Land of the Gazelle, UAE …

After a quick 22 hour flight (including layovers in Charlotte and Heathrow) we arrived in Abu Dhabi, UAE totally exhausted.  But what the heck, we were then on their clock and able to close our eyes about 12:30 am for the first time in 33 hours. 

The next morning, we forced ourselves to take a whirlwind tour of the Land of the Gazelle (as Abu Dhabi means in Arabic), thinking that it would help us adjust to the time change.  Didn’t work … nap time came early.

At breakfast we saw couples and families from all parts of the globe eating together.  Arabian women were dressed in various forms of attire and modesty, from western styled long sleeved blouses with long pants and scarves to abayas to those wearing fully enveloping burkas; and western women dressed in … well, not so much, presenting a clash of cultures which, surprisingly, went unchallenged.

Above, our hotel, the Yas Viceroy, is set right in the middle of Ferrari World and its  Formula One Racetrack Central, pictured below. 

A view from our room 

Two things were immediately apparent when we ventured outside of our air conditioned hotel: Abu Dhabi is eerily perfect and incredibly hot. The thing about the latter is, no matter how many date palms, flowers, shrubs, patches of grass and the necessary irrigation system that line the miles and miles of the 8-lane-boulevard on the way to the Grand Mosque try to say it isn’t so, it’s the desert after all.  So you should expect the heat, right? BUT in the name of Allah, it’s early April.  The thing about the former is, I enjoy travel to see the blending of history and modern life. Now, I like contemporary architecture as well as most modernists, but the architecture that is preserved over time expresses the culture that once was. It ain’t happenin’ here.

The only spot in the city reclaimed from the Persian Gulf after the 1958 discovery of oil, is a representation of the life supported by fishing, gathering of pearls and cultivation of dates located at Heritage Village shown below.

From there you can look across the water and take a giant leap into the future, as sand is pushed further into the Persian Gulf.

Skyscrapers, erratic forms of buildings for their own sake, and every form of opulence you can imagine come into view.  

You mean you can’t have a cup of coffee laced with eatable gold at your local Starbucks? You mean your local policemen don’t drive Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Rolls Royce sedans to capture the criminals who don’t exist? You mean the cost of your hometown’s most famous hotel (The Emirates Palace pictured below) didn’t cost 3 billion dollars? You'd better get with the program.

I grew up thinking that Texans always tried to do things bigger and better than the rest of the world. They didn’t even come close.  It’s the national pastime in Abu Dhabi.  

Skeikh Zayed took up this banner by constructing the Grand Mosque, an exquisite Carrara marble clad, 82 domed structure that holds 20,000 praying Muslims on its inlaid marble entry court and 10,000 inside on the world's largest carpet.

Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, is in competition with everyone on the planet, especially the other six Emirates, for the tallest, the largest, and the best of everything … best provider of housing, education, health care - you name it, their citizens have it. 

And there’s the rub.  Abu Dhabi is supported by many immigrants from India, Nepal, Pakistan, and other neighboring countries who are given a two-year work visa.  At the end of two years if they are still employed … great, their visas are renewed for two more years.  If not, it’s time to go back home.  For the most part their lives are better off than back home, so that’s something. But for them everything is incredibly expensive. For example, our tour guide was for Cochin, India.  He has lived and worked in Abu Dhabi for 17 years.  He has a single room and shares a kitchen and bathroom with 3 other people.  His rent is $1,000 US per month.

 

I’m quite sure our 32 hours stay in Abu Dhabi didn’t begin to scratch the surface, but it was fascinating never-the-less.

Better sign off now.  They’re calling us to a drill of what we should do in case of a pirate attack. See you in Oman.