Global Golf Post - January 24, 2011

Sumptuous Golf Feast
Served In The Desert
PAUL MAHONEY
ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES |

Emirates Palace Hotel (
here to take a virtual tour.)

power. There’s an ATM machine in the
lobby – not for cash, but for gold bars.
Really.
“This place really is second to none,”
Monty says. “Look,” he adds giggling,
picking up the remote control (laptop
computer) for the 61-inch, wall-mounted,
flat-screen plasma television. It requires
an Advanced Degree in Information
Technology Physics to switch it on. Monty
doesn’t have that qualification. Luckily, it
appears, his butler does. “Just look at the
size of the bathroom,” Monty says. It is
so far away, all I can see is a golden glow
cascading from beneath its door like the
moment John Travolta opens the suitcase
at the end of Pulp Fiction.
“Let me show you outside,” Monty
beams, bounding out onto his patio (state
grounds) that could comfortably host a
wedding reception (with full orchestra).
The view stretches forever – from the
hotel’s exotic gardens, private beach and
marina and out across the city’s sky-
scraping, glass-fronted mere four- and
five-star hotels, offices and majestically
domed mosques. A view blighted only by
an Ikea logo thrusting out of a grey ware-
house, which, it seems safe to assume,
will not be receiving any visits any time
soon from the Emirates Palace Soft-
Furnishings Department.