Lena and Toni took us over to Abu Dhabi on our last full day in the U.A.E. so we could all check out the Emirates' seaside capital and its second largest city.
Our visit started at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, which is the largest mosque in the U.A.E. and one of the few open to non-Muslims. Toni and Lena had told us that we'd have to wear robes while on the mosque grounds due to modesty rules. I laughed when I saw this Mosque Manners sign that had as one of its examples of what not to wear...umm...the exact outfit I had on!!! Nice job, Dar.
No big deal. A short wait and we were set with mosque-provided gowns. Everyone's favorite world-traveling duo in the Sheikh Zayed main courtyard:
The mosque was giant. They say during the tour that 7,000 people can fit in the main hall and over 40,000 can worship on the grounds at the same time. It was also impressively decorated. Not a lot of furniture mind you, but decorative details everywhere you look. Another thing they point out is the over 60,000 square-foot hand-made carpet.
And, one last group selfie on the way out:
The mosque was very cool, of course, and we saw a lot of interesting stuff that day but, really, how could I go to Abu Dhabi and not visit the world-famous Formula1 track??? Toni was a sport about it and figured out how to get us over to the Yas Marina area, which is clear on the other side of town, so I could see it first hand. Woohoo! Thanks Toni!!!
Going to the U.A.E. was a great adventure and it was nice to be able to see and hang out with Toni and Lena again. Hopefully they'll realize their dream of opening up their own it-comes-packed-in-a-flat-box pet and pet-supply store here in Barcelona. Actually, I think that image came from a dream I had one night. Whatever, it'd be cool to have them around all the time.
One final random item from the trip. As I mentioned in the first U.A.E. story, we flew Emirates, which was worth the price of admission on its own. Each airplane seat back had an entertainment system that would have been unimaginable in your home just a bunch of years ago. Of course, one of the options was to be able to watch outside via one of the three cameras mounted around the plane. Cool, right?
At one point I noticed that we were flying over Iraq. IRAQ!!! I never in my life thought I'd be anywhere near Iraq and there I was. All because, again, saying yes to every opportunity possible. So, I'll leave you with this, a photo of Baghdad from 40,000 feet:
A superfabulogigantohuge hug to you, Lena and Toni! Nos vemos pronto! And, by the way, where should we meet next time???
As I've mentioned before, the reason we were in the U.A.E. was to visit our friends who are living in Al Ain. If Dubai is the Las Vegas of the middle east, Al Ain is Henderson, Nevada. For those not fortunate enough to have gotten to the Las Vegas suburbs yet, Henderson's where people live when they don't want the hustle and bustle of Vegas at their doorstep. Al Ain has the same desert setting, intense heat, large houses, big shopping centers, suburban feel, and seemingly-limitless Starbucks of its Las Vegas counterpart.
A random intersection in Al Ain:
Toni and Lena picked us up at an outlet mall outside Dubai and drove us to their place in Al Ain. After relaxing for a bit, they decided that we should grab dinner at a local Bangladeshi place Toni heard about and wanted to try.
The restaurant was exactly the kind of place Diana and I love. It was packed with Bangladeshi workers enjoying a slice of home. The staff was so excited to have some foreigners that we got over-the-top service even though our order was to go. We asked the waiter for recommendations and basically went with his suggestions. Strangely, he asked us maybe five times if we wanted rice. By the end, he asked "rice, rice, rice, rice?" and we said "yes, yes, yes, yes". Our food was packed up in four (!!!) shopping bags and we paid the princely sum of $18 U.S. (14 euros) for the meal.
Toni and Lena chose the Mubazzarah Park in the Jebel Hafeet area of town for our picnic-style dinner. It's a green oasis in an otherwise desert landscape and is surrounded by jagged mountains making it feel like we were eating in the middle of a canyon. We chose our spot between a handful of local families enjoying the evening. As it was getting around 9:30 p.m. or so, the temperature was even a much-more comfortable 95 F (35 C) or so!
It wasn't until we opened the bags that we realized why the waiter asked us about the rice. One of the shopping bags was full with four clearly-family-sized-portions of sticky white rice. The other three bags contained our drinks, soups, and main dishes, none of which were in danger of exploding. I think it was the first time I'd eaten Bangladeshi food and it was delicious, especially since one of the dishes was extra spicy. For our $18, we even had enough left overs for lunch for two! Amazing. Who says the U.A.E. is pricey???
