Abu Dhabi and Al Ain

Right now I'm sitting in the kitchen of my hostel in Paris, eating a lunch I've cooked myself which I'm particularly proud of, but I'll tell you about that another day. 

When I booked my ticket to Paris from Sydney the cheapest airline was Etihad, and so I decided to spend a few days in Abu Dhabi on my way over. It was a pretty good decision!

For the first time I tried a webstie called airbnb.com - it's great for travelling. Kind of like couch surfing but you have to pay. I stayed with this lovely French couple (providence perhaps?) Edouard et Sophie, who were both lovely. They were very generous with their knowledge and time, and offered to give me lifts to various places.

I landed in Abu Dhabi very early in the morning local time, about 5am. After clearing all the checkpoints, I got to Edouard et Sophie's flat about 6.45am. They were very patient about the early start! Their flat was on the 40th floor, and my room, which was very luxurious, also had an excellent view over Abu Dhabi. 

Not bad eh?

So I arrived early in the morning, had a coffee with Edouard et Sophie, caught up on some sleep and then went for a wander in Abu Dhabi.

Now, anyone looking for traditional Arabian culture probably should not go to the United Arab Emirates. Edouard told me to Emiratis make up only 18 per cent of the country's population. If you want French food, Italian food, Lebanese food, the UAE is a great place to go! I did manage to find one place which made Saudi food, but it was hard to find.

Anyway, I spent my first day wandering around pretty much what you can see in the above photo (there are a lot more sky scrapers behind the perspective of that photo).

That evening I went to the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. It's named after Sheik Zayed, who is called the father of the UAE. Pretty much half the country is named after him. It's the only mosque open to the public in the country, and you can take a tour around it. Construction began only in 1996, so it's pretty modern. It is kind of amazing. It has 82 two domes, is made largely of imported marble, the gold on top of the domes and minarets is all 24 caret, has a capacity of 40,000 for prayer time and is just huge!

Inside the main prayer hall (under the biggest dome) is a chandelier that weighs 12 tonnes. They claim to have the largest carpet in the world in their main prayer hall. It boggles the mind how much it all must have cost.

I hung around the mosque until sunset, wandering around and taking photos. The evening prayers started, and hearing the music that calls people to prayer was very interesting. 

The next day I decided to go to Al Ain, on my brother Kris's advice. It's about two hours from Abu Dhabi by bus, and was actually where the leaders of the Abu Dhabi emirate came from before Abu Dhabi city was developed. So to me it felt a lot more authentic. 

Now here's a fun fact. Most of the attraction in Al Ain are shut on Mondays. Guess which day of the week I was there? The city has a lot of old forts with museums in them, but I was unable to go into any of them. Still, it was interesting to wander around and have a look at the outside.

Al Ain is where it is because there's an oasis there. It's actually still used as to farm dates. They have a traditional method of irrigation which is basically flood irrigation as far as I can work out. The water flows from wells through these channels, the side of which can be opened (or unblocked really). It wasn't particularly hot on the day I visited, early 30s I would say, but even then it was clear what a relief it was to enter the oasis and be shaded and cool.

I managed to find a really good Middle Eastern lunch at a street-side cafe, and then decided to head to Jabeel Hafeet, the mountain which you can see from pretty much anywhere in Al Ain. It is a really, really weird landscape. It kind of looks like a Star Trek producers dream - one can imagine Captain Kirk fighting a giant lizard there without any problems. It's just rocky outcrops coming from nowhere in the desert. 

I hired a taxi to take me to the top. Unfortunately you can't climb right to the top, but this is the view from a lookout showing the summit. On the other side of the mountain is Oman (I think). 

After that it was back to Abu Dhabi for a lovely dinner with Edouard et Sophie. They cooked Australian beef, and I bought a bottle of South Australian wine to share. Had to have an early night though, as my flight to Paris left at 8.45am the next morning. 

There were a few dramas at the airport, but I might save that for a later post. I've now spent four days in Paris and am loving it. I'm staying at a hostel in the Latin Quarter, and have already done a few touristy things. But more on that later.