We arrived about 7AM local time a short 14 hours later. Elizabeth had a
problem with Customs as they didn’t think she looked like her picture. Perhaps
we all look the same to them.
During our transfer the driver had the radio on. It was a little surreal with an Australian
male and British lass as the DJs. They then ran through the headlines: a white
powder was discovered and until verified was going to be treated as some
dangerous powder, it sounded like myotoxin (but I don’t even know if that’s a
real thing), followed by two unimportant messages and then an advertisement for
The University of Wollongong. Call me a snob but I wouldn’t even use them in Australia,
let alone in the UAE. Perhaps the locals here are going to teach them English at
the University. You can’t really call it Bogan Central Coast…or can you?
The big thing on the radio was the 30 second debate on women wearing
makeup. One caller said that she was
divided. As a personal trainer, she didn’t wear makeup during the week, only on
the weekend. The male DJ agreed with her logic, otherwise during the week she
would look like a sad panda.
As we drove into Abu Dhabi (population 1.3 million) the Shiekh Zayed
Grand Mosque loomed into view and it did indeed look grand.
After checking into our hotel, we upgraded to an apartment in order to
check in immediately, we just had to give them more money. We did not want to
wait until a 2.00PM check-in. We had some showers and grabbed a taxi to take us
to the Abu Dhabi Louvre, arriving about midday. The taxi service here is very
efficient and cheap. I mean a 30 minute taxi trip costs AU$13 including tip.
We arrived at the Abu Dhabi Louvre at about midday and spent about 4
hours searching their treasures. Not as good as the real Louvre but impressive
nonetheless and certainly not as crowded.
The building has some lovely design features but the gallery layout is a
little confusing, just like the real Louvre. To use the name, access parts of their
collection, purchasing their own exhibits and have the Louvre train their staff,
it has cost them well over US$1 Billion.
Surprisingly there are several things that they could improve on in the
display and identification of objects.
The roof line with the filtered light is meant to simulate the light
under oasis trees which is quite clever.
Next to our hotel is the large mall Al Wahda and really it looks like
any mall anywhere, it is truly a globalised society. Even the music played is exactly the same. This
is regarded as one of the safest places in the world to live, there are
security cameras everywhere.
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