A Trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

The United Arab Emirates is a federation of seven emirates, founded in 1971. It is located on the Persian Gulf (also called the Arabian Gulf by Arab countries).   Dubai and Abu Dhabi are the two best known of the seven emirates. 

Dubai is both a city and an emirate, but the city and its surrounding areas basically comprise the entire emirate.  The city is the most populous in the UAE (about 2.1 million).  Only about 17% of the population of Dubai is Emirati; the rest are foreign workers, including people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Europe and the US.  More than 75% of the population is male, largely due to the large number of expatriate workers who are not accompanied by their families.  This includes the construction workers, as well as many men in the service industry.  Every taxi driver that we spoke with was Pakistani, Indian or Bangladeshi, and did not have family living in Dubai.

The emirate of Abu Dhabi is by far the largest in area (about 87% of the entire federation) and has the largest population (2.45 million of which 20% are Emirati).  The city of Abu Dhabi (population 921,000) is the capital of the UAE, and the second largest city.

So armed with a little information, off we flew to Dubai.  It is a 3-1/2 hour flight, but they are 2 hours ahead of Amman.  Riding in the taxi into the downtown area, it was quickly clear to us that we weren’t in Jordan anymore.  The traffic flowed smoothly with orderly lanes and silent horns.  The driver spoke excellent English; he didn’t smoke or chatter on his cell phone.  People in crosswalks were allowed to cross without a car almost hitting them.  Wow!  Are we still in the Arab world?

Dense Buildings in Dubai

[click on a photo to enlarge it]

all photos taken by Ed Quigley

By the time we checked into the hotel we had spotted the Tim Horton’s directly across the street.  For those of you who live in Dunkin Donuts country, Tim’s is a Canadian version of Dunkin.  I am a big fan, seeking them out wherever we go in Canada.  They have crossed the border and are popular in Buffalo as well, so on my visits there, I can get a regular Tim’s fix.  But who would have thought that we would find Tim in Dubai?  The Canadian maple donut was as yummy as ever.

Dubai has a new, modern metro that is a delight to ride.  There is even a car designated for women and children, but we consistently saw men in it.  The metro was heavily used, and most of the riders were men, not surprisingly since most of the residents are men.  I would imagine Emirati women would drive their own cars to the mall.

Of course we headed to an area where we could see some boats.  Dhow Wharfage on the Creek in the Deira section of Dubai was very different than we expected.   Dhows are old style mostly wooden boats that are used for fishing in the Persian Gulf and for trading across the gulf and around the Arabian Sea primarily with Iran, but also to Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, and the Sudan.  We expected to see a few boats, but in fact it was a bustling area with dozens of boats being loaded and unloaded, mostly by hand.  The crews were primarily Pakistani.  Everything that you could imagine was being shipped – soda, produce, household goods including refrigerators and stoves, even cars.  The men (and it was all men) were friendly, greeting us with the usual “where are you from?”  After land-locked Amman, we always feel better when we are with boat people.  So while others may have headed first to the amazing malls, we needed our time near the water.  Then on to another treat – Fibber Magee’s Pub.  Being a Thursday night (remember in the Arab world the weekend is Friday and Saturday) it was packed with an expat crowd of primarily Europeans.  A pint of cider and an Irish breakfast with pork sausage made for a good dinner.

Cargo at the Dhow Wharfage

Dubai is known for having the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa (828 meters, 2716.5 feet; 160 plus floors).  We could see it from our hotel room, gracefully towering over the other buildings in the area.  It was built in only six years, with the excavation beginning in January 2004 and the official launch in January 2010.  The highest open air observation deck in the world on the 148^th floor was obviously the place to go.  Of course Dubai also has more of the biggest – including the biggest shopping mall, Dubai Mall which is at the Burj Khalifa.  With around 1200 stores, one of the world’s largest aquariums, and a hockey size ice rink, it is an experience unto itself.  It also has one of the best book stores that we have ever been in – Kinokuniya (called Book World in the mall directory) is a Japanese chain.  It was wonderful to see so many books.

The mall directory provided a “courtesy policy” which had the usual things like no smoking and no pets, but also reminded patrons that there should be “no kissing or overt display of affection in the mall”.  The accompanying picture showed a male and female figure holding hands with the red slash line through them.

Dubai is such a strange mix of cultures.  We saw many men wearing the thobe (long white robe) and usually a white scarf.  Many women wore the black abaya and quite a few veiled as well.  Although travel guides encourage Western women to dress modestly, we saw many short skirts and bare arms.  Many of the Indian and Afghani merchants and the Pakistani seaman wear the baggy pants and long tunic tops, while others have Western style shirts and pants.

Foreign Construction Workers Waiting for Transportation at the End of a Shift

Dubai is all about shopping, whether at the malls or the souks.  In the malls you find all the high end stores and in the souks you find everything.  Several streets will be filled with textile shops and every type of ribbon and ornament to add to a custom made dress.  Other streets will be filled with shoe shops and in another area there is only gold – more ornate gold jewelry than I could have imagined.  In many of the southern Asian and Middle Eastern cultures, gold is an important part of the marriage contract.  We especially enjoyed a long chat with an Afghani merchant, where we learned about business practices and social customs.  As usual, Ed’s picture taking opened the conversation.  Soon the merchant had one of his employees pull up two stools and called out for the tea merchant to bring us steaming cups of tea.  We sat in front of his shop, watching the world go by.  For us, these encounters with ordinary people are the best part of traveling.

Men Waiting to Transport Goods in the Souk

In Abu Dhabi the sight to see is the Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan Mosque, also known as the Grand Mosque.  Construction began in the 1990s and it opened for worship in 2007.  Its white marble façades make it shimmer in the sunlight.  With four minarets and 82 domes, the mosque can accommodate 10,000 worshipers in the internal area and another 30,000 in the courtyard.  The main chandelier weighs approximately 12 tons.  Materials used in the mosque were sourced from around the world to symbolize the unity of all mankind.

Sheikh Zayad Mosque

Courtyard of the Sheikh Zayad Mosque

From the city of Abu Dhabi we drove through the desert to Al Ain, in the emirate of Abu Dhabi.  Here the main attraction was the large camel market.  We saw camels of all sizes and colors, gathered here from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and other places, waiting to be auctioned.  Owners from Yemen and Oman and Pakistan and the Sudan lounged and chatted with each other.  We even saw some camels in the back of Toyota pick-up trucks, being transported to the market.  I suppose it is quicker than making them walk, but it seems incongruous for the haughty ships of the desert to be loaded into a truck.

Camel with One Day Old Calf 

There were many more highlights of the trip to UAE, but we’ll save the rest of the stories until we return to Boston.

The Twisted Building and its Neighbors