A day in Abu Dhabi ( Day 3)
Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates and the 67th most expensive city in the world is a beauty in itself. According to Wikipedia, it was once the richest city in the world ( In 2007, CNN and Fortune magazine quoted Abu Dhabi as the richest city in the world).
Initially we were confused whether to include this in our trip, but then we couldn't say no to this only because of it's biggest attraction, The Ferrari World which has the world's fastest roller coaster. So here's how we spent our third day in Dubai :)
We woke up early in the morning at 4.30 am, got ready, had breakfast at 7am and left to Abu Dhabi by taxi. That's the best way to visit Abu Dhabi for a day. Buses are also there from Dubai to Abu Dhabi and we thought let's have an experience of travelling with Dubai buses but it takes a lot of time and you can't go anywhere you want. They stop only at certain bus stations and from there you should make your own arrangements. so we left that idea and instead took a taxi. It's usually 800 AED (approximately 12,000 rs) for 8 hours and every extra hour they charge you according to their company prices. But for us they charged 550 AED for the whole day because of the low season. It was a Lexus taxi and the comfort level was very good and we could go anywhere according to our convenience.
We left our hotel around 8.45 am and the drive was very refreshing. Got to see the Dubai roads and highways, got the local essence of the city. We reached Abu Dhabi around 10.15am. Our first stop was at the Marina Mall which is a very famous mall in Abu Dhabi. It was very beautiful and quite different from the usual malls. It has an internal steam fountain in main atrium. We observed a very strange thing in that mall. Usually the gents and the ladies toilets will be next to each other in all the malls but here they were in two opposite directions. Also we read somewhere that public display of affection is not allowed and if caught will be fined severely. We were a bit scared even to walk together :)
We did some window shopping and also we had to purchase a local sim so we took one and bid adieu to Marina Mall. By the time we reached our car, we were half dead because it was very hot, nearly 39-40 degrees.
We then left to Emirates Palace. On the way we saw a huge palace kind of a building and when asked what it is, the driver said it's some sheikh's house. That was truly a "what the heck" moment because the building which he called a house was no mere a house. It was a beautiful white palace and it was very very huge. He said we get to see many of these kinds if we roam about the posh suburbs. While we were digesting this fact, there it was in front of us, the Emirates Palace, a five star hotel which is no less than a palace. It's spread over a massive area. You can enter the palace only if you have a booking either for a stay or for dinner or high tea. High tea in Emirates Palace is pretty famous. It's very expensive though :) since we had only one day in Abu Dhabi , we couldn't make a booking in Emirates Palace. We wish we could have because it would have been a totally different world inside the palace just like the Atlantis Palm. You can take pictures from the front and outside the gate. In front of it is the famous Etihad Towers.
We were busy taking pictures when we suddenly realised we are running short on time. We still had two biggest attractions of Abu Dhabi to visit and spend more time. So we left and it took us around 15-20 minutes to reach the world famous Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. It is considered to be the eighth biggest mosque in the world.
The very first sight of it was astounding and we couldn't believe our eyes. It was constructed with pure white marble and it was glowing with the sun rays falling on it. Visiting this mosque is truly worth mainly because of three reasons, you get to enter the biggest mosque in UAE and one of the biggest in the world and see the traditional Arabic culture with a tinge of sophistication , you get to witness the world's largest carpet which weighs around 65 tonnes and you get to wear the traditional Muslim dress called abaya for ladies and kandura for men. Before you go, check the times of the free mosque tours. We missed out on it just by 5 minutes. Also make sure you are dressed properly especially girls otherwise they wouldn't let you in because of the strict dress code. They have a huge hoarding in front of the mosque which says the type of dress allowed and not allowed. Whatever you wear you have to wear abaya and cover your hair with it. I chose to wear my jeans even though it was burning hot.
Once we went there, we were guided to the dress hire counter and were asked to submit an identification card to get the dress. I quickly changed and wore that abaya on top of my dress.
We walked towards the entrance of the mosque and we saw a giant chandelier and a beautifully painted wall. It was a treat to the eyes (I will be using this phrase a zillion times throughout my blog and the reason is very evident) Each and every little thing in the mosque was just amazing. This was our first time to a mosque and we surely loved it.
The funniest thing to happen there was to get into some kind of trouble. We were taking a few photos and I thought I will sit down and pose for a photo only to realise that I had two officials walking towards me and asking me to get up. This came as a shocker. We didn't understand why we are not allowed to sit inside the mosque but we sure enough had goosebumps when the officials came from nowhere and took our camera and deleted all the pics. The reason behind this remained with them. But if any of you plan to visit the mosque then please don't sit down for any reason.
After a nice mosque experience, it was finally time for the biggest attraction we were waiting for, The Ferrari World. We left the mosque around 1pm and reached Ferrari World around 2pm. The moment we realised we are entering the largest indoor theme park in the world, we were just screaming but as low as we can :) Ferrari World is a totally different world in itself. It has the world's fastest roller coaster at 240 kmph.
They have some really amazing rides here and many simulators each different from the other. They have a little water ride as well. There are nearly 19 rides out of which we tried 14 of them. The other five we couldn't do it because three of them were for kids, one was closed for maintenance and one of them we couldn't do because of the time constraint. The theme park is open from 11am to 8pm and entry fee is 240 AED per person ( approx 4,000 rs) They have a fast track access which is for 400 AED ( approx 6,500 rs). There are a few franchise stores in Ferrari World and they have this huge collection of clothing, games, souvenirs, stationery, toy cars, footwear and other accessories. Everything looks so good and you just feel like buying so many things. After a few rides it was time for us to have lunch. They have a few Italian restaurants inside the theme park. We chose to go to Mamma Rossella and had pizzas :)
Ferrari world is usually very crowded during the weekends (Friday and Saturday are the weekends in Dubai. Sunday is like Mondays , first day of the week) but luckily we chose to go on a weekday, so it wasn't that crowded. For a few rides, we didn't even have a queue to wait for. And for few of them we had to wait for nearly 20-30 minutes but there was a mad crowd for the ultimate ride, Formula Rossa, the world's fastest roller coaster. We had to wait for almost 2 and a half hours in the queue to experience it. After 15-20 rides, they usually close the roller coaster for maintenance check. After waiting for almost 1 and a half hours, it was finally our turn to go there and that was the last batch but we didn't wanna go as the front seats were already occupied. We wanted to sit in the front so we told them we will wait till we get to sit in the front rows and so again, we had to wait for about 45 minutes and finally were ready to go. We were super excited to sit at the front because whatever happens and however the ride takes us, we will be the first ones to see it. We were all geared up for the ride and it slowly started moving. After going slowly for about a minute, they give us a few seconds to gear up for the ultimate ride of our life and by the time you realise you are riding the fastest roller coaster in the world, boooom!! it shoots and that was a hell of a ride. I was literally feeling I'm gonna fly away because of the high speed. At the same time we were shouting at the top of our voice because we were experiencing a ghost ride. The roller coaster trail is so big but the whole ride is only for 60 seconds. We didn't realise it to end so soon but then we looked back and saw how far we have travelled, we were thrilled.
We were left with a few simulator rides to finish it off and went for it. They were cool ones and the last one we did was a water ride. This was like an icing on the cake. It's actually a simulator which takes you on a ride to show how it is inside a Ferrari engine and that water which splashes actually indicates the coolant which will be inside a car engine. We were quite wet when we came out but were actually supposed to be completely wet after the ride. So when we were seated there waiting to come out of our car, one of the staff members asked us to stay back because he thought we were not drenched enough and so he bought a big bucket to pour water on us and when he raised the bucket, I shouted at the top of my voice and said Noooooo :) :) and everyone burst into laughter because there was no water in the bucket and they were just joking around. While we were going back, the same person came back to us and asked us to come again very soon and they will definitely pour water on us :) the staff were very friendly.
Apart from the amazing rides, there are a lot of other things to see inside the Ferrari world and one being the vintage to the present collection of cars of the Ferrari family.
So finally after the not so great water experience, it was time for us to head back home. The theme park closes at 8pm and it was 7.40pm already. But we wanted to shop for a nice souvenir. After a lot of confusions between a few items, we chose to buy a Ferrari coffee mug :) after our little shopping we were worried now about our driver because his number was in our phones and our phones were switched off as we were using it for some quick photos here and there. But luckily our driver was waiting for us just outside the Ferrari world. We left Abu Dhabi around 8pm and reached Dubai around 9.30pm. We were completely exhausted and damn hungry. We couldn't stop anywhere for dinner as the driver was getting late. So we decided to eat at our hotel. So as we came ,we ordered for a room service and we just wanted to eat something and crash. But even though we were exhausted completely, we have no regrets because we spent our day visiting some great places.
