October 27, 2008 – Abu Dhabi, UAE

The clocks had been moved forward one hour so our 8:00am arrival in Abu Dhabi seemed early. With no shore excursion booked we waited until the inevitable rush was over and caught the 10:30 shuttle bus. We drove along the Corniche (waterfront promenade) with the skyscrapers on one side and the beautiful waterfront with clear water and white sand beaches on the other. There seems to be miles of pristine beaches all set up for recreation and swimming with shade umbrellas scattered everywhere. The skyscrapers are no different than in the past few ports. I wonder if the Sultanates, Kingdoms & Emirates all use the same architects and window glass suppliers. Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE and is using its oil money to become the cultural center of the Middle East. The city was extremely clean as was Muscat and all of these places are reportedly crime free. This city had a more diverse collection of women’s abayas (the long black robes which cover all except hands and heads.) Not as many had complete head & face cover as in Qatar and many had abayas embossed with crystal or silver & gold thread. Those without the face covered usually had designer sunglasses. A lot of the men wore white robes with white headgear.

The bus dropped us off at the Marina Mall, another beautifully designed mall with marble flooring throughout. Again, most of the stores were upscale and prices were comparable to the US. The grocery stores in all of the malls we visited the past few days have produce sections unmatched in America. Products are imported from all over. In the meat department they had lamb from at least 8 different countries. The only thing missing is wine & beer. It’s a sightseeing tour just to visit these grocery stores. About ½ kilometer from the mall, along the Corniche, is the Heritage Village which depicts pre oil Abu Dhabi. It includes a Bedouin camp complete with camel, Arabian horse & donkey, souk, handicraft making rooms and an excellent but small museum covering early Abu Dhabi history. One of the buildings had a pre air conditioning cooling tower which is a square tower (about 4 ft wide on each side) rising above the roof and extending down into the room below. Wet burlap or cloth sheets are hung on the sides and the air passing through is cooled by the moisture and naturally falls down the tower into the room. There is a noticeable temperature difference below the tower. We’ve seen these towers in all stops since Dubai.

We walked both ways between the mall and Village in the 100 degree heat and were glad to get back to the mall’s air conditioning. We found an Iranian restaurant and had excellent humus, soup and lamb for lunch. Before the meal was served we were given 2 pizza size pieces of pita type flat bread, olives, pickles and goat cheese. We were stuffed by the time we finished. The air was hazy as it has been in all the Middle East stops, making it hard to get really clear photographs.

Tonight was the Seven Seas Society cocktail party and the dress was informal. We were invited to the Doctor’s table and had a blast. There were only 3 couples (we’re friends with the other two) with the Doctor who is from Denmark. He has a wonderful sense of humor and we laughed the entire meal. We were the last to leave the restaurant and had missed most of the show so we went to the casino where Pat started giving away money to the dealer. I went to the “Liars Club” in Galileo and when I returned to the Casino, Pat had recouped her losses and made an additional $100.00. Overall it was a good evening.