I had a work event in Abu Dhabi and we decided to make a family weekend trip out of it since we hadn't been yet. (Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates, or UAE, where we currently live. That's why we have an embassy in Abu Dhabi and a consulate in Dubai.) The event that brought me to Abu Dhabi was the Korean Film Festival, hosted by the Korean Embassy. I saw an amazing new Korean biographical movie called Road to Boston, about Korean athletes who participated in the Boston International Marathon in 1947. It was so powerful and moving, it gave me chills in the theatre.
After that, we got to enjoy our hip, artsy hotel: Aloft Abu Dhabi. Since summer in the UAE is blazing hot and a low season for tourism, we got plenty of deals for our family vacation including tickets to some of Abu Dhabi's biggest attractions included with our hotel booking.
We knew multiple sites required very modest dress and packed accordingly. I tried to plan multiple sites requiring conservative attire back-to-back so we could make sure we were appropriately dressed for all of them. However, I foolishly completely forgot to pack a scarf to cover my hair! I refused to buy a scarf from one the stands for forgetful or ignorant tourists, so I ended up improvising with a full dress wrapped around my head like a scarf. I think I did a decent enough job.
We went to Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, where admission is free, but we showed up too late for a private tour. It's still stunning to view on a self-guided path, though, which we did (and where I snapped the first photo of this post). After that, we went to Abrahamic Family House: a powerful interfaith symbol for the three Abrahamic faiths of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism with a fully serviceable corresponding church, mosque, and synagogue.
The next day, we visited my favorite stop of the trip: the Abu Dhabi Children's Library. I've been to so many libraries through the years, and this one was truly extraordinary. It was so thoughtfully designed with a variety of places for children of all ages to play, explore, and (of course) read. I wished we had a branch in Dubai, because although there are some libraries with offerings for children in Dubai they almost always exclude children as young as S. Visiting the Abu Dhabi Children's Library brought back so many fond memories of my mom taking my sister and me to the library almost every week when we were young, instilling in us a love for books and learning.
After that, we went to Qasr Al Watan, a gorgeous palace where nobody currently lives but that is used for official state functions. The opulence and grand scale of the palace was difficult to wrap our minds around as we explored its enormous halls. They also had several exhibits of impressive collections of artifacts from UAE royal families' private collections as well as official diplomatic gifts from around the world.
We ended the day with an excursion to the Louvre Abu Dhabi. (Did you know the Louvre is in Abu Dhabi, and not just Paris?) I'm normally not a big art gallery person, but there was a specific temporary exhibit on fables I was very interested in seeing called "From Kalila wa Dimna to La Fontaine - Travelling through Fables." I remember learning about Kalila wa Dimna in my Arabic classes as a young student, and I've always found myths and fables a fun way to learn about others' history and culture. It was a delightful exhibit, and S even picked out a bilingual fable book (The Monkey and the Turtle) at the gift shop to take home at the end. (Fun fact: I learned over the course of writing this blog post that there is a totally different folktale from the Philippines called The Monkey and the Turtle!)
I also had the opportunity to attend Sunday services at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and quickly realized it was quite different in Abu Dhabi than it is in Dubai. I especially loved having a real meetinghouse to convene in instead of using a hotel conference space.
On our last day, we went to the National Aquarium, which was S's favorite stop. This was the best aquarium I've ever experienced in terms of actually varieties of fish and animals, including many I've never seen before. As someone who likes reading descriptions and displays, though, I feel like there could have been more opportunities to read and learn about what we were seeing without booking a formal tour. S, however, was in heaven. I could've kept him there for many hours and he would've been happy.
We loved the peaceful, quiet tone of Abu Dhabi. It was a major shift from the hustle and bustle of glitzy Dubai, even though it was glitzy in its own way. We had a great experience with the food, from the hotel to various restaurants including in the charming Mina Zayed (port) area. There are so many beautiful nature attractions in Abu Dhabi, as well, that we didn't get the chance to see this time since the weather was too hot. I'm sure we'll be back to see them in the not-too-distant future!
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