I’m rather surprised by how much there is to do in the UAE (albeit expensive at times), but as great as the country is, what made the experience for me was not so much the city, attractions, or even activities – it was the great company I got to share it with. Backpacking across the world by myself grants me the freedom to make spontaneous, unilateral decisions as I go, but there is a price: I have nobody to share my adventures with. While I do my best to share my stories with family and friends back home through this blog, it is a far cry from actually experiencing the events together. While cliché, it’s true when they say life is better with company. Ironically, what started out as terrible travel delay with my Indian visa turned out to be a blessing in disguise and I had the opportunity to travel with two old friends from college, Sean and Will, who were visiting family in Abu Dhabi.
Will’s parents, Kurt and Lulu, moved out to the UAE a few years ago and ever since have been trying to get him and his best friend Sean (who they consider Will’s brother) to come out for a visit. Their trip to Abu Dhabi was planned over eight months ago, but when I told them I’d be in town at the same time they kindly invited me to tag along without hesitation. Since Will and Sean were flying halfway across the world to spend time with family, the last thing I wanted to do was intrude. Personally, I was expecting just to spend a few hours catching up with my old friends over lunch (and if I was really lucky, maybe even crash in their hotel for a night), but they went so far as to include me in all their adventures!
After my brief introduction to Dubai, I took a bus out to Abu Dhabi and met up with my friends at their hotel for drinks. I haven’t seen either Sean or Will in months, but the first words out of Sean’s mouth the moment he saw me were, “Dude, you beard looks terrible.” Will chuckled, but immediately agreed with him.
Who needs enemies, when you have friends like this?
We spent the evening chatting in their hotel’s rooftop pool overlooking the city of Abu Dhabi and I was beyond mesmerized – I’d completely forgotten what it was like to stay at nice places! Even though I just flew across the Middle East from Amman, Jordan to Dubai and visited the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, reminiscing with my old friends was still the highlight of my entire day. I can’t tell you how happy I was to finally have a conversation that didn’t begin with the five standard-issue backpacker questions:
What country are you from? What city did you come from? Where are you going next? How long have you been traveling for? How long are you going to travel for?
The following morning Will woke up early to play a round of golf with his mom, so Sean and I went out for hearty American breakfast at a nearby café before wandering around Abu Dhabi. Now that I’ve been traveling for over eight months straight, a good old-fashioned American meal is elevated to the level of “exotic” food in my mind. From breakfast, we headed to the impressive Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. At this point, I’ve seen more religious buildings than most people see in their entire lifetime, but nothing comes even remotely close to the over-the-top, ostentatious house of worship that is the Sheikh Zayed Mosque. The entire building is constructed out of bleach-white Macedonian marble that, thanks to the unrelenting sun overhead, completely blinds all who enter. Sean and I took a quick walking tour through the complex, but neither of us could see anything because we were squinting so much. The perpetual tension in our faces became unbelievably painful, but we couldn’t stop; every time we opened our eyes it was like we were staring at the surface of the sun!
It’s the most wondrous building I never saw.
The interior of the Sheikh Zayed Mosque is stunning; the walls are covered with rare marble, the 96 columns in the main prayer hall are all inlaid with mother of pearl, the three enormous chandeliers are made of crystal and Murano glass imported from Italy, and the building boasts the largest hand-made carpet in the world. Moreover, the entire mosque and the surrounding area is elevated nine meters (~30 feet) above ground level so everyone entering Abu Dhabi via the nearby freeway can see it as they drive by. While the chandeliers seem a little out of place, the mosque is incredibly well done and even with all of the intricate details it never looks gaudy or overdone. For all it’s grandeur, the actual cost of the building is not publicly known since Sheikh Zayed wanted the structure to be a gift to the people of Abu Dhabi. My favorite aspect of the building are the giant automatic sliding glass doors outlined with curved, gilded steel - I felt like I was entering Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.
Is that blasphemous? …that sounds blasphemous.
