Monday was my first real day in Abu Dhabi, Jack went to work at midnite and I slept in. After I got up and had some instant coffee (BLAH!) I used Jack's bike to ride down to the little business area of this neighborhood. Everything here is beige, the buildings, the landscape and the sky. There is absolutely no color in this area of Abu Dhabi. Apparently it is just too new and the landscaping has not caught up with the building. Other areas of Abu Dhabi are very lush and green, in fact they pride themselves on their green areas. This is not an easy task in the desert!
I poked around the grocery store and bought a couple snacks to have around and more water. Bottled water is very necessary and very cheap. A 1.5 liter of bottled water costs 33cents in USD.
The villa where Jack is living is 5 small buildings grouped together in a U shape behind a walled compound. In the building that Jack lives in which is essentially a large house there are 6 private rooms with bathrooms for each of the "guys" Then on the 3rd floor there is laundry facilities and another room where the "help" lives. All of the buildings in this "compound" are occupied by guys working on the project. There is another compound a short distance from here where a bunch more guys live. In this compound I estimate there are 25-30 living and working. Most of the guys travel to and from work on a bus that is provided by the job. It picks them up and drops them off everyday. Jack is "special" he gets to ride to and from with Troy who is in their group and has a company car and a international drivers license. Sooo... Monday when the bus dropped off the guys and they all walked in after a 10 1/2 hour shift in the 115 degree heat they all looked pretty haggard. They are certainly earning every Dirham, Euro or US dollar they are being paid. This ain't easy!!
Anyway after a quick swim we went into Abu Dhabi City. My how things change as you ride into the city. It's very pretty and we went to the very prettiest place in town, the "Emirates Palace". This is a 7 star hotel that is absolutely beyond belief. I took pictures but pictures can never really capture it all. Absolutely unbelievable! As you drive up to the hotel the driveway is all polished inlaid marble or granite, there are 2 guys walking back and forth with hugh dust mops polishing the driveway constantly. The place is absolutely amazing. We won't be staying here, but it's sure fun to go walk around.
From the Palace we went to Marina Mall, we wanted something for lunch and Jack wanted to go to IKEA to work on his room. We made it through lunch and Jack crashed so we never made it to IKEA. Next time. We went back to the villa and Jack went to sleep and I tried to entertain myself. There isn't much to do around here at night with everyone asleep, maybe I'll catch up on my own sleep. More tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment