Life of Wry

Trip day #23

Okay, kids, gonna be a big day! It’s going to start with an early breakfast in Abu Dhabi followed by a road trip to, and a whirlwind tour of, Dubai. Time also will be spent deep in the depths of desert dunes, and along the way we’ll eat, swim, and cavort with camels. Before the clock strikes midnight, one of us (me) will board a plane to Germany where a connection will be made to a plane bound for the United States. No time to waste; let’s go!

We started with the road trip to Dubai… almost 90 minutes northeast along the Persian Gulf coast. This is a commute Laura did for her entire first year here, before settling in Abu Dhabi.

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Here’s a little info about the UAE:

The UAE is a federation of seven emirates (equivalent to principalities). Each emirate is governed by a hereditary emir who jointly form the Federal Supreme Council which is the highest legislative and executive body in the country. One of the emirs is selected as the President of the United Arab Emirates. The constituent emirates are Abu Dhabi,Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain. The capital is Abu Dhabi, which is one of the two centers of commercial and cultural activities, together with Dubai.^[6] Islam is the official religion of the UAE, and Arabic is the official language.^[7]

The UAE got its independence from England in just 1971 (they’d been under British rule for almost a hundred years).  This is a very modern country, with a lot of money flowing because of oil and natural gas exports. Today the population is about nine million people, approximately 10% of whom are native. The rest are foreign laborers and expats. If you’re native, the government takes care of you. They give you money, land, a home, and you don’t have to work.

This is a shot out the window of the back seat.  Pictured on the building, I believe, are the emirs of Abu Dhabi and Dubai emirates, who also serve as the president and vice president of the UAE. These guys come to power by virtue of family connections. Everyone in their cabinet is a family member. Everything is named after them. The current president of UAE, is a guy named Kalilfa, after whom the tallest building in the world (in Dubai) is named.. the Burj Kalifa (burj means tower). We’re on our way there.

On the road between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, we saw a number of islands (all of Abu Dhabi is an island, by the way). These man-made islands are in the shapes of palm trees, world maps and other abstract designs, and are amazing. I hear they are sinking, but that doesn’t seem to have stopped the government from continuing to build them, and on them erect very high-end resort-style hotels and mansion-filled housing developments. Here’s an aerial view I grabbed from the web. Close-ups of the beach front estates are worth a look… sheer decadence.

We also saw Ferrari World, and an entirely-indoor ski resort.  We didn’t go inside, but it’s a popular place with man-made snow, a chair lift and a 1/4 mile run. On one side of the freeway (which is one of the hugest freeways I’ve ever seen.. and I’m from LA), we saw camels in the deserty distance, and, on the other side, UAE headquarters for Microsoft, 3M, Hewlett-Packard, Cannon, Oracle, and many others. Lotta dirham there (their currency).

Once in Dubai, the first order of business was to navigate an immense downtown parking garage. They had lights above all the parking stalls to indicate vacant (green) or occupied (red) and a digital readout at the entrance to tell you exactly how many spaces were available. Parking was free. Wandered over to the Burj Kalifa. Here it is from the outside:

It is a very classy, elegant building with beautiful displays and exhibits about its construction.

The Burj Kalifa opened in January 2010 and is the tallest building in the world–200 stories.  The observation tower is on the 124th floor, which was high enough. I was a little nervous at the top and ready to come down after about 30 minutes…

but we had fun up there taking pictures of each other (the Hesse sisters)..

..and taking in the stunning views:

Here are a few shots of the area around the Burj Kalifa and downtown Dubai:

I hear the synchronized fountain display here is mind boggling:

And, yeah… the theme of Dubai…

Here’s a Starbucks:

The temperatures were probably around 100. During the summer, they regularly get into the 120s.  It’s a dry heat (ha!), but people still spend most of their time in malls, cinemas and in/around pools. The malls are, as you would expect, extremely cool (literally) and sophisticated, chic, modern and monied. The one we walked around had an enormous aquarium; others have internal waterways, and other over-the-top amenities and features. One, I hear, has an entire replica of Jurassic Park. All the usual mall suspects were there–Pottery Barn, Gap, Cinnabon–you could have been anywhere… but for the mannequins modeling the latest in arab attire:

So, we got to see Dubai, and I’m glad we did, if only for a few hours.  Then we headed back to Abu Dhabi for a quick snack and swim at Laura’s place

We then met our guide/driver at the Meridian, another nearby high-rise, luxury hotel, and off we went on a wild desert tour, very popular with tourists. We got gas, exchanged a few dollars for dirhams, and then drove to a meeting spot where we joined 6-8 other tour groups, also in Land Cruisers. First activity on the list was dune bashing.

In preparation for this, our guide let out most of the air in our tires:

And then this happened:

Up, down, sideways, we zoomed around making a lot of noise, spewing sand in all directions for about twenty non-stop minutes. For me, that was about nineteen minutes too long. I focused all my concentration on not puking and tried to avoid thinking about tipping over and rolling down the dune.  Luckily, maybe, I was in the front; here’s my view:

VROOOOOMMMMMM!

Next stop was a visit to a herd of feeding female camels.  Setting was beautiful.. literally out in the middle of endless, light-brown sand dunes, an occasional tree, and dozens and dozens of light-brown camels just standing there, making faces, some eating.  What did we do? Took pictures, of course.

Karen decided to share her hat with a friend:

We loaded back into our land cruisers, bashed a few more dunes (ugh), then were dropped off at what seemed like an impossibly remote encampment of tents and more camels. Here, we were treated to a surprisingly wonderful buffet of middle eastern cuisine (nothing makes me happier), were entertained by a variety of dancers, and could partake of hookahs, sand boarding, and camel rides. We did the latter. Below a pair of awkward tourists:

And the ever-photogenic Hesse sisters:

The sun–a truly gigantic, spectacular fire-ball behind a sheen of desert dust–went down, disappearing behind the dunes, which, for me, was really the highlight of our desert experience… it was duly exotic to be among the monstrous dunes watching the sun set in the middle of the middle east.

Tour organizer logistics and a lost car key (not ours) delayed our departure, which began to fray nerves as I had a midnight flight to catch and we were losing our cushion of time. Laura leaned on the horn of our not-going-anywhere Land Cruiser more than a few times as we sat, anxious. The increasingly erratic behavior of our driver prompted another great Laura line, “We don’t need any more of your drama!”  But, by and by, we made it back to Laura’s place with a whole thirty minutes spare, time to shower and pack. Barely. Laura arranged a taxi and after a flurry of quick goodbyes and hugs, I was off. Just like that.

It was a bit of a shock to suddenly be driving alone through Abu Dhabi, late at night, tired, in the back of a quiet taxi, after an incredibly wild-ride of a day, after an incredibly mind-blowing trip. My over-full brain was just focused on getting in and through the Abu Dhabi airport, getting to and through Frankfort, and getting to and out of San Francisco. It would take months to catch up to the experience and process all we saw, did and accomplished.

From the Himalayas to the desert dunes, it was an amazing trip.