Between Africa and Asia, we had a 5 day stopover in the United Arab Emirates. Rather than backtrack to Europe, it made sense to go via the Middle East. The UAE’s a convenient hub where flights are plentiful and inexpensive. It wasn’t really a destination of choice for either of us, though I was curious about the country. I’ve known more than a few colleagues from Vancouver who’ve upped-stakes and moved to Dubai over the years. In fact, of the country’s approximately 9 million residents, almost 8 million are expats. CRAZY.
I’d heard stories about artificial islands shaped like palm trees and the world’s only 7-star hotel. Enormous waterparks and Ferrari Land and futuristic skyscrapers rising from the middle of the Arabian desert. The UAE is among the very richest countries in the world, with the biggest malls, tallest buildings, cappuccinos topped with gold flakes and crazy excess at every turn. Everything bigger and better and newer. It’s also an intensely Islamic country with strict adherence to prayer, modesty, and conservative dress. A mishmash of modern and ancient, flashy and sedate. I was curious. Fascinated, actually. But mostly, we really just needed somewhere to park for a day or two (or 5) between long flights.
We arrived in Abu Dhabi at 4:30am after a long flight from Cape Town and headed straight to our hotel on Yas Island. We were way too early to check in, but too ‘budget minded’ to book an extra night just for a few hours of jetlag. We advised the lovely desk clerk (a huge Justin Trudeau fan) that we’d simply plonk our tired selves in the lobby until such time as an early check-in could be arranged.
Before long, the boys were playing hacky-sac, Lucy and I were splayed across the lobby sofas and we’d raided the entire courtesy snack bar. Curiously, and like some sort of voodoo magic, room keys were suddenly produced and voila, early early check-in was offered. File that one way in budget travel tips for future. Two dirty boys + hacky sac + business hotel lobby = free, early check in. Score 1 for the DirtyNewlands.
We did very little that day except sleep. The kids had overdosed on the ridiculously sophisticated inflight video offerings on the Qatar flight from Cape Town. I overheard them arguing over who’d watched more movies. “I watched 5 movies”. “Oh, yeah? Well, I watched 7!”. By the time we arrived in Abu Dhabi, I think we’d all been awake for about 30 hours.
While everyone slept, I made a quick trip to an enormous mall nearby and bought a bunch of groceries so that we could make sandwiches in our room instead of paying the grossly inflated hotel prices. After two months in southern Africa, the sticker shock of being in the UAE was scary. And don’t even think about buying beer. You can’t.
We only spent two days in Abu Dhabi. The highlight was easily our visit to the Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque. It’s probably the most beautiful building I’ve ever seen in my life. We all had to dress conservatively, but I won the prize. I had to wear an abaya to cover up every inch, including my head. It was surprisingly comfortable and, in some ways, quite liberating. Lucy was positively steamed that she didn’t get to wear one too.
every abaya needs a MEC messenger bag accessory
We spent quite a long time in the mosque, though we mostly had to tour it separately – girls take one route and boys another. I couldn’t get over how beautiful it was – creamy white walls, amazing mosaics, keyhole walkways, marble, mother-of-pearl. Dazzling. Even the water fountains are masterpieces.
We actually stayed at the mosque for so long that we got to watch the sunset and listen to the sounds of prayer. It was even more beautiful at dusk.
The detail everywhere – I can’t describe. Lucy put it best, calling it “magnificently pretty”.
Fun facts: the mosque is enormous and can accommodate up to 40,000 worshippers at once. It also boasts the world’s largest carpet (see photo on left) at almost 61,000 square feet. It weighs over 35 tons. Ha! Makes me want to call COIT for an estimate.
We really didn’t do too much more while in Abu Dhabi. We walked around the fancy Emirates Palace Hotel for a bit and luxuriated in their bathrooms for much longer than necessary.
We checked out the mall with it’s obscene number of Western shops and restaurants – PF Chang, Cheesecake Factory, MAC, Victoria’s Secret, Bloomingdales, Marks & Spencers, Harrods, Tim Hortons, Pottery Barn. You name it, they’ve got it.
We had some Baskin Robbins and Baja Fresh and called it a night.
We also spent a very chilly afternoon on Yas Beach near the hotel. It was so cold and windy that we barely stayed an hour. The kids and Mike were determined to dip into the Arabian Gulf (just so they could say they did it). I did not partake of such tomfoolery. I took photos of the 4 nutters instead. Empirical proof.
where’s Waldo?
After a couple of nights in Abu Dhabi, we zipped over to Dubai by taxi. They’re only an hour apart by car. And an aside…the friendliest and most interesting people we met during our entire 5 days in the UAE were the taxi drivers. They gave us the skinny, helped us out, laughed at the kids, dispensed good tips (always get your taxi receipt!) and generally enjoyed the chitchat. They were almost exclusively from India, Pakistan or Bangladesh and all spoke about homesickness, families left behind and children they were determined to educate. While almost everything in the UAE was crazy expensive, taxis were not. I suppose given the fact that it’s an oil rich nation, this isn’t surprising, but we taxied everywhere for next to nothing and learned a lot about the country at the same time.
The kids had received some Christmas money from their grandparents and decided to splash out (pun intended) for a day at Dubai’s huge Aquaventure at the Palms waterpark.
I’ll go on record and admit it – I’m not generally a fan of any public pools or waterparks. Mike did all the swim lessons when the kids were tiny. I don’t do public pools unless one of my children appears to be drowning. Public pools grim me out. Think floating band-aids and random hairs found wrapped around my baby toe. And have you EVER seen a kid leave a waterpark to use the bathroom? Me neither. Thank you, no thank you. But I took one for the team and off we went… We have no photos because, duh, waterpark. But here are a couple borrowed shots. And I know the founder of Flickr, so don’t even think about ratting me out.
Aquaventure, to my immense surprise, was really pretty great. We got there as it opened having heard rumours about big line ups. There were lifeguards stationed literally every 20 feet. It was so, so, so clean. Like, eat-off-the-tile-clean. No line ups until late in the day and lots of thrilling rides. We couldn’t afford to actually eat anything, so we were pretty messed up by the time we limped out. But Mike and I both threw ourselves down the Leap of Faith – an almost vertical chute that plummets through a tank of sharks (sorry, sharks, I hope they treat you well). We rode the wave rivers and family rafts and boomerangs and whatchamacallits all day long. Thanks, Grandparents! Fun times in Dubai.
Our other big UAE splash-out was a trip to the top of the world’s tallest building – the Burj Khalifa. Tom Cruise dangles from it in one of the Mission Impossible movies. It’s apparently one of the most posh addresses on earth and also an Armani hotel. Mostly, it’s an engineering marvel. I could barely step off the elevator on the 125th floor, thanks to my wacky vertigo. But the kids loved taunting me by leaning against the glass railings and hanging their arms through the opening. It made me sick to watch. We were high, man.
Beyond blowing the Christmas wad on the waterpark and a trip up the Burj Khalifa, we did little else in Dubai except look and wander. We checked out Dubai Mall – home to an enormous aquarium, an ice rink, an indoor rollercoaster. We wandered along JBR, a hip waterfront shopping boulevard and ate dinner at the Shake Shack while people watching.
But for the most part, we had ‘hotel picnics’ and tried to catch up on homework. By the time our 5 days in the ‘Sandbox’ were up, we were more than ready to move on. It was like going to Vegas. In the Middle East. Without Celine Dion. Mike and I agreed that we could tick this one off our life list and leave it to others to explore. And besides, we were too excited about heading off to our next destination – Sri Lanka.
