On Wednesday September 15th, we were shuttled by bus out to the Western region. A group went along the coast to Mirfa and my crew heading south to the Tilal Liwa Hotel. It is about 15 minutes outside of Madinat Zayed. As rumor has it, the hotel was built in order to give the sheikh somewhere to stay when he came to see the camel races in the winter. I do have to say that it is nice enough to be a sheikh's hotel, but I am going on speculation and the fact that there is a nine room suite at the end of my hall. Either way, it is located in the desert! It takes twenty minutes just to get down the road to reach the hotel. When we first saw the hotel out on the sand dunes we thought it was an illusion. It didn't help that we had spent a half hour driving in circles because the bus driver was lost, but it was also the architeture and beauty that made it seem like a dream.
As much as the Park Rotana was modern, this place is decorated in a more traditional way. It still has the modern conveniences of television, cell service, internet, and a western toilet . . . but the decor is arabic style tea pots, camel saddles, and intricately designed lamps. Most of the doors have arch ways, that can take your breath away. Especially the one out at the pool. The pool sits in the back of the hotel. You can look out from a balcony and see this beautiful courtyard with trees and a fountain. Then there is the pool. At the far end of the pool is an archway that looks out on the desert. In the morning the sun rises right through the arch, casting beautiful shades or orange, red, and yellow across the courtyard. The pool is also designed so that you don't know when the water ends. When looking at it, it looks like it runs right out into the desert. It is a nice place to swim laps, or just cool off and enjoy the serene, yet ever changing, landscape of the desert. With all the beautiful design and decor of the building, I can see why it could be the sheikh's getaway.
Temperature wise it is hotter out in the desert, but I think that it is much more comfortable than in the city. I can go out at night and walk around without starting to sweat, at least for a little while. I hope to walk out in the desert one of these nights, but I get home and all I want to do is sleep. The locals tell us that we will absolutely love Mid-October to February, so I cannot wait for then. In the mean time, I am enjoying the air-conditioned hotel and the gorgeous pool.
Being out in the desert gives you a lot of time to think and enjoy the outdoors, but with it being so hot still, it has limited my opportunities to get out and enjoy the area. To be honest, I only know how to get to work and back to the hotel. I have a car now, but I haven't had the time to go out and explore. However, I did have a little adventure in getting the car back from Abu Dhabi.
Being in the middle of nowhere you must travel to get certain necessary items, like a car. I was not going to be out here and not have a way to escape. As beautiful as it is sometimes you just need to get out of dodge and experience something different for a while. I am getting off track . . . getting the car was actually the really easy part. I went to Hertz, asked for a car, and got one--that came straight from the showroom I might add, so I was the first one to drive it. Once leaving there, I even made it into the city without a problem. Went to the mall, and got back out of the city. After that, things did not go as smooth as I thought they would. It is a relatively easy route to get from Abu Dhabi out to the Madinat Zayed area. Until you don't recognize the city name and there is construction and you end up heading in the complete opposite direction. Let me give you a little bit of geography. From Abu Dhabi there are two places you can go. Al Ain to the east and Al Gahrbia to the west. The route there is the the same road. Fine right, one would say "E" the other "W". WRONG! Apparently every road as "E" and the number. Don't worry I did not travel all the way to Al Ain before realizing my mistake, though it was still a good twenty minutes. When I kept seeing signs for Al Ain and the sun wasn't blinding me as I was heading "west" to go home . . . I realized that something might be off. So I whipped my little Yaris around and headed the other direction. All in all, it ended up working out and now I can say that I got lost and was able to find my way back. I even had to navigate a roundabout around construction. Needless to say I was no longer worried about driving in a foreign country. I do not particularly like roundabouts, though I am learning to navigate them and can get to and from school without a problem.
As a mentioned, I have not had a lot of time to explore the region, but I hope to get out and do so this weekend or sometime soon. For now I will just remember that I can still enjoy time by the pool while back home most of my friends and family are waking up to to chilly weather-- or at least will be soon. ; )
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