The desert
has always been the perfect backdrop for romance- think Lawrence
of Arabia, The English Patient,
all the way back to Valentino’s 1921 movie, The
Sheik, in which “a charming Arabian
sheik becomes infatuated with an adventurous, modern-thinking Englishwoman and
abducts her to his home in the Saharan desert”.
So it is not surprising that
Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte should run away to Abu
Dhabi and the deserts of the United
Arab Emirates when their New York lives threaten to become mundane,
in 2010’s Sex in The City 2. Its nickname is ‘the pearl of the world’.
While Dubai
is the emirate that you hear most about, it is Abu Dhabi, with its more subdued profile,
which became the nominative setting for the adventures of the Sex and the City girls. The capital of
the emirate, also called Abu Dhabi,
has wide boulevards, larger than life architecture and immense wealth. And right on the doorstep of the city is the
immensity of the desert. Perfect backdrop for a blockbuster movie.
It is a
city that confounds categorization. On
one hand there are gleaming shopping centres, exclusive luxury hotels and
expensive yachts anchored in the harbours.
This is a very wealthy city and it celebrates its abundance in daring
architecture, like the Emirates Telecommunications Company (Etisalat) Building
with its gigantic golf ball at the top or the pointy topped National Bank of Abu Dhabi building. I saw cars parked casually in front of hotels
that would make a car lover’s heart sing – and that you seldom see in the real
world. Shops team with gold jewellery,
and perfumeries prepare personal blends of signature aromas for their
customers.
Abu Dhabi is also home to
the seven star Emirates Palace Hotel, the most expensive hotel ever built. It is a fairy tale hotel, with marble halls,
gilded domes, and splashing fountains.
Suites open to balconies that look out on the Persian
Gulf. A private butler
greets you with chilled champagne and hands over his card with his cell phone
number, to be used “whenever there is a need.” Later in the evening, the bath
has been drawn, with fresh rose petals sprinkled on the towels, and more petals
beside the bed. There are 114 domes,
1002 chandeliers, 13 restaurants, and a vending machine that dispenses gold.
The ATM-style kiosk monitors the daily gold price and offers small bars up to
10 grams or coins with customized designs. It’s an experience tailor made for a
Carrie Bradshaw.
This is a hotel that is a destination
in itself, outrageously luxurious, and imbued throughout with the romantic
style of the Arabic world.
But the
ancient world lives on in Abu Dhabi. There is much reverence for the Bedouin life
style that existed in these parts up until oil became the driving force of the
economy in the early sixties. So you can
see ancient dhows still plying the waterways.
In the souks, piles of dates, heaps of carpets, handicrafts and spices
are offered in shops along narrow ally ways and at makeshift stalls and tables. The Iranian Souk is one of the most authentic
souks in Abu Dhabi,
while the Al Meena Souk is the place to bargain for carpets. Go to the Madinat
Zayed Gold Souk for good buys on jewellery.
In the fish market, local fishermen display their catch like artwork.
If you leave your window open,
you’ll hear the muezzin echo through the city, calling its citizens to prayer,
five times during the day. In my hotel
room, inside one of the drawers is a prayer rug and a compass.
There is a concerted effort to
preserve the Arabic style in architecture, furnishings, and cuisine. While almost any international cuisine is
available, every corner has cafes and restaurants that offer the special foods
of the Middle East. A traditional meal will usually start with
mezzeh, a selection of tasty appetizers, often including tabbouleh, hummus and
falafel. Main courses include lamb infused with cardamom, saffron, turmeric and
thyme, and the meal will end with desserts made from dates, pistachios, and
honey, or muhalabiya, a milk pudding served with rose water and
pistachios. Before the meal, diners are
welcomed with dates and small cups of ghawah, the fragrant and sweet Arabic
coffee .And after the meal, there’s usually
a hookah or ‘shisha’ to help you relax.
This exotic water pipe bubbles smoke through water, and can be spiced up
with flavours like lavender, vanilla, cherry, cinnamon, or orange.
The Anar Restaurant in the
Emirates Palace Hotel does elegant Persian food, while the Abdel Wahab, near
the Grand Mosque serves a simpler take on Emirati and Lebanese dishes.
While most restaurants,
particularly those in the large hotels, serve alcohol, many will not serve
alcoholic drinks before sundown during Ramadan, the month long Islamic holiday
that requires fasting from sun-up to sun down.
This year Ramadan runs from early August to early September
One of the
surprising facts about Abu Dhabi
is that less than 20 percent of the population are UAE. The bulk of the population is made up of
expatriates. That means that the
atmosphere of the city is more cosmopolitan and more liberal than one would
expect in a predominantly Muslim country.
While it is good manners to respect the conservative mode of dress of
the city, most forms of dress are seen on the streets with no problem. Within hotels and resorts, there are no dress
restrictions.
One of the startling contrasts I
witnesses was on the beach in front of the Rotana Hotel. On a lounge chair, a woman relaxed in the
shade, dressed in a black abaya that covered her completely from head to toe. On the adjacent lounge, another woman sunned
in a tiny bikini. Neither one seemed to
be bothered by the other.
This is a city of beaches. Abu
Dhabi is actually a T-shaped island, connected by
bridges to other islands and to the mainland.
There are over 400 kilometres of coastline. The Corniche, the elegant walking path in the
centre of the city, is a favourite place for walking, jogging or biking, and is
lined with cafes and shops. A white sand
beach stretches for 2 kilometres along its length, and there are landscaped
parks and picnic grounds.
Day trips
from the city into the desert give visitors the chance to experience the
nomadic life of the Bedouins. You can visit
the large camel market at Al Ain, where white robed locals barter for the best
camels, and you can see every size, from babies to full grown, of this ancient
‘ship of the desert’. You can ride a
camel through the dunes, sleep in a Bedouin tent and dine under the stars in an
encampment. A popular activity is dune bashing, or wadi bashing, where
practised drivers take you on hair-raising races through the desert, sliding
down the sides of one dune and skidding up the next. You can even surf the sand dunes, or play
golf on sand links, with a portable circle of grass that you tee off from.
If you tire
of the sand, Al Ain, 150 kilometres from Abu
Dhabi, is the ‘garden city of the Gulf’, an oasis in
the sand and the home of the Royal family.
It is a much more rural city, with a National
Museum, the Hili Archaeological
Park and surprisingly, an
Olympic sized ice skating rink. me of
the best scuba diving in the world is to be found in the clear waters of the Persian Gulf.
This is one
of the safest and most cosmopolitan cities in the UAE, and I felt very
comfortable here.
Most people speak English and there is a casual acceptance of western
ways, while the life style and history of the desert region has been both
preserved and celebrated.
Abu Dhabi is the perfect city to begin an exploration of
the Middle East.
Travel Information
The United Arab Emirates
is a federation of seven Arab emirates, with Abu Dhabi being the largest, and the
capital. It also has the largest oil
reserves.
Canadians do not require a visa to visit Abu Dhabi.
Etihad Airways has three direct flights a week from Toronto to Abu
Dhabi.
Where to Stay:
General Information:
© Barbara Ramsay Orr