We started the next day at the Al Ain Palace Museum, which is an old fortress-like complex in the middle of Al Ain. Oh, and yes, it was already like 105 F (41 C) when we got there.
Built in 1910, the palace was the former home of the U.A.E.'s founder, Shiek Zayed Bin Sultan Ah Nayhan. Located near the Al Ain Oasis, it's now a museum filled with exhibits about him and the ruling family.
Taking a break from the heat in a large, social-gathering tent on the palace grounds:
Al Ain is located equidistant (~90 miles / 145 km) from both Abu Dhabi and Dubai and is right on the western Omani border. It's mostly flat with sand dunes once you head out of town. The major exception is Jebel Hafeet mountain, which rises up about 5000 feet (1250 m) from the surrounding desert.
The view of the Mubazzarah Park (the green patch in the center), where we ate dinner the night before, and Al Ain beyond from about half way up the mountain on the I-wish-I-still-had-my-MINI road:
There's a couple small restaurants, a small lookout, and a not-so-small royal residence up top but not much else. Toni has a tradition of taking a photo with all their guests at the same graffiti-covered spot on the edge of the parking lot. He says it reminds him of somewhere rock stars would use as a backdrop for a record cover shoot.
Diana and I looking decidedly non-rock-star:
Our next stop was at the Al Ain Oasis. Al Ain grew out from this area, which now serves as a series of date farms. I think the most surprising thing was how much cooler it felt with a little bit of water and the shade from the palm trees.
We happened across one guy tending the trees. He was trimming dead branches and positioning the dates. A couple of things to note in the photo below. First, that red-and-black "net" with the rope tied around around the tree is the "seat" he uses to shimmy up the trunk. Second, he has no shoes on. He's doing all of this with bare feet! And I get bummed when my flip flops give me a blister!
While we were cruising around the oasis, we could hear music and singing from not too far away. Toni and Lena knew exactly what it was and suggested that we hurry out and get to the nearby Al Qattara Souq and cultural center.
What we were hearing over in the oasis was a group singing and dancing traditional songs.
The music-video version:
Between sets, we hung out with the guys and learned that they were mostly from Oman and came to the cultural center regularly to perform. They explained the songs were about just what you'd expect from a bunch of guys...women and work.
This was definitely one of the cooler moments of the trip as they seemed to be as interested, if not more, in us as we were with them. They had a bunch of questions about Barcelona, Barca, Sweden, and the United States and we were interested in where they lived and what they did when they weren't performing.
The whole trip was a great opportunity to learn about yet another culture. The U.A.E. was very different than what I had expected and we were having a fun time. And, it was so nice to hang out Toni and Lena again, even if it seemed, at times, that we were in the desert suburbs in the U.S. Starbucks, anyone?
As anyone who's read any of this blog knows, I grew up in the United States, and like most, I didn't have many opportunities to spend time outside the country. (For those who are not from the U.S., and especially those from Europe, the topic of why this is is very complex but can be grasped when you ask yourself where you'd travel if you had only five working days of vacation per year. Would you fly half-way around the world for a one-week trip? Didn't think so.)
My first international trip that didn't involve walking or driving across the Mexican border near San Diego, was when I first moved down to southern Mexico about twenty years ago (I just wrote ten years and was amazed that, no, it's been almost twenty years). I remember very well about how I did not want to go. But, even more than not wanting to go, I remember how I felt just eight hours after arrival. The fear. The exhilaration. The rush that came from everything being new and different. In other words, I was hooked.
Our trip to the U.A.E. to visit Lena and Toni, for me, was like going to one of the great unknowns. The Middle East. Those three words strike fear into the hearts of people from the U.S. What's it like there? How are the people? Would they even let me in the country, or worse, would I be a kidnap target with my American passport? (Yes, believe it or not, someone asked me this.) What would we find? Would you believe Betty Crocker, Reese's cups, and Ben and Jerry's?
Yes, that's an aisle in a local, Al Ain supermarket. There were more products from the U.S. in one place than I've seen in my four-plus years since I moved away from California.
