Gallivanting Grandma

Sunday – February 11, 2018

The buffet breakfast at the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr is amazing!  Below is a photo of the “bagel bar.”

This morning we drove out to the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital which provides comprehensive health care services exclusively for falcons.  This is the largest falcon hospital in the world caring for 11,200 falcons annually.

Mohammad was our guide at the hospital and he explained the care, upkeep, and training of falcons.  Falconry is a popular traditional sport in the Arab world.  It is a highly valued custom and reflects the region’s Bedouin history.  Below is a waiting room for owners:

Tourists are welcome to visit to see the hospital facilities during regular hours.  Our group was shown into the ‘operating room’ where several falcons were patiently waiting their turns.  Hoods covering the birds’ eyes kept them calm.

There were different stations where technicians examined and treated several falcons at the same time.  Different rooms service a variety of minor and major procedures and operations.  The birds are highly valued since the cost ranges between $25,000 to over $100,000 dollars for a pure bred falcon.

We gathered around an examining table and the technician applied anesthetic to put the bird to sleep.  Then he explained and demonstrated how he examined and applied a variety of grooming and health services to the falcon.

I was able to hold a very calm falcon.  He was incredibly light weight.  Mohammad told us that he owns two falcons and several times a year takes them on Emirates Airlines to Kazakhstan for hunting.  He has to buy each falcon its own seat on the airplane.

The Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital not only cares for healthy and sick falcons but also breeds them and provides housing during their molting season.  In recent years, the hospital expanded their facilities to care for pets and stray animals.

After a very interesting and enjoyable time at the Falcon Hospital, we drove back to the center of the city.  I took the photo below from the bus.  Despite all the modern developments and super-highways around Abu Dhabi, we were never too far from the stark white sands of the desert.

The bus left us near the fish market at one of the commercial boat docks.  We boarded a traditional wooden boat for a river cruise luncheon.  What fun!!

View of the top deck:

View of the interior main deck and dining room: (Like every enclosed space here, it was air conditioned.)

We had a delicious fresh fish & lobster & shrimp lunch as we passed the cityscape outside.

Well fortified, we went to our next new tourist attraction:  The Louvre Abu Dhabi.

The Louvre Museum in Paris recently formed a partnership with the government of Abu Dhabi and they have a 30 year agreement to showcase art from around the world.  The museum opened in November 2017 at a cost of 600 million Euros.

The architect was Jean Novel who also designed the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris.  $525 million dollars was paid to the French government to use the Louvre name.  An additional $747 million dollars will be paid by Abu Dhabi for art loans, special exhibits, and management advice.

The building and exhibits were stunning.  The museum was built on an island and its dome was designed to appear to float above the water, as well as allow natural sunlight to filter through.  The Leonardo da Vinci painting which was the most expensive painting ever sold will be on display very soon.

On our way back to the hotel, we drove past “Ferrari World.”  This is a huge complex of amusement park, hotels, mall, and a Formula One race track.  Since my brain was already on overload, I had no desire to experience this vast and stimulating attraction!

Abu Dhabi is an incredible place! There’s much to see and experience and built on a smaller scale than Dubai.  The UAE is attempting to make Abu Dhabi the cultural center of the region (perhaps the world?) by planning to build several new dynamic museums.  I’d like to return in a few years to see them…..

Saturday – February 10, 2018

Today was our first full day in the city of Abu Dhabi which is the capital of the United Arab Emirates.  The UAE is a federation of seven emirates, each governed by an absolute monarch.  The Emir of Abu Dhabi has traditionally served as president of the United Arab Emirates since the establishment of the federation in 1971.

We began our tour of the city at the fruit and vegetable market.  Dates are a popular fruit which are grown in this region of the world.  We stopped at a shop which sells 30 different kinds of dates.

There was also a large fresh fruit and vegetable market with great looking produce.

