YABBA DHABI DO
Claire Keeton screams on rollercoasters and meets the wold’s most pampered birds in Abu Dhabi
IF you take a flight within the Persian Gulf, you may find yourself seated next to a falcon. Falcons have their own passports in the United Arab Emirates and are treated like royalty. But even the fastest bird in the world, the peregrine falcon, can’t match the speed of an Etihad Airways flight and or how the crew cater to the whims of every passenger.
On the other hand, if you were on a flight this week you could have seen one of the world’s fastest drivers on his way to compete in the Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
And if you want your own experience of unsurpassed speed, try the fastest rollercoaster in the world at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi — F1 stars like Alexander Rossi compare its acceleration to what they feel on the racetrack.
Going that fast is sensational. You hardly have time to take a breath and you’re racing out from the indoor platform at 240km/h with the sky a blur. When the rollercoaster, called the Formula Rossa, slows down to go into a loop, you’re still hurtling along upside down but it feels like you are moving in slow motion.
In contrast, the “virtual reality” trip through Italy, another popular ride at Ferrari World, is leisurely. This is a 4-D experience during which you turn onto hairpin bends and soar over lakes and ancient sites.
Those two rides were all we had time for at the world’s biggest indoor theme park but families spend all day there and at the nearby Yas Waterworld, which has 43 rides and slides.
Fast rides and slow camels are part of Abu Dhabi life, symbolising how modern and traditional ways merge in this emirate which is roughly half a century old.
Our gracious guide, Mohammed Farah from the Abu Dhabi Tourism & Cultural Authority, said: “Abu Dhabi grew on pearl diving, fishing and dates.”
Now it is a wealthy oil state, one of seven in the United Arab Emirates.
Gleaming mosaics of camels and date palms decorate walls along the city freeways, which pass unusual buildings including one shaped like a coin.
Three more architectural landmarks are going up on the cultural hub of Saadiyat Island: the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, which will host international exhibitions, and the Zayed National Museum.
Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates and occupies more than 80% of its landmass, which is mostly desert.
On the way to an Arabian village in the desert, we passed dozens of camels and our driver took us dune bashing, racing up and down the steep slopes and along the ridges.
This is a popular recreational pursuit among Emiratis, Farah said.
At the tourist village you can, as we did, switch to a camel for a different perspective, and after that to sandboards, which seem to glide quickly over the fine, reddish sand.
The desert cooled down swiftly once the sun had set and we got henna tattoos while listening to a man sing poetry and play traditional tunes on his oud, a traditional string instrument.
A feast of Middle Eastern dishes extended our culinary experiences far beyond the prawns (biggest in the world, almost) we had eaten at the port; the saffron ice cream; and the dates from the sprawling date market.
As the stars came out, a mesmerising belly dancer took over the stage. The flamboyant show was unlike any of the other encounters we’d had with women in Abu Dhabi, where it is common for them to cover up in abayas. Tourists may dress as they wish, except at religious sites such as the Sheik Zayed Grand ere I joined the line to don an abaya to cover my hair and skin before entering. que is truly grand: white marble recious-stone mosaics and earl, pillars topped with gold es; chandeliers with Italian hing up to 12 tons; and the made Persian carpet in the Devout Muslims across the UAE come to pray at the mosque, which can accomodate 40 000 worshippers. Another reason Emiratis visit Abu Dhabi glitzy Dubai with its skyscrapers is only — 125km away is to get specialist care for their falcons , which can cost up to $100 000 each. The award-winning Falcon Hospital offers a unique veterinary service.
On any morning, men in keffiyehs arrive in smart cars with falcons wearing ornate hoods balanced on their wrists.
By the time we went on a guided tour around the hospital/beauty salon, there were six men in the waiting room with 28 falcons on perches in their own waiting room.
Most of them are day visitors checked in for treatments, like trimming their nails, rather than emergencies like broken feathers.
We didn’t feel their talons when we held one on a leather glove but their eyes were piercing once the hood was off. — Keeton was a guest of Etihad Airways & Southern Sun Abu Dhabi