Even after a rather late night, we all managed to get up early on Thursday and, after stopping to grab Alison’s daily statutory takeaway coffee for the journey, Ramsay drove us east along the motorway to Abu Dhabi’s Emirati neighbour, Dubai. We were then treated to a private tour of the city. We drove out to The Palm, up the trunk, under a tunnel, around the huge Atlantis Hotel and right along the outer ring for a clear view of the city standing in the haze back on the mainland. We fancied heading out along one of the fronds, but each one is a gated community, so we couldn’t access them. Back on the mainland they took us round to the impressive Burj Al Arab and we wiggled our toes in the warm sand on the beach before hopping back in the car and driving further east through avenues of enormous skyscrapers to the far end of town. We spent a very educationally interesting hour wandering around inside the Dubai Museum which is set up inside the Al Fahidi Fort and then we had a mezze style lunch sitting on the water’s edge at the Bayt Al Wakeel restaurant. The service was dreadful, but the food was really delicious. Then with full bellies, the four of us boarded an abra, a traditional style wooden ferry boat, for a ride up and down the Dubai Creek. The sun was hot and reflected off the glassy skyscrapers on the far side of the creek, but it was lovely to be out on the water seeing the views from a different perspective.
We then drove back to the centre of Dubai and Ramsay drove us right round the Burj Khalifa which is the tallest man-made structure in the world at 829.8m (2,722ft). It is more than two and half times the height of The Shard in London and almost double the height of the Empire State Building in New York and it is stunning. Somehow it leaves all the other skyscrapers looking like children around it. The glassy, shiny superstructure spears up into the blurry sky above Dubai and as you look up, it seems to fade in to the distance in an almost ethereal way. It’s beautiful.
Ramsay parked under the world’s largest shopping mall and we wandered through, probably only a tiny corner of the impressive 1,200 shops, including the world’s largest sweet shop, to the Aquarium. The world’s largest acrylic panel holds back ten-million litres of water containing around 33,000 different marine animals. It is enormous and quite an unnerving sight in the middle of a shopping centre, but the blue glow and the slow movement of the fish in the water is a wonderful contrast to the brightness of the shops surrounding it. Outside, in the centre of the complex, every half hour from 6pm to 11pm, there is another sight to be seen on the lake. The Dancing Fountains do just that and each show is set to a different style of music. It is amazing to see the patterns that are created by the movement and bending of the water. Somehow it seemed more beautiful than fireworks and I now want one in my bathroom at home….. We picked a seat for dinner beside the lake, at the Social House restaurant, which had a mesmerising vista and we managed to watch three performances before paying our bill, returning to the car and then heading back across the border to Abu Dhabi.
Not much happened on Friday, the hours passed by and the sun continued to move across the vivid blue sky. We all got on with tasks, reading, emails, hair-washing and all that sort of stuff, before getting ready for a delicious dinner at Yas Links, followed by the much anticipated ‘Jose’ evening. Jose Carreras and Katherine Jenkins were performing ‘A Classical Night Under The Stars’ at the du Arena on Yas Island and we all had tickets. The show was magical and something I never dreamt I would experience in my lifetime. Both performers’ voices were strong and clear, they sang a lovely variety of songs and I felt all warm and fuzzy by the end of it.
Despite yet another late night, three of us managed to crawl out of bed early and speedily eat some breakfast. Ramsay then drove the three of us down to a car park near the Hilton Hotel in downtown Abu Dhabi, where we rented three bicycles and set off along the Corniche. In one-hour of gentle peddling, we managed to get from the Causeway end to about halfway along and back again. We probably could have peddled a bit faster, but the heat of the day was building, and I don’t think we could have stayed out much longer. Plus, we had packing to do and our final event of this trip.
At 3:00pm we all headed back in to the city for a very late lunch at The One, a restaurant set up in a very stylish furniture and home-wares store. You can buy the chairs you’re sitting on and the lighting available is fabulous, I wished I could have bought a container full of things to fill our house with. The menu is extensive and also quite creative; if there’s nothing you fancy, you can request a pasta or a salad list on which you get to choose the ingredients and create your own meal, which Ramsay and I did. On my salad list I ticked all the boxes in the various sections of ingredients; one choice of lamb, shellfish, grilled chicken, two extras like haloumi, feta, etc., three extra salad items from a list of about fifteen, I chose avocado, cherry tomatoes and mange tout and there were toppings to pick like toasted cashews, pine nuts, sesame seeds, parmesan, croutons, etc. It was hard to choose from so many delicious items and it was rather tricky picking which of the ten dressings would suit my creation. Perhaps I should have left it to the chef, but my choice of simple olive oil and lemon on my huge bowl of garlic prawn salad was absolutely delicioso. Ramsay also looked quite pleased with his pasta creation and we all left the restaurant happy and ready for another evening of entertainment. We parked the car under the ‘over the top’ Emirates Palace Hotel. The Abu Dhabi Film Festival had started the day before and we all had tickets for ‘Philomena’ with Judy Dench and Steve Coogan. It was a brilliant movie, made all the better by the fact that the story is true; we both highly recommend it as a ‘must see’ movie.
Now, how do I finish writing about our trip in Abu Dhabi….? We had an amazing time; Alison and Ramsay were so generous in making our first holiday in the Middle East a fantastic experience and we’re looking forward to stopping by in Abu Dhabi to see them again one day, and perhaps to see more of the dots joined up.
Getting up at 4:30am on Sunday, before the Fajr Salat (pre-sunrise call to prayer) and crawling in to a taxi at 5:30am for the one-hour drive to Dubai airport was all a bit of a blur. I remember hugs and thankyous and goodbyes, but not a lot else. Thankfully the, nearly fourteen-hour economy, flight to Sydney was also a bit of a blur, despite severely lacking in any quality sleep. Shuffling off the plane, so very early on Monday morning, we let the crowd lead us up escalators, along repetitive advert-lined corridors and through brightly lit areas, eventually arriving at the baggage claim. We chose a spot at Carousel 12 and stood watching our fellow passengers from flight QF2 grab their belongings and disappear off on their own journeys. I tried to pick who might be arriving for a holiday and who was returning home and I silently wished that we were heading home, but it won’t be just yet. I shall content myself with being glad that we are back in the best city in the world……for now.
