My Birthday was last Thursday and in the UAE as well as many other countries I shared this holiday with the observance of the Prophet's Ascension. Despite daily encouragements to pray, I still know little more about the practice of Islam than before we moved. The actual holiday was earlier in the week but it was observed on Thursday to make for a long weekend. For me, all weekends are long but it was a day off for Liz! She and her trainer at work, Shannon, made a booking for us to go to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world's tallest building. Topping Taipei 101 by some 60% extra height, the Burj is really a remarkable architechural feat. I was really looking forward to it.
However, Liz had even more in mind. On Wednesday afternoon, Liz called me from work and told me that I needed to pack an overnight bag and meet her in the lobby of our building at 4 o'clock. She had no more details for me. There are many 4 and 5 star hotels in Abu Dhabi which are more or less empty at the moment because the weather her is forbodingly hot and some industries such as education are shut down for the summer. Thus they are offering deep discounts so I thought maybe we were going to have a staycation for the night similar to what we did for Liz's last Birthday in Jozini. When the taxi began taking us off of the island, I knew we would be headed Yas Island. Further, than that and a taxi would start being really hugely expensive.
What's on Yas Island you may ask? The answer would be not a whole lot. There's a golf course, an IKEA that furnishes most of Abu Dhabi's middle class, a world class formula one race track and Ferrari World. I was so excited to go to Ferrari World! This was a such a great suprise. After about a 20 minute taxi ride we checked into a rather nice hotel room with a great view of the race track and the Yas Hotel and shared a toast from the mini-bar. Then we headed off to Ferrari World.
Ferrari World is still pretty new and they don't have too many attractions but what attracted me the most was the world's fastest roller coaster which goes about 240 kmph (150 mph) which is about half again as fast as any roller coaster I have ever been on. The ride was totally intense!! I would recommend any thrill ride enthusiast to make the trek to Ferrari World. That ride is worth the price of admission. The place was pretty empty. I don't know if that is because it's an off season or because it was Wednesday evening but we never waited more than 20 minutes for anything and many rides we walked right on. This was a fantastic suprise!
One thing about living here that is an adjustment is all the women walking around with their faces covered. This custom is followed to differing degrees by different women from different families and tribes but is a part of my day to day experience. Most young women are covering their hair but not their face. One Thursday afternoon I was getting lunch at the nearest mall, (an activity that may be the subject of a future blog), and it was funny to see the teenage Emiratis in their traditional dress behaving every bit the same as teenagers would in an American mall, girls with too much makeup, boys brimming with youthful confidence and bravado eyeing each other curiously and ambitiously.
One of the first times I ever spoke to someone with a veiled face was in Durban, in South Africa. She was working at the bunny chow stand and I was suprised by how pleasant sounding and happy her voice was. In my mind, the veil means seriousness. I expected the voice to be grumpy. In general I will admit that I am a little scared of such women. Afterall, when did I see a TV show or a movie where Arab Muslims were happy go lucky? Perhaps this is why if I had to guess whether or not the face I couldn't see was smiling or not, I would usually guess not. This is certainly not always the case. At Ferrari World, there were many women of different ages wearing veils and scarves. Ferrari World provides hoods to go over and goggles to wrap around so as to not disturb their placement on someones head while they go flying through space and time at 150mph. It's good to know that having fun and wearing a veil are not mutually exclusive!
The next day we were picked up by Sam and Shannon and we headed to Dubai. On the way into the city we could see the Burj Al Arab, the worlds first so-called 7 star hotel. Then we headed into the city center where we spent the afternoon in the Dubai Mall in the shadow of the Burj Khalifa. The mall is enormous and houses so much. Many high-end designers are present as well as a gold market. There's a Hershey store that is likely the largest outside of Hershey, PA and a Bloomingdales where you can get a little brown bag. There's an aquarium and underwater zoo which Liz and I visited. There's an ice-skating rink, a fashion catwalk...the list goes on. The indoor-ski slope is at the Mall of the Emirates which is a few miles away so we didn't see that. We had Yo! Sushi for a meal while we were there before heading to our elevator ride.
The Burj Khalifa has over 200 floors but the observatory is on the 124th floor. This is still significantly higher than you get in the Sears Tower or the Empire State Building but it's amazing to be so high up and yet to feel like you are at the base of a 80 story building. The weather was hazy so you couldn't see far but you did get a nice few of the city and we watched the sun set low into the arabian gulf. It was really a great visit.
After our elevator ride, Sam and Shannon had made a booking for us to have cocktails at the Armani Hotel which is inside the tower. Although it seemed like it should be obvious, actually getting to the entrance of the world's tallest building was a task. Yes, it's the same Armani that makes designer suits and overpriced t-shirts. From the lounge we could see the Dubai Fountain display it's nightly shows.
We returned to the mall, they are adjacent, to get dinner and found it packed! No wonder that Ferrari World was empty! Apparently the national pasttime is shopping!
Now we are headed to Europe for two weeks. It really is the off-season and Liz was encouraged to take some leave even though she just started. I was able to book the flights with frequent flyer miles we acquired over the course of our PC experience. We are going to spend a few days in Paris, then a week in Switzerland exploring different places with cheeses named after them and the alps and then a few days in Venice then Rome. I have never been to Europe and am looking forward to it. I promise to take lots of photos!
I just heard back today that I had passed the interview stage for a position as Physics Faculty at the Naval College. Should this lead to a job offer, this added income with be completely unnecessary for our sustained survival in Abu Dhabi and will no doubt enable us to get on top of all the student loans we took out over the course of our education while at the same time opening up new lifestyle options that before we've only dreamed of. For me, since it will be a 40 minute commute each way, I am wondering what kind of car I should get. I am thinking something like certified pre-owned mini cooper but we shall see.
0 comments:
Post a Comment