Our family recently had the amazing opportunity to go way
outside of our box on the other side of the world. Through my husband’s obsession with “deal”
websites and our out of the ordinary ability to make a snap decision on
Christmas Day, we purchased really inexpensive plane tickets to Abu Dhabi,
United Arab Emirates. We were able to
spend our Spring Break week at the gorgeous St. Regis Saadiyat Island Hotel on
the Persian Gulf. We saw this trip as a
once in a lifetime chance, but now that we are home, we are already making
lists of what we want to do when we go back.
And we will go back. I’m sure of it.
I could go on for days about everything we did, everything
we saw, the people we met, the fun we had, etc., but I won’t. Instead, in the next few posts, I will share
lists of Top 5s or Top 10s of different aspects of our trip. I might even have a guest post or two from my
family.
The first question everyone has asked is “What did you do
there?” so here are the biggies.
Top 5 Activities of our Trip to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, UAE
1. Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque – The
shear size of this structure was breathtaking in and of itself. However, the details in every inch of the
mosque made it truly amazing. This place
glorifies God, but it also humbled me.
The hours and talent that went into building and furnishing the mosque
is extraordinary. Each tiny mosaic tile,
each knot in the world’s largest hand knotted carpet, each carving in the
marble, every crystal in each massive chandelier, was touched by human
hands. Human hands that were working to
create a place of worship. I was humbled
by the fact that I was welcomed in openly even though I don’t practice the
Muslim religion. There was no fee for
entering, though I would have gladly paid.
I don’t expect to ever go into another structure that will take my
breath way like this mosque did.
2. Pool and Beach Time at the St.
Regis Saadiyat – The pictures do the talking here. Imagine relaxed family time, gentle breezes,
and a lifeguard staff that throws dive sticks for your kids when they are the
only people in the pool. (Yes, the entire staff was this nice to our kids, as
well as to us.)
3. Souk Shopping – Souks are markets in the UAE. We visited a fresh fish souk, a fruit and vegetable souk, and a few different
clothing and souvenir souks. The most
popular items were dates, scarves, hand made carpets, various textiles, and
jewelry. Negotiating prices is expected
in all of these places so we had a lot of fun haggling with the shop owners to
get the “best price.” We happened to be
early morning customers in a few of the shops and they were willing to get
their day started by giving us even better deals than they would when business
started picking up. The funny thing
about this is that we were the first customers in a lot of the souks and it was
after 10 in the morning. The cities are
certainly fast paced, but they aren’t in a hurry to get started too early. That part of the lifestyle is something I
miss already.
4. Atlantis Aquaventure Water Park on
The Palm – The Atlantis Resort is on the world’s largest man-made island, the
Palm Jumeirah, near Dubai. We didn’t
have a lot of time to spend at this water park after our late arrival in to
Dubai, but the time we had was well worth it.
Lynn and I did several of the water slides multiple times. She loved the “Shark Attack” slide. It ended with a tunnel through an aquarium
that housed several sharks and large rays.
The boys did the “Leap of Faith,” but couldn’t convince the girls to try
it out. The idea of a near vertical drop
was just too scary for both of us. We
didn’t get any pictures here, but if you want to see the park, check out http://www.atlantisthepalm.com .
5. Burj Khalifa – This building is
the tallest in the world at 2,717 feet.
It has 160 habitable floors. We
went to the 124th floor observation deck. We could have paid more to go higher, but
that seemed unnecessary considering how high we already were. Check out http://www.burjkhalifafaq.info for
more interesting facts and stats. As a note to anyone who
may someday want to make a trip to the Burj Khalifa, the time on your ticket
does matter. We were under the
impression that it didn’t and we were very late and very wrong. We paid more money to change the time on our
ticket. That being said, the man who had
to pull us out of line to do this also took us back to the front of the line
after we got new tickets. The staff was
all extremely nice even in an uncomfortable situation. This is tourist
attraction that must be experienced, but once is enough.
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