Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Fujairah

I apologize in advance for my wordiness…Chris says I am too long winded, but these are all things I want to remember….links are for anyone who wants to know more about a particular subject.

This is our first full day at sea and thus I am taking the opportunity to catch up on the blog and edit photos.  We left Oman last night and we are heading to Mumbai where we will leave the ship for two nights to take our trip to the Taj Mahal.  We got a letter in our daily news last night stating that we have a mandatory meeting tomorrow for a pirate drill as we have entered pirate territory and will be in it until December 13^th.  We will find out more at our meeting but we have been asked to make sure we keep our balcony curtains closed at night as they try to minimize exterior lighting during the night.  I guess this is what it was like during bombing during World War II with black out curtains…anyway more on this after our meeting tomorrow.

We began our formal tour last Friday with a full day visit to Abu Dhabi, which was a 2-hour bus ride from Dubai.   Akmed, our tour guide, Moroccan native, and practicing Muslim, was very informative. I will admit that I was ignorant about the United Arab Emirates (UAE) before this trip and we have learned a lot in the last few days.

The UAE is composed of 7 different Emirates, each with their own ruling family (Sheikh – pronounced Shake by Akmed).  The federation was formed in 1971 and there is currently a population of about million people.  Abu Dhabi is the largest comprising 85% of the landmass with most of the oil…still 100 years of oil left.  Their former ruler, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, appears to have been the force behind the federation and for many of the policies that really make this an Arab county to be admired.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zayed_bin_Sultan_Al_Nahyan

Zayed was educated only via the Koran, but his friendship with Oxford educated Wilfred Thesiger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Thesiger (according to one of our guides) led him on an important path. After the discovery of oil in Abu Dhabi in 1959, Zayed asked Wilfred what he should do for his people and supposedly Wilfred’s advice was provide education, health care and road construction.  Zayed was living in Al Ain (an Oasis town – more on this later) and his brother was the ruler in Abu Dhabi and banking most of the oil money.  Through a “bloodless coup”, Zayed became the ruler and began spending the money in a way that benefited his people including free housing, education, health care and water especially for irrigation.  The infrastructure of Abu Dhabi is incredible although they are a bit behind Dubai in the area of commerce as they have concentrated on culture and Islamic life.   There are no homeless, no beggars and no street sales.

As Zayed was originally from the Oasis town of Al Ain he had a passion for greenery and they have planted over 50 million trees.  There is grass, flowers and greenery everywhere and as they get virtually no rain…(100-200 mm a year), everything must be watered.  There are drip lines everywhere and the water all comes from desalination…a very expensive process although clearly very successful in turning this desert green in a country that can clearly afford it.

Zayed did have his passions including camel racing and falconry.  A racing camel can cost a million dollars or more and as betting is not allowed in the Muslim religion, they race for prizes instead.  The camels used to be ridden by children who were fastened onto the camels but as this became a humanitarian issue (camel riding is dangerous) they have switched to robot riders who are remotely controlled by the owners, cracking the whip to make the came go faster.  I intend to look for a You Tube video of this but You Tube is blocked on the ship’s Internet so it will have to wait until I get home.

Abu Dhabi is comprised of 300+ islands and is undergoing significant development.  There is a large reserve of mangroves along the coast and these trees provided the wood beams for their traditional housel.

There are areas with beautiful beach homes and a large cultural area under development which will have a branch of the both the Louvre and the Guggenheim as well as a national museum.

Ferrari World (near the Formula One raceway) has the world’s fastest roller coaster, which goes 240 km (149 MPH) and there is a giant indoor water slide and of course a large mall (Yas). They have the Emirates Hotel (a 7 star hotel – didn’t even know they existed) where a 3-bedroom suites (7300 sq ft) suite costs $20,000+ per night.  That makes the $2500 rooms at the 5 star hotel overlooking the Formula One race track (where you can watch the race from your room) seem cheap.  They have a beautiful marina that also has a mall where we had lunch at a French Bistro.  Abu Dhabi has no manufacturing so all of their goods must be imported.