I have a friend from my English-teacher class who lived and worked in Moscow for a couple years after we finished the class. I remember how excited she'd be at finding maple syrup, tortillas, or something. This place would have made her head explode. I had gone half way around the world, entered the "scary" Middle East, and came face to face with every American's deepest fears...Mrs. Butterworth's and Dream Whip! In other words, exactly what I should have expected in our increasingly small world.
Well, just so you don't get the wrong idea, it isn't all plain-vanilla Von's or Acme. There was still some new and exciting mixed in. Just check out these for-kids flavored camel milks...Camelicious!
Oh, and one bit of random from our time in Al Ain. Lena's somewhat addicted to a particular pastry sold at a coffee-and-pastry shop called Papparoti, which is located in malls throughout the U.A.E. Like Toni's top-of-the-mountain photos of visiting friends, Lena couldn't wait to take us to experience a little slice of her heaven.
Guess what! The slightly-runny, sweet filling is, in so many heart-warming ways, similar to Holmesburg Bakery's butter cake! Yes, like the trip's cherry on top, Lena had managed to transport me back to Sunday morning in my childhood home. Feast your eyes on the Middle East's version of butter cake!
Paradise can be found in the most surprising of places!
This story starts out last year when we went to Skelleftea up in northern Sweden to visit our friends Lena and Toni and ends just over 3,000 miles away in a place with pretty much the opposite climate.
See, Toni had already started working in the United Arab Emirates and was back home when we went to Skelleftea. Towards the end of our trip - and in spite of having endured us for a week - they told us we should come visit them in the UAE. Diana and I said, sure, that we'd think about it. Well, as is pretty much always the case, don't offer if you're not ready to have me darken your doorstep one day...
This was my first time in one of the new-ish double-decker Airbus 380s. Owing to our working-class roots, Diana and I were seated downstairs but, wow, what a plane. It was (relatively) quiet and there was such a (relative) feeling of space inside the plane. The food, entertainment selection, and the service were excellent especially when considering the direct-flight price from Barcelona to Dubai. Emirates Airlines definitely goes into my list of favorites along with Air France and Singapore Airlines.
Diana and I ended up staying with a long-time-resident family who were originally from India. Our airbnb hosts were incredibly gracious, friendly, accommodating (how's a 2am arrival suit you?), and made a mean Indian breakfast. Another benefit was getting to stay in a mostly working-class neighborhood not far from the oldest part of the city and right near the intersection of the city's two metro lines.
We had two full days in Dubai with day one starting out in the historic center of the city. Most of the UAE is relatively new with Dubai being basically a small village only 100 years ago. Almost everything has been built since, and, really, mostly in the last 20. Against some advice I was given, Diana and I were dedicated to try to get a sense of the city's history, relatively brief as it is, so we started our visit in the historic core. This is the view from an old school out towards the surrounding neighborhood:
While we were there, some teachers brought in a class. It was very meta to see a class visiting an old school with classroom displays:
We worked our way out from along the river bank through the surrounding small streets. The area's known for its indoor/outdoor markets called Souks. The most famous are probably the spice and gold souks, which sell their namesake items. Diana and I outside the gold souk entrance:
A random observation. While walking through the neighborhood, I saw this electronics shop. What caught my attention is how the laptops are displayed "backwards" from what I'm used to seeing. Are they displayed with the keyboards away from the customer to keep people from handling them, to show the brand (my guess), or something else not as clear? I didn't stop to ask but it was curious.
If you look up things to do in Dubai, one of the top-rated is to take one of the small wooden boats, called an Abra, across the Dubai creek, which is more like a river, but whatever. There are a ton of these boats, which leave from either side of the creek every couple of minutes. The ride costs 1 Dirham ($0.25 U.S.) and takes about ten minutes to get to the other side. The locals use it like a taxi and it was fun.
One thing I haven't mentioned yet is the weather. As you may already know, the Persian Gulf region's weather is definitely not San Diego or even Barcelona. Yeah, it's sunny, but, damn, it's H-O-T hot!!! The temperature ranged from around 110 F (43 C) during the day to a relatively nice 90 F (32 C) at night. Taking the Abras across the river was a refreshing break from the crazy heat.
