What to do in Abu Dhabi?

If you are in Abu Dhabi for work like yours truly, you probably couldn't spare much time to go around except for the occasional hours off. However, I think these few places are well worth visiting.

1) Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
This is a hugeeeee white monument in Abu Dhabi. You probably wouldn't miss it if you travel from the airport towards the city centre. I think there is also a library on the religion and arts. Please make sure you are fully covered or rather, covered decently especially girls when visiting as this is a place of worship for the Muslims and there are some rules to be observed. :)

My own photos do not look as good so I took these from Wikipedia.

2) Corniche Beach
Here you have one whole stretch of esplanade with shops for you to sit down and enjoy the view. On weekends, there can be air-shows by the military as well which is simply amazing.
This is probably going to be my favourite place to hang out if I'm permanently stationed in Abu Dhabi.

Please ignore my finger :S

Looks even better during the real thing. Sadly, my iphone's camera couldn't really capture most of them. Anyway, the view is awesome as you are sitting in cafe's dotting the esplanade but I couldn't seem to find pictures of those.

3) Malls.
There are literally malls everywhere! People here love shopping IMO. And their malls have everything! As long as your pockets are deep enough of course. Christmas trees in hotels have million-dollar ornaments WTH and Ferarris are on display at parking lots. Of course, unlike the stories we hear before going, not all d cars on the road are super cars and you can see the usual Toyota and Nissan everywhere.

4) Emirates Palace
It's supposed to be a 7* hotel but I googled it and apparently it's just a 5* ones? When I was there it's in 2014 so Fast & Furious 7 was not released yet. Remember the scenes where all the guys are marching down with the hotel in the background? haha

5) Hamdan Street
If you are Asians or basically a gold collector, this is the street to go. Gold are cheaper here compared to Malaysia but most of the designs are rather Indian-ish in style. Maybe due to the fact that when you are in Abu Dhabi, you probably will feel like being in Little India or Little Phillipines. Most of the population here are not local so Indian food are your best bet when you are eating out. After a month here, I am pretty sick of Bryani Rice and other Indian breads but back to the topic. So, Hamdan Street. This place has both sides of the road lined with goldsmiths and jewellery shops. Prices would be cheaper like I said but if you have an Indian friend, please bring them along. LOL. Bargaining done in Hindi seemed to yield better prices, I think. Thanks to my Indian colleagues, the gold here in 2014 for 916 (22K) was about RM140/g including the workmanship.
Another note to consider is that the gold price here are calculated as [[Gold Price/gram]]+[[WorkManship/gram]]=[[Final Price/gram]]
You can get your gold measured right in front of your eyes before they packed it up for you. You won't get this in Malaysia. LOL. In Malaysia, you just have to trust the shop giving you the correct weight but not here :D

....to be continued