Last full day in Abu Dhabi

It's Wednesday and my last full day in Abu Dhabi. I fly out of Dubai tomorrow evening on the long bittersweet trip home. I miss my girls, I miss my family, I miss my home, I miss my friends, I miss my dog but I think I will miss Jack as much as I miss all those things combined. We have had a wonderful 2 weeks and it will be really hard to leave here without him. I know he will feel the same way perhaps even worse, I get to go home to all those wonderful people and things and he has to stay here and work the hardest job he's ever had.

I went to the Grand Mosque this morning and took the guided tour. The pictures cannot begin to describe how magnificent the mosque is. It is completely done in white Italian marble inside and out. There are 83 domes, anything that is gold in color is 24kt. gold. It has the largest Persian carpet in the world in the main prayer hall that holds 3500 men. It has the largest chandelier in the world that weighs 3.5 tons. This visit was the highlight of the trip and I've seen some really beautiful places. Our tour guide was very informative and encouraged any and all questions. It has taken 12 years to build so far and the grounds around it should be completed within the next year. It will cost over 2.6 billion US dollars when completed. Wow!!!

We took the night time view of the mosque from the Shangri-la hotel that is in his neighborhood. This is Jack's favorite place to go over here, it is within walking distance and it is absolutely beautiful. We've been down here a few times and I can certainly see why Jack enjoys it here.

A long and diverse weekend!

Jack and I arrived back in Abu Dhabi this afternoon after spending the last 4 days doing very different things. Friday morning we took off on the bus for Dubai, destination Ski Dubai. For those of you who don't know what Ski Dubai is, it is a snow skiing "hill" inside the Emirates shopping mall in Dubai. The attraction is that it is 115 degrees outside and 30 degrees inside. We planned to ski for 2 hours and call it a day. We were both a little apprehensive on the first run down the hill as neither of us have been skiing for 22 years. But after the first run it came right back to us. We bought a lift ticket for 2 hours only, knowing we could add an additional hour if we wanted to. Each time you skied through the gate to get on the chairlift it would read your card and tell you how much time you had left. When we were down to 33 minutes and were calculating how many more runs we could get in they took the gates away and quit keeping track of the time. So we skied for 5 more hours until we were so cold and tired we decided to quit. It is certainly not like skiing in Colorado but it was a lot of fun for a day.

We came back to Abu Dhabi Friday night in a shared taxi with 5 other passengers. It was a brand new Hybrid Tahoe, really nice car especially if you'd seen some of the taxi's we have ridden in. And this guy must have loved this car because he drove 100+ mph the whole way to Abu Dhabi. We got here quick and miraculously unharmed!!

Saturday morning we left for Al Ain which is about 2 hrs. east of Abu Dhabi on the border of Oman. We had reservations at a very nice hotel up on Jebel Hafeet mountain. Once we got all the way up to the hotel on Saturday we decided just to stay there for the afternoon and enjoy the pool. While we were at the pool a sand storm blew up and it was like a mild hurricane coming through except the rain was replaced by sand and there was absolutely no warning. Tables flew, unbrellas flew, everyone ran for cover and there was sand everywhere, mostly in our eyes! Quite an experience.

Sunday morning we went to the camel market, not at all what we thought it would be and frankly a little scary! We asked our taxi to wait while we looked around a few minutes and were very glad we did. We would not have wanted to be out there with no immediate way out. They are just very poor, uneducated Camel farmers that don't see too many tourists.

We went from there to the Al Ain Palace Museum which was beautiful and peaceful. We had fun trying on the traditional clothing that they have available for picture taking. After lunch about 2 pm we decided to take a walk through the Al Ain Oasis, a working oasis of date farmers.They each have their own plot of land and are growing Date palms and harvesting the dates. They have a very intricate system of channeling the water and releasing it to irrigate different sections at a time.The oasis was hugh and very, very hot. What were we thinking going at that hour? It would be like going to the zoo in Miami in the middle of the summer. Smart people should know better.

After a quick trip to the air-conditioned Al Ain Museum we went back to our hotel and went for a much needed swim. No sand storm today but it did cloud up and rain for 20 minutes.

Today (Monday) we just stayed at the hotel enjoying the pool and the view again. The hotel is perched up high almost to the top of the 4000ft. mountain. The terrain is all jagged rock with very sparse vegetation. It was also about 10 degrees cooler up here than in Abu Dhabi. Beautiful view when it wasn't too hazy from all the sand in the air.

Now we are back in the villa and Jack is getting some sleep before he goes to work at 1:30 am. What a schedule!!

