Abu Dhabi Work Trip

The Department of State is really keen on providing continuing training opportunities for staff to keep up their skills and make better Diplomats. This training is either in DC or Posts around the world hold regional training (during my first tour in Tbilisi I had the chance to go to training in Vienna, Austria). Recently I was given the opportunity to do a week of training in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Most of my week in Abu Dhabi was in a classroom, however I did get the chance to visit the Sheikh Zayed Mosque not once but twice. The mosque is the largest one in the United Arab Emirates. It took 11 years to build at a cost of roughly $545 million USD.

"The mosque is large enough to accommodate over 40,000 worshippers, while the main prayer hall can hold over 7,000. There are two smaller prayer halls, with a capacity of 1,500 each, one of which is the women's prayer hall." - Wikipedia

There was several murals of the tree of life.

"The pools along the arcades reflect the mosque's spectacular columns, which becomes even more glorious at night. The unique lighting system was designed by lighting architects Speirs and Major Associates to reflect the phases of the moon. Beautiful bluish gray clouds are projected in lights onto the external walls and get brighter and darker according to the phase of the moon." - Wikipedia

My second visit to the mosque was during the day.

"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." - Wikipedia

The mosque has 82 domes of seven different sizes.

"The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque has seven imported chandeliers from the company Faustig in Munich, Germany that incorporate millions of Swarovski crystals. The largest chandelier is the second largest known chandelier inside a mosque, the third largest in the world and has a 10 m (33 ft) diameter and a 15 m (49 ft) height." - Wikipedia

In my opinion the mosque was breathtakingly beautiful. I just wish I would of had more time to spend in Abu Dhabi. There were amusement parks and Dubai is just an hour away by car.

Dubai, UAE: Burj Khalifa

On our last day in Dubai (again with Tbilisi's early morning arrivals our flight didn't leave until after midnight), we headed to the world's tallest manmade structure....the Burj Khalifa.

According their website, the Burj Khalifa is 828 meters (2716.5 feet) tall. It touts the highest number of stories, the highest occupied floor, and the highest observation deck to name a few.

We opted for the basic ticket that takes you to the 124th floor (you can pay 4x as much to go all the way to the 148th floor).

I am well aware that Dubai was built from nothing in the desert. I still commented to Richard that everything was so brown/sand colored.....from the ground there is lots of landscaping and you don't notice all the sand as much.

 Looking up from the 124 floor to the top of the building.

Note the shadow of the Burj Khalifa.

You can see the 'World of Islands' that I mentioned was across from Jumeriah Beach.

Buildings, buildings everywhere as far as the eye can see!

An ariel shot of the fountain used in the nightly water/light show. We watched the show the night before from the little bridge to the left of the picture.

I found it interesting that construction began in 2004,

and the building was completed in 2010. Those 6 years seem like a long time in one respect, but then when you admire the hugeness of the building, it seems like such a short time.

Afterwards, we had lunch in the Dubai Mall (it is connected to the tourist entrance to the Burj Khalifa). Then we both went our separate ways to explore the mall (I'm not as interested in electronic stores and Richard could care less about going into to Sephora).

Overall, we had a great trip. We brought the kids back some surprises which made their day, but we are definitely planning on bringing them back to visit.

Dubai, UAE: Arabian Gulf

After our sunrise hot air ballooning adventure, we made it back to the hotel in time for the free breakfast and then caught the shuttle to Jumeirah Public Beach. Jumeriah Beach sits on the Arabian Gulf (also listed as Persian Gulf on some maps). On this sunny December morning, the beach was practically empty.

When we climb on some jetties, we could see the 'World of Islands'. These are some 300 islands that were constructed of dredged sand to make a map of the world (see wikipedia for their aerial photo).

Being a marine biologist and all, I must explore the tide pools.....Richard followed me out there.

Limpets, urchins, barnacles, oh my!

Wishing I had brought my snorkel gear....but with the number of urchins in the water that may have been dangerous.....

Barnacles on a limpet.....(I have never denied I'm a science dork)....

My view for a couple hours. Richard went exploring/walking the beach, while I took full advantage of the fact I was at the beach with no kids and I just laid back and soaked up some vitamin D.

By noon, it had actually gotten quite a bit warm. Richard and I walked the shore a bit, I picked up some shells, and then we waded into the water. It was actually pretty warm (mid 70s). We walked over towards the jetties again and checked out some more wildlife.

Close up of urchins.

Fish, fish and more fish......I wish I had a field guide.

We took some photos of the Burj Khalifa in skyline behind us....or maybe I started to grow a unicorn horn....I like that idea!

After our fun in the sun, we showered and the headed down to the Gold Souk (market). 

Its was much brighter and more open air than the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, but we were somewhat disappointed in how aggressive some of the salesman were. If you walked by, they would start inviting you to look in their shop and continue following you and repeatedly invite you in. It's possible we were just overly tired from our early morning ballooning adventure and then 4.5 hours at the beach. We did stop to look in one window, which contained the world record for largest ring!

I'm not sure if it is even possible for a single person to lift that ring, let alone wear it! The Gold Souk is located near the banks of the Dubai Creek. There were a large number of boats/barges as well as mountains of boxes being delivered/loaded along the creek.

Near all these barges you can catch one of the many abras (water taxi) ferrying people across the creek. We were offered a private creek tour for 100 dirham, we opted for the 1 dirham group taxi straight across. 

Another abra crossing the creek.

A mosque we could see from the water.

After wandering around the Fabric Souk. There were still somewhat aggressive salesman, but not as bad on this side of the creek. It looked as if most shops you would pick our a fabric and then they would make to order the garment you wanted. 

Afterwards, we headed back to the Dubai Mall for dinner and to watch the Dubai Fountain light show.

We also go a decent shot of almost all the Burj Khalifa (which gets its own post).