My father got lured out of retirement in 2010 to work for a company owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, one of the United Arab Emirates (the one that most people have heard of is Dubai).  As a result, my sister and I spent our Christmas holidays there in 2010, 2011, and 2012.

Being there for two to three weeks at a time for three years running let me observe more of what was going on around me .  We’ve done most of the tourist activities:  dune bashing, ALLOF THEMALLS (including the gargantuan one in Dubai), the Grand Mosque, and the observation deck of the Burj Khalifa (which is not at the top of the building like we thought).  I recommend all of them. 

If you like roller coasters, the dune bashing will satisfy your soul, and if you don’t, try to book an outing that ends with a meal in the desert.  When my family went, we got to see some Arab dancing (a little half-assed and done