Mirage of the Gulf (2)

On the morning of September 29, I had looked up some travel tips in advance. After checking out of the hotel in the morning, I went to a bus terminal in Dubai’s old town, where there were direct buses to Abu Dhabi. There was a small incident along the way. I had originally planned to take a taxi, but I misread the license plate and got into the wrong car. The driver also refused to let me get out, so I had no choice but to cancel my original taxi order. In the end, I probably spent around 30 RMB more than I would have if everything had gone normally. The bus was, again, almost entirely filled with Indians and Pakistanis. After arriving at the bus station in Abu Dhabi, I took another taxi to the hotel I had booked. Although it was less than 2 kilometers away, the heat still forced me to take a taxi.

The Millennium Hotel Downtown Abu Dhabi where I stayed was a faded five-star hotel. It was also the first time I personally saw a hotel atrium that was genuinely impressive. The last hotel atrium I had seen was in July 2022 at the hotel I stayed in at Huawei’s campus in Dongguan, but from what I remember, that one was fairly ordinary. Unfortunately, the sightseeing elevator that used to run along the rails in this atrium no longer worked and had become purely decorative. I specifically took out my camera and took quite a few photos of the atrium. By the way, I had previously seen answers on Zhihu mentioning that many hotels in the United States have even more stunning atriums. I definitely want to experience one of those at least once in my lifetime.

That evening and night, I visited Qasr Al Watan and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque one after the other. I found that it was actually quite convenient to travel between them by bus, though the “stop-at-every-station experience” took quite a bit of time. That day, on a sudden whim, I wanted to eat pho, so I specifically looked up a Vietnamese restaurant on Google Maps. Following the navigation, I ended up at a small shopping mall, but no matter how I searched, I could not find the restaurant. Still, I ended up wandering around a less polished local mall and got a glimpse of what leisure life looks like for foreign workers there. After searching around for so long, I no longer had time for dinner, so I could only head straight to the Grand Mosque. The mosque looked basically the same as what I had previously seen on Xiaohongshu. The one new thing was that, because women are required to wear headscarves to enter, it was the first time I saw Western white women wearing headscarves.

The next day, according to my plan, I went to visit several attractions clustered together on Saadiyat Island. Since I wanted to save money but there was no direct bus, I could only take a bus to a nearby stop and then walk 2 kilometers in heat above 35°C. Saadiyat Island gives the impression that the local government wants to develop it into a major tourism and cultural district. I started walking from somewhere near NYU Abu Dhabi, and along the way, almost everything was under construction. The first place I visited was the Abrahamic Family House, which is essentially a church, a synagogue, and a mosque built together to symbolize reconciliation between Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. After that, I went to the second attraction, Louvre Abu Dhabi, which basically borrows part of the Louvre’s collection. There were quite a lot of visitors, and my overall impression was decent.

But there was one thing that left a bad impression on me. They had created something like a “runway over the sea,” where many female tourists were preparing to take photos. But clearly, for this kind of photo, only one person could go onto the runway at a time. So the people trying to get good shots also had to queue, and the line had grown to dozens of people. I estimated it would take about an hour. Each person did not simply go up, take one photo, and leave. Instead, they would strike all kinds of poses and walk back and forth until they got a shot they were satisfied with. Their partners had to wait just as long, standing at the other end of the water with cameras or phones ready to take photos. Seeing this, I could not help feeling grateful that I had come alone. If I had been traveling there with a partner, I probably would not have escaped the fate of becoming one of the many men silently waiting on the shore with a camera in hand. I thought back to July 2024 in Kuala Lumpur, when I was traveling alone and met a girl who was also traveling solo. We became temporary travel companions, and she also asked me to take quite a few photos for her. But the time spent was still acceptable, at least nothing like waiting for an entire hour.

The final attraction on Saadiyat Island was teamLab Phenomena. This was my first time visiting this type of venue. I think the most accurate way to describe it would be “an installation art museum centered around light.” The overall experience was fairly novel, and I took quite a lot of photos. But it is difficult to recreate that visual effect in words, so I will not go into detail here.

After visiting these places, I returned to the city center at around 2 p.m. I went back to the hotel for a nap, then went out again in the evening and wandered along the seaside boulevard. Apart from casually taking photos of the sunset, I also discovered shared electric scooters that could be unlocked with Uber. I rode for quite a long time with the sea breeze blowing in my face, and it felt extremely pleasant. It reminded me of the joy I felt when I first rode a shared electric bike in Yinchuan in May 2021. The only downside was that it was quite expensive, around 2 RMB per minute. After finishing the ride, I found a Shake Shack to eat at. This seemed to be the only thing whose price was roughly the same as in China.

On the third day, I went to Ferrari World and SeaWorld on Yas Island. Once again, I started from the city center and found a bus to take me there. On the way, I met another guy who was also traveling alone. After chatting with him, I found out that he was already 33. After being laid off by one of the Big Four, he had been given several months of leave, so he was using those months to travel around the world. Ferrari World was especially empty that day, so the experience was surprisingly good. For most attractions, the waiting time was basically under 10 minutes. The only one that took about half an hour was Formula Rossa, which claims to be the fastest roller coaster in the world. After riding it, I actually did not feel much thrill from the acceleration itself. Roller coasters centered around rapid drops are still better at producing that adrenaline rush. My only strong impression was that my cervical spine was under considerable pressure the whole time. Another roller coaster was also very creative. At the beginning, you are shut inside a small room. When the ride starts, one side of the room suddenly opens, revealing an upward track at around a 70-degree angle, giving all the passengers a huge scare. Another memorable detail was the Italian garden blended with Ferrari elements.

The second place I went to was SeaWorld. The closest equivalent in China would probably be Chimelong Ocean Kingdom. SeaWorld’s exhibits, meaning the various animals, felt fairly standard, but the layout and decoration of the venue were quite striking. The overall style was like a sci-fi base. I also specifically waited for one of its dolphin shows. Seeing multiple dolphins leap out of the water at the same time was still quite impressive. When I returned to the city center, it was a little after 6 p.m. I took the bus back as well. The return bus was completely packed, and I barely had any room to move. Thinking about it, these buses were probably intended for foreign workers employed at the tourist attractions, rather than for tourists themselves.

On the morning of the fourth day, I left early to catch my flight. I took a plane departing at around 9 a.m. for Istanbul. One rather nerve-racking part was that I arrived at the airport only one hour in advance. When I went to check in, the staff at the counter checked all kinds of documents, made phone calls, and contacted various people to confirm whether I could be cleared to fly. Fortunately, they eventually let me through, and I just managed to make the flight. This time, I had deliberately chosen Etihad to experience a luxury airline. I have to say, their in-flight meal was genuinely excellent. A meal like that could probably sell for around 150 RMB at a nicely decorated restaurant in China. After a five-hour flight, I arrived in Istanbul.