Ho of Arabia!
Howdy Partners!
I am just settling in to my first decent cup of tea in 4 days. The Bahrainis will make you tea with milk if you ask, but man, these Emiratis refuse. 'Ma'am tea is drunk black here.' I don't care I like tea with milk!
Anyway, Tim and I thought that we would try a little experiment, blogging the same event and seeing what each others memories of it were. Tim's will look prettier than mine as he can put pictures up!
Abu Dhabi is a large, high rise city, looking a lot like New York, mainly down to the wide, grid system arranged streets and the overhead traffic lights. I couldn't believe my eyes when we were in the taxi; roads that went somewhere, roads that weren't just dirt track. It was unbelieveable.
We wandered around a bit (got lost!) and ended up having lunch in a Lebanese restaurant. The Lebanese do the best meat things, especially schwarma. Lebaese cooking is actually quite different to the rest of the Middle East, I am assuming that this is down to the large number of French Lebanese and also the fact that the climate is so temperate and things actually grow there.
The cornice in Abu Dhabi is absolutely stunning. It is paved to start with. The views across the gorgeous green gulf to Lulu Island are superb and there is even some beach! When you walk right round (about 6 km) you get to see the sky scrappers in all their glory. We were sat down enjoying a well earned drink in a beach bar just as the sun was setting. Very nice.
The only place you can get an alcoholic drink in Abu Dhabi is in the major hotels. We went to a rather hip jazz bar in the evening called Sax in the Royal Meridien. The problem is Sax didn't know what it wanted to be. It had a live band playing, was a resaurant (but the music was too loud to enjoy a meal) had a bar area too close to the restaurant, you had to book three days in abdvance if you wanted a seat, it had no dance floor but people were trying to dance about a foot away from people eating. Sounds confussing? It was. We went next door to Oceans. Oceans had a large bar area and an outside area for shisha. It too was also a restaurant, but a slightly better planned one.
In spite of being a big city Abu Dhabi is ver conservative. In many ways Bahrain is much more liberal. There are way less dish-dasha is AD and the women are expected to cover up a lot mre, although they rarely wear the abaya or hijab. There are a lot of Lebanese in AD and they all seem very concerend about what they are wearing, and how they look. It is estimated that about 70% of Lebanese women between the ages of 18 and 35 have had some sort of cosmetic surgery. Crazy when you think about it. As with Bahrain, sometimes it was difficult to find a native. People move around the Middle East a lot.
The morning brought a big fat brunch in the Rotana Towers hotel. Yum. You could help yourselves to hughe portiopns of food from every continent, including the most beautiful frenc desserts and wonderful baklawa. All this and free champagne. What could ure a hangover better...
We walked of lunch with some serious shopping in the large Abu Dhabi mall, and then headed to the massif Marina Mall. Marina mall is bigger than any other mall I have ever seen. In fact it was all too much and I demanded that we leave after about an hour because the sheer shopping options were too much.
Obviously with it being a holiday, we had to reward ourselves for eatting and shopping by drinking in the best hotel in town. In fact, it was not just the best hotel in town, it was probably the best hotel I have ever seen. A typical Arabian palace. Lots of gold and general oppulance, with a hint of art deco sophistication. Seriously a lovely lovely hotel.
Check out the pictures: www.emiratespalace.com
Saturday was very busy. An early start to watch the Formula 1 street circuit. This involved a lot waiting in very hot weather. It reached 31. The actual cars whizz by so quickly that it is impossible to take pictures. I think Tim might have one. The event would have been very enjoyable had we not had to wait for ages and the cars didn't keep stalling when they tried to do crazy doughnut-wheelspin things. It was however very cool to see Martin Brundle.
Now the best bit: The desert! It was the full on tourist eperience. Hacking over dunes in 4x4 was much fun. We then got to go to a special tourist Bedouin camp, where we could ride camels. Also much fun. Tim and I got to dress up in some Arab clothes and have photos taken. We then climbed a jebel to watch the sun set. We enjoyed some shisha and a traditional Emirati barbeque. A lot of tourist fun.
We also went shopping in ikea. Very happy about that.
Tres bon holiday.
Miss you all.
