UAE, United Arab Emirates ~ Where are the Jays

Exciting day driving over the massive dunes

The United Arab Emirates or the Emirates for short is an elective monarchy. The 7 Sultans form a council an elect a leader amongst themselves. In practice the largest Emirates rule the nation. Each Sultan then rules his Emirate.

The population is divided between locals with Emirate passports and a very large number of “Residents” who have obtained a work Visa. Outsiders who wish to invest in the country must either partner with a local, who will control 51% or invest in one of the Free zones. A free zone is limited to specific industries.

Blue anchors are the ports we visited
Sailed through the Straight of Hormuz at top

Fujairah

Our first of three stops in the UAE: Fujairah. It is on the tip of a peninsula that juts into the Gulf of Oman. They are just starting to accept cruise ships, so the port was a shipping/cargo/oil port. Having said that, it was very clean and they had set up a temporary building for an immigration site. Fujairah is a seaport with a mountain range right in its back door - the Hagar Mountains. Unfortunately, it was a quick stop so touring options were limited. Jeff and I chose the tour that took us to a beach resort.

We enjoyed our stay and were the last ones to get back on the bus and only then because Jeff had a sense of the time! It was a Le Meridien hotel that was a high-rise with interesting architecture and quite nice inside (well what I saw as I walked through the lobby and out the back of the resort!). There was a nice multi-faceted pool. There were different levels, different shapes coming out from the main, large vaselike structures in it and lots of chairs and umbrellas around it. The beachside was probably 3 to 5 acres so there was some grass and some outbuildings like a bar and changing facilities before you then made it to the beach. The beach itself is where Jeff and I hung out for a couple of hours. We had 2 chairs under a large beach umbrella. We settled in and promptly went for a beach walk. The sand was a nice light brown with just a few shells. Interestingly, they had rock walls (large single width rocks) that separated some of the resorts on the beach. On one side we had a local resort and on the other was the Intercontinental Hotel resort. The water was very clear and a little cool which felt wonderful since it was around 100 degrees with 42 percent humidity. They had a lifeguard and an area roped off with buoys for you to swim in. The water was quite calm and we wished we had noodles to float on. We struck up a conversation with a dad whose daughter did have a noodle, a Brit who had lived in the States for awhile. He told us that the little fish we had seen jumping in swarms by the buoys were sardines and there were more swimming by the buoys. We swam out there unfortunately we did not see any fish. We sat around a little and enjoyed an alcholic drink each and then had to go. Yeah I had to add the part that they served us a beer and a hard cider in a Muslim country. Seems some of the hotels and a few bars are licensed to serve alcohol.

Le Meridian Al Aqah Beach Resort

Abu Dhabi

For our second port, we chose an Al Khatim Desert by Off Road excursion today. Abu Dhabi is a cruise ship port unlike the last one that was a commercial port. Right now it is a small port, but the terminal building is completed and pretty nice. They are also working on getting some retail and entertainment at the port too. During the day it did not look like much, but at night it was lit up and I could see food trucks open and people there. Lots of construction in the port area (well lots of cranes off in all sorts of directions to be honest) so in a couple of years it will be very different and probably nice.

We could see some interesting looking buildings from the port. Like one that is kind of an unusual upside-down platter with something happening on the roof – turned out to be their outpost of the Louvre. We also saw lots of interesting skyscrapers - not many boring glass boxes here. Happily, we passed many sites on our way to the desert and our driver was happy to tell us what we were seeing. Many of the unusual, shaped buildings are actually residential property – condos. Another thing they do to their buildings is cover a basic glass high-rise with metal work. On one building nicknamed the pineapple building the metal has louvers built in so when the sun is shining on it the metal closes to keep the building cooler and when the side is in the shade the louvers open, and it is all automatic.

Louvre

We passed the Sheik Zayed Mosque which is a humongous white mosque. It is an operating mosque but also quite touristy. Our driver pointed out the ticket building. He made a point of slowing down so we could take photos. We have seen lots of construction on this cruise especially road construction but while driving we saw our first train track construction. They are building a train route from Riyad, Saudi Arabia to Dubai via Abu Dhabi . He explained how most of the land we were seeing was reclaimed from the sea. While we were in town, there were flower beds in the medians and lots of greenery all on sprinkler systems. They have water desalinization plants for water. Our tour was in an area called desert safari – I know because there is English on all the signs underneath or next to the Arabic.

