Day 5: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

6 and a half hours after leaving Koh Samui on one of the nicest airlines I've ever been on, we landed in Abu Dhabi...home of 10% of the world's oil reserves and thus some of the richest people -- average net worth? $17 Million.

Also, since it's smack dab in the middle of the desert...it's 110 degrees. Oh, and there's a conservative dress code so Ian and I are both in long sleeves and long pants. AND it's Ramadan. So no eating or drinking (even of water!) in public until sundown. It'll definitely be an interesting 10 hours!

After getting some more cool stamps on our passports, we hop in a taxi for the Emirates Palace. The Palace is a hotel/royal residence where rooms start at $1000/night...or $10,000/night if you want a personal butler. :) We settle for checking out the lobby, walking around the palace corridors, and taking pictures wherever they'll let us.
Ian found these signs on the hotel wall particularly amusing:

Apparently Abu Dhabi is planning this multi-billion dollar culture island complex where they'll have a Louvre, a Guggenheim, and outlets of NYU, the Cleveland Clinic, and various other art venues. Frank Gehry's design for the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art looks suspiciously like a mega-Stata Center (Ian's MIT building)!


Highlight of the day though? High Tea! We'd originally though that High Tea was cancelled due to Ramadan...but turns out they have a little European restaurant in the back of the palace that serves non-Muslim guests who continue to eat during daylight hours. :) We owe our lovely tea to Emily Ochoa, Andrew McDonald, and Liang Dong -- thanks guys!


Below us a pic of the top plate of desserts. By the time we had worked our way up we were mostly full. We stuffed ourselves anyway though. As usual Ian's favorite was the fruit-filled dessert (the custard fruit cups) whereas mine was chocolate based (the green tea / chocolate cake).


From the very beginning, the tea was undeniably Abu-Dhabi-ish. The server began by offering us the "Emirates cappuccino" -- which apparently was dusted with gold flakes. He kept saying it was a one-time only offer. I guess the gold brings out the flavor of the coffee beans :). We didn't dare ask the price... but opted instead for normal Earl Grey with cream and sugar. But no worries -- apparently everything at the Palace is dusted with gold (and you're never quite sure what's real). Check out the butter for our scones:


After a full hour or two of eating (we lost track), we were stuffed and light-headed (literally, I was getting dizzy from all the cream and sugar). The sun had now begun to set, so we headed outside to take some shots.

You can tell that Abu Dhabi is a city on the rise:



Here are some pictures of the palace in its full grandeur:

(that little speck of purple in the middle is me!)
I guess the Emirates sure know how to build a palace...

As we headed back inside, all the people were breaking their day of fasting with Iftar (Ramadan dinner) -- the formally empty lobby and Palace suddenly began being filled with men and women in traditional garb:

It's nearing our boarding time for the flight to Johannesburg though, so off we go -- South Africa, here we come!