72 Hours in Abu Dhabi
Life comes at you fast. One minute, you’re planning to attend the Shaky Beats Music Festival 2018 (yes, another post that is being dragged out of the deep recesses of my mind) with your Imagine Music Fest 2017 crew, the next there’s a pregnancy and a new job, so attending the music festival is out of the question. However, I still had time off of work & a round trip flight to Atlanta and seeing as I hadn’t started a new job nor was I pregnant, I was in search of an adventure. Truly, there is plenty to do around Atlanta and I had a friend not far away in Tennessee, so really, I could have had plenty of fun in the area, except for one thing: it was my birthday weekend. It wasn’t a particularly special birthday, but a birthday nonetheless and I wanted an adventure. A big one. Something that could possibly be considered outrageous. And oh, didn’t that new museum in Abu Dhabi just open? And there’s a temporary exhibit about globes? Oh alright, Abu Dhabi it is for my birthday weekend.
Now, full disclosure, I had more than 72 hours to pull this adventure off, though I was only in Abu Dhabi for 72 hours (technically a bit less). The cheap flight I found had a long 12 hour connection in Manchester, UK both directions, which was fine going to Abu Dhabi, but was more irksome coming home, for a couple of reasons. A direct flight from my usual departure point is approximately 12-13 hours to the United Arab Emirates so a bit more doable for a long weekend trip. As an added bonus, SPG (now all consolidated as Marriott Bonvoy) rewards members had access to a special weekender package at one of the Sheraton hotels. The details escape me now, but I think it included breakfast, something else I can’t remember, and a late checkout at three pm on Sunday. As an added bonus, I was able to check in right when I got to the hotel at 7am or so on Friday morning. Win!
Friday
Aimless Wandering
As a night shift nurse, my sleep schedule has a certain amount of derangement at baseline, but even I was feeling the effects of jumping several time zones and failing to sleep during my Manchester connection or in any significant way on either of my flights. The plan? Nap for a couple of hours and then head out to explore. Reality? I slept until three in the afternoon and wasted half a day — which shouldn’t have surprised me in the least as there’s a 50/50 chance this situation would have played out the same way at home.
As I emerged from my hotel into the sunny, sultry afternoon my first shock was how humid it was (and a quick google search just now tells me that May has an average relative humidity of 55%, though how muggy the air actually feels is more complicated than just relative humidity). Upon reflection, the muggy feeling makes sense, but at the time I was puzzled as I was operating under the incorrect notion that deserts, such as the Arabian Desert, are always dry. They may be hot or cold (Antarctica), but they’re always felt dry was my thinking. In the future, I will also consider the dew point.
After walking for I don’t even know how long along the Corniche, I eventually turned left and started walking back towards my hotel along Hamdan Street. Deciding it was time to take a break, I found myself inside one of the many malls and the icy blast of A/C felt wonderful. Two coffees and a pastry later, I resumed my journey back to my hotel, ate some dinner, and then passed out for the night.
Saturday
Woke up fully rested, but opted to have a bit of a lie-in because I was on vacation AND it was officially my birthday, though eventually I got moving and took a taxi to the Lourve Abu Dhabi, which was the main reason I picked Abu Dhabi for this particular adventure. I enjoy museums in general, but I LOVED the Lourve Abu Dhabi. Like full heart eyes emoji, could have spent the entire weekend there love. Part of what I love so much is that the museum is laid out in chronological order of human history, rather than having an “Ancient Egypt” gallery and an “Ancient Greece” gallery, etc, which is think tells a better story as civilizations borrowed from each other and their predecessors as humanity progressed. One thing I did notice, however, is that there is a distinct lack of items in the collection from non-Egyptian, non-North African areas of the African continent. There were a handful of items from Nigeria/ancient kingdom of Benin, Mali, Gabon, Guinea, and the Ivory Coast in addition to some relatively modern art from Sudan and Senegal. This issue isn’t limited just to the Lourve Abu Dhabi, it seems to happen at most museums I’ve been to. Maybe that will change when I eventually travel to Rwanda & the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I’m not really sure why this is, surely there were multiple kingdoms throughout the African continent, after all we do know the Nubian kingdom at one point conquered Egypt and made up the 25th dynasty of pharaohs.