Initially we were confused whether to include this in our trip, but then we couldn't say no to this only because of it's biggest attraction, The Ferrari World which has the world's fastest roller coaster. So here's how we spent our third day in Dubai :)
We woke up early in the morning at 4.30 am, got ready, had breakfast at 7am and left to Abu Dhabi by taxi. That's the best way to visit Abu Dhabi for a day. Buses are also there from Dubai to Abu Dhabi and we thought let's have an experience of travelling with Dubai buses but it takes a lot of time and you can't go anywhere you want. They stop only at certain bus stations and from there you should make your own arrangements. so we left that idea and instead took a taxi. It's usually 800 AED (approximately 12,000 rs) for 8 hours and every extra hour they charge you according to their company prices. But for us they charged 550 AED for the whole day because of the low season. It was a Lexus taxi and the comfort level was very good and we could go anywhere according to our convenience.
We left our hotel around 8.45 am and the drive was very refreshing. Got to see the Dubai roads and highways, got the local essence of the city. We reached Abu Dhabi around 10.15am. Our first stop was at the Marina Mall which is a very famous mall in Abu Dhabi. It was very beautiful and quite different from the usual malls. It has an internal steam fountain in main atrium. We observed a very strange thing in that mall. Usually the gents and the ladies toilets will be next to each other in all the malls but here they were in two opposite directions. Also we read somewhere that public display of affection is not allowed and if caught will be fined severely. We were a bit scared even to walk together :)
We then left to Emirates Palace. On the way we saw a huge palace kind of a building and when asked what it is, the driver said it's some sheikh's house. That was truly a "what the heck" moment because the building which he called a house was no mere a house. It was a beautiful white palace and it was very very huge. He said we get to see many of these kinds if we roam about the posh suburbs. While we were digesting this fact, there it was in front of us, the Emirates Palace, a five star hotel which is no less than a palace. It's spread over a massive area. You can enter the palace only if you have a booking either for a stay or for dinner or high tea. High tea in Emirates Palace is pretty famous. It's very expensive though :) since we had only one day in Abu Dhabi , we couldn't make a booking in Emirates Palace. We wish we could have because it would have been a totally different world inside the palace just like the Atlantis Palm. You can take pictures from the front and outside the gate. In front of it is the famous Etihad Towers.
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| Etihad Towers |
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| The beautiful Emirates Palace |
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| The entrance |
We were busy taking pictures when we suddenly realised we are running short on time. We still had two biggest attractions of Abu Dhabi to visit and spend more time. So we left and it took us around 15-20 minutes to reach the world famous Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. It is considered to be the eighth biggest mosque in the world.
The very first sight of it was astounding and we couldn't believe our eyes. It was constructed with pure white marble and it was glowing with the sun rays falling on it. Visiting this mosque is truly worth mainly because of three reasons, you get to enter the biggest mosque in UAE and one of the biggest in the world and see the traditional Arabic culture with a tinge of sophistication , you get to witness the world's largest carpet which weighs around 65 tonnes and you get to wear the traditional Muslim dress called abaya for ladies and kandura for men. Before you go, check the times of the free mosque tours. We missed out on it just by 5 minutes. Also make sure you are dressed properly especially girls otherwise they wouldn't let you in because of the strict dress code. They have a huge hoarding in front of the mosque which says the type of dress allowed and not allowed. Whatever you wear you have to wear abaya and cover your hair with it. I chose to wear my jeans even though it was burning hot.
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| The huge hoarding about the dress code in front of the mosque |
We walked towards the entrance of the mosque and we saw a giant chandelier and a beautifully painted wall. It was a treat to the eyes (I will be using this phrase a zillion times throughout my blog and the reason is very evident) Each and every little thing in the mosque was just amazing. This was our first time to a mosque and we surely loved it.
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| World's biggest carpet |
After a nice mosque experience, it was finally time for the biggest attraction we were waiting for, The Ferrari World. We left the mosque around 1pm and reached Ferrari World around 2pm. The moment we realised we are entering the largest indoor theme park in the world, we were just screaming but as low as we can :) Ferrari World is a totally different world in itself. It has the world's fastest roller coaster at 240 kmph.
