My trip to the Maritime Museum and Aquarium!
Hidden away in the unfinished corner of Khalifa Park in Abu Dhabi is a simultaneously kinda cool and kinda weird experience known as the Maritime Museum and Aquarium, and today that's where we are going. The Maritime Museum and Aquarium (not to be confused with the Abu Dhabi Maritime Museum which is still under construction) is located in Abu Dhabi tucked in right next to the main gate of Khalifa Park, and unless you know about it before hand it is fairly unlikely that you would notice it. Once you enter the main gate and get your ticket to enter the park immediately to the left and right are a string of soon-to-be stores but they are all empty and look unready for anything. Amongst these hollowed out buildings is where the museum is and almost as if they are trying to make it difficult, they have not changed the coloring or style of the entrance compared to the rest of the buildings, Literally the only thing setting it apart (at least when we went) is a small sign above the door saying "Maritime Museum", which is totally out performed by the sign for the one other place there which is a glasses shop.
When we went there we were hit with one more difficulty because when we entered the building the reception desk was completely empty and there was no one around, as if it was closed and someone forgot to lock the door or something. Thankfully saying "excuse me" into the void of silence a couple times brought results and we met the caretaker guy who told us to go right on ahead into the library that you go through to reach the museum. The library was not spectacular but wasn't dumb either, in short it was just like your average library, the only difference being that all the books focused on Abu Dhabi and the UAE.
After perusing their collection of priceless knowledge we went on to where you got on these little cars that were to take us on a tour through the museum. Once again, though, we hit a road block because apparently if we wanted to go beyond the library we were supposed to pay another five dirhams for a special ticket, which we were informed must be acquired at the main entrance; but after sighing a couple times the caretaker guy let us just buy the tickets off him right there. At last we sat ourselves down in the car-like vehicles and a voice promptly came on from a speaker attached to the top of our car that explained how it was going to be our guide as we drove around the dark horror house type ride.
The tour was nice enough, the arrangement of all the mannequins and the ambient sounds being way louder than the prerecorded guide gave me personally a slightly uneasy feeling. Still I thought it was kinda cool and pretty interesting how they set up the displays to lead us through the history of Abu Dhabi and you gotta give 'em some credit for setting up this whole ride and all the displays while still keeping the price at only five dirhams. After the tour was over it concluded with a some sneak peaks at the aquarium and the national anthem accompanied by a couple UAE flags.
So after that was done we got of the cars and signs pointed us to climb up some stairs where we found ourselves in the viewing area for the aquarium. Much like the library and museum, the aquarium was not the greatest creation of mankind but it was my favorite part of the whole trip. There basically was this big circular hallway that wrapped around a moderately sized tank with a handful of larger fish including sting rays and a singular turtle. Then along the outer side of the circular room were several small fish tanks with little clusters of different fish including clown fish, dory, and an eel. I liked this part the best mostly just because the lighting was kinda cool and me and Nim had fun joking around about the different fish.
After going through the aquarium we were directed down a flight of stairs and found ourselves at the exit, where some rocks and stuff had been put together to make a sort of ocean-themed design. So that's it, all in all I thought the museum/aquarium was cool and at the same time kinda weird which is exactly the sort of place that I like to visit for this blog, so hooray! As usual I would definitely invite you guys to go and check it out whenever you're in town, it's a good hour or so to go through even while taking your time, and it only costs five dirhams. So maybe if it's a hot day and you have nothing better to do you could burn an hour or so checking it out. You could even go to it as an appetizer before entering the park itself, but why am I planning your trip for you anyway? You go be whatever you wanna do and I'll see y'all next post.