Staying in Emirates Park Zoo – 5-7 April 2017

Reading Time: 3 minutes

We had anything but a proper vacation for this Spring Break. Lewis had chicken pox for the first week.  Then on the weekend, Owen was hospitalised with pneumonia. My work was also busy, so with just a few days remaining of the boy’s holiday, we opted for a Staycation.

We decided to stay at Emirates Park Zoo & Resort.
The boys could clearly benefit from a greater appreciation for wildlife:

 

We arrived and I wondered if this was the right place to bring the kids when Owen loudly announced that the place smelled like poo.

We were shown to our adjoining rooms and realised what a cool place this was.

Outside our door was a sandy enclosure with seven deer. Owen didn’t know who painstakingly painted the white dots on them.

And through a window on the other side of the enclosure we could see lions staring back at us. Or they were probably staring at all that sweet venison they’re unable to get at.

The zoo sold bunches of green leafy grass to feed the animals. We fed monkeys, farmyard animals, tortoises, camels. Having turtles for pets made the boys spend mossssssssst of the tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime feeding the tortoises. Which actually weren’t as slow as I had expected. Some of the animals like camels and donkeys were able to reach quite far beyond the fence. This actually looked dangerous with their huge heads and massive teeth. There were signs warning people of the risk. The boys appreciated this and made a disturbing song to the tune of Frozen, “Do you want your nose bit offfff?”

Some time after seeing all sorts of exotic animals, we came across our compatriot kangaroos. Myles naturally started a normal Australian conversation with them, “G’day mate. Have you been drinking any XXXX lately?” The zoo also had kookaburras, and sulphur-crested cockatoos.  I seemed to spend more time with them than any other birds – just like when you’re at a party and you find someone you went to school with.

We attended just one of the scheduled shows, which was mostly an educational segment. What we learned was that one of their South American birds awkwardly wasn’t in the mood to perform. All “Tookie” had to do was hop across the four poles that the two people from the crowd were holding. That evening at the buffet I asked Myles if he also thought the meat in our biriyani looked anything like Tookie.

Myles compared the variety of animals on display to what he saw on his recent African trip. One observation was the goats here looked less like horses on drugs. And Ugandan giraffe were much taller.

I woke up a couple of times in the middle of the night, not to the sound of noisy neighbours or construction site activities, but to the roar of lions and nature. From the safety of a locked hotel room, this was brilliant.

For quite some time, each shriek or noise got our attention and led to a “What was that!?” Some sounds were quite clear. Others were contested. For instance, we couldn’t agree if one particular recurring noise we heard was an elephant or a chair moving.

The next morning it was apparent the folks next door had no zoo food to feed the animals.  Instead they improvised and gave our deers something resembling red chutney for breakfast. Thankfully the parents stopped the daughter before she gave them cocoapops for a second course.

The other kind of food you could purchase at the zoo was bags of nuts for the monkeys. We purchased these on the second day. The zoo’s monkeys though got hardly any, while my two big monkeys tuckered in.

The monkeys were overall very interesting to my boys. They loved seeing the monkey’s human-like hands reaching out from their cage to get the food. I had to correct Myles when he said they looked just like humans. They looked just like humans in jail. And some of their jail cells seemed small.

Myles spotted the Reptile House, and was quite accurate that for me it was like a Haunted House. In the enclosure for the anaconda, it was quite interesting/worrying to see no anaconda, yet a surgical mask was left laying on the ground. I wondered if this was perhaps evidence alluding to a horrifying story.

We thoroughly enjoyed the experience at the Emirates Park Zoo & Resort. It’s not far from the Yas area of Abu Dhabi – before you reach the city.

I highly recommend staying for a couple of nights, if you prefer to take more time watching and interacting with the animals, and not worrying about missing any exhibits.

I did notice they had some room for improvement. Their so-called “Mammal Cave” had no lazy guy on a couch watching TV with remote control in hand.

Ferrari World – 26 November 2011

Reading Time: 3 minutes

We’ve had a friend from Australia stay with us, who happens to be an extremely huge Ferrari and formula 1 racing fan. So today we went with him to Ferrari World, which possibly made his day or decade. Lewis at three years is at the age where he’s really interested in cars. It was nothing though, next to someone who has watched and collected Ferrari cars for most of his life.

