The UAE

8th February 2020

This very first morning we woke up to a view above the clouds. This was insane and we were so excited to get ready and go explore the city. Therefore, a shot of espresso and one hungry hour later we were outside in the heat heading for food. The first place we came across just happened to be in a mall but, a cheese and tomato simit and a spinach and feta pretzel were pretty good from Starbucks.

We started of with no data and google maps location to try and walk around Al Reem Island to explore… 1h later… no busses… few taxis and no where near where we wanted to be – due to everything being further than what we first thought and so giving up was in order. Finally successfully hailing a taxi we travelled to Saadiyat Island (confirming our doubt as to the distance) and the ‘Louvre’ museum of culture and history.

This musium was so worth going to visit. It very pretty, sits on the water and the entire place is underneath a mushroom dome made up of interlinked metal, giving off the cool feel of being in a forest. The views of the city and its skyscrapers was amazing and we had to take a picture of the classic look out pose.

Inside the musium were pots, statues, artwork, old bibles, wartime weapons and places they kept their dead (to name just a few) but, a few stood out to us.

Afterwards, we decided to find Saadiyat beach as it looked close. Thus we started walking and ended up hailing a taxi back to our air B&B due to construction works along the coast and again our distance errors.

After a quick lunch at the apartment Thomas told us about this mangrove boardwalk in their mangrove national park that had only opened 6 days previous. We decided that as the park was on the way to the Sheikh Zayed Mosque to go for it although, we found it strange our driver didn’t know what we meant but, he took us to the parks hotel ‘Anatara’ anyway. Being told it was signposted we couldn’t find it anywhere and asked the hotel staff. They told us the boardwalk was on the furthest island away (Jubai island) a 30 minute taxi. After a rash yes and a two minute ride we changed our minds, the taxi man wasnt happy and reversed up the driveway. Opps!

Exploring the hotel did give us one of our best moments. Who wouldn’t want to kayak around a mangrove park for an hour?

Around the edges of the mangroves there were loads of small beaches, some of which had paths for possible exploring. I paddled us over to the biggest one and jumped out, Josh, wearing jeans, didn’t want to get too wet so poor me had to heave both him and the kayak onto this beach.

This park was a man made natural park and the sand was as fine as dust. Josh was amazed at how much gas bubbled out when he moved the sand at the mangrove roots. Overall, considering its us, we found something pretty relaxing and cool we didnt plan.

Jeans and trousers were essential for visiting the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and that was our next stop but, not with wet bottoms from the kyack. After trying to dry them in the sun we headed over and I went to get myself an abaya. After a very long walk underground we emerged outside the huge building.

The detail and symmetry of every part was insane along with being so pristine and clean.

We walked around outside, listening to a man singing a religious song during the day and after looking at the few rooms inside we manage to capture the mosque during…

… and my favorite was night time as the lights and arches were reflected in the pools of water surrounding this magnificent building.

After this we decided to find a local Lebanese restaurant called Mosaic and ordered a shared mixed grill, their kebabs were so tasty. This was the start of our five day meat feast although, not complaining.