「abu dhabi」タグアーカイブ

Abu Dhabi: The Best and the Not-so-Good

The Best –

1) The Grand Mosque.  Wow.  This is a beautiful structure.  So clean and crisp yet so full of color.  Also the only time we were required to wear headscarves which was an interesting experience in itself.  Awesome tour guide.

2) The Falcon Hospital.  Very interesting to learn about falconry and of course seeing, touching and being so close to those beautiful birds felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

3) Dune Bashing.  It may have made my sister throw up but I thought it was pretty fun!  Who doesn’t like some life-threatening danger?!

4) The Food.  Yummy lamb, hummus, dates and hotel buffets!  One warning though:  If you take the Dhow Boat Tour (which is lovely) don’t eat before and don’t fill up on bread… you have a lot of food to get through!  Don’t say you haven’t been warned!

5) The Service:  Although it seemed many times no one could really effectively communicate, they did do it with smiley faces!

The Not-So-Good

1) The Construction.  EVERYTHING was being constructed upon! Apparently in 2030, Abu Dhabi is going to be an incredible tourist destination… planning our comeback now.

2) The Service. Like I said before, I think because many aren’t native of UAE this causes some breakdown in communication.  We encountered a problem because of this at our lovely Falcon Hospital tour which also included lunch.  Nice meal of hummus and lamb in a traditional tent, sounded nice, right? Well, unfortunately our driver was also supposed to drive back another group whose tour DID NOT include lunch.  This resulted in us eating as fast as we could while they sat in the van.  Awkward!

3) The Desert Safari.  The potential in this is huge and it does have the ability of being really cool but unfortunately there was just something lacking.  This could be mainly due to the fact that the henna lady was not present (we were looking forward to that the most!) and that it was cold.  The desert night sky was pretty though.

4) The Shopping.  It was hard to find good authentic goods stores.  Most were American goods or stuff with crap (for lack of a better word).  The hotel at least had some good little stores.

5) The Cultural Centers.  Both the Heritage Center and the Cultural Center turned out to be rather disappointing.  The Cultural Center was completely closed due to… yup, construction, but at least the Heritage Center had a couple little market shops.

So there you have it.  Abu Dhabi has a lot to offer but seems to be still putting all of it together.  I look forward to returning in 2030.

Abu Dhabi: A Reaction

I have to admit Abu Dhabi was different than I imagined but not necessarily in a good or bad way.  There were disappointments as well as very memorable experiences.  However, looking back, often what seemed like a disappointing experience often turned out to be the memories that I’ll cherish the most!  For example, when entering what seemed like a slightly sketchy area looking for a fruit/vegetable market that never really materialized too much, we did come upon a date (a sweet fruit originating from the Persian Gulf area) market which ended up being the most delicious date around town!  Plus, we experienced the added bonus of seeing a processional prayer, where they drop everything they are doing at certain hours of the day and head to their respective prayer rooms and pray for 4-7 minutes depending on the prayer.  Very interesting to see… a bit like zombies all walking across the land though! Eek!

In my next post I’ll let you know my best & worst aka not-so-good but good for memories of Abu Dhabi!  But what I think I took most from my visit to Abu Dhabi is what I learned about the people of that area.   According to our Mosque tour guide, only 12% of Abu Dhabi’s population or native Emiratis.  Which means that people from all over the Middle East and other places come to live there.  Many people, including myself have had stereotypes already implanted in our heads about people from the Middle East and so it was nice to be surrounded by friendly, helpful and fun-loving people.

DSCF7341

Sweepstakes Surprise!

You know those sweepstakes where you enter in your email after coming across the website during a break from work?  You rarely think about it again and never ever hear about the winner of the fabulous prize.  Perhaps it has even crossed your mind that there’s not really a winner at all!  Well, I’m here to let you know that there are winners to those contests, as my mother was one of them!

Yes, my mother was the grand prize winner of the Entertainment Tonight Summer sweepstakes 2010.  Her prize was a 7 day, 6 night trip for four to a location of her choosing (out of Rome, London, Bali and Abu Dhabi).  She chose her three daughters to take along for the trip (much to my surprise and pleasure!).

When choosing the destination we decided against Rome and London as we wanted to go somewhere warm and would be going in December.  Bali was DEFINITELY on the table for a long time but we decided that it could be done fairly cheaply on our own (did I mention that she also received $5000 cash spending money?!) and with an opportunity like this we thought we should pick a place we would otherwise never go.  It was decided.  Abu Dhabi or bust!

DSCF7203