decorations, interior architecture and a gold dispensing machine. Seriously, she found a vending machine called Gold to Go that dispenses gold. She was tempted to buy a small gold necklace from the vending machine at a cost of about $130 USD but decided against it. After exploring all she could of the hotel interior we grabbed a couple of photos from outside and hailed a cab back to our hotel.

The Gold Dispensing Machine

Some Options of the Gold Dispensing Machine

The morning and early afternoon of our last day in Abu Dhabi was spent lying on the beach working on our tan. Pamela seemed to tan in about 10 minutes but after several hours I didn’t notice any color change. The hotel had a decent beach area with two pools accessible through the health club. Inside the health club was a Turkish Bath style room consisting of three hot pools of varying temperatures, one cold plunge pool to cool off in and a pretty hot steam room. Outside the bath there was a hydro pool containing a few different types of pressure systems designed to help you relax. And relax we did.

Around 3:00pm that afternoon we were picked up from our hotel by a driver in a Toyota Land Cruiser for a desert safari including dune bashing, camel riding, belly dancing and traditional dinner. Our driver was half an hour late so he proceeded to race out to the desert at a white knuckle pace of 100 miles per hour (160km/h) in order to meet with the rest of the safari participants.  Once we were all together the dune bashing commenced. We raced through the sand dunes at breakneck speed slowing down just long enough to notice camel tracks or teeter over the edge of some very high dunes before we were off again. It was so fun to race around the desert in a group of 6 Land Cruisers. At one point the group stopped and we were able to stretch our wobbly legs and take some photos in the beautiful and seemingly never-ending desert.

Hanging out on the Dunes

Another Camel

Dune bashing complete we stopped at a small village area where we hopped on a camel for a quick ride, climbed some high dunes filling our clothes with sand, smoked a sheesha pipe and watched a belly dancer. Unfortunately the belly dancer had great fun in pulling people on stage with her, I was terrible at my red-faced attempt at belly dancing while Pamela did really well. Embarrassment over and food consumed we were whisked back to our Abu Dhabi hotel where we caught a taxi to the airport for our 1:00am flight to Europe. This was the end of our short stay in Abu Dhabi. We originally planned our trip to Abu Dhabi to go to Ferrari World but in the end we decided not to go to Ferrari World based on the many poor reviews we read online. Looking back we think Dubai would have been a better choice for but we don’t regret going to Abu Dhabi and enjoyed the time we spent there.

Me Trying to Belly Dance. Terrible,

Enjoying the Sheesha (Tobacco) Pipe on our Desert Safari

More photos from our trip to Abu Dhabi can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/AbuDhabi

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave