Thursday, February 26, 2009

Grandparents in the UAE...Again

As some of you may know, my parents finally came over to visit us on the way home from my sister in New Zealand. It was a much anticipated event by the children and they were very happy to see Granny and Grandpa arrive. At least this time we were a little more settled in here than the last time they were here.

The first trip to Dubai was to take them to see the Tallest Building in the World...the Burj Dubai, located on top of the Dubai Mall...the Largest shopping Mall in the World.Inside the Dubai Mall they have placed a relatively large Aquarium which we waited to go and see until the Grandparents were here. Impressive I admit but I must say I expected a little more.The second trip to Dubai took us to the 8th Man-Made wonder of the world...The Palm Island. Home to the Atlantis hotel, the Palm houses some of the most lucrative property in the UAE.We went to eat at a South African Steak House restaurant thing in the Mall of the Emirates. We had heard that they were a little expensive but decided to treat the grandparents to a meal...which they paid for...Take note of the price of the T-Bone Steak...current exchange rate is 2.85...this means that a small T-Bone steak with a little bit of Pap cost us R345.00 EACH.If that is not bad enough, the Wagyu Beef Steak comes in at a WOPPING 180 Dirhams...R513.00...
Abu Dhabi was also on our list of places to go, with the UAE Motor Vehicle Museum and the Emirates Palace Hotel at the top of the list.
4 Years ago we took the grandparents to the Motor Vehicle Museum only to get there and find it closed. For this reason we decided to take them back there again this trip. We packed the car for the day and started the 1 hour 30 minutes drive to the Car Museum in Abu Dhabi. When we arrived...IT WAS CLOSED...AGAIN. However, this time they did have the world largest caravan on display (Guinness Book of Records) which was rather interesting to see.After the disappointment of arriving at the CLOSED Car Museum we took the grandparents to the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi. This is the second 7 Star Hotel in the world. The only other 7 star hotel in the world is the Burj Al Arab in Dubai. The Emirates Palace Hotel play a part in the Jamie Foxx and Jeniffer Garner movie 'THE KINGDOM' (as the Palace of the Saudi Crown Prince).