I was delighted that the Olsons invited me along to Abu Dhabi for the day! Abu Dhabi is another one of the seven Emirates, and the capital of the U.A.E. Mr. Olson had business meetings throughout the day in Abu Dhabi, so we came along for the ride! I got my first look at the desert of the Middle East, and saw camels along the side of the road!
Abu Dhabi is the wealthiest of the Emirates. It's the financial sector whereas Dubai is the commercial. Abu Dhabi has more wealth than Dubai, and they seem to be able to distribute it better. Like Dubai, Abu Dhabi is focused on progress and bringing the Emirates into the future, but Dubai is a little happy-go-lucky when it comes to spending/building. Abu Dhabi's plans seem a little more concrete.
We went to the Foreign Ministry and then had lunch at an Italian restaurant in the Beach Rotunda Hotel. After lunch, Mr. Olson dropped us off at the Palace Hotel. The Palace Hotel was...wow. Puts the Waldorf to shame! This is where the U.A.E. (or at least Abu Dhabi) puts up their visiting dignitaries. They actually LOSE money on the hotel, but they don't care, it's enough to treat their VIPs like royalty! The entire hotel is made of gold. We walked around for at least an hour, and we only saw a small portion of the hotel, most of it is off limits, and the place is huge!
Mike, Mrs. Olson and I walked around the hotel taking lots of photos. Then we went to an exhibit about the building plans for an island-city off of Abu Dhabi. They're building an entire urban landscape with a big cultural center; bringing a Guggenheim, a Louvre, a Performing Arts Center, a Maritime Museum...the works! We saw the architectural plans and designs for this new city. It was very impressive (I would definitely come back for a visit!) There also was mention of the new NYU Campus to be built (school of arts and sciences).
We sat in one of the lobbies of the Palace and had tea and dessert. (According to Mr. Olson, you could buy a house, or dessert at the Palace, and we chose dessert!)
After we walked around outside to take photos of the exterior, we were picked up by a friend of Mrs. Olson's; a Syrian woman who is married to another business associate of Mr. Olson. She was great! She drove us back to her apartment, which had a beautiful panoramic view of Abu Dhabi, and the beach.
She then took us to the rug souks. This was one of the best experiences of the trip! It was a big advantage to have this woman with us, who knew how to navigate the market and she spoke Arabic fluently, as it was her first language.
The rug souks were all from Afghanistan. As soon as we drove up, all the merchants jumped up, waved, ran into the shops to bring out rugs, beckoning us to them. We were pretty much the only customers on the premises, and there were at least 20 shops. We went inside one and started looking at rugs. The colors in this shop were amazing! Also amazing, is that their most hideous rugs (i.e. the bright pink, neon green, etc, shag rugs) are the ones they most prominently display.
Once in the shop, they piled up rugs on the floor for us and we saw some gorgeous rugs, hand woven with wool and silk, deep reds and creme colors, etc. Mike was interested in one of the rugs and the Syrian woman asked for the price. It was amazing to watch her barter in Arabic. The room felt tense, but she was fierce and firm with the merchant. It went something like this (mind you, all in Arabic): She asked him how much; he gave a figure; she said no; he argued; she continued to say no; he continued to argue; she dropped the low-ball; he said something higher; we left the store.
At this point, when we left, he had offered 900 Durhams for 2 rugs, but we only wanted one rug. The bid he started with was 1300. Now, if it was just me and the Olson's in the store, that starting bid would have been MUCH higher.
But we went to another store, this time to a place she already knew. Similar bartering ensued. We saw a lot of gorgeous red threads. The rugs in this store were more impressive, except for the one Mikey liked in the other store! We tried to get them to bring the other rug that Mikey liked into this store to compare them, but the shopkeepers wouldn't let this happen. (Apparently, they usually do. But there was some sort of rivalry between these two shopkeepers.) Mrs. Olson liked the rugs in this store, but Mikey wasn't satisfied, so we went back to the other (the first) store. But this second shopkeeper was so annoyed that he went to the first and told him we bought a rug for $850 and not to sell us anything for less. (To which our Syrian friend assured the 1st shopkeeper this was not the case, and the 2nd shopkeeper lost any prospect of our business.)
So, we pulled out all the rugs again in this first shop, trying to remember which rug Mikey liked, but as soon as we saw it, we knew! It was so striking. Our friend bartered some more. It was so fun and interesting to watch her interact with the merchants. The shop was bustling with activity now: rugs being unrolled an piled up; heated bartering; several merchants running around; another customer in the store, a man in the market for a giant rug. Well, our guy refused to sell us just one rug (I know, silly, right?), so we left. He didn't except our offer for one rug, but he was willing to sell us 2 for $900. This didn't satisfy us, so we left and got in our Syrian friend's car and turned on the engine, and the merchant came running out to the car and offered Mike $550 Durhams for the one rug. Mike took it. This is approximately $150USD for a rug that would cost upwards of 3K in the US! And what an authentic experience it was!
With the rug in tow, we headed to dinner to meet Mr. Olson and Mike (the husband). We went to a Lebanese restaurant and had a feast of Middle Eastern food: eggplant, grapeleaves, hommus, falafel, lamb skewers, the works! After stopping to photograph an impressive mosque at night, we drove back to Dubai.
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