A Postcard from Dubai & Abu Dhabi

Driving through the streets of Dubai I can hardly believe my eyes.  A stack of tall buildings on either side of the road welcome me to this city. This city is completely built up and there is little green in this concrete jungle.  My apartment hotel turns out to be quite nice.  The room is a far cry from anything I stayed in while backpacking South East Asia.   A large room, with a little kitchenette and dining table, it is almost  the size of a little studio apartment – and this was the budget option on the internet site I checked out!

It was afternoon when I arrived, so I decided to see Dubai by night and booked a cruise on a traditional Dhow down Dubai Creek.   My dining companion is an older  lady from Bendigo breaking up her journey with a few days in Dubai on her way back to Australia.   We start to chat and exchange stories about our journeys.  The cruise is a great way to see Dubai by night. The night air feels quite exotic and is filled with the sounds of the call to prayer from the local mosques close by.  We stand on the top deck as the hot air from the desert blows through and marvel at this display of wealth in the middle of the desert. 

I spend my second day in Dubai travelling to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.  My new travelling companions are a couple from New Zealand and a traveller from Taipei.  The roads here are amazing and we hurtle down the freeway at speeds that reach 170 kmh.  The couple from New Zealand, the lady in particular, is quite nervous but our driver is keen to reach the Shikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi before they shut out visitors for noon prayers. 

The mosque is the second (or third?) largest in the world and is certainly worth a visit.  I feel it is on par with the Taj Mahal and I am blown away by this building.  It is my first time inside a mosque and we are required to wear the burqa, before we are allowed to wander through!  The robe hangs long and I almost trip on the elevator!  It feels quite cumbersome to me..and is very unflattering (I guess that is the point) but then I am a girl who is happiest in a pair of shorts and a T shirt!  Occasionally one of the many guards on duty will tap someone on the shoulder to let them know their head covering has slipped or they’ve forgotten to remove their shoes in the outside patio..but the ground is burning hot in the 45 degree heat..but they make no allowances for that!     

We pass by the Emirates Palace and learn about the separate abodes and families of his two wives!  The palace is quite amazing and I wonder at the sort of people who live in such opulence and if they get ever get bored with their lives.  I also find it interesting that a culture that is so conservative and requires its women to be completely covered up still allows a man to have  multiple wives!  Definitely a man’s world out here.  

"I travel not to go anywhere, but to go."
-   Robert L. Stevenson