Skiing in Dubai

Blog explanation and update

For most of you this blog probably seems like it's all about Cindy's trip to the Middle East. Well so far it is. Meaghan set up this blog for Jack and posted a couple pictures to get him started. this was the 2nd attempt at a blog as the 1st one was blocked in the UAE. So anyway, she got it all set up and sent him the login instructions via our email so he could take over. We knew he would be able to access blogger.com because he was able to login into Paul and Andrea's blog and post a comment. We thought we were home free but when Jack logged in the 1st time the whole screen was in Arabic and he couldn't read anything. The blog had to wait until I arrived, I studied the screen at home in english and saw where the drop down box was to change the language. I was able to change the language on the opening page and the blog has been fine since. But Jack has been so busy working and playing the good host this week and sleeping very little that he still has no idea how to use the blog. I still need to do some tweaking as I haven't been able to title the pictures or make them go where I want them, they go wherever they want. Paul sent me some info that I obviously haven't put to use yet. I will make sure he is up to speed before I leave and then he will go back and post pictures and comments from the last 2 months. In the meantime I'm trying to keep it up to date with what is happening these 2 weeks.

Tomorrow is our skiing day in Dubai, we plan to take the bus over early in the morning, ski for a couple hours maybe see a little more of Dubai and come back here to Abu Dhabi tomorrow evening. Sat. and Sun. we are going to Al Ain about 2 hours east of here and up a mountain to the Grand Hotel Jebel Hafeet. This is a 5 star hotel up on a mountainside and apparently the views are fantastic. They are running a summer special on their rooms which makes this 5 star hotel 1/3 the price of our room in Dubai. We are looking forward to it and hope it's as nice as we anticipate. We'll let you know and hope to have great pictures to share.

Tuesday and Wednesday in Abu Dhabi ( non working view)

Tuesday morning I took a trip to the Heritage village down on the Corniche. Saw Jack's favorite camel and said hello. The camel guy made the camel sit down for me but warned me not to get too close. Jack is right they are strange animals. I walked around the village here and took plenty of pictures.

After the Heritage Village I went over to the Marina Mall. I'll attach a picture Jack took there a few weeks ago of all the ladies in their Burqas. It's really fascinating seeing them all out in the malls etc. There are so many variations of the traditional dress, some covered in all black except a slit for the eyes, some with a thin black veil over their whole head and some with the scarf wrapped around their head but their whole face exposed. And not all are black some are colorful and a lot of the black ones are heavily decorated with beading and sequins. The men have just as many variations of the "dishdash" and their head covering as well. I need to do some research and figure out if some are considered more formal while others are more casual. Very interesting. The very top floor of this particular mall is only traditional Arabic clothing. Let me tell you they can be extremely ornate and expensive. Needless to say I just walked by those shops.

This has been an exciting week for Jack and his crew, they have set the first panels in place up on the boat. He said there have been a few hairy moments with the panels dangling from a crane with a bunch of guys still working on welding in the same areas. They are making progress and he is very happy it is Thursday and the end of his work week.

I met quite a few of the other guys living in this compound this afternoon (Wed.). Jack was sleeping and I thought I'd go sit down by the pool and read for a bit. I figured everyone would probably be sleeping and I'd be alone out there. Wrong! It was about 4 pm and they were having a regular party. I guess they drink til 5 or 6 and then go sleep for 6 or 7 hours and get up and do it all over again. Jack said the Australians and the New Zealanders like to drink and he's right. He says he doesn't even try to keep up with any of them. I know Jack, he couldn't keep up with these guys if he wanted to.

We went down to the local restaurant and had a swarma wrap this evening for dinner. It was very good and I'm still burping the garlic to prove it! It's about a 10-15 min. walk into the little shopping area, great at night after the sun goes down and it's only 95 degrees.

Well it's 1:30 in the morning, I'm all messed up with Jack's work schedule as well. I have another day of adventure tomorrow so I better get some sleep. I really think I need to treat myself to a real cup of coffee tomorrow and skip the instant!!

Abu Dhabi (The non-working view)

Monday was my first real day in Abu Dhabi, Jack went to work at midnite and I slept in. After I got up and had some instant coffee (BLAH!) I used Jack's bike to ride down to the little business area of this neighborhood. Everything here is beige, the buildings, the landscape and the sky. There is absolutely no color in this area of Abu Dhabi. Apparently it is just too new and the landscaping has not caught up with the building. Other areas of Abu Dhabi are very lush and green, in fact they pride themselves on their green areas. This is not an easy task in the desert!