We decided to take the excellent Dubai metro down the coast to the Dubai marina about 30 minutes or so south. It was during the metro ride where the newness and urban sprawl of "new" Dubai is much more apparent. The marina itself pretty much didn't exist even ten years ago and they're still building more. A view of the marina from one of the pedestrian walkways:
To beat the mid-afternoon heat, Diana and I stopped for lunch at a place in the marina. It's worth noting that this was probably one of the most expensive meals we ate during the entire trip. The food was excellent and lunch probably cost like $40 U.S. (~30 euros), which isn't terribly expensive but, compared to most places we went, seemed that way.
Oh, and did I mention how crazy hot it was? Here's Diana outside one the city's air-conditioned bus stops back in the neighborhood where we stayed:
Just looking at these photos again makes me appreciate how much we did in one day. What a great adventure! What would day two hold???
After our jam-packed first day in Dubai, we were excited for more great experiences on day two. The highlight was a planned visit to the viewing platform of the Burj Khalifa, which is currently the tallest building in the world.
But first, I had seen an IHOP in the adjoining mall the night before. I've said it probably a million times but going out for breakfast is definitely one of my favorite things so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a big-ole American-style pancake breakfast sitting out on a deck with a view like this:
I mentioned it in the day-one story but, again, the scale of everything in Dubai is hard to judge. The buildings are so tall and the distances so large, that's it's difficult to get a feel. While we were eating our breakfasts, we thought we saw something moving pretty high up outside the building but we couldn't tell what it was. It's barely visible in the photo above so I zoomed in and took more photos, which are combined below. Yes, those tiny specks are people cleaning the windows...hanging by cables!
After breakfast, we walked over to wait for our reserved time. By the way, if you plan to go to the Burj Khalifa one day, make sure to have reservations ahead of time or you may not get in.
I've been up in other tall buildings including the Empire State Building and (old) World Trade Center in New York City, the Sears Tower in Chicago, the Tokyo Tower in Japan, the Pearl Tower in Shanghai, and the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but I don't remember any of them having a race-car elevator like the Burj Khalifa. The building is 163 storeys high but the elevator takes you (only) to the 124th floor indoor/outdoor viewing area. You'll need to watch the video to see how long it takes to get up there from the ground floor:
The view from the outdoor area is pretty impressive. It's even more amazing when you think about the folks building the building and those guys cleaning the windows. The view towards the Dubai Mall down to the left and the fountains between the mall and the Burj Khalifa:
Looking out towards old Dubai (way out on the horizon):
...and another in the same general direction but with the Persian Gulf to the left. Note the freeway and metro line running down the middle of all the tall buildings:
On the way out to the mall's taxi area, we went past the ice skating rink. Yeah, there's one of those too...
Diana wanted to go to the beach so we took a taxi over to the public Jumeirah Public Beach, which was about 20 minutes or so away. We weren't really prepared to spend a bunch of time at the beach but we wanted to at least get our feet wet. Believe it or not, it was way too hot to hang out without an umbrella and maybe a block of ice. Remember, it was like 105 F (40 C) when we took this photo!
Diana and I wanted to see a little bit of the UAE luxury everyone talks about so we took another taxi to the fancy Jumeirah Beach Hotel. It's a little bit farther up the coast and right in front of the Burj Al Arab. The Burj Al Arab is the "seven-star", sail-shaped hotel, which is probably the most iconic thing in Dubai if not the whole UAE. It's so exclusive that you can't even get on the private island without having a reservation or paying a bunch of cash to have afternoon tea or something. In other words, we weren't getting in.
We talked to one of the guys cleaning outside the Jumeirah Beach hotel about where we should go for the best views. He recommended the Madinat Jumeirah, which is a little souq-style shopping center just on the other side of the Burj Al Dubai. Score! Not only did they have a Costa Coffee with fabulous frozen-coffee, their deck overlooked an oasis-style view of the Burj Al Arab. Not bad for the price of a $4 U.S. (3 euro) coffee, huh?
After some nice iced coffees, it was back to the Dubai metro so we could get dinner in the old part of town near the Dubai Creek. Diana in one of the super nice metro stations:
Our two-day trip to Dubai was almost over. We had read about a restaurant in the Dubai Heritage Village on the bank of the Dubai Creek that specializes in local food and makes fresh bread in an outdoor oven. We ate a whole bunch of awesome food and had outstanding service all while taking in the lovely evening views out over Dubai and the Dubai Creek. The price? A steal at $20 U.S. (15 euros)! Not a bad way to end our time in Dubai.