Myles loving to drive me in his classic Ferrari

Being a public holiday we feared the place would be overflowing with people. We were happily wrong. The entire place was free from huge queues until well after lunch – which suited us.

I learned from my last visit, to go very early to the Formula Rosso ride – the fastest roller coaster in the world. Last time we left it until quite late in the day, and the line was estimated by the staff to take more than two hours to go through.

However long the wait, it’s probably worth it! What a mind-blowing ride. I’m used to screams when roller coasters take off.  This ride was practically silent for the first 10 seconds. The 247km/hr within 2 seconds puts everyone into some exhilarating form of silent cardiac arrest. In those sorts of situations I try to tense right up.  In this case, there was nothing I could do except grimace and try to recall how to breathe. The other shocking point is, most speedy rides very soon after they hit their top speed, they slow down. The Formula Rosso on the other hand explodes you from stationary to the speed of light, but keeps going.  It then disproves Einstein and accelerates even faster for a few seconds longer than you think you can cope with.
I can’t recommend this ride enough.  Some of the rides have a warning for people with heart conditions. I fear people wouldn’t truly know they have a heart condition until they’re on this ride.  And then it’d all be too late.

My mate and I both concluded that after that ride we were happy enough to go home without seeing or doing anything further.

It wasn’t surprising, all other rides failed to live up to that experience.

We decided not to though. We did see the rest of the rides.  I had been before so I didn’t need to do everything again.  Instead I spent most of my time following the kids between driving various Ferrari replicas.  Both boys looked way too comfortable driving Ferraris.  Hopefully they get over this before they’re driving age.

In my humble opinion, the only thing which was not truly amazing in the Ferrari-sense of the word was the La Garra show. La Garra is a high energy acrobatic, roller blade, and grungy percussion thing. All the crazy kid performers were very exciting as they jumped around and pumped up the crowd, but I couldn’t help but think ‘what’s all this about?’.  Ferrari to me, and the rest of the Ferrari World experience is about the prestige of one of the finest high quality, most highly sought after vehicles.  The show was more high school musical meets Formula 1 pit lane.

Lewis getting the hang of driving a Ferrari too quickly for my liking.Myles loving to drive me in his classic Ferrari

Ferrari World is always a good day out.  Or day in I should say, give it’s the world’s largest indoor theme park.  But unless you have an unlimited budget, it’s not something you would want to do too often.

Lewis no longer a toddler, he’s proudly within the AED 120 category – I mean, Children’s category.

The boys are at the perfect age to really enjoy the place.  In fact, it was a very difficult task to get Lewis out – as the final photo of the day illustrates well.

Reducing the UAE carbon footprint with style

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Masdar – a project by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company – have announced the winner of an energy efficiency project. And their design looks great!

It generates energy from wind, but is far more aesthetic than the usual turbines.

Resembling thin cattails, the Windstalks generate electricity when the wind sets them waving. The designers came up with the idea for the planned city Masdar, a 2.3-square-mile, automobile-free area being built outside of Abu Dhabi.

via Wind Power Without the Blades: Big Pics : Discovery News.

I love the “artist’s impression” pictures gratuitously including the Burj Khalifa in the background. Although the Burj is the tallest building in the world, unless I’m mistaken, there’s no way you can see it from Masdar. In fact I think the Burj they used in the picture looks about this size from my balcony – which is less than 15 kms away. It’s one way to make the picture look more UAE though.

Think of the irony

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the average UAE resident creates one of the largest carbon footprints in the world

Despite this tidbit from the latest issue of the World Bank’s Little Green Data Book, Abu Dhabi has put in a strong bid to host the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena).

Guess it may have to be a case of do as I say, not as I do. 

Abu Dhabi has good case for Irena, says UN chief – The National Newspaper (26 May 2009)

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090525/NATIONAL/705249859/1010

Addendum:

Abu Dhabi was since selected to host the agency: http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010085.html

The Abu Dhabi vision

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Here’s a report from the Global City conference – held in Abu Dhabi – which highlights how the emirate is taking definite steps to promote a an effective brand that can better support its growth plans.

Abu Dhabi .. which never pursued the property-based strategy of Dubai, has been far less affected by the downturn. Its municipal leaders’ strategy is threefold – not to repeat the mistakes of Dubai, to diversify from dependence on oil, and to turn Abu Dhabi into a sustainable global city with a strong cultural element.


LocalGov.co.uk – Your authority on UK Local Government > LocalGov.co.uk – Your authority on UK Local Government > City leaders set out their vision for the future
(22 May 2009)

http://www.localgov.co.uk/index.cfm?method=news.detail&id=78575&layout=2

Some extravagant UAE spending

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Another story on the excesses of the rich and famous.  This one by Sheikh Mansoor Bin Zayed Al Nahyan from Abu Dhabi.  It’s alleged he flew thirty riders and their horses to give a private performance.

Billionaire Sheikh Pays £250,000 For Household Cavalry To Fly To Abu Dhabi – Born Rich

http://www.bornrich.org/entry/billionaire-sheikh-pays-250000-for-household-cavalry-to-fly-to-abu-dhabi/

“It looks like the horses are going to get better treatment than we will”

Abu Dhabi – 14 Feb 2009

Reading Time: 3 minutes
Some of the pix taken on the day. Full pix available thru 'Happy snaps' link above.
Some of the pix taken on the day - click for more.

Yesterday ten of us did a roadtrip to UAE’s capital, and Brisbane’s latest sister city, Abu Dhabi.  I can say, Abu Dhabi would be considered Brisbane’s richer, more confident sister. I took my Broncos jersey, but no one else there were wearing there’s. Perhaps they hadn’t got Campbell Newman’s press release yet.

The place was a nice break, and more different from Dubai than I had imagined.  Dubai seems almost obscene with the height and number of its buildings in comparison.  There seems to be a lot more planning behind Abu.  They have far more space, and more green areas, and a nicer walk along the waterside. It is still in the desert like Dubai, but Abu Dhabi has cleverly put effort into making the pieces within sight green and covered, and all the sand is further out.  With Dubai it seems to be everywhere they haven’t built a skyscraper yet.  I’m probably talking prematurely, as I’ve yet to see half of what Dubai has to offer.  But it is often said that the planning behind Dubai lacks a level of detail, or a level of foresight. It seems buildings change the roads, electricity, and water networks quite regularly. As one of our group aptly put it, if only they had played Sim City when they were younger.

We visited the Sheikh Zayed Mosque, which is impressive to say the least.  One of the guys with us has visited the Taj Mahal several times, and says it was not nearly as grand, or nice. I’m sure other web sites can describe it so much better than I could, so I won’t bother – except to say, it was lovely, and a definite thing to see.

After viewing time finished, and the security chased everyone out, we made our way to the Emirates Palace – a huge notable five star hotel. Other people in our group failed previously to get in and see the place when they tried, as there was a VIP staying the night. This time, we weren’t allowed in without a reservation. Another from our group made it straight in a little while before us. Seems he just drove in confidently and wasn’t questioned.  His comments – perhaps just to make us feel better – were, it was very flash, but if you’ve seen one fancy hotel you’ve seen them all.

Lunch was in a cafe in their Marina Mall, and we also visited the Heritage Village to do the full tourist thing.  It was a nice place, although craving a bit more authentic ties to the area’s history for mine.

After many a photo, we decided to head back to Dubai. We saw many flash cars on the road on the way back to Dubai. One in particular that got our interest was a very flash Mercedes that a local guy was driving. The guy was driving like a real maniac, and obviously the hotted-up Mercedes had power to burn. Anyway, several minutes later as we were just cruising at the speed limit, we passed the very same red hotted up Mercedes pulled over by a police car.  Justice, for once.   Usually these cars own the road, and you just have to watch out.

I thoroughly recommend Abu Dhabi from the little I saw of it. It seemed to have quite a few green spaces – which I really don’t want my boys to miss.  In Dubai, they do have dedicated green spaces for kids to play, etc, but you need to search them out.  And to pay for the enormous amount of water and effort to maintain grass in a hot desert, you almost alwasys have to pay for the privilege.