Cheap tours and extreme heat

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We have heard a lot about the Mosque in Abu Dhabi and wanted to ensure that we saw this amazing place while we here. We booked a group tour (last minute naturally)) and started what would end up being a very long day at 7:30. Abu Dhabi is in a different Emerites than Dubai 120k away, there are 7 Emirates all together.

When Oil was discovered in the region 96% of it was is Abu Dhabi. Once the money started rolling in the Prince gave every family a house and 20,000 AED about 7000 Canadian dollars. The region was mostly Bedouin people and this was a real lottery win for them as you can imagine They also shared the wealth with Dubai and really kick started the growth there.

Our bus starting filling soon after we departed and before long there wasn’t a seat left. This is not a big luxury bus btw. We definitely were getting what we paid for here.

When we arrived at the Mosque the security guard decided if the woman we appropriately dressed to enter... evidently I was not. Kevin was allowed in to buy me a burka... remember it’s 40 degrees out and I’m fully dressed in a way that I feel will allow entry so essentially I was melting. Out he came with a full on burka that was at least one if not two sizes too small. We managed together, to get me wriggled into it so now I can hardly breathe and had to walk like a penguin while trying to keep my head covering on ?‍♀️ I’m was amazed at what the men were able to wear. I’m not a good submissive, this is clear.

The Mosque is called the white Mosque and is made of pure white mable, it has a 5600 square meter handmade carpet that is all hand knotted by 1300 carpet makers. There a ton of amazing facts about this Mosque.

There are many rules that apply when visiting a Mosque. No touching is a really big one. While getting pictures we naturally lean into each other etc. the guard saw us doing this and we could see him coming towards us ?. We quickly broke apart and starting just holding our own hands to keep from touching each other - which apparently we do a lot of. Who knew. No touchy.

The rest of the tour included looking at the royal palaces and driving by Ferrari World ?. The drive back was awful as the bus’s A/C could not keep up to the body heat and outside temp.

The next day we transferred to the Atlantis on the Palm where we would start the Shell Smiling Stars event. The hotel is very amazing with a huge built in aquarium and water slide park, so may restaurants bar pools it’s mind blowing.

We went to a Gordon Ramsey pub and had famous Beef Wellington. I hate blogs and pictures of food but seriously likely the best think I have ever eaten.

Just a note about the Palm - there are 17 Palm branches. When it was first built apparently they could not sell anything as people were pretty concerned about spending a million bucks on something that might sink into the ocean. Once buyers were offered a free car they starting buying. I’m not talking about a Toyota either, Porsche, Jaguar, Ferrari Lexus etc the driveways are plugged with a car lovers dream selection. There are two more Palms under construction and when the larger one is finished they say it will be big enough to fit all of Paris in it.
We are looking foward all the events and surprises that this event is famous for.

*there are more pictures just hit the view more photos at the botton after the blog.

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