I poked around the grocery store and bought a couple snacks to have around and more water. Bottled water is very necessary and very cheap. A 1.5 liter of bottled water costs 33cents in USD.

The villa where Jack is living is 5 small buildings grouped together in a U shape behind a walled compound. In the building that Jack lives in which is essentially a large house there are 6 private rooms with bathrooms for each of the "guys" Then on the 3rd floor there is laundry facilities and another room where the "help" lives. All of the buildings in this "compound" are occupied by guys working on the project. There is another compound a short distance from here where a bunch more guys live. In this compound I estimate there are 25-30 living and working. Most of the guys travel to and from work on a bus that is provided by the job. It picks them up and drops them off everyday. Jack is "special" he gets to ride to and from with Troy who is in their group and has a company car and a international drivers license. Sooo... Monday when the bus dropped off the guys and they all walked in after a 10 1/2 hour shift in the 115 degree heat they all looked pretty haggard. They are certainly earning every Dirham, Euro or US dollar they are being paid. This ain't easy!!

Anyway after a quick swim we went into Abu Dhabi City. My how things change as you ride into the city. It's very pretty and we went to the very prettiest place in town, the "Emirates Palace". This is a 7 star hotel that is absolutely beyond belief. I took pictures but pictures can never really capture it all. Absolutely unbelievable! As you drive up to the hotel the driveway is all polished inlaid marble or granite, there are 2 guys walking back and forth with hugh dust mops polishing the driveway constantly. The place is absolutely amazing. We won't be staying here, but it's sure fun to go walk around.

From the Palace we went to Marina Mall, we wanted something for lunch and Jack wanted to go to IKEA to work on his room. We made it through lunch and Jack crashed so we never made it to IKEA. Next time. We went back to the villa and Jack went to sleep and I tried to entertain myself. There isn't much to do around here at night with everyone asleep, maybe I'll catch up on my own sleep. More tomorrow!

Cindy's Visit to Dubai

My adventure started off by waiting in Ft. Lauderdale 2 hours before our flight could take off. The Atlanta airport was closed off and on several times Thursday evening due to thunderstorms in the area. We finally arrived and my 3 hour 40 min.layover in Atlanta was now only 1hr 15 min, I thought! Recall those pictures we see on the news when airports are closed and all the people are standing, sitting, laying around waiting and very unhappy. Well I will tell you it is exactly like that! My flight was delayed several times, we changed gates one time and finally took off about midnite Thursday night. The plane was reasonably comfortable, it was a very diverse group of people, not what I expected. I sat next to 2 young guys from Tampa and Palm Harbor, they were on their way to Dubai for business and pleasure. When I asked them what the business was, they are in real estate and want to get in on the rush of real estate in Dubai. They had their luxury car magazines and were dreaming of everything they were going to buy with their 1st million. When I left the plane in Dubai I wished them luck and thought to myself I hope they stay out of trouble with their big ideas!

I found my way through the Dubai airport and waited in very long lines for customs and baggage claim. Then it was out into the sea of people! I spotted Jack (he'd been waiting 3 hours) almost immediately and we got a taxi for the hotel. Jack came over to Dubai earlier in the day and had already checked us into the hotel. Beautiful, very modern hotel overlooking the Dubai Creek.

Saturday morning we had breakfast and went out for a walk along the creek, we took a water taxi to the other side of the creek and went into the souk's. It was almost all Indian and Pakistani's in that area. Kind of reminded me of Canal St., New York City with a Middle Eastern slant. We walked around, drank gallons of bottled water and were tourists in a big way. The weather is hot! It is a dry heat, like you are in a oven at about 120 degrees. It takes your breath away and you feel very dry, thus the gallons of water. Everywhere you go people are selling bottled water and we just kept buying it and drinking it.

When we couldn't handle it anymore we went back to our nice air-conditioned hotel and went for a swim in the roof top CHILLED pool. Heaven. The view from the pool deck was wonderful, when the dust settled down a little Sunday morning we could see the tallest building.

Saturday night we went down to the Dubai Marina area and had dinner in a Italian/Lebanese restaurant. I talked Jack into Lebanese food and we shared several appetizers. It was beautiful and delicious. He was so happy to have tried it and I think I can get him to eat it again.

Sunday we came to Abu Dhabi and are now in his villa. It is very nice, but very stark as there are adequate accomodations but very little decorative touches. We'll go to IKEA and work on his room this week. Jack had to go to work this morning at 1:30 and I slept all night. Lucky me. He will be exhausted when he gets home in a few hours so I don't know how much of Abu Dhabi I'll see today, but there is always tomorrow!

I'm going for a bike ride now to check out his neighborhood. More later!