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

Wadi Rum – Desert Paradise

About 90 minutes by car from Petra in Jordan lies the desert protected area of Wadi Rum. Wadi, meaning valley in Arabic, and the name Rum means high place in Arabic. Mentioned in the Old Testament as Arum, Rum was easily one of our highlights of the Middle East if not the whole trip. The stellar rock formations, red sand dunes and endless vistas are worth coming here and staying here for at least a night. We were brought to a visitor center in the middle of a red rock walled valley where we met our bedoin driver. We hopped into the back of an rickety old Land Cruiser and were off on a three hour safari tour.

Our Land Cruiser safari truck

The first stop was a natural spring where Camels come to drink and some old Aramaic writing can be found. Did you know camels can cover 35 kilometers a day,  go many days without water and have a gestation period of 12 months? Hence the nickname “Ship of the Desert”. We loved watching the camels here in Wadi Rum, they looked amazing with such huge rock formations and vast valleys as a backdrop. Next on our safari was more Aramaic characters which pointed out the direction of water holes using pictures of camels as arrows. A couple quick photos and we were off.

A giant red sand dune to conquer was next. A few of us walked up the red dune and took some silly pictures while at the top. We then proceeded to run down the dune, filling our shoes with red sand at the time. Most people would empty their shoes right then and there, but not Pamela. Pamela saved the sand from her shoes and put it into a container, possibly for a scrapbook, possibly for something else…in either case we have the red sand that filled her shoes.

The sand here is so red.

Jumping on the Dunes

Pamela taking a flying leap

Lawrence of Arabia inhabited Wadi Rum for many years. It’s said that he wrote his book The Seven Pillars of Wisdom here in Rum. We made a stop at the supposed ruins of his old house for a few paparazzi style photos and to chat with a local Bedouin.  Wadi Rum is inhabited by local Bedouin tribes who also operate the camps and teahouses/souvenir shops throughout the valley.  We found all the locals here very nice and a bit less pushy than the locals in Petra. 

In front of the former house of Lawrence of Arabia

The last stop on our desert safari was a large arch carved from the winds blowing through the valley. We climbed up some pretty steep rocks to reach the top of the arch for a really good photo opportunity. I (DW) got my pic from the top of the arch then climbed down to get pics from the bottom. I’m not that big of a fan of heights so I was more than happy to get off the top of the arch with the excuse that I needed to take photos.

Pamela on top of the arch

Pamela showing off in the arch

We reached our isolated camp, called Madalla Camp, a few minutes before sunset. We stowed our gear in the large tent, as our small group of five was the only guests there we got to pick any tent we’d like. The camp sleeps between 30 and 40 people so us five really felt like we had the place to ourselves. Gear stowed we climbed up the rocks behind the camp for one of the best sunsets I can remember. As we were watching the sunset two camels with a Bedouin rider walked by in the distance, it was magical to watch.  After a few minutes of photos we climbed down and were ready for some tucker.

Watching sunset from our tent camp

Our tented camp in Wadi Rum

It gets really cold, really fast once the sun goes down. Thankfully the main tent was warmed with a fire so we could drink our tea and eat dinner in warmth, albeit smoky warmth. The tent wasn’t well ventilated so the place was so smoky it was hard to see, we needed to go out every few minutes to get our eyes some oxygen.  The included dinner at the camp was amazing. Chicken and vegetables were cooked Bedouin style in an underground oven which had to be dug out when the food was ready. Along with the chicken we had lamb, rice, bread, vegetables and many other dishes that really gave it that home cooked feeling. It was definitely the best meal we had while in Jordan. Being on the road for so long we really miss home cooking, this gave us the taste we were looking for. Stuffed with dinner we retired to our tent where Pamela and I gathered as many blankets as we could from other tents to make our bed. We ended up with four or five big blankets to help keep us warm in the below freezing night time temperatures of the Fall. I can only imagine how cold it would be in the dead of winter. That being said in the summer it’s so hot that you can’t get cool in a tent and many people prefer to sleep outside.

Standing in front of our tent in Wadi Rum

The cook removing our dinner from the underground stove.

Wadi Rum is the quietest place I’ve ever been. I took a short walk in the middle of the night and to my surprise I could hear absolutely nothing, no wind, no bugs, no anything….the silence and solitude of the place was amazing.  The amount of stars visible from Rum is more than any city dweller can ever imagine. We were lucky enough to not have a moon or clouds on this night so we thoroughly enjoyed our stargazing time, albeit freezing cold.

Sunset with some camels walking by

A very cold morning in a very desolate place

The next morning we ate breakfast and were driven back to the visitor center. It’s about a 25 minute fast jeep ride from the camp to the visitor center. On the way we marveled at the awesomeness of the place while passing camels. It was a great experience, one that anyone coming to Jordan must try.

All of our photos from Wadi Rum can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/WadiRumJordan?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Cheers for Now -

Pamela and Dave