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| Google image of the Ferrari World. You can view this if you take a hot air balloon ride or a helicopter ride in Abu Dhabi |
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| The entrance |
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| Ferrari engine models |
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| Ticket counter |
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| Ferrari store |
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| RED is a theatrical performance which can't be missed. They have unique stunt exhibits |
Ferrari world is usually very crowded during the weekends (Friday and Saturday are the weekends in Dubai. Sunday is like Mondays , first day of the week) but luckily we chose to go on a weekday, so it wasn't that crowded. For a few rides, we didn't even have a queue to wait for. And for few of them we had to wait for nearly 20-30 minutes but there was a mad crowd for the ultimate ride, Formula Rossa, the world's fastest roller coaster. We had to wait for almost 2 and a half hours in the queue to experience it. After 15-20 rides, they usually close the roller coaster for maintenance check. After waiting for almost 1 and a half hours, it was finally our turn to go there and that was the last batch but we didn't wanna go as the front seats were already occupied. We wanted to sit in the front so we told them we will wait till we get to sit in the front rows and so again, we had to wait for about 45 minutes and finally were ready to go. We were super excited to sit at the front because whatever happens and however the ride takes us, we will be the first ones to see it. We were all geared up for the ride and it slowly started moving. After going slowly for about a minute, they give us a few seconds to gear up for the ultimate ride of our life and by the time you realise you are riding the fastest roller coaster in the world, boooom!! it shoots and that was a hell of a ride. I was literally feeling I'm gonna fly away because of the high speed. At the same time we were shouting at the top of our voice because we were experiencing a ghost ride. The roller coaster trail is so big but the whole ride is only for 60 seconds. We didn't realise it to end so soon but then we looked back and saw how far we have travelled, we were thrilled.
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| The Formula Rossa |
After a mind-blowing ride, we came out and we thought we will take some photos and then we saw another batch going for the roller coaster ride and wanted to go again :) We knew we had to wait in the queue but were ok with it. This time the queue wasn't that long because when they earlier announced that the roller coaster will be closed for 30 minutes for the maintenance check, more than half of the people left the queue. So we were lucky enough to wait only for 25-30 minutes for our next ride. We are not allowed to carry anything with us when we are riding. Not even phones and cameras. We chose to sit in the middle this time to see how thrilling it will be. It was thrilling enough but not as much as at the front. That's the best experience. After the ride, when we stepped out of the coaster we were feeling a little dizzy may be because in that short gap we had two rides. But no regrets, we experienced the best :)
We were left with a few simulator rides to finish it off and went for it. They were cool ones and the last one we did was a water ride. This was like an icing on the cake. It's actually a simulator which takes you on a ride to show how it is inside a Ferrari engine and that water which splashes actually indicates the coolant which will be inside a car engine. We were quite wet when we came out but were actually supposed to be completely wet after the ride. So when we were seated there waiting to come out of our car, one of the staff members asked us to stay back because he thought we were not drenched enough and so he bought a big bucket to pour water on us and when he raised the bucket, I shouted at the top of my voice and said Noooooo :) :) and everyone burst into laughter because there was no water in the bucket and they were just joking around. While we were going back, the same person came back to us and asked us to come again very soon and they will definitely pour water on us :) the staff were very friendly.
Apart from the amazing rides, there are a lot of other things to see inside the Ferrari world and one being the vintage to the present collection of cars of the Ferrari family.
So finally after the not so great water experience, it was time for us to head back home. The theme park closes at 8pm and it was 7.40pm already. But we wanted to shop for a nice souvenir. After a lot of confusions between a few items, we chose to buy a Ferrari coffee mug :) after our little shopping we were worried now about our driver because his number was in our phones and our phones were switched off as we were using it for some quick photos here and there. But luckily our driver was waiting for us just outside the Ferrari world. We left Abu Dhabi around 8pm and reached Dubai around 9.30pm. We were completely exhausted and damn hungry. We couldn't stop anywhere for dinner as the driver was getting late. So we decided to eat at our hotel. So as we came ,we ordered for a room service and we just wanted to eat something and crash. But even though we were exhausted completely, we have no regrets because we spent our day visiting some great places.
| That was the tiring third day of our trip. Hope you guys enjoyed reading :) will come back soon with my next post :) thanks for reading :) |
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