Trip to India and Surrounding Areas - Abu Dhabi - April 17, 2017; Trip home - April 18, 2017

Got up at 6:00 a.m., got ready, packed, and headed up to Deck 10 for breakfast.  We then sat in Lounge 5 until about 10:40 and exited the ship with all our luggage.  We loved being on the ship and we had to say good-bye to this little room of ours that we had called home for the past two weeks.   

Our same guide from Dubai had ridden over with the driver of our bus to Abu Dhabi where we were now docked--a distance of about 92 miles that we sailed through the night to get to and they drove to the same location.  , taking them about an hour and 20 minutes in the bus.  We were so glad we had the same guide because he had lived in both New York and LA ten years ago, so he was the best guide we had this whole trip as far as understanding him. 

We first loaded all the luggage of the 11 who would be going to the airport tonight.  We barely got everyone's luggage on the bus.  We then started our tour of Abu Dhabi.

Al-Bahr Twin Towers.  These 25-story twin office towers really caught our eye.  This traditional Arabic shading lattice-work is called Masharabiya.  But it is how they work that is so interesting--in response to sun exposure changing angles during the different days of the year, they automatically open and close.  At night, they fold and close completely.  What a unique concept! 

  This is called Capital Gate (offices and hotel) and is next to the Abu Dhabi Naional Exhibition Center.  It is 35 floors high and features an 18-degree incline to the west.  It is called the "Leaning Tower of Abu Dhabi," and it is certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the "World's furthest leaning man-made tower."  It had to be carefully designed to withstand each of the floors above to be safe, obviously.

(Sorry, all these pics are taken through our bus window as we traveled through the city.)

 This building which is more than 65 stories high is the corporate headquarters of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).

Etihad Towers is comprised of five towers that, their website states:  "Sparkle iridescently in the  never-ending sunshine.  These fine buildings were designed, inside and out, to give guests who live, work, shop, dine and stay the most memorable and enriching of experiences."

 Nation Towers is comprised of two towers that feature world class facilities including luxury high-rise apartments, deluxe office space, a boutique style mall, a beach club and a 5 star hotel. The sky bridge that connects the two buildings is the highest in the world.   The thing I have learned about the Arab countries is that they like setting the records for being the biggest, highest, and best in everything they do!

  We saw the beach--no one was on it at this time.  But our guide said after work and on the weekends, there would be many people there.  The women have their own beach they can go to since only the woman's father, brother, husband, and son can see her without her abaya and head covering on. 

Then we headed for the Sheikh Zayed Mosque, the largest mosque in United Arab Emirates. 

 We, women, had been told to wear long sleeves, nothing sheer, scarves on our heads, long pants or skirts.  When we got there, men were checking and three of our group of women didn't pass--one had a 10-inch slit at the bottom of her long skirt, one had a cotton blouse they considered too sheer, and one had long pants that weren't long enough.  They were definitely stricter here than in Oman.  Our guide went and got some long gowns from a couple of other bus drivers so the three women could get in.  This Sheikh Zayed Mosque  definitely was something not to be missed.  Our guide said it would be like missing the Taj Mahal if you went to India! 

 

 It was absolutely huge!  A total of 45,000 worshipers in the courtyard, plus another 15,000 inside the mosque, make it possible for 60,000 worshipers to be there for prayer.

 

 

 The courtyard had reflection pools around it, arches, inlaid marble, and stained glass windows.

 

 

 After removing our shoes, we were able to enter inside the mosque.

 

 The chandelier was mammoth--it weighs 7 tons-! 

 

 

 

  The inside of the mosque had the largest one-piece handmade carpet in the world woven by Iranian men, which took 2 1/2 yrs to make inside the mosque itself--not made into pieces and then assembled--all sewn in one huge piece!

George pointing to shelves holding the Holy Quran.

The entire mosque was so beautiful and clean--so impressive! 

 

               

     

 

 

 

 Some tour groups came to the mosque dressed in Islam dress so that they wouldn't have any trouble getting in, I guess.

 An absolutely beautiful worship place that any religion would appreciate because of the great care that has been put into creating such a beautiful edifice.

 As we got closer to the Presidential Palace, we noticed that all the streets are named after someone in the Presidential family.

 We then arrived at the Emirates Palace, which is actually a huge 5-star hotel complex.

 

 Back behind this gate, it actually looks like this . . .

This is a picture of the website where you can make your reservation.  It is very pricey, but it sounds and looks like an experience of a lifetime to stay there!

 Right next to the Emirates Palace is the President's Palace.  We could only look through a fence, of course.

 Here is the gate in.  Our guide said, "Anybody could go in, but they would never come out!"  We laughed and knew we didn't want to try it!  Hah!

 Again, from the internet this shows what the Presidential Palace looks like.  Such a beautiful setting for this beautiful palace.

 More huge buildings.

After the mosque, we went to a museum/store that had beautiful pieces of vases and weavings with precious stones inside.  They said they don't cut the stones because they believe the stones have lives and you make them lose their life when you cut them. 

 We then proceeded to a working Arabian village.

 Inside each of the shops, you could actually see artisans using the ancient methods that they are still using today in the making of their crafts.

 This is a potter with his potter wheel to the left.  I tried that once and it got off center, and I was covered with the mud!  Hah!

 A loom where a beautiful blanket is being made.

This is a sculpture of a Janbiya, an Arabic term for dagger.  It is worn on the side of a person and is made up of a handle, a blade, and a sheath in which the blade is held. The belt that holds the janbia is made of tanned leather or some thick cloth.

 

 When we would be roasting from the heat, it was amazing to see the Islam women in their full-length abaya with headscarves, some only covering their heads, others covering everything but their eyes.

 

 A little open-air market was, also, located here.

 There was, also, an area that showed the different types of housing used in the desert.  This type of housing is called "Bait Al sha'ar.  It is made of the combination of the hair of goats and sheep in order to achieve strength and consistency.  It's used in the cold days of winter.  This kind of tent has different sizes according to the number of the family's members.

 This type of house is known as Al Hadeera and is built from the branches of "desert trees."  It's used as a guest sitting place where beans and Arabic coffee are served.  These are built to show the Arab hospitality.

 The Bait Al ewany is a house made of sackcloth and was used in winter.  In the upper part of this house the branches of Al-sabt and Althmam trees are added and the house is surrounded by the branches of Al markh tree in order to keep a moderate temperature inside.

 Our guide had told us the rope around the headpiece of an Arabian man's head showed wealth of owning a camel because it was used to halter the feet of the camel out in the desert.  That's exactly the way I saw the camel--the head piece was wrapped around his feet as a halter.

 This house is a combination of two types of houses and is called Bait al yanooby.  It uses the goat and sheep air for the blankets for strength and solidity, but uses sackcloth on its southern side.  Again, it is built according to the size of the family.

 If there were mountains nearby, irregular shaped stone blocks were used to construct buildings. While no mortar was used, the inside walls were plastered with mud, and the flat roofs were covered with palm fronds, wood, or mountain bushes.

 The housing known as Bait Al Wahat or "The Oasis House" was made of the palm tree fronds.  It was inhabited by the farmer's families.

 Beautiful area around the water well.

 All too soon it was time to go. 

 Driving back to the city, our guide told us some very interesting things about marriage in Abu Dhabi.  Here in United Arab Emirates, a man has only one wife unless there is a need to have another, such as the first wife is ill and can't take care of her responsibilities or couldn't give children to her husband.  There is no adoption in UAE.  Also, what he does for one wife, he must do exactly for the other wife, so it is very expensive.  

All sons live with their parents, along with their wives and children until the parents pass away.  The daughters go live with their husband's family.  After the parents pass away, the boys take their families and go off to start their own place, so they must have a large home to house the family which could be like 17 people (as they currently have in his parents' house).  The family usually has a driver, a nanny, and a cook.  

Our guide said they had proved a love marriage only worked about 17 percent of the time, but an arranged marriage works out nearly all the time, because basically the two families are married and work out any problems between the married couple.  He said he had asked for an arranged marriage and his mother had worked it out with one of her best friends who had a daughter, who he is now married to and they have two girls and a boy.  Very interesting!

Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan  is the President of the United Arab Emirates, the Emir of Abu Dhabi, and the Supreme Commander of the Union Defense Force since November of 2004.  This is a picture of his father, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.  The Al Nahyan family is believed to have a fortune of $150 billion collectively.

 

After a tour of this very modern, huge city, our bus driver took 11 of us to the Hotel where we would be staying until 11:00 tonight--it was just a place to rest until we had to go to the airport in Abu Dhabi tonight.  It was clean and nice, but we didn't get any sleep in.  

 

 Checking into the Wyndam Hotel.

After checking in, we went over to an older mall and had some Popeye's chicken!  Hah!  It actually was pretty good!  We rested, read, and of course, enjoyed the internet.

At 11:00, the van loaded us all up to take us to the airport.  Since it was late at night, we didn't have a lot of traffic, which really helped.  

 

Upon arriving at the airport, we realized what heavy security really was.  In addition to having our eyes scanned, our carry on items scanned, us scanned, as well as patted down, it seemed forever before we finally got to where we could wait for the flight to leave.  Then we boarded a very old KLM airplane that turned out to be the worst seven hours of flying George and I have EVER encountered!  We were near the back and there were three seats, so I was in the middle with a woman from France on the other side of me.  She was very sweet, but it was so difficult to rest when you are in the middle, plus your knees are pushing into you from the small area you are put in; tiny televisions that you couldn't work, and terrible food that we hardly ate a bite!  We were so glad after the seven hours to be in Amsterdam!

When we arrived in Amsterdam, our entire group was really questioned and again, gigantic searches of our carry-ons, pat downs, and later on, I found that either the Abu Dhabi airport people or Amsterdam had slit open my powdered soap--maybe they thought it was drugs--but it spilled all over my large suitcase!  It was insane all that we had to go through, but we finally made it on the next flight, which fortunately was a very nice Delta flight that we were able to sit on the side--just George and me.  However, 11 hours of flight when we were so tired--was just brutal again!  The flight went directly to Salt Lake City.  There we said good-bye to many of the group who were now home in Salt Lake City, but George and I had to wait about 2 1/2 hours again, before we boarded the flight to Pasco, about another 1 1/2 hours of flight--a total of 19 hours flying time, plus all the waiting in airports, too.  I think we went two days with very little or no sleep.  We were zombies and had huge swelling in our legs and feet.  Next time, we get compression socks for sure! 

 Home never looked so good!  We enjoyed ourselves so much, but it was certainly nice coming home!

 And our little Columbia River Temple for our church--The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) is definitely a beautiful place to be.  We love doing our volunteer work there every Friday, so it was good to be back doing that again, too.

 (Photo Credits to a man on our shift in the temple.  He did a beautiful job capturing the flowering trees and tulips just at the right time!)

So, the trip we had waited and planned for so long was now in the past.  I will never forget the memories we made there--the education we had in learning so much about new cultures and people.  I truly feel this was something that has added to me as a person--I hope to be more compassionate with other people who have differing views and who live in different conditions.  I, also, hope that I can serve my fellowmen more diligently because of how much I appreciate what the Lord has given me.