bill and cathy travels: ABU DHABI

After 14.5 hours flight from Sydney in "Cattle Class" - phew!! - we arrived in Abu Dhabi at midnight their time -instant sleep! This is the view we woke up to in the morning!

We bought tickets back in November as there was a special deal $A1600.00 return to London with a two night stop-over in Abu Dhabi thrown in. We have passed through many times but never stopped so thought we should take advantage of the offer.

We had a tour at 8am on the second day and our flight to London was at 2am the following day which meant we would have been hanging around from 2pm til midnight with no resting place. So we booked an extra day. Good job we did as we needed somewhere to lie flat.

Cathy had booked two tours, one into the desert and the other an introduction to Abu Dhabi city. I had visions of a nice little drive into the desert, a visit to a camel farm and a meal under the stars.

All is as expected so far although I thought the driver gave us a jerky 40km trip out and having to sign a declaration that we did not hold them responsible for our welfare (or something like that)should have rung warning bells!!

Ohhh Sh......!!!

After driving flat out up and down dunes and me struggling to get my camera out while holding on for dear life we eventually stopped in the middle of nowhere. I was very pleased not to have lost my breakfast.

Holding on to each other to regain stability!

The camel farm. Mostly bred for racing. Very noble looking animals and much more slender and athletic looking than I expected.

Couldn't get Cathy to take a ride. Great squeals of laughter from this pair.

I didn't inhale - promise!

Meanwhile Cathy getting to meet the locals.

All Mod Cons including flush and tap water miles from anywhere.

DAY 2 -VISIT TO ABU DHABI

Cathy dressed in Hijab to make her presentable for our visit to the Grand Mosque. The idea was that her ankles should be covered but this outfit, borrowed from the Mosque,didn't achieve it. Good enough though.

Dress code.

The mosque was built as a gift from the late Sheik Zayed. It is rumoured to have cost in excess of $US350,000,000 but the actual figure is not published because if it was it would no longer be a religious offering but a commercial one. All this from our guide.

Arabesque designs

Swarovski crystal chandeliers encapsulated in 22 carat gold.

Our guide who comes from Libya and was very informative explained that Islam accepts all the prophets, Christian, Jewish etc and is tolerant of all religions. At the end of his discourse he asked if there were any questions. I asked him what is the obvious question "Why there is so much conflict". His reply was it has nothing to do with Islam but driven by Power and Politics.

He also had an interesting comment to make in answer to what is the difference between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Dubai apparantly is only about 5% dependent on oil whereas AD is 40%. Dubai is slicker more modern whereas AD is more traditional. How does Dubai function then - everything, you name it.