Sheik Zayed Mosque

Once we got to the safari entrance area. He deflated the tires of our Toyota LandRover so that we could drive around in the desert. He said how much he deflated them was determined by the temperature outside. Well, it is HOT there. As in we started out at 42* Celsius and went up to 50* which means we hit 122* Fahrenheit while we were in the desert. Very glad Toyota’s have a strong air conditioning system! Our driver took the tires from 42psi down to 12psi. The four of us in the SUV were wondering how you could drive at all with such little pressure in the tires! Drive we did oh my did we drive. A friend had said this is kind of a like a roller coaster which turned out to be a good description. We went up, we went straight down, we went sideways down the dune, we went up and then sideways up and all sorts of variations. We were required to be buckled in, but still found ourselves up against each other at times. Surprisingly there is the occasional tree in the desert. Abu Dhabi officials have tagged all of them and water them regularly as needed. We stopped by one for a photo break and to let the SUVs’ engine cool off some. After the photo break we drove around a little more and then went to a “camp” they have for evening programs where we had refreshments and they re inflated the tires. After that it was time to head back to the ship with our guide describing things along the way and pointing out photos of their Sheik and telling positive stories about the current leader and his father.

Top car ahead sliding over edge
Bottom - note our hood in relation to horizon

Click on brief video below

After a short break at the ship, Jeff and I headed out to the Marina Mall because we had more time in the city and we could get there for free. The mall was by a marina, and it was in a slightly different direction, so we got to see more unique buildings so more building pictures! The mall itself had large metal sculptures by the entrance doors including a large fish being caught by the one we used. It was nice to wander around a well air-conditioned spot for a while and to window shop some. We were pleasantly surprised to see a British Chain – Marks and Spencer there so we bought some salty snacks for our cabin – sweets are easy to find on the ship but not salty things. Had to check out a department store a little bit and a Costco like store while we were there. We even ate dinner there for a change of pace. We went high quality – a fast food chain. We had first seen it in Singapore and laughed at the name - Texas Chicken. We could have eaten at McDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken since they too were there, but we went with the more local version. It was pretty good and the first fried chicken we had in a while. Time to head back to the ship and enjoy the skyline from it.

Dubai

Dubai is a major city. We chose to do a hop on hop off tour that had the Dubai Mall as a central location. We did the "modern Dubai' route of the bus plus we went up the Al Khalif tower and wandered around the mall a little. We saw lots of unique buildings and lots and lots of traffic even though it was an 8 lane road. This seems to be a city where people are always trying to outdo each other. For instance, there is an area called the "tall block". It is a block of residential towers but not just any residential towers. When each one was completed, it was the tallest residential building in the world. Have to admit what came to my mind was the negative stories I heard of a super tall condo building in New York and how it swayed so much it bothered the residents in the high floors.

We also saw the Dubai Marina area which is partially reclaimed from the sea and on the water. It has a marina with lots of yachts and a nice shopping area called the Dubai Marina Walk. Mind boggling to me is a series of high-rise condos on the water that are connected with a joint lobby type area that went on for like over a kilometer and the buildings are home to 25,000 people. I sat there and stared thinking that is a whole town in those buildings! And it is set up like a small town, I saw a nursery school, mosques and shops. It was kind of mind blowing to me to think that is the equivalent of Kirkwood in front of me in such a small area!

Palm Island with Atlantis

As we were driving towards Palm Island, I saw people I thought parasailing. Nope they were skydiving from a building. Palm Island is a huge artificial island that has residential areas, commercial/shopping areas and the Atlantis Resort. In the residential area, the further out on the palm frond your house is, the more expensive it was. Atlantis Resort is basically at the end of the island and is quite impressive. They have completed the construction of another palm shaped island that will be for recreational purposes.

Google Maps Satellite view

Atlantis in the distance

Rapid transit system

Being a city that is out to impress, the rapid transit system had to be special. The stations we saw were impressive from the outside (did not go in) and were told that the trains are driverless. We did see trains go by from the bus.

Metro Station

Museum of the Future

Khalif Tower is the tallest building in the world these days. We went up to the 124 and 125 floors there are a couple of higher floors that you can visit too. We got several good pictures and most people were doing selfies against the backdrop. The unfortunate thing is it was a hazy day so we could not see as much as we had hoped from the observation deck.

think that is the tall block

dancing fountain is the water in the picture - similar to Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas

Dubai Mall

We were now quite hungry, so we went into the adjoining mall in search of food. Today we ended up in an Italian restaurant that showed fresh noodles at the front - we shared a nice pizza. Then it was off to find the indoor Olympic Sized ice-skating rink so we could send Cierra a picture. There is also an aquarium in the mall. In one area, you can see part of one of the large tanks, so we stopped for a few minutes and saw a swordfish, and some large sting rays, and couple types of sharks. In yet another area, there was a large waterfall fountain with sculptures of men pearl diving attached to it. When I say large, I mean 2 story or so tall and twice as long as pictured below.

Finally, we tried to do the old town Dubai tour only to find out we had just missed it, so we headed back to the ship for the day.