From the mosque, we met up with Will and his parents before heading to the Arabian Nights Village out in the middle of the desert. It came highly recommended by Will’s parents, who’ve been there so many times they know the entire staff by name. The car ride through the desolate Abu Dhabi desert reminded of my previous treks through the Negev in Israel, but this time around I was in a car, so we got to stop off where ever we wanted for photo ops.
And, more importantly, I did not have to sleep outside in a Bedouin tent.
Upon our arrival, we went for a quick camel ride and hiked our way up a nearby dune to try our hand at sandboarding before our much anticipated “dune bashing” ride through the desert. For as long as I’ve traveled in the Middle East, I have never ridden a camel before and I felt such an egregious oversight should be corrected immediately. I’ve seen my fair share of these goofy looking animals when I was back in Jordan, but it is a terrifying experienced to be abruptly raised 8+ feet in the air when the animal stands up - I nearly slammed my head into Will who was riding in front of me!
Sand boarding was more of a challenge for us than the camels. Under the hot sun climbing up the relatively small dune was an utterly exhausting experience especially when you factor in that for every step we took in the sand, we slid back about 3/4ths of the way. I learned how to snowboard years ago and assumed the same principles applied to sand boarding - I was wrong. I should have paid more attention in my old physics classes, there is too much friction with sand to make my snowboarding technique work. The three of us struggled for a while until Sean, in his infinite laziness, realized the best way to go down was just to sit on the board and slide down the dune. From then on we started having fun, but the trek up to the top of the dune seemed hardly worth it.
For my money, I’ll stick to snowboarding.
The highlight of my day was something the call “dune bashing” that came highly recommended by many travelers I met Israel and Jordan. The idea behind dune bashing is simple: a trained driver takes you out into the middle of the desert and goes speeding over the dunes at high speeds, tossing the participants inside the car like Mexican jumping beans. The experience is a wonderful combination of exhilaration and utter terror (along with the occasional bout of nausea) as you careen along the side of 30-foot dunes at a 45º angle. I personally hate roller coasters, but I recommend dune bashing to anyone passing through the UAE (or any other desert country for that matter), it is an experience I’ll never forget.
I can’t believe someone gets paid to do this! Maybe this is a possible job I could look into?
"Andrew Tello, Professional Dune Basher” I like the ring to it.
The first half of the trip, Sean and I were seated in the far back of the SUV while Kurt and Lulu sat in the middle and Will in the front so he could document everything on his phone. Neither Sean nor I could see out the front window and were completely unaware of every bump, turn, and slope lied just around the corner. I had a white-knuckle grip on the side handle of the car for most of the trip, but Sean and I mistakenly let go right as the car went careening up the side of an enormous dune. We were completely taken off guard and, as the two of us flailed around in the back seat, we instinctively grabbing hold of the first thing we could find – each other. For the next few seconds, we flew around the SUV clinging to each other, screaming in mild terror before realizing the hilarity of the situation. The scene reminded me of two cartoon characters bracing for an impact.
We are men.
Our evening that night was filled with a stellar buffet of local food, an entertaining belly dance routine, and a mesmerizing light up Tanoura performance (that Sean took part in). On our way back we stopped in the middle of the desert to look up at the stars. Since I love living in cities like NYC, I’ve never seen a completely unobstructed glimpse of the night sky before. Out in the middle of the desert we stood under a blanket of diamond-like stars twinkling against the pitch-black sky above. I can’t imaging what our ancestors must have thought as they gazed up to the heavens, but as I stood there it didn’t seem quite so far fetched to believe it is the realm of gods and supernatural beings. It was an awe-inspiring moment that really drove home how truly insignificant I am in the grand scheme of things.
I had a remarkable day full of pictures and stories that will last me the rest of my life, but at the end of it all I’m just glad I got to spend it with Sean, Will, Kurt, and Lulu. I’ll never forget the question Mrs. Lulu asked me during our dune bashing break earlier that afternoon, "I wonder what you’re old coworkers are doing right now back at the office and what they would think of this pictures of you petting a camel.” Her question made me smile uncontrollably, but I honestly don’t care what they (or anybody else) think, I’m living my life I want to!
I can’t want to see what tomorrow holds.