The special exhibit was “Globes: Visions of the World”, which due to being a limited time event also informed the timing of my weekend holiday. I was overjoyed by this exhibit, learning about the various globes, astrolabes, and astronomical observations from the past. The fact that humans could deduce as much as they did about Earth and the cosmos without the benefit of modern technology and satellites is impressive.
Weighed down with two new books (“Lourve Abu Dhabi: The Complete Guide” and “Globes: Visions of the World”, I jumped on the hop-on hop-off tour bus run by Big Bus Tours. I wholeheartedly endorse this as a way to explore Abu Dhabi, especially as a solo travel because it visits the main tourist sites. I would recommend double checking the timetable because I was looking at a schedule that showed the bus coming by every 30 minutes and it was actually every hour, so I did end up wasting a chunk of time, unfortunately. Furthermore, if you’re planning to see more than two places, actually plan your day better than I did. I only wanted to go to the Lourve Abu Dhabi and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque so I was content to ride around on the bus, just experiencing the city around me, but better planning would be more efficient.
So the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is the most beautiful piece of architecture I’ve ever seen. I think it could very easily be considered ostentatious, but the clean lines and simplicity prevent that. And I know “simplicity” is a very strange word choice, but I think it fits because despite how much money went into building this mosque, it never seems decadent. Due to poor planning on my part, I didn’t have as much time at the mosque as I would have liked, but the time I had was lovely. Like many religious institutions, conservative dress is a requirement for entrance. I expected this and wore a loose ankle length skirt + black tshirt with a long sleeved cardigan to put over my tshirt and a scarf that I was going to wear on my head. However, that wasn’t good enough (maybe the cardigan was too fitted?), so the mosque staff provided me, and many others, with proper clothing. You can read more about the mosque and visit expectations here under “Visiting the Mosque”. Shoes were removed and afterward, the cold floor felt heavenly under my feet in the sweltering heat of the day (I think the temperature came in at 109F). I don’t have much else to say except the mosque was quite peaceful, despite being kind of busy. Though it’s built to hold 55,000 people and there wasn’t anywhere near that number present.
Jumping back on the bus, I rode it all the way to Marina Mall where I used the restroom and then grabbed a taxi to the Emirates Palace Hotel. I was in search of an indulgent birthday experience and figured dinner in a hotel with an ATM that spits out gold bars could probably deliver. And as an aside, have you ever walked into a place and been like “wow, I do not belong here" — because that’s how I felt when I first walked in wearing the same clothes I’d been wearing all day with a day’s worth of grime on me. Normally a birthday celebration involves getting dressed up, but sometimes you’ve just got to eat NOW, you know? Hotel staff were unfailingly polite and since I didn’t have reservations of any sort (again, with the lack of planning), I was taken to Le Cafe and seated at the bar. Everything I ordered was delicious and the meal was enormous. I started off with a 24K gold leaf cappuccino, which came with a rich & delicious chocolate. Yes, 24K gold flakes were sprinkled on my cappuccino. Then I ordered a Cosmo cocktail, which also came with gold flakes and a giant salad with grilled chicken. I rounded out my meal with vanilla camel milk ice cream cone, drizzled with — you guess it — 24K gold! I have zero regrets about spending almost $100 on my birthday dinner. Finished the night off with a giant bubble bath in my hotel room, which is maybe a waste of water in a desert country, but it was the perfect end to my day.
Sunday
Blessed with a late checkout at 3pm, I slept in and then spent my morning/early afternoon hanging out by the pool and reading. After checking out, I was picked up by Desert Rose Tours for my evening desert safari. The desert safari consisted of dune bashing in our land cruiser, a visit to a camel farm, and a visit to an Arabian Bedouin Camp (albeit one aimed squarely at tourists). Dune bashing was incredibly thrilling and the Bedouin camp was fun as well. There was a camel ride, sandboarding, sunset, henna painting, and hawks (which are significantly heavier than they look). Dinner was good, the dancing entertainment was beautiful, and the shisha was good. Now that we’re a year into the COVID19 pandemic, it’s hard to believe there was ever a time that I shared a hookah with strangers. Like I’m pretty sure we all had our mouths on the same pipe. Wow.
Following my desert safari, I returned to the hotel and attempted to get cleaned up before going to the airport; however, I was limited by my lack of access to a proper shower and baby wipes could only do so much. It was definitely a slightly sandy flight back to the USA. Sandy and long, owing to a 12 hour connection in Manchester, but that’s a story for another day.
Dune bashing
