Day 116: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

The date on this post might read 2 May, but in reality today is 5 June.
The ship is currently docked at the commercial port in Le Verdon-Sur-Mer,
located at the mouth of the Gironde River where it empties into the Bay of Biscay.
Tours to the Medoc Wine Region of France are off and the ship is quiet.
We’re taking a break from sightseeing … which is why this post is even possible.
We’re waiting for the tide to turn so that Insignia can travel upriver
to the heart of Bordeaux for a scheduled overnight stay.
Apologies for the lack of postings since Dubai …
simply too many ports … too much sightseeing … no time to write.

Tuesday, 2 May 2017
At Sea — Persian Gulf … En Route to Fujairah

Stats @ Ship’s Time 8:45p (GST) … UTC 4:45p (2 May)
Temp: 83.7F (28.7C)
Position: 25.31.38N / 54.47.80E

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.
Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.
Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.
And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
They somehow already know what you truly want to become.
Everything else is secondary.
~ Steve Jobs ~

Another hot day in the United Arab Emirates — this time in Abu Dhabi … the largest of the seven emirates … the second most populous after Dubai … with 96% of the oil in the UAE (proven reserves are calculated at over 97 billion barrels). The official high was listed as 97F (36C) on the Accuweather website today, but Sonia told me that her phone showed 115F (46C) when she checked around mid-day.  That is hot by anyone’s standards … and it doesn’t matter if it is humid or dry heat.  It’s HOT!  But it can get up to 122F (50C) — humid too — so I guess we should count our blessings that summer has not yet arrived.

Today was the end of the 5th segment of the RTW — our shortest to date in terms of distance.  We have added another 4,472 NM to our total sailed and stand at 30,294 NM overall since leaving Miami.  In any event, today’s turnaround day in Abu Dhabi marks the start of the “Sands of Time” segment … appropriate since we will be visiting lots of “desert” countries.

Everyone had to vacate their cabins by 8:00a this morning — segmenters, back-to-backers, RTWers.  It didn’t matter what one’s status was, one had to leave the cabin … at least until noon.  This was not an immigration requirement.  Rather, the ship was going to go through deep sanitization in the aftermath of our recent GI-related issues.  With 350 new passengers boarding it was extremely important that the ship be “clean.”

To encourage the 260 or so in-transit passengers to leave not just their cabins but the ship as well, Oceania offered a complimentary city tour.  Alternatively, one could stay aboard — but be restricted to Horizons until noon.  Neither appealed to us, so we proceeded with our initial idea to sightsee on our own.  The plan was to go to the grand mosque first and then visit the Heritage Village.  We did the first part; skipped the second part because we were unable to tolerate the mid-day heat.

Anyway, to start the day’s story at the beginning.  Our approach to Abu Dhabi this morning was shortly after 6:30a. The city skyline — not nearly as phantasmagorical as Dubai’s skyline — was veiled behind heat haze … not nearly as thick as yesterday’s.  By 7:00a, we were docked.  Mui and I had breakfast at the Terrace Café — which opened early at 6:00a — and were off the ship before 8:00a.

There were no immigration formalities to contend with, so we breezed through the security checkpoint and headed directly to the information kiosk in the near-deserted terminal.  The young man handed us a taxi service brochure when we asked about taxi rates from the port to the grand mosque.  Inside, in multiple languages, was the information we sought — AED 50 … about USD $13.

The Pakistani taxi driver whose turn it was at the rank outside the terminal agreed to turn on his meter, so no haggling was required.  Comfortable in the vehicle with the A/C going full blast, we chatted with him for the 20 minutes or so it took us to get to the mosque.  As in Dubai, the Sheikh is much loved by both the citizens and residents (about 80% of the people).  He is often seen out and about and the royal family here believes they are at one with the people because they are all descended from the Arabian Bedouins.  The Sheikh, in fact, thinks nothing of giving out his phone number and residents can call him at any time.  He also holds meetings once a month … anyone who wants to can attend.

When we arrived at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque it was 8:40a.  We still had 20 minutes to kill before the security checkpoint was due to open.  Except for a few other independent sightseers, we were the only ones about.  No big tours!  So, we wandered around the perimeter to get some exterior shots of the gleaming white marble edifice that is the eight largest mosque in the world.  A gift of the first president (sheikh) of the UAE to his people, it is also his final resting place.  Though he placed the foundation stone himself, he did not see his dream completed.  It took 10 years to build — and construction is still ongoing with new additions to the grounds.  It was opened to worship at the end of 2007.

Promptly at 9:00a the checkpoint opened.  We were the first to go through … nothing about our attire rang alarm bells with the “clothing inspectors.”  We were both wearing long pants and long sleeved tops — I was careful to make sure my shirt wasn’t diaphanous and that my pants were loose fitting.  As required I had a scarf around my head, but I did keep my hat on underneath it to provide shade in the sun, and also to keep my hands free.  Several women, and even some men, were not so lucky and were directed to borrow hooded-abayas and kanduras to cover themselves properly.  Later, when we encountered the O groups, we heard that several of our shipmates had to buy abayas ($22 per).  We were surprised by this until someone we spoke to said that the loan-abayas are not provided for large tour groups … to discourage the women in those groups from simply relying on a free garb to be able to get inside.

Following the directions of the guards, we headed towards the colonnade, stopping before the reflecting pools surrounding it around the outer perimeter to capture “double-the pleasure” images.  We later learned that these pools serve not just as a decorative element for reflections, but provide some “coolness” and trap dust so that the marble floors remain dust-free.  Brilliant.

I could have spent at least an hour just on the reflections, but Mui hurried me along so that we could get our interior photos before the crowds arrived.  Oohing and aahing along the way, we clicked away with phones and cameras.  The magnificence was mind boggling, but so was the pristine condition of everything.  Of course the white Macedonian marble cladding — a symbol of purity and piety — added to that sense of cleanliness as it gleamed in every direction we looked.  Inside the men’s prayer hall, the carpet was covered with runners that we later learned are removed during prayers when the believers come to worship.

At 10:00a, still not done with my photographs, we left the prayer hall to walk around to the far side of the colonnade to join the official tour.  This was by far the smartest thing we could have done.  The tour started outside and then took us inside past the velvet rope and into the center of the men’s prayer hall.  It was conducted by a young woman dressed in an abaya, all but her face covered by the black fabric.  We were each handed a headset so that we could hear her no matter where we stood.  She did an excellent job of not only reeling off a whole set of statistics, but answering questions from the group about Islam.  I’m going to include here some of what I learned from her (supplemented by info from the website).

• Sheikh Zayed wanted a design that would unite the cultural diversities of the Islamic world, and combine it with modern architecture and art.  As such, artisans and materials from many countries were used — Germany (chandeliers), Italy, India, Macedonia (white marble), Turkey (Iznik tiles), UK (prayer clocks), Pakistan, China, New Zealand, UAE … just to name a few. And in keeping with the unity theme, design elements from Persian, Mughal, Fatimid, Ottoman, and Indo-Islamic architecture were included, as well as Moorish and Arabic.
• Long-lasting natural materials were chosen for the construction — such as marble from 12 different countries (100,000 tons), gold, semi-precious stones, crystals, and ceramics.
• Largest mosque in the UAE, covering almost 30 acres (12 hectares) … and that does not include the landscaping around the mosque or the parking areas.  Can accommodate 40,000 people — 10K inside; 30K outside — worshiping shoulder to shoulder in the prayer halls and the courtyard.
• The four minarets are each 351 feet (107m) tall.  There is a library located in one of the minarets that is open to all and features documents and books in a wide variety of languages.
• The white marble courtyard is inlaid with colored marble; the latter used sparingly as it is warmer to the touch … not a good thing in this hot climate.
• The carpet is the largest single-piece, hand-knotted carpet in the world.  Woven in Iran, approximately 1,200 weavers worked on it.  It is mostly wool, which came from New Zealand and Iran, and 30% cotton.  It took two years to design, knot by hand, transport, trim and weave the pieces together.  It was brought to the mosque in 9 pieces and the final weaving together of the pieces was done once they were laid out inside the mosque.  Barely visible lines in the weaving provide guidance for where each row of worshippers are to stand to ensure there is enough space for them prostrate themselves during prayers.
• The seven chandeliers came from Germany and are made of Swarovski crystals with gilded steel and gilded brass frames covered with approximately 40 kilos of 24-karat galvanized gold.  The largest of these is the third largest chandelier in the world … 33 feet (10m) in diameter and has a height of 49 feet (15m).  The three in the men’s prayer hall are the biggest of the seven chandeliers … the center chandelier weighs approximately 12 tons, the two others 8 tons each.
• There are 96 columns inside the prayer hall, all decorated with mother of pearly inlays.
• The wall facing Qibla is decorated with the 99 attributes of Allah in traditional Kufic calligraphy, also used on the Emirati dirham bills.
• There are 82 domes on the roof, which is held up by 1,000+ pillars decorated with floral inlays of semi precious stones — lapis lazuli, red agate, amethyst, abalone, and mother-of-pearl to name just a few.  The largest dome is over the main prayer hall.  They have onion-shaped crowns and crescent shaped finials.  Verses from the Quran encircle the domes on the inside.
• Attendants recite prayers 24/7 at the Sheikh’s mausoleum.  No photography is permitted here.
• The nighttime lighting follows the phases of the moon, accordingly getting brighter or darker.

After the tour was over, we walked around for a bit longer, stopping by Sheikh Zayed’s mausoleum as well.  Then we headed down to the ablutions area … each of us visiting the one designated for our own gender.  The tile work was amazing, and when we later compared notes, we realized the designs duplicated each other.

We were going to have lunch at the café on the grounds, but nothing on the limited menu really called out to us.  While we sat there, however, we decided that the mid-day heat was going to be simply too much for us to comfortably wander around the Heritage Village.  I was “cooked and stick-a-fork-in-me” done.  So we scrapped our plans for the latter part of the day and took a cab back to the port instead.

The terminal was a hubbub of activity with both Insignia and Regent’s Seven Seas Navigator embarking passengers.  Still, we managed to find a couple of seats to take advantage of the fast-speed free internet — password available at the information kiosk.  We probably would have hung around for an hour or two, but it was already 2:00p and we didn’t want to get stuck behind long lines of embarking passengers.  Plus, we were getting hungry.  As we did when we left the ship this morning, we bypassed the golf-cart shuttle and walked the short distance to the ship and were onboard in short order.

The 11th muster drill of the RTW was held before the ship set sail at 4:00p.  It was so hot that Captain B, who has returned to Insignia from his vacation, excused us from going out to the lifeboat stations.  I have a feeling we will have to do that when we do the mid-segment drill in two weeks’ time.

The heat was incredibly draining today.  Much as we hydrated, we just couldn’t keep up with the water loss through sweating.  An early night is called for.  I am glad we don’t have any sightseeing plans for tomorrow.

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