X
I am just settling in to my first decent cup of tea in 4 days. The Bahrainis will make you tea with milk if you ask, but man, these Emiratis refuse. 'Ma'am tea is drunk black here.' I don't care I like tea with milk!
Anyway, Tim and I thought that we would try a little experiment, blogging the same event and seeing what each others memories of it were. Tim's will look prettier than mine as he can put pictures up!
Abu Dhabi is a large, high rise city, looking a lot like New York, mainly down to the wide, grid system arranged streets and the overhead traffic lights. I couldn't believe my eyes when we were in the taxi; roads that went somewhere, roads that weren't just dirt track. It was unbelieveable.
We wandered around a bit (got lost!) and ended up having lunch in a Lebanese restaurant. The Lebanese do the best meat things, especially schwarma. Lebaese cooking is actually quite different to the rest of the Middle East, I am assuming that this is down to the large number of French Lebanese and also the fact that the climate is so temperate and things actually grow there.
The cornice in Abu Dhabi is absolutely stunning. It is paved to start with. The views across the gorgeous green gulf to Lulu Island are superb and there is even some beach! When you walk right round (about 6 km) you get to see the sky scrappers in all their glory. We were sat down enjoying a well earned drink in a beach bar just as the sun was setting. Very nice.
The only place you can get an alcoholic drink in Abu Dhabi is in the major hotels. We went to a rather hip jazz bar in the evening called Sax in the Royal Meridien. The problem is Sax didn't know what it wanted to be. It had a live band playing, was a resaurant (but the music was too loud to enjoy a meal) had a bar area too close to the restaurant, you had to book three days in abdvance if you wanted a seat, it had no dance floor but people were trying to dance about a foot away from people eating. Sounds confussing? It was. We went next door to Oceans. Oceans had a large bar area and an outside area for shisha. It too was also a restaurant, but a slightly better planned one.
In spite of being a big city Abu Dhabi is ver conservative. In many ways Bahrain is much more liberal. There are way less dish-dasha is AD and the women are expected to cover up a lot mre, although they rarely wear the abaya or hijab. There are a lot of Lebanese in AD and they all seem very concerend about what they are wearing, and how they look. It is estimated that about 70% of Lebanese women between the ages of 18 and 35 have had some sort of cosmetic surgery. Crazy when you think about it. As with Bahrain, sometimes it was difficult to find a native. People move around the Middle East a lot.
The morning brought a big fat brunch in the Rotana Towers hotel. Yum. You could help yourselves to hughe portiopns of food from every continent, including the most beautiful frenc desserts and wonderful baklawa. All this and free champagne. What could ure a hangover better...
We walked of lunch with some serious shopping in the large Abu Dhabi mall, and then headed to the massif Marina Mall. Marina mall is bigger than any other mall I have ever seen. In fact it was all too much and I demanded that we leave after about an hour because the sheer shopping options were too much.
Obviously with it being a holiday, we had to reward ourselves for eatting and shopping by drinking in the best hotel in town. In fact, it was not just the best hotel in town, it was probably the best hotel I have ever seen. A typical Arabian palace. Lots of gold and general oppulance, with a hint of art deco sophistication. Seriously a lovely lovely hotel.
Check out the pictures: www.emiratespalace.com
Saturday was very busy. An early start to watch the Formula 1 street circuit. This involved a lot waiting in very hot weather. It reached 31. The actual cars whizz by so quickly that it is impossible to take pictures. I think Tim might have one. The event would have been very enjoyable had we not had to wait for ages and the cars didn't keep stalling when they tried to do crazy doughnut-wheelspin things. It was however very cool to see Martin Brundle.
Now the best bit: The desert! It was the full on tourist eperience. Hacking over dunes in 4x4 was much fun. We then got to go to a special tourist Bedouin camp, where we could ride camels. Also much fun. Tim and I got to dress up in some Arab clothes and have photos taken. We then climbed a jebel to watch the sun set. We enjoyed some shisha and a traditional Emirati barbeque. A lot of tourist fun.
We also went shopping in ikea. Very happy about that.
Tres bon holiday.
Miss you all.
X
posted by Tim Heidi Arthur KofiI X at 6:27 am
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