Travel with Manfred

Travelogues from around the world

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Copyright © 2003 by Manfred P.. All rights reserved.

Aug 4-5, 2003

Sand Turned into Concrete

40 Hours in Abu Dhabi

by

Manfred P.

Keywords: United Arab Emirates, UAE, Abu Dhabi, tourist, travel trip report, travel log, travelogue.

One hour ago I was looking out the window with interest to observe and absorb the desert landscape. The plane followed the coastline and the contrast of the ocean water and the desert was drastic. The desert reached as far as the eye could see, and that from 3000 ft up in the air. It was flat, flat and flat; brown, brown and brown, and sandy, sandy and sandy. You get the idea. It was monotonously uniform, bland and to some degree even boring. Eventually I could make out a road. It was perfectly straight, drawn with a ruler on the map. The adjacent ocean was the opposite of boring. The coast is shallow and the water was translucent. One could see the bottom. The color was the kind of turquoise that you would expect on a tropical island. I had no idea that one could find clean and inviting ocean water like this here in the UAE. I was positively surprised. There was no beach, no road, and no human mark anywhere close. It was just the inviting water washing ashore on a never-ending empty, isolated desert.

Passing further minutes in the airplane seat, dust-covered houses showed up as small objects behind the oval small window. Slowly the airport appeared. My red-eye flight from London to Abu Dhabi touched down next to the airport building -- painted brown just like the desert sand. I assume they painted it brown because in any case it would sooner or later adapt this color from the desert wind.

Inside the airport something happened to me that was unique. I couldn't find the exit. You read right. All sorts of things were announced, raffles, shops, win this, win that, but no sign for luggage or exit. Amazing. I have been to many airports but this was a first. After wandering around for 5 to 10 minutes like a fool, I finally did spot a "Customs" sign which then lead me to the exit. With all the duty free shopping on offer at Abu Dhabi airport they don't seem to want you to leave.

It is 7:00 a.m. as I step outside the airport. "Holy cow! But it is 7 a.m." goes through my mind. It is hot and humid. How can it be hot a 7 a.m. The sun barely rose over the horizon. I get into the air-conditioned taxi as quickly as I can.

UAE is a rich country. But not since long. Up to 1962 it was poor. Then the petro-dollars started rolling in. This changed about everything. It turned the camel into a Mercedes, the desert into a green golf course and the sand around the small fishing village of Abu Dhabi into a wide-spread jungle of concrete skyscrapers.

In Abu Dhabi wealth is visible everywhere. To me as a foreigner it was mostly visible in the cars on the road. Mercedes is clearly the number one vehicle. Followed by gigantic American SUVs and equally gigantic Japanese 4x4s. I walked from my hotel to the fishing harbor. Along this stretch of road I studied the cars parked in the 2 and 3-car garages of the houses. A garage with two Mercedes and one Porsche was not a rare sight. I am sure there are poorer or poor people somewhere, but in down-town Abu Dhabi you don't seem to be able to find them.

With the government being strapped less financially, it can afford itself certain luxuries such as paying overseas university education of its citizens.

The other way to show off besides driving a Mercedes is to construct opulent skyscrapers. They cover most of Abu Dhabi. Many in shiny green glass skin, others with a golden glass facade. The construction boom is not over yet. The cranes are working busily to add even more of these tall structures to the city landscape. Absolutely everything is new here. When the fishing village with its simple huts was turned into this canyon of skyscrapers only a single building has survived. The only building older than 40 years in Abu Dhabi is the Old Fort. Having said this, Abu Dhabi in a nutshell is really just a modern, first-world place with tons of glitzy skyscrapers.

The people are a mix of Arabs, Indians and many other nations. Only 25 percent of all people in the UAE have citizenship. The rest are all people living here on short-term visas and short-term working permits. The service industry remains cheap on this imported man-power.

The UAE has interesting facets. Even in my short stay I made a handful of surprising observations. In the city center I found a full-service gas station. Its service offering was clearly indicated by a lit sign at the entrance. Next to each word was also an icon as well as an arrow indicating where in the gas station you find the specified service. The sign read: "gas - shop - oil change - car wash - vacuum station - mosque". That's what I call convenient. While they change your oil you can quickly step into the mosque for a prayer.

Another surprise came in a toilet. Right next to the ceramic toilet seat was a shower head at knee-height. In many countries people prefer to wash their behind with water rather than cleaning it with toilet paper. So, finding a water jar in a squat-style toilet is not something unusual. But a shower-hear in a western-style toilet was something new to me. But showerhead or no, I stuck to the toilet paper anyway. Old habits are hard to break.

To depend less on petro-dollars the government is also pushing the UAE as a tourist destination lately. It advertises its beaches for sun and fun vacations. I just wonder what temperatures the water has. The Arabian Gulf is a closed ocean and it is a lot smaller than the Red Sea or the Mediterranean Ocean. Given the air temperatures, the fact that the ocean is pretty much closed and the small size of the ocean, the water temperatures must be extremely high. It must be as warm as a bathing tub. Too bad that I will not get a chance to go for a swim.

Since I had only a 40-hour stay in Abu Dhabi I had only one opportunity for sight seeing. My sight seeing tour was limited to the afternoon and evening hours. In summer office workers stop working in their air-conditioned office at 3 pm, get into their air-conditioned cars and drive home to their air-conditioned houses. At 4 p.m. I stepped out of a building into the open and got hit. Hit by the heat. Wow! It was hot, really hot and really humid. I had been in the Moroccan desert in August. I thought I knew what it means to be hot. But I was not prepared for this. I had to use all my mind energy to stick to my plan of sight seeing. I walked around the city for some three hours. Enough to see the few sights of the 500,000-inhabitant urban sprawl. I was sweating, my shirt stuck to my chest and my pants were soaking wet with white salty stains from the sweat. Only my will power kept me moving. By the end of the three hours I was absolutely exhausted, my energy completely spent. I got into a cab and went to the hotel. In the cool hotel room I poured a quart of yoghurt as well as a quart of mango juice down my dry throat. That helped to restore my energy level to an acceptable state. Looking around the hotel room I found a sticker with an arrow pointing into a seemingly random direction. At first thought it appeared unusual until I realized this was a sticker indicating the direction of Mecca. This makes it easy for Arab guests to pray facing the right direction as required by the Koran. With this discovery I went to bed. I had enough for one day.