Salaam

We made it! It was a twelve hour flight from New York to Abu Dhabi which is one of the emirates in the United Arab Emirates. There are seven, actually, the most famous being Dubai. However, Abu Dhabi is working hard to catch up. The others are pretty quiet. Anyway, we spent only one night here but had a bit of a chance to walk around and enjoy the sights. As you can see, it looks like a city built by the water. It's just that in this case it's a city under construction by the Arabian Gulf.

Modern Abu Dhabi is COMPLETELY under construction. Literally. The traffic is horrendous because everything is torn up. Abu Dhabi has oil but its ruler has decided that since the oil will one day be gone they need to make sure their economy is built on more. So they have decided to become more like Dubai and turn to tourism and business. That means that it is a more open society than other muslim countries. Of course, religion still plays a big role. The sheikh who runs the emirate is building a spectacular mosque which which is not yet finished but it is something to behold.

We were told that a million people can fit inside. Remember, each person doesn't get a lot of space, room to kneel to pray, shoulder to shoulder, and there are multiple levels. Apparently the Qibla in Mecca can hold more than twice that amount. Everything inside comes from Italy or as it was stated, "only the very best and that means Italy."

Then it was off to Dubai. The plan was to hire a driver and drive the hour and a half along the Gulf to the neighboring emirate. In my mind I saw this as oh so romantic because I thought it would be a small road through the desert, camels munching on whatever grass they could find. You get the picture. Wrong. The drive was over a ten lane freeway and we couldn't see the water until we got to the new harbor in Dubai which is massive (the harbor). Dan says he saw a camel but I didn't so I think he was making it up.

If Abu Dhabi is a city under construction then Dubai is a city under construction on steroids. Everything is bigger and more oppulent (therefore better to the local way of thinking) than any place else in the world. In one day we:

1. Had breakfast at the world's only 7-star hotel, the Birj al Arab (birj is arabic for tower)

(OK, this picture is from the night before when we had dinner at a lovely restaurant on the beach which had an obviously spectacular view of the Birj. I would like to say that the big white ball is the moon - wouldn't that have been something - but it was a big bubble which was being used for a private event.)

This is looking straight up the tower. Everything inside is white or gold except for the unbelievable mosaics. It is so far over-the-top it's nuts. Not well said but I actually tried to come up with something better and simply couldn't!

I know this proves me wrong, not everything is white or gold but it IS amazing!

2. Visited what was the world's largest mall (until the Japanese beat them a little while ago). To call this place a mall is a bit like calling the Pacific Ocean the "Pond." There is a fountain that is three stories tall and several hundred feet long.

In case you can't tell what those things are, they are life-sized statues of divers. There must be a hundred throughout the fountain. We are not done.



Yes, there is a HUGE aquarium which you can walk through. And yes, there are lots of sharks. But we are still not done.

The mall boasts a full-size hockey rink. Yes, these people are genius. For some reason I can't find a photo so you must simply believe me.

3. Visited the construction site of the Birj Dubai which is the world's tallest building. There is no way to capture the entire building in a single photo at least from the position we were in but I gave it a good try.

I usually don't care for super modern architecture but this building is arresting. I have to say that it is really beautiful.

4. Yes, Gracie, we went to the ski slopes:

At a different mall (I am not kidding, it's at a mall) there is an indoor ski slope. We paid our ticket price, they gave us HUGE parkas, socks and boots and we rode to the top of the lift and back down again.

The fellow I'm sitting beside is a friend who, with his wife, has lived in Dubai for two years. Like Peter, all I could do was laugh the entire way up and the entire way back down. The thing is, it was over 90 degrees outside and COLD in here. It felt sort of like you were outside. OK, no comment from you Utah people. And yes, people were skiing, snow boarding, tubing, luging (how do you spell that?) and throwing snowballs.


5. Rode the water taxis across "the creek" which is the original harbor of old Dubai. This area is predominantly Indian and Indonesian and contains old souqs (markets), buddhist temples and hindu shrines.

The boats look like they are about three hundred years old (they probably are no more than 30 or 40 years), are made of wood, use a rope for steering and cost about 30 cents to ride. Since it was Friday (the Sabbath here) everyone was out so the boats were crowded. I was the only woman riding. We passed cargo boats which do carry goods on the Gulf (think there could be smuggling?) and on which people live. No, they don't look anymore sea worthy up close.

The streets in this area are very narrow and were packed with people, mostly men. There were a few women about, all dressed in their finest saris since they were going to the shrines. We purchased frankincense and myrrh at a little spice shop that also sold almonds which the proprietor was very proud to tell me came from California.

One exceptionally beautiful place here was an old Iranian style mosque.

(I think my favorite part of this picture is the chickens!) The entire facade of this building, it is quite tall, is a beautiful mosaic. A truly lovely place on a small, dusty square, surrounded by dilapidated buildings. A total surprise.

We did all this in one day and still made it the airport to catch the flight to Kuwait.

One last comment about Dubai. The citizens of the Emirate are called emiratis. We were told that they account for about 15% of the population and they are rarely, if ever, in areas where us regular folk are found. Seriously, they remain in closed neighborhoods. Even my Kuwaiti friends say this is true. That's us, the rabble.