Our next stop was the port and fish market.  It’s difficult to think of fresh fish on the Arabian peninsula, but the UAE is located on the Persian Gulf and sea food is one of their major products.  In the photo below, the fishermen are coiling a net.

There were fishing boats of all kinds and sizes lining the harbor.  We walked into the huge fish market nearby along the pier.

Most of the vendors were friendly and didn’t mind tourists taking photos of them at work.  They spoke English because they were workers from the southern part of India.

The fish was incredibly fresh!  A person could buy a fish and have it cooked to order at one of the stands nearby.  There was a line of people waiting for their seafood lunches.

We boarded the bus and drove to the Heritage Village to see exhibits of the traditional desert way of life before oil was discovered in Abu Dhabi.

This was an outdoor museum with displays of traditional crafts, tents, irrigation system display, mosque, and shops.

Our next stop was the highlight of the day with a visit to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.  We could see the magnificent building from our hotel and up close, it was spectacular!

The mosque is large enough to accommodate over 40,000 worshippers, while the main prayer hall can hold over 7,000 people.  The complex covers an area of more than 30 acres.

Construction was completed in 2007 and the design was inspired by Persian, Islamic, Moorish, and Arab influences.  The carpet in the main hall is the world’s largest and took two years to complete.

The seven chandeliers of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque were imported from Germany and incorporate millions of Swarovski crystals.  A unique lighting system was designed to reflect the phases of the moon.

Later in the evening we had a real treat of going to the Emirates Palace Hotel for dinner. This is a premier hotel in Abu Dhabi where visiting dignitaries stay and tonight the president of India was in residence, so security was tight.

The hotel opened in 2005 with construction costs of 3 billion dollars – the third most expensive hotel ever built.

We enjoyed an incredible dinner of every imaginable scrumptious dish.  Afterwards, I took a photo from the outdoor dining area across the creek to a magnificent palace.  The local guide said it was one of the emir’s residences.

This was the view from the front of the hotel, across the beautiful fountains looking toward the skyscrapers of Abu Dhabi.

Friday – February 9, 2018

Today was a travel day and we drove the 90 mile distance from Dubai to Abu Dhabi UAE on a modern multi-lane highway through the desert.

We arrived in the capital city about lunch time.  We stopped at Etihad Towers, which is a complex of five towers and includes offices, a hotel, restaurants, and an observation deck on the 75th floor.  We ate a fabulous lunch at the modern buffet restaurant named, Rosewater.

Afterwards, our coach drove us to the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr Hotel and I explored while the tour group waited to check in.  The modern lobby was decorated for Valentine’s Day.

Linda and I shared a huge room with an amazing view across the creek.  We quickly settled in and then went out to explore the “neighborhood.”  There was a walkway along the creek connecting several hotels and a very nice high-end Souq which had several international restaurants, shops, and cafes.

The location was lovely and it was fun to explore the beach-side path. Across the creek, we had a view of the Grand Mosque.

Much later, we had an excellent dinner at the buffet in the Fairmont.  We enjoyed another wonderful day in the UAE.

Thursday – February 8, 2018

Burj Al Arab is a luxury hotel built on an island of reclaimed land.  It was designed to resemble the billowing spinnaker sail of a J-class yacht, and has become an iconic symbol for Dubai.

Today was our last full day in Dubai and our guide, Maged Salib, presented several options for the group.  He arranged for the bus to drive us into the heart of the city to see several interesting sights and then drop off anyone along the way who wanted to spend more time at a particular place.

After a photo stop at Burj Al Arab, we drove to Souq Madinat Jumeirah to see the high-end shopping mall which is part of the Madinat Resort.  It is supposed to be “an authentic re-creation of an ancient marketplace with traditional Middle Eastern style and ambiance.”  It was a lovely place to shop.

I walked through the Souq to the canal behind the mall and the vista opened to a wonderful scene of traditional styled buildings connected by a green waterway.  Traditional wooden boats transported guests from hotels along the canal.

