Apr 4 - Abu Dhabi

Patty and Bob graciously gave up their bed to us weary travellers. They slept at another apartment in their building - their friends who live there are away for a few days in Thailand. Doug and I slept well.

Patty and Bob went to get new tires for the car while Doug and I held the fort.

We set off eventually for Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. It's about an hour's drive away. We got to experience more of the traffic around here - aggressive, impatient drivers are everywhere. You really have to have your wits about you to drive here. Kudos to Bob for his great chauffeuring. The scenery in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi is dominated by construction and overhead cranes. Everywhere, new buildings are going up while, oddly, other partially-constructed buildings sit untouched. Doug got to do some car gazing - Lambourghinis, Rolls Royces and Bentleys. The scenery between Dubai and Abu Dhabi is mainly sand and desert. The only greenery seen anywhere is there because of intensive irrigation.

Our destination in Abu Dhabi was the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque - the largest mosque in the country. It was constructed between 1996 and 2007. Natural materials were chosen for much of its design and construction due to their long-lasting qualities, including marble stone, gold, semi-precious stones, crystals and ceramics. The mosque is large enough to accommodate over 40,000 worshippers. Patty and I had to don abayas - long dresses with hoods - to cover our bare arms and legs and our hair. These dresses are to ensure modesty and to ensure that everyone is treated equally. Doug and Bob had to pull on track pants to cover their legs. Bare arms and hair on men are apparently acceptable.

The mosque is fabulous - marble everywhere with mother-of-pearl inlays. The seven chandeliers are made of Swarokski crystals. There are four minarets on the four corners of the courtyard which rise about 107 m (351 ft) in height. The courtyard, with its floral design, measures about 17,000 m2 (180,000 sq ft), and is considered to be the largest example of marble mosaic in the world. The specially-designed hand-knotted carpet contains almost 2.3 billion knots.

After a lovely tour of the mosque, we had lunch at the coffee shop there. Then we headed back to Dubai along a different route - still just sand and desert and the odd camel to see.

We stopped at the beach for a few minutes - we'll go there for a long visit later in the week. We passed a whole series of buildings dedicated to plastic surgery. Nip or tuck, anyone? Then we went to Madinat Jumeirah - a complex which includes a beautifully recreated Arabian marketplace - a wonderful place to browse for jewelry, clothing, carpets and prints. The complex is built around a series of manmade waterways. We had dinner overlooking the canals - the temperature had eased off from the high of 33 deg. C. so it was just right for sitting outside.

It's time to recharge our batteries now (human and electronic) and get ready for tomorrow's adventures in Old Dubai.Read more