The last few days have been a lot of fun and I’ve gotten to explore Abu Dhabi more. Wednesday night, Laura called me because she was locked in the office and didn’t have her key. I went to go rescue her, and we both decided that this problem was a symptom of the fact she was working too hard. We decided dinner and cocktails were the inevitable solution. She took me to a delicious and cheap Lebanese restaurant called Lebanese Flower. It has an attached bakery, so fresh, warm bread accompanies all meals. I think my favorite dish was hummus with pine nuts and ground beef. I'm a terrible former vegetarian.
After dinner, we went to Ocean’s bar in a hotel down by the waterfront. Laura says it’s the only bar she’d voluntarily go to if it was back home in London. It had nice lighting and these pretty woven fans flapping from the ceiling. Upon getting a table, we discovered drinks were free for women on Wednesday night (the gender ratio in the expat community is extremely skewed in our favor, so I guess this was an effort to even the score). This was fun but dangerous, especially because we both had work the next morning
At one point during the evening, Laura commented on how much the UAE was like America in some ways, and I knew exactly what she meant. There is a little bit of a Times Square meet (how I imagine) LA meet (how I imagine) Los Vegas in the neon lights and impressive gleaming buildings and ostentatious displays of wealth. There’s a Starbucks on every corner, and American chains like McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts are common too.
Laura and I plan a repeat performance this Wednesday before I leave for Greece, although first we are going to a corporate iftar at a friend of her boyfriend’s office. I like Laura a lot. I’ll be sorry to leave her, although I guess it’s always good to have friends in different places.
On Friday, I worked in the morning and took a walk along the Corniche, the waterfront, in the evening. I left my hotel at 4:30 and arrived at the Marina Mall just in time for iftar to buy my groceries. It was about a two hour walk, but so pretty it was worth it, especially as it cooled down as I walked. At one point, there was a beach and people sat along the water with their families or with picnics. I waded for a bit and then tried to scrape the sand off my feet. I still haven’t gotten it all out of my shoes. As I left the mall, the city was all lit up and I could feel a warm breeze by the water and for the first time, I could imagine learning to love this city.
I decided to take all of Saturday off for some exploring. I’ve been meaning to go to Al-Ain, the UAE’s 4th largest city that sits right on the border of Oman, but had heard that a taxi (150 dirhams/45 dollars) or private car were the only ways to get there. I discovered there was actually a “worker bus” that left Abu Dhabi on the hour, and only cost 10 dirhams (3 dollars). I was both the only women and the only person of European ancestry on the bus, and I don't think the driver was very happy that I was there, but they sold me a ticket anyway, and made me sit in a special seat up front.
The bus ride itself, which lasted 90 minutes, was very pleasant. The landscape changed dramatically as we got closer to Al Ain. The desert around Abu Dhabi is barren and flat, but after we had driven about an hour, we were surrounded by rounded golden hills and small date farms. Near Al-Ain, there were even trees and purple and pink flowers. There was a large statue of a deer, so I’m assuming there are even other forms of wildlife there. I could see the large grey plateau of a mountain that Al-Ain is built at the base of. In truth, it wasn’t a very pretty mountain—it looked like a large scale version of the sides of those highways in New York where the boulders were blasted with dynamite to carve out a place for the road—but it was so nice to see a landscape that wasn’t artificially constructed and vegetation that didn’t look planted.
Al Ain has been inhabited by humans for over 4,000 years and is the cultural capital of the UAE. I’d read its archeological museum was very good, and made that my first stop. Unfortunately, because of Ramadan, the museum had extremely limited hours, and I only got to peek in before it closed.
Next, I decided to explore the wadi, or oasis, that Al Ain developed around. A well-built elevated stone trail with walls interspersed with an occasional intricate door wove throughout the wadi. The wadi itself was densely packed with trees and plants, forming a canopy over the path. It felt a little primordial, although the air was too dry for it to feel swampy. After seeing a small lizard on a tree, I imagined the possibility of dinosaurs, just out of sight. On either side, there were small livestock farms and occasional lean-to houses with corrugated tin roofs. I wondered who lived in them, and whether they were temporary or permanent residences. Occasionally, I followed a side path that led to a mosque.
Now, I had always imagined an oasis to be very small, like a lush pond, or the watering holes I’d seen in the Serengeti. Not so. At least not for the Al Ain wadi. This wadi was huge, and the path through it was a winding maze of turns and dead ends. After wandering for an hour or so, I realized I had no idea how to get back or how far in I was. I wished I’d used crumbs like Gretel or a ball of yarn like in Thomas Sawyer or a purple crayon or something. There were a few signs in Arabic but I think they might have just been warnings not to leave the trail. Luckily, it was almost time for the fourth prayer, and I could hear the crier calling out the prayer at a nearby mosque. I followed his voice until I came to the mosque, waited a little distance outside it, and then after the men poured out after praying, I followed them back to the main road.
I spent some time wandering around Al Ain. Although it’s a big city, it seems to have much more of a small town feel than Abu Dhabi or Dubai. The buildings aren’t as high and while Abu Dhabi and Dubai are gleaming masses of chrome and glass, Al Ain had more what I think of as traditional Islamic architecture. The air was cleaner and crisper, and the green grass and purple flowers looked very vivid against the off-white or sandy colored buildings.
I briefly stopped by the mall to use the washroom, and was amused to find it had several dome-shaped, attached buildings with eyes at the top, and vaguely resembled a mosque. The higher the floor within the dome, the higher end the brand. In keeping with this theme, religious music was constantly played over the loudspeaker. Shopping was elevated to a whole(y) new level. (I couldn’t resist.) I think this is one image that encapsulates part of the UAE for me: high tech, luxury end consumerism mixed with religious devotion. This is a cheap, Thomas Friedman-style way to sum up a country, but it does seem like a reoccurring union. The other example I have that captures this is the young women in their full abayas, their faces often covered, wearing Jimmy Choo shoes and clutching Prada bags. It intrigues me that religion and consumerism are so overlapping instead of being contained within separate spheres or demographic groups.
On the bus back to Abu Dhabi, at the time of the last prayer, the driver pulled over and people got out to pray and take iftar. I recently learned from Laura that pre-iftar traffic isn’t bad just because people are hungry, but also because it’s a religious duty to eat something as close to iftar as possible.
Three more days in Abu Dhabi, then I’m off to Athens.
No comments:
Post a Comment