There are over 400 mosques in Abu Dhabi as well as Christian, Hindu and Buddhist places of worship.  They seem very tolerant of most religions although none of our guides ever mentioned a synagogue. 

Perhaps the highlight of our visit to Abu Dhabi was the grand mosque, http://www.szgmc.ae/en/ which was built envisioned by Zayed and was still under construction when he died.  It is the 8^th largest mosque in the world and holds 40,000 people. It took 14 years to construct at a cost of $8 billion and was completed in 2010.  It is constructed of beautiful marble and it contains the world’s largest hand-knotted carpet crafted by 120 artisans ($58 million and 5700 sq. meters). The carpet is beautiful as are the 7 crystal chandeliers (largest one weighs 12 tons) and it also contains spectacular mosaics and inlay.

We concluded the day with a nice dinner at our hotel.

Dubai City Tour

On Saturday morning we did a tour of Dubai before boarding the ship mid-afternoon.  As I mentioned previously Dubai is the city of unusual skyscrapers.  There are over 2000 towers in the city and many under constructions.  It is currently utilizing 25% of the world’s giant cranes…the joke is that the “construction crane” is the Dubai national bird. 

Dubai contains more than 450 luxury hotels and we had a photo stop at the Burj Al Arab advertised as the world’s most luxurious hotel.  http://www.jumeirah.com/en/hotels-resorts/dubai/burj-al-arab/

Oil was discovered in Dubai in 1966 and the economy shifted from pearl diving (the past) and fishing to oil and the building boom in Dubai began.   Dubai has promoted commerce and tourism much more than Abu Dhabi, preparing itself for a life after oil as their reserves are much less than those of Abu Dhabi.  During the economic downturn they ran into financial difficulties in Dubai and were bailed out by Abu Dhabi.

Only 20% of the population of Dubai is nationals…the other 80% is from somewhere else.  You can’t become a citizen in Dubai unless you marry a national and you can’t own land…only the structure on the land.  In most of Dubai you must have a national as your partner in business and they must own 51% of the business.  However they have established economic “free zones” where foreign companies can operate.  For example, they have an “internet city” where Microsoft and  Oracle are based among others.

Dubai has a large man-made island called the Palm where you enter from the trunk and the 8 fronds extending out to the sides contain expensive homes.  The top of the palm houses the Atlantis Hotel (a partner of the one in the Bahamas. (I didn’t take this photo  J although we did drive out to the end. 

The highlight of our morning tour of Dubai was a trip up in the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, (Burj meaning tower and Khalifa the present Sheikh). I think there were 154 floors listed in the elevator but we went to the observation deck on the 124^th floor where there was a spectacular view of the surrounding city.  This photo was taken from the observation deck and shows the fountain show below.

Mid-afternoon we headed for the port and boarded the Nautica, which will be our home for the next 30 days.  This is considered a mid-sized ship with approximately 600 passengers and one of the Oceania Cruise Line ships…known for the food.  This trip will not be good for my diet.

Al Ain

Sunday morning our ship docked in Abu Dhabi (yes we had just been there).  As we had already done a city cruise we signed up to go to Al Ain, which is the oasis town about 2 hours away. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Ain

Although it was a long bus trip, we did get to view much of the countryside and part of the so-called “Empty Quarter” – the largest sand desert in the world (250,000 sq. miles.  A number of novels, movies and video games are set in this area of the world.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rub%27_al_Khali

Our guide for this trip was Anne, a Canadian Expat whose husband is a pilot for one of the UAE airlines.  They have lived in Abu Dhabi for 6 years with their two children, now teenagers, and her perspective on life there was very interesting.   Abu Dhabi has only 10% nationals which is even less than Dubai.

During the two hour trip to the oasis we covered a myriad of topics including Masdar, the first zero carbon city which is being constructed about 17 km from the city of Abu Dhabi, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masdar_City, a water sustainability project underway that will convert domestic gray water into water for irrigations, the 45 million date palm trees (important for providing food for the Bedouins) that have been planted and line the highways as well as the Ghaf tree, the national tree of UAE which the country’s citizens are urged to plant.