Our next stop was the famous “Palm Jumeirah” which is an artificial island created just offshore in the shape of a giant palm tree.  Construction began in 2001 and the island is entirely built from rocks and sand.  Our bus let us off at the mono-rail station and we rode to the end of the line to the Atlantis Hotel & Resort.

Dubai is such a huge city it takes time to travel between important sights. Our bus met us at the end of Palm Island and we drove to Dubai Marina.

Gerri, Anne, and I had ventured here yesterday on our own so it was familiar to us and I was happy to see the impressive district again.

In the photos and in reality, this part of Dubai looks like an unreal drawing of a modern city.  However, its scale is very human and seems user-friendly with families, children, and moms pushing strollers along the canal.

Most of the people in our group wanted to have free shopping time, so we stopped at the two most famous malls: The Dubai Mall (1200 shops) and Mall of the Emirates (only 700 shops).

We all entered the Mall of the Emirates to see “Ski Dubai,” with its indoor mountain and five ski slopes – including an indoor black diamond run!

Imagine downhill skiing in 120 degree weather in July!  Unbelievable!!!!

I chose to return to our hotel to relax and pack instead of shopping.  The Hyatt Regency was an excellent luxury hotel for our brief time in Dubai.  There was a small mall attached to the hotel complete with an ice skating rink.  A young girl was having a lesson when I snapped this picture.

This is a photo of the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Hotel.  Tomorrow we leave for Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Wednesday – February 7, 2018

We had free time this morning to explore Dubai on our own.  Gerry, Anne, and I wanted to see Dubai from the sea so we took a taxi to Al Ghubaiba Marine Station and bought tickets for the 11:00 AM ferry.

Our plan was to ride the ferry from Dubai Creek all the way to Dubai Marina and see the city skyline from the water.  We boarded the ferry and were surprised by how modern and new the catamaran was.  There was comfortable seating for 100 passengers in a large air conditioned cabin with video screens.  There were a dozen first class seats near the bow and an outdoor standing area.

The ride in the Arabian Sea was smooth and pleasant, but unfortunately the sky was hazy with poor visibility.  We wondered about air pollution.  Our first stop was the Dubai Canal near Jumeirah Beach.  One of the crew members said that many tourists get off there and take another ferry along the canal through the city and back to Dubai Creek.

We continued to the next and last stop on the ferry, which was Dubai Marina.  This is another new section of Dubai which is developing rapidly.  Like all the other desert cities, there was construction everywhere!

This was like another city with many clustered high-rise buildings some distance from Downtown Dubai.  There was a large ferris wheel at the entrance to the harbor.

The ferry continued into the narrow inlet to the dock and we got off.

We had to return to the Hyatt by in time for the afternoon’s activities.  We walked to the metro station to take the mono-rail which runs between Dubai Marina and the Creek near our hotel.

Dubai has an excellent public transportation system which services a large part of the city.  The mono-rail portion is above ground and then it connects to an underground part near Dubai Creek.  It was clean, quiet, safe, and fun to ride!

The entertainment for the evening was riding over the desert in 4X4 vehicles.  It was a lot of fun!  And we held on as the driver negotiated the car over tall sand dunes.  We passed this man on a camel waving his cell phone:

The 4X4 #3 Team:

We passed several herds of Arabian Oryxes and tried to take photos of them:

After 40 minutes of twisting, turning, skidding, and climbing up and down sand dunes, we arrived at a desert oasis set up for us complete with champaign and strawberries.  I’m sure nomadic life was never this good!

Linda and I posed for desert photos:

We watched the sun go down over the dunes and then we all drove to the base camp for dinner and entertainment.

The camp was set up with camel rides, apple hookahs, henna painting, an open bar, desert souvenirs, and a buffet Middle-Eastern dinner.  Music played while we sat on cushions at low tables:

The evening’s entertainment was a “Whirling Dervish” and a Belly Dancer.  Both were excellent and we all had a fun time!!