Abu Dhabi: Day #10 The Palace

We were stopped for car checking at the intimidating gate, and my sister easily said to the guard, "We are meeting someone at the lobby lounge."

That's it, and he allowed us to continue driving on the pathway for the kings and the royals, towards the even more intimidating palace-like hotel.

At the back of my head, somehow I was cautious, that we might be stopped mid-way by someone, fined for trespassing and evicted with disgrace from the premise. But maybe because the area was too huge, our car barely made a scene there and could safely arrive at the parking area.

There goes a universal guide telling that all guests are kings. Though we're not kings and definitely not staying in, we were visiting, thus we were guests, and it did say "all".  So we boosted up our confidence and stepped in into the lobby of Emirates Palace Hotel.

Facts (in bullet points):

• Built and owned by the Abu Dhabi government, operated by the luxury hotel group Kempinski Hotels & Resorts.
• Construction began in December 2001 and opened in 2005 with the cost of over USD 3 billions and listed as the world's second most expensive hotel.
• Architects were Wimberly Allison Tong and Goo (WATG), who are among the leading hospitality designers worldwide.  Interior design is made by KY&A.

Much to our delight, Emirates Palace Hotel was pretty friendly, not a single security approaching us and asking for our business here. We could roam and took pictures freely.

• Visitors do not have to book anything (either for room or restaurants) or pay any entrance fee to visit its 1st floor from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.  No need to wear formal attire, as long as it is respectful to the common dress code in Abu Dhabi.

Ah. So that's why.

Being in the lobby, showered with warm lights under the towering domes and surrounding room floors, it was like immersing in a pool of liquid gold. Everything shimmered. It almost felt like we were in a golden shopping mall - UAE style.

• Traditional decor is used inside mostly in silver, 22-carat gold leaf that cover the dome of the Grand Atrium, marble with 13 different colors that reflect the colors of the desert sun, and glass mosaics. The chandeliers are made of over 1,000 Swarovski crystal. 
• There are 114 domes (including the Grand Atrium which is higher than the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome) with the height of 18m, 140 elevators, 200 fountains, and the luxurious and technologically advanced Conference Centre.
• Nearly 150,000 cubic yards of finest quality marble was imported for its interiors.  
• 60 acres of interior space along with 20 restaurants, which are so huge that the hotel manager is planning to equip the staffs with golf carts to navigate around the corridors of the hotel, with jokes like 'If a maid goes to lunch, she may never make it back'.
• The hotel lobby has 26feet-tall 8,000 date palms. 

• Rated with seven stars.  Well, in hotels' world, actually there is no rating more than 5-star or 5-star with diamond.  But a "7-star" seems really fit for this kind of luxury.
• Employs around 2000 staff members from at least 50 nationalities. Booking.com even stated that this hotel speaks our language: Turkish, Filipino, Swedish, Russian, Romanian, Portuguese, Indonesian (yay!), French, Spanish, English, German and Arabic. 
• Room rate range from USD 500 up to USD 17,000 a night.
• There are 302 grand rooms in Coral, Pearl and Diamond categories with a floor area of 55 m2, and 92 suites with a floor area from 110 m2 to 165 m2 with 24-hour butler service.
• The Gulf Arab royalty has a reserved separate floor. There are six Royal Ruler suites with private car access, completely off-limit to no one other than the leaders from the Emirates. Each Ruler Suite is equipped with private cinema, private library, gold and marble staircase, spa bath, gold leaf vanity sinks, boardroom, hair salon, and rotating canopy bed.
• The hotel is also the official guest place of Abu Dhabi's government with 22 three-bedroom suites capable of hosting for each heads of state and their entourages.
• Spending few thousand dollars for a room will give us some trendy and unique treatment. For example, your tub can be filled with champagne (!!!!! and more !!!!!), which is on the list of the bath menu.  
• Caviar Bar at the lobby is popular because of its world class champagne menu and caviar selections with live traditional music. They serve the extremely rare albino caviar (a.k.a. white caviar, the eggs harvested from albino sturgeon), with just 6kg available each year worldwide, costing £30,000 per kilo.  



Emirates Palace Cappuccino

• Le Café offers a sumptuous high tea, camel burgers, or cappuccino with flakes of edible 24 carat gold (!!!).  If I had that cappuccino, I would scrap off the flakes for keepsake (or maybe I would have them planted in one of my teeth; sipping the flakes directly from the cup might just do it)

And at this special time of the year, with a beautiful Christmas tree and cute snowmen ..

• In December 2010, Emirates Palace Hotel launched what they claimed to be the world's most expensive Christmas tree, valued more than USD 11 millions.  The 13m fake tree was decorated with silver and gold bows, ball-shaped ornaments and small white lights, and its branches were draped with jeweleries studded with 181 diamonds, pearls, emeralds, sapphires and other precious stones.

.. with jeweled Ostrich eggs on display ..

.. and the world's first Gold to go ATM.

I repeat, G-O-L-D .. in a dispensing machine. I knew UAE was notorious with cheap gold, but .. seriously??

People go to an ATM to withdraw currencies. Here, people go to withdraw solid gold in the form of  bars with pendants, engraved coins of varied weights and watches.  The gold rates are constantly updated inside the machine by a built-in computer connected to a dealer which sells gold online.

The machine has proven to produce genuine and pure quality of gold, however, looking at the landmark design on the pendants, maybe it's best kept for souvenirs.

I saw some Chinese guests (with a stack of cash in their hands), playing with the machine and left with some pendants.  I recalled my sister offered me to try to get one, it should not be more expensive than market price (well, maybe a bit more). 

No. No. No. No. No.

I loved the pendants. But, no. The 24-carat gold plated machine itself had already scared the hell out of me. (did I make any sense?)

• Has a private beach, which stretches across 1.3km, to the hotel very own marina overlooking a private natural bay.

• The colours of the building reflect the different shades of the Arabian Desert.
• 85 hectares of landscaped garden, furnished with two glorious swimming pools – one designed for adventure and one for relaxing. And they do offer golf carts for guests who want to take a trip around the massive garden.
• Across Emirates Palace, there's one of Abu Dhabi's landmark building - Etihad Towers (its Tower 2 is the tallest building in Abu Dhabi) - with another luxury hotel, Jumeirah, located within the complex.

• Offering guests a day trip to Iran in a private jet to create a Persian carpet, another to the Dead Sea in Jordan and a third to collect a pearl from the deep sea in Bahrain.

My pictures above couldn't cover this hotel, so take a closer look through this video ..

or through virtual tour here and here

The hotel's rate and cost might not be the highest in the world, but by the overall look, the hotel is super spacious - they said guests should expect to be lost in here, at least twice! - and with that kind of luxury, a "WOW" could not justify.

I would just blow a "WOOH!!!"

(echoed by more exclamation marks).

.. to be continued to Day #10 The Rival.