FUJEIRA waiting for us the next morning, we were back in the Emirates. In the programme of the taxi tour: a trip out of the city with a visit to two forts – Al Batna Fort in the Wadi Harn desert and Al Khail Fort at Wadi Al Khail.
Then a city tour with a visit to Fujairah Fort and Museum (you get tea and dates on the way out), Heritage Village (nothing to do in it at all), a swim on the beach and return to the mall for relaxation. Compared to the Omani fortress, the local forts are much smaller and more modest, but worth a look, especially as we take a dirt track out into the desert and into the mountains. The scenery is very poor – rocks, pathetic, withered and sparse greenery, poor villages. In the centre of the city is the Great Mosque, majestic, beautiful, monumental with tall minarets.
After the failure in Muscat, I hope to take revenge and go inside, but again I am refused – only Muslims are allowed in. My travelling companions encouraged me to pretend to be a true believer, but I refused, as I could not go for that. Friendly Arabs friended me at the mosque, and they said: “Come with us through the service entrance! Alas, there are guards there too – no Christians allowed in!
In general, the city is not interesting at all, except that the Fujairah Fort is not bad, but in the centre of its yard, a Spanish woman became a pillar. It spoils the frame and won’t move, I asked her to leave, she didn’t like it, so she just kept twirling in the centre. The beach is nothing remarkable: wilted palm trees that do not give shade, there are no changing rooms, the sand looks dirty, muddy water. The coast is gentle, the depth increases very slowly. It looks like wild beaches of Arabatska arrow, only there the sand is lighter. They wrote that in January the sea is cool, well, yes, to enter not very well, but then to swim quite comfortable. We talked to three girls on the beach, they are on holiday here and complain about the Arabs and Indians – too much intrusive attention.
ABU-DABI. How quickly the final day of the cruise crept up and … sadness set in, but it was too early to relax. We found a private Hindu who agreed to drive us around the city for $70 for five hours. We didn’t expect anything special from Abu Dhabi, but…
The Hindu, although he spoke almost no English, turned out to be a very technical guy, not only planned the route perfectly, but sometimes accompanied us. First of all, Emirates Palace is a super-luxury hotel, decorated with marble and gold and reminiscent of the palace of fabulous Arabian sheikhs or Indian maharajahs. There are dozens of fountains in front of the hotel and a flowing cascading staircase leading up to the hotel’s grand entrance. The construction of the hotel is considered the most expensive in the world – 3 billion quid were spent, 2 tonnes of gold were used, 1002 Swarovski chandeliers hang from the ceilings (a little bit missed with the fairy tales of 1001 nights). Every day 20,000 roses are brought to the hotel and any guest is met at the airport by a limousine. There is a gold bar vending machine in the lobby. Every month, the chefs spend almost 5kg of “food gold” to prepare chocolate desserts. In the morning, the buffet serves “golden” cakes and delicacies – caviar, oysters, crabs. Here you can also drink a cup of coffee with 24-carat gold particles ($20) – my coffee-loving wife wanted to try it, but there was no time. Even the toilets here have gold toilets! What is interesting is that on the day of our arrival, Kirkorov was a guest here, and he had a show in the evening. As a treat for his stomach, he ate a steak covered in gold and cooked by the terribly fashionable chef Nusret for only 25,000 roubles. Even tourists can enter the foyer and, with their mouths hanging open in amazement, admire the incredibly rich and opulent interiors. But group excursions are not allowed here. Despite the frankly summer weather – it was the hottest day of our trip – there is a huge Christmas tree in the centre of the lobby, I still can’t get used to Christmas trees in hot countries. Many times I have seen photos of this hotel, but even with all my imagination I could not imagine the true richness of its interiors. Such indescribable luxury must be seen with your own eyes.
Like Dubai, the capital city of Abu Dhabi is a city of great distances, and even taxis take a long time to reach interesting sites. The Al Raha neighbourhood is home to a local wonder – the futuristic Aldar Headquarters Building, a skyscraper in the shape of a giant convex lens set on a rib. With 23 floors of offices inside, the view from the outside is stunning – a giant coin standing on a rib!
Yas Marin Formula 1 track is another brand of the city. I didn’t want to come here, but for nothing – wide tracks for racing, huge grandstands for gambling spectators. I have seen something similar in Sochi, where there is also a race track. And in the centre of the tangle of tracks is a futuristic-looking hotel with a restaurant overlooking the track. I can imagine the heat of passion at the moment when roaring cars fly past spectators at great speed or crash into each other. And nearby, on the same man-made island of Yas, there is “Ferrari World” with dizzying attractions (ticket for a day about 300 dirhams), cruisers can not get there in time, we hung out in the shopping gallery.
After lunch I had a plan to check out Global Village, like all attractions it’s located the fuck out of nowhere. It’s about an hour bus ride from the metro. It is a huge market of goods and restaurants from all over the world. And each country has its own market place, stylised to match the architectural silhouettes of that particular country. All the expositions have a stage for performances, but we did not see a single show. Even is represented there with a standard set of kitsch souvenirs a la, and next to the wall is the long-suffering Syria. I just didn’t understand why the area of the Syrian part is 4 times larger than the part!? Evening darkness covered the city and we took the bus to the hotel to get our things and then the metro to the airport.