We asked about solar power, as this seemed a perfect location.  But it appears the current solar units don’t do well with the dust and sandstorms and keeping them clean is a problem.  They are currently experimenting with hydro solar, which wouldn’t have the same maintenance issues.

Anne told us that Zayed opened the first falcon hospital – captive falcons must go to the hospital twice a year for a pedicure as they aren’t living in the wild, their talons must be maintained for them.  The Emirates that own falcons don’t consider them a pet, but rather a member of the family.  They must have a health certificate to travel and can only travel business or first class and get their own seat on the plane.  They can cost up to $1 million.

Most of the nationals in Abu Dhabi work for the government and most families have a housemaid.  Tattoos are not allowed (or to be visible), pornography is prohibited and drinking in public is not allowed (generally only in hotels and not by Muslims).  There is a zero tolerance for driving after drinking.  Nationals can apply to go to an Ivy League school out of the country and everything will be paid for, but they must agree to return and work for the government for three years.

Many of the Muslim men were wearing the white Thobe (long robe) and many of the Muslim women wear the black Abaya in public.  This was described to us as an issue of modesty and to prevent unwelcome attention rather than something meant to “oppress” women.  Some of the women only had their eyes showing while others wore western dress including jeans but covered their heads with a colorful scarf…so a variety of dress.

Anne told us that the tie around the headdress of the men originally evolved from the rope used to keep camels from wandering when the Bedouins were traveling across the dessert.  They would make the camels kneel down and then tie the rope around their knees, which prevented them from standing up.  They never wanted to place the rope down on the sand as it was the same color and could quickly be lost, so they tied them around their heads.  Eventually this came a status symbol as it identified them as “wealthy” as they were a camel owner.  Over time they became longer and serve as a balance for the headdress.

As the majority of the population in Abu Dhabi is foreigners, there is a separate area of the supermarket called the “pork room” where non-Muslims can buy pork and food containing pork byproducts including marshmallows and pop tarts…who knew!!!

Upon arriving in Al Ain, we visited the oasis that contains many date palm trees.  Individuals “farmers” care for and collect the dates from a particular area of the oasis.   The farmers climb the trees in their bare feet (see video).  The dates are an important food source and can be eaten when first harvested and then dried and kept for up to a year.  I am bringing home some chocolate covered dates.

After visiting the oasis, we went to the local museum where we enjoyed a visiting school group that sang us and song.  

We ended our visit with a trip to the camel market.  An interesting camel fact…they can go 5-6 days without food and water…handy when traversing the desert.   Thus ended our trip to the oasis.

Monday at 10 am our ship docked in Fujairah, the 3^rd emirate we visited.  This emirate is undeveloped (less high rises) compared to Dubai and Abu Dhabi but has great highways built by its neighbors as its stone and gravel provides most of the building material and base for the manmade islands in Dubai and buildings in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi.   They also seemed to have the manufacturing the other emirates are lacking and I expect provide many of their goods.

We signed up to do a “desert safari.”  Part of this turned out to be quite exciting.  Our tour group left the ship in about 30 different Toyota Land Cruisers equipped with roll bars and well-trained Pakistani drivers.  The UAE considers the Toyota Land Cruisers to be the perfect desert car.  We drove about an hour out into the desert.  We had a rest stop at a less than adequate restroom facility…mostly holes in the floor (reminded me of China) and no toilet paper. 

 

After driving a bit further, we stopped and they let about half the air out of the tires and then we headed out onto the sand dunes where we went up and down steep dunes with the car tipping (and almost rolling).  It was quite an exciting ride.  

They cautioned ahead of time that if you were prone to motion sickness this was not a trip for you.  On the way back we stopped to visit at fossil rock (with 18,000 year old fossils) and we had to stop to re-inflate the tires…they carry air compressors.  We had a great time!!!

Next up…Muscat Oman…coming soon.