Abu Dhabi, Day 1

Friday June 17 2011,

    After the 14 hour flight, we decided it would be beneficial to catch up on some sleep, so we didn’t wake up until about 11am.  As we looked out the window we saw a grocery store just down the street from our hotel.  We decided it would be good to get some food supplies for our hotel.  Headed out the hotel and was blasted with the heat and humidity of the mid-day Middle Eastern climate. We persevered on, and made to the small store, but as we looked at the prices we were a bit disheartened. Things here were not as cheap as we had hoped, so we ended up buying our classic meal, peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches yum!

   Back at the hotel with a few sandwiches packed we grabbed some free water bottles from the hotel and caught a taxi. Again we discovered English was a difficulty for this driver as well however, we gave the taxi the name of the location for us to rent a car and he seemed to know where it was.  After driving around in circles, and a phone call to this friend for help, we decided to have him take us straight to the Sheikh Zayed Mosque.

   As we got closer to the structure we realized why it was the sixth largest mosque in the world.  It looked like the palace from Aladdin, with its huge white domes, and 4 towering minarets.  The driver dropped us off, and the fee was about 40 Dirham for around a 25 minute car ride. We then realized the driver from the night before had completely ripped us off (wanker). We proceeded up the long walkway to the entrance of the mosque itself, to soon be stopped by the security guard. He informed us that we were not allowed to enter the mosque with the shorts we had on, and gave us a couple of traditional gowns.  Once we were suited up properly we walked through the courtyard of the mosque, took off our shoes and entered.  The first thing we were struck by was the sheer size of the vaulted ceilings, which was quickly overshadowed by the ornate detail that covered every inch of the walls. The third thing was the presence of security guards, one of which pointed out the Koran’s along the wall were to be seen and not touched by non-Muslims. After around an hour we were ushered out of the mosque as the call for the next prayer session began sounding from the minarets. We ended up walking around the grounds and spoke to more security guards, who gave us fresh dates from the trees, which were unripe and also somewhat unpleasant. 

   Due to the extreme heat we thought that it would be nice to cool off at the beach. WRONG! Once we got there the water was disgusting with plastic wrappers and cigarettes floating in the water. Not to mention the slimy feel of the pee warm water into which we refused to fully submerge. Following our brief swim we rinsed off and decided to save a taxi fare and walked the 3 miles (5km) back to hotel.

   After showering we walked through the back streets of the CBD to get to Abu Dhabi Mall. After quickly browsing the stores the need for food became quite apparent. We searched for about 20mins to find some local cuisine, before discovering Byblos Restaurant. We were suggested kebabs, hummus & meat, lentil soup and some bryzani (a meat and rice dish that was dry and nothing we would suggest).

   We explored our way back to the hotel and were in bed by 1am.

Muslim women about to work on their tan