The Sandpit - Abu Dhabi

Since Abu Dhabi is only an hour and a half drive from Dubai, you can easily go and check it out for a day trip. Sue, Zoe, Naomi, Casey and myself set off for a day trip to check it out and play dress ups at the Grand Mosque (ladies have to wear an abaya and shayla).

Arriving at the mosque

The drive to Abu Dhabi was not as exiting as ones out to Al Ain or Barracuda - there was not a camel in sight. The Grand Mosque looked extremely grand as we approached it, tourists buses flooding the car park and seeing all of the people walking around outside it taking photos. The mosque is the largest one in the UAE and it is very impressive to be standing in front of.

Finally since arriving in the sandpit, I was dressed up in an abaya and shayla. The novelty wore off after five minutes, the abaya amplifying the sun to be my own personal sauna underneath it, and the shayla trying to fly away at any hint of wind, and unluckily for us, it was quite a windy day. We were warned that it was ten minutes until the mosque would be closed for the prayer call, so we rushed with the thousands of other people to the main prayer hall. Everyone has to take their shoes off, so that it doesn't wear out what is considered the world's largest piece of carpet, made of 35tonnes of NZ and Iranian wool while you walk under the massive chandeliers made of millions of Swarovski crystals. The hall was roped off with a walk way, so everyone was fighting for the best photo spots. 

Zoe frolicking on the carpet, wondering who was who

After ten minutes, we were ushered out of the hall and to our disappointment we were informed that the whole mosque was closing for the duration of the prayer call. This presented a great opportunity as we took our time at the back of the crowds and were able to get some photo's that didn't include every other tourist and their dog. We started to sit on the pool's out the front of the mosque waiting out the half an hour so we could go back in and get more photo's, but after sneaking down the side and getting the photo's we wanted, we were able to head off to grab some lunch. 

We drove down to the corniche (the beach area) and past The Emirates Palace, which is the second largest hotel ever built. If only we were staying there the night! Then it was to Marina Mall as we sat there eating our lunch looking back over the Abu Dhabi beach and skyline. Abu Dhabi is set up a lot better than Dubai, with a grid set up and everything more compact. The buildings were nowhere near as big and impressive as Dubai, but definitely glad we had the road trip up there. 

Random/impressive building