Liwa desert camping

Go a little past the town of Madinat Zayed, past the last homely house, and you'll be in dune country. 

We followed our (more intrepid) friends there this weekend, driving into the desert in search of a quiet, empty place to camp. Steerforth was game.

Nick was pretty game, too. 

With significant coaching, he made it up to our campsite....

...on the third...

...or fourth try.

We didn't count too carefully. 

Relieved, we set up our tents (check out our fancy green sand tent!), and discovered that we had the dunes to ourselves.



Liwa is tremendous. Alone in the dunes, a few hundred meters away from our campsite, the desert was ours, and it was empty. We lay in the sand as it cooled down, and watched sun set and the stars pop out of the sky.

We've never seen so many. 

Our empty nest

It has been over a MONTH of living in a hotel. And though the hotel is dignified and such - it has a very grand lobby, and looks kind of like an MC Escher print from the elevator....

....we are so excited to move to our new house, a block away.

Which house, you ask? We are living in one of the blue towers on the right hand side. Doesn't look like a house, does it? It is a bit funny looking, we admit. At least one of our parents thinks that the architecture is absolutely hideous. But it has a Waitrose (yes, the Waitrose that gave us our groceries on trust) and ... a lot of jewelry stores. And we like it.

It is near our favorite camel burger joint....

....and across the street from the Corniche and our windsurfing/paddle board rental spot....

...and best of all, it has room for visitors, which isn't true of our current abode. Here is the guest room. It is the most furnished room in the whole house (the process of said furnishing was an epic cross-city adventure from which we are still recovering).



And here is where your breakfast gets cooked. No windows, but there is a washer-dryer and an ice maker - all the better to make smoothies!

 Based on our current habits, this is what you will get.



And this is our study/yoga room/mini-library. That's Coconut Island behind the two buildings.



And here is the bedroom. We haven't figured out how to cover the extremely creepy window from bathroom to bedroom (not pictured), but there's time....



And this is the future room of ping pong, movies, reading, and lounging of all kinds. Nick is happy because he can see Coconut Island from here. And I am happy because I can see the Emirates Palace helicopter pad. To each his own. We can also see a football field (not the American variety - poor Nick), the real palace (where the Sheikh lives), and Marina Mall.



We can't wait to settle down, play some ping pong, and get some bikes to hang on the wall like trophies. Nick's sister Katie has got us dreaming of indoor hammocks....and Margaret is contemplating electrical DIY projects to spoof the local chandeliers and testify to the glory of the mason jar....but those things may wait a while. In the meantime, come play!

Al Mina Fish Market

Abu Dhabi is filled with incredible sky scrapers, palaces, and lots of malls, none of which hearken to simpler times, when its most lucrative industry was pearling.  One remnant is the Al Meena fish market, on the east end of the Corniche.

We visited after work, which is not the most lively time at the fish market.  But most of the stalls were filled with an incredible assortment of fish, prawns, lobster, langoustine - and even shark!

 

With some difficulty (how to choose?!), we bought a small fish and a few prawns, and took them over to a grill-while-you-wait stall. There was much waiting, and what looked like minimal grilling: it took a surprising amount of time to get back our catch, but we enjoyed a couple of cold drinks while they...did something.

We brought the food back to our hotel -- whatever they did was definitely worth the wait.  And it went well with A Night in Casablanca -- NOT to be confused with Casablanca.