Back in Abu Dhabi that evening, Rachel has a few friends around to meet us. It’s been a long time since we sat round a dining room table with friends and it feels very normal and really nice.
A very foreign concept to us is the “Beach Club”.
On Thursday we join Carolyn, a Canadian, who was appointed as Rachel’s “buddy” when she first arrived at the school. She has become Rachel’s friend and we spend the afternoon and evening at the British Club with her and her husband. It is a strange environment but made all the better with nice company and a few beers on the beach.
It is obvious that a number of families practically live here, especially those with preschool aged children whose mothers come to use the gym, have their nails done, hang out with friends then shower their children, dress them in their pyjamas, put them in front of a poolside movie then feed them in the restaurant before going home to bed. I suppose if your partner had a job in Abu Dhabi and you were a stay-at-home parent, your options would be limited. This is about the closest to nature you can get here, so I see the logic.
On Friday Rachel takes us to her favourite beach, Saadiyat. We enter through the incredibly ostentatious front entrance of the Regis Hotel, where all manner of luxury cars are pulling up and impossibly perfect surgically-enhanced expats are air-kissing each other.
Apparently there is a public entrance to the beach somewhere but this is a nicer part of the beach and next to the bar that serves delicious mojitos that we have to try afterwards. The sand is very white and the sea very blue but I can’t really see while I’m in the water because the sea is ultra-salty and my eyes sting like crazy. I suppose all the salt that is a by-product of desalination has to go somewhere.
We have mojitos at the bar which are indeed delicious, but we’re not quite in the spending zone where drinks cost $20. Certainly it is a good thing that we are only a short time in Abu Dhabi. Staying with Rachel has reduced our costs quite a bit but it is hard to spend five times more on a drink here than on a meal in India. I think this marks the end of the cheaper leg of our journey which is a bit sobering.
However, I order two because they are delicious!
We visit the Grand Mosque the next day. It is truly beautiful and truly excessive.
We spend an hour at Rachel’s beforehand, playing dress-ups in her cupboard as the clothes that we are required to wear at the mosque need to be loose-fitting and all-covering. I have none of these types of clothes but luckily Rachel has a number of unusual items in her suitcases.
Bundled up like we’re off for a walk on the English Moors, we head off to the mosque. It is blindingly bright and terribly hot.
Tourists in inappropriate dress are given Abayas, whose silhouettes do look rather beautiful against the white background.
Louie spends most of his time taking photos of the carpet, which is apparently the largest in the world (with wool from NZ).
On Sunday, after a visit to Rachel’s school, we head to the airport for our Egypt Air flight to Cairo. Security is pretty tight which helps to allay the slight fears that we have, flying to a country where tourist travel is not currently advised and an aircraft has gone missing in the last 10 days.
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