Into the desert

Saturday, October 02, 2010
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
The great thing about having more than a day in Dubai, is that you can leave the madness and exorbitance of the city behind, and go somewhere else. Today we took a tour out to Al Ain, which is a city in Abu Dhabi, which is the largest emirate in the UAE and makes up most of the area of the country - the other six emirates are basically just cities.

After breakfast (mmm, french toast and corn flakes ...) we met our driver, whose name I have completely forgotten. Let's call him Mark. He was from Pakistan and spoke English, Arabic, Pashtun and Urdu. By the by, so do most of the taxi drivers, since the majority of them are from Pakistan too (and the majority of them seem to be from Peshawar, although we haven't yet met anyone directly affected by the floods). He got on great with Daddy, and I was quite happy to sit in the cool of the back seat and admire the sand dunes and the odd camel. It was comforting to note that the jeep also had roll bars, even though we weren't going dune bashing (but OMG, I don't care who is or isn't with me next time in in the UAE - I'M GOING DUNE BASHING). We stopped briefly for petrol, which works out at a whopping 34c a litre - diesel is more expensive for some reason, at about €1.60 - and in all, it took about two hours to get to the city of Al Ain.

This place is mostly famous as the birthplace of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the first president of the United Arab Emirates, so we stopped off at the fort/museum where he was born first . The museum is the oldest in the UAE (1971 - and it shows), and it's mostly full of pots. Honestly, I think it'd be better as a restaurant. They were all uncovered at Hili by an Iraqi archaeological team in the 1970s, and seem to all date from the Bronze Age. Some of them even had paintings still preserved on the surfaces, which was actually quite impressive. There were lots of old coins too, and then - my favourite - gifts presented by other countries, which all seemed quite threatening, really. Swords from Japan, daggers from Oman, guns from Egypt. Iraq presented them with a gold key, which was nice, I suppose... We took longer in the museum than Mark expected (I think that when I realised how small it actually was, I was determined to cast my eyes over every single object), so we didn't really wander around the fort, just looked in and took a few pictures.

The next exciting stop was the Camel Market! Mark said a cheap camel would be about 15,000 dirhams, so we didn't really have time today to browse around for the best offer, but we took some photos anyway . Daddy and Mark took off to look at some adult camels in the shade, and I got stuck with a bunch of curious Afghani men who took my camera and posed me with both the camels and themselves. Then they whipped out some amazingly modern mobile phones from their dish-dash(es? - the white tunic things) and continued taking photos. One even put his turban thing on my head (google tells me it's called a "gutrah"). Completely disconcerted, I eventually extricated myself from the camel pen and made it back to the jeep in time to meet the others and to hear the camel owner giving out for all the other guys for inconveniencing us.

The market is quite like an Irish mart, although this one was very clean, very new and very big. It was a bit out of the city, and basically just row upon row of pens with camels, goats and cattle. They even have carpets and plants, although anything that's green and requires water is prohibitively expensive out here. If you get tired of camels, there's also a large shopping mall next door with Debenhams, Marks & Spencers, Toys 'R' Us and Carrefour. So all your bases are covered really. We admired some goats and cattle (they were the ones with the big lumps on the back of their necks - cowmels, I like to call them, since I'm so very clever) and then it was on to Green Mubazarrah, which I'm still confused about.

See, there's this big mountain near Al Ain called Jebel Hafeet (Arabic lesson #1: Jebel = Mountain, Burj = Tower, Al = The), and some royalty or other has a palace for their extended family on it . I thought this is what we were going to look at, but we ended up in some green park with two indoor pools for The Men and one on the other side of the road for the ladies. And there was grass growing everywhere and brand new playgrounds and picnic tables and water sprinklers and nobody at all around because it's too damn hot! Mark said that it's usually packed on Fridays (the Muslim Sunday), but I still didn't get it. Someone really just built a park on the side of a mountain, way outside the city, and pours water into it every day just so the public have somewhere to go on a Friday? Really?

We continued on up the mountain in the jeep, eventually coming out on a large paved platform that they've carved near the top. It's a bit disappointing, because it's covered in graffiti, cigarette butts and litter, and there's this one plasticy little shop up there that sells out of date sweets and has its front porch all covered in cheap, thin tables and noisy, tacky arcade games. The best thing to do is ignore what's on top of the mountain, and instead marvel at the views of emptiness across the desert. Oman is right beside Al Ain, which was very exciting for my competitive father and me. Since we couldn't enter the country, we had to vie for the best picture of Oman instead. I think I won. :D Oman itself doesn't have a great reputation in the UAE, and it is really poor in comparison. Hatta is one of the easiest areas to enter, but it's all very complicated and you may or may not be in either country at the same time, but you will get a stamp in your passport up to a certain distance, which is why workers in the UAE frequent it - it renews their UAE permits . :D On the way back down Jebel Hafeet, we pulled in at a hotel that seriously reminded me of the President Park Hotel in Catania, Sicily: they can get away with being just slightly less than luxurious, since they're so far away from anywhere else. Don't get me wrong, both are still lovely, but they probably were even snazzier a few years ago.

I was wrecked after the day (or the cumulative effects of jetlag, heat and endless malls) and I pretty much passed out in the jeep for most of the way back to Dubai. We made one brief stop to take pictures of the red sand dunes, but even my camera was exhausted and when I tried to take pictures of the ripples or the critter footprints, they came out grey instead.

After some delicious fish and chips in the hotel bar (I'm not exaggerating - seriously delicious), and another cocktail - gotta love that waitress - we went back to Dubai Mall.

I know. "But Mary, it must have been after 8pm at this stage! How could you go shopping?!"

Becaussssse, most malls are open til midnight on Friday and Saturday. MIDNIGHT! Emirati are serious shoppers. You know, whether it's a thousand euro handbag, crystal cutlery or Ralph Lauren baby clothes, you gotta have enough time to see everything. Also, there's an ice rink. Who wouldn't want to go ice skating in the middle of the desert and 11pm at night???

The best news is that I FINALLY bought a new camera. :D I love it. It's a Canon, it's PURPLE and it takes SD cards, so from now on I shall be able to picturify my entries too. :D And it's got an amazing 14x optical zoom! Love love love. ♥

Comments

Sheryl
2010-10-12

You crazy shopper you :). I am glad you got a new camera hough :). You may not be able to post photos in China..... but I bet you'll find a way :).

marymc21
2010-10-12

@Sheryl - :D I can't help myself! And the camera IS lovely! :D TravelPod is okay for China, but it's Facebook I really miss. I never realise how much I love updating that thing! particularly when my update is along the lines of "This update is illegal in the country I'm in, woohoo!!!!" :D

2025-02-09

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