Full day in Abu Dhabi-and the Non-strip Strippers

Yesterday was a full day in Abu Dhabi, and it wasn't that exciting. I walked 5 blocks to the Abu Dhabi mall to catch the hop-on hop-off bus. I stayed on the bus for approximately 45 minutes, and got off at the Sheikh Zayed Museum. The Museum wasn't that interesting. It showed the cars he drove, which include a Land Rover, a Mercedes, and a BMW. There we're timelines of the history of the country, with the founding of oil, etc.

I was in the museum for about 20 minutes, and again got on the hop-on hop-off bus. I wanted to see Yas Island, which seemed like a nice island with amusement parks, hotels, etc.

After staying on the bus for approximately 1/2 an hour to 40 minutes, I got off again at the huge Sheikh Zayed Mosque to transfer for the bus to Yas Island. I found out the bus wouldn't arrive for another hour. So i went back to the Mosque, put long pants over my shorts-so I can go to the restaurant. (I was hungry and it was lunchtime). I had a salmon wrap-walked around a little bit-and finally the Yas Island bus came.

The bus ride seemed like it was about 45 minutes to a more remote part of the city-and Yas Island wasn't as exciting as I thought. There was Ferrari world-the world's largest indoor theme park-but admission was $60 and I wasn't going to pay the much for about an hour and a half-so I didn't see it. There was a huge waterpark, and 5 hotels in a circle. There was also the first WB theme park in the mideast which was closed. I ended up just staying on the bus-and transferring again to the bus downtown at the Mosque. Finally, there was a large race track used for Forumula One racing that runs under a hotel.

I got off at a mall downtown for dinner-it was that time. And walked back to the hotel-which took about 45 minutes. When I got back to the hotel-which was about 9:00-I feel asleep. I was tired after sitting on the top deck of hop-on hop-off buses in the hot sun. (Doing nothing is tiring).

About 1:00 am, I woke up. I could hear the music blaring from downstairs-(all the way from the 9th floor). I put on clothes and went into a smokey lounge. There were roughly 9 Indian ladies on stage, dancing in pairs of about 2-3 at a time. They didn't look happy. In the audience we're roughly 15 Indian Men. I wasn't sure what was happening. i thought it was karaoke but nobody was singing. They we're just dancing. I enjoyed a beer a chips with a few of the guys, then walked across the hall to another lounge where an Indian Band was playing. I then walked down the stairs to yet another lounge, and once again a group of Indian woman we're on the stage dancing in pairs, and men we're sitting watching them. At first, i accidentally thought i walked into the same lounge but remembered I walked down a flight of stairs. Here the host urged me to sit in the first row. I watched the ladies dance on stage. The host gave me cards to give to the ladies. I didn't know what the cards meant. Only after 20-30 minutes, did I realize the cards we're equivalent to slipping $ bills in a strip card. When i cashed out-I paid for the beer, which was roughly $7, and was handed a bill for about $150 for cards given the ladies. I explained that i had no ideas what was going on. I had white skin, everyone else had brown skin-how would I know. I negotiated with him for about $90 and walked out.