My Trip to the Corniche~~

Today a friend and I traveled to the Corniche area of Abu Dhabi. We visited the Marina Mall, the beach, and Heritage village.





Marina Mall is HUGE!  It is quite possibly the largest Mall I have ever been to. To the right you will see a photo of the mall from a distance. This is totally deceiving. Inside there are so many wings and floors, it is easy to get turned around in there.

Inside the mall you will find "Snow World" and its very own indoor ice skating rink. I didn't attempt to try this. The last time I skated I was around 8 years old and I skated on my ankles. Something told me I wouldn't be much better at it now at almost 50 years of age!



This is also the first mall I have ever seen a Ferrari store!  Of course, the Emirates LOVE their fast cars. There is even a theme park named "Ferrari World"!  That park is supposed to have the fastest roller coaster in the world!  One day I would like to experience it.





While we in the mall, they were looking for participants for the next "Arab Idol". I decided to try out for it, but I didn't make the age cut off. lol  You can see my audition picture to the right. I do hope everyone realizes I did not actually try out. I do not think I could EVER have done that. ;-)



After our time on the Idol stage we visited the Marina Mall's "VOX" theatre. This multi-plex theatre is state of the art and is amazing. To begin with, when you approach the box office it is apparent that things are done a little differently than what I am used to. After telling the box office attendant what movie we wanted, she asked us what seats did we want. I am used to general seating  so this I thought that was interesting.

To do this she showed us a computer screen. Every individual seat was displayed.  There are two levels of seating.  The top seats were $45 dirhams per seat, and the lower seating was $35 dirhams per seat. Why the difference in price? For the extra $10 dirhams you are given plush leather seating, which reclines and allows for couples to have some distance from their neighbors. There is also a small table between the two seats allowing for placement of your concession items.

These were nice, but we decided to choose the lower priced seating. It turned out to be more than adequate, and was in fact probably 95% better than my hometown theatre's seating!  I forgot to mention, the movie was in English, but as expected there are Arabic subtitles. One thing I totally did not expect is that in addition to Arabic, there was also subtitles in French!


After the mall we walked to the Corniche. This is the name for the beach area. The water was BEAUTIFUL!  The color was a rich mix of torquoise and teal. There are three beaches on the Corniche. One is for the men, one for women, and the last one is for families. My friend and I found a small strip of beach and we decided to wade in. I must say, the water was much colder than I expected! 


Surrounding the beaches you can see many waterfront restaurants and a huge marina with many yachts bobbing in the water. One of the largest ones was for sale!  Maybe I could afford that on my teaching salary??  Yea right...

I liked this one, it reminds me of Noah's Ark

Walking around the area you will see ongoing construction everywhere!  The beautiful architecture seen everywhere is constantly being challenged by the new buildings popping up everywhere.

If you get tired, you can rent some very interesting pedaled vehicles.  There are 4 seaters and 2 seaters. They look like fun, but we didn't try them out.

After our trek around the Marina we walked down the long road towards Heritage Village. Hertitage village it an area set aside to show how the Bedouins (Arab people) lived in the past. It was a very interesting area. In it there are tents and stone houses used in the not so distant past.

The examples of homesteads was interesting, but some of the small touches didn't look historically accurate. For example, I do not believe there were kerosene lanterns used by the nomadic Bedouins. Even so, it was a unique experience.

Here's lookin at ya

 The highlight of my visit was seeing the animals. This is the first time, and I am sure not my last time, being near a camel. Frankly, it made me a little nervous. A camel has alot of weapons in it's arsenal. A camel can give you a nasty bite, spit a foul smelling phlegm ball at you, or give you a kick that can give you a wicked bruise. Thankfully, I didn't receive any of that, but I was still a little leary.




Just look at those chompers!!!  YIKES!!

I found two animals more my speed: An Arabian horse and a Donkey. Both animals were sweet and loved to have their noses rubbed. I missed having an animal to pet and I was sad to leave them behind.

All in all, it was a busy day. I had a wonderful day and after a quick cab ride back to the Hotel, I was ready for bed. However, upon walking into the lobby it was apparent that something exciting had happened. All the new EMTs were milling around the lobby talking to each other excitedly. It turns out, tomorrow will be moving day for the new teachers who will be moving out into Al Gharbia and Al Ain. Tomorrow will be a sad day seeing my new found friends leaving on a bus bound for the unknown.