A Day Layover in Abu Dhabi and Dubai
Days like today are why we are excited for our next few months! When we booked our flights to Tokyo we noticed that there was an option for a 16 hour layover in Abu Dhabi where we would arrive at 6am local time and depart at 10pm for Japan. Amanda and I talked it over and thought this would be a great time to get a free layover in Dubai. We made sure that the airport had short term luggage storage, which they did, and decided that this was too good of an option to pass up.
We flew with Etihad Airways and they offer a free coach service to and from the Abu Dhabi airport to downtown Dubai. The trip takes about an hour and a half oneway and it’s a rather boring drive. A lot of the sights outside of the bus were blocked by the dust cloud that settled over the region, but we did pass some camels along the side of the road.
Once we arrived at the bus stop in downtown Dubai, we walked through the Dubai Mall Metro stop and found ourselves smack in the middle of the mall. This mall was, by far, the most impressive mall I’ve ever visited. It has every single luxury retailer that you can think of and it is so big, that some companies have two storefronts in different parts of the mall. The mall was filled with several familiar American stores and restaurants such as Banana Republic, Apple, Texas Roadhouse, Cinnabon, Cheesecake Factory, Under Armour, West Elm, Dunkin’ Donuts, Hardees, Burger King, and Pottery Barn, to name a few. There was a full-sized ice rink, at least three food courts, a massive aquarium, and two huge waterfalls inside. We checked online and the mall has over 400 stores inside.
Within the mall, we found the entrance for the Top of Burj Khalifa experience, which takes visitors to the 124th and 125th floor of the world’s tallest building. They also offer other tickets to go even higher up in the building as well. We were told by my dad that we had to make the journey so we paid the ~$100 to take one of the fastest elevators in the world to the top. What a view! The amount of skyscrapers that are going up in the city is impressive. Unfortunately the lingering dust cloud prevented us from seeing some of the cool beach resorts like the Palm or the Burj Al Arab on the coast but what we were able to see still amazed us.
Once we finished at the Burj Khalifa, we walked around the mall, visited the waterfront promenade where the Dubai Fountains are, and melted some more in the heat. I’m actually surprised I’ve gone this long before complaining about it. It was over 100°F and over 65% humidity. It was miserable outside.
The highlight of our day was, without a doubt, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Center. We decided to take the 1:30pm bus back to the Abu Dhabi airport from downtown Dubai. When we arrived at the airport 90 minutes later, we found out that the A18 bus takes visitors to the Grand Mosque Center for free. Fortunately we had very lucky timing and the hourly departing bus was just pulling in as we got outside to the bus stop area. After a 15 minute bus ride, we ventured into the glass egg shaped dome which is the unsuspecting entrance to the whole facility. The Mosque took 11 years to build and was completed in 2008 at a cost of about $550 million (even though the exact figure is unknown as this was done as a charitable donation by Sheikh Zayed, the founding father of UAE).
Women must have all skin covered and wear a headscarf. Men can pretty much wear whatever they want. We noticed one woman have her headscarf blow off mid photo, and a security guard made her go back through her photos and delete the pictures where the scarf was off.
Again, we got super lucky with our timing again and walked up to the starting point of the free Cultural Tour of the Mosque just as it was to begin. THIS IS A MUST DO. We were able to take a tour with four others inside the main prayer room of the mosque with the guide, which is not something you are able to do on your own. We spent 40 minutes with the well spoken guide learning about the history of the Mosque. Behind the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, this was the most impressive religious building I’ve visited. The Mosque has three gorgeous chandeliers than span from 8 to 12 tons and made with over 14 million Swarovski crystals. The mosaic marble was handmade in Italy and the carpet in the main prayer room is the largest in the world. This place is a must visit and it cost Amanda and I nothing to get there from the airport and go inside.
United Arab Emirates is a fantastic example of cooperation, tolerance, and peace between the Muslim world and the Western world. Every person that we interacted with was kind, warm, and helpful. We would walk around the mall and see a French woman in a pretty revealing dress next to a local woman in full traditional Islamic clothing (burka) where we could only see the eyes. And it wasn’t unusual and no one paid attention to it. It all worked. This was our first visit to a predominately Muslim country and, even though this is the most progressive, it still was a great experience. Just like there are a number of bad apples in the Christian faith, the bad apples in the Muslim faith are tarnishing the reputation of good, kind people. Don’t let them discourage you from visiting Dubai and Abu Dhabi as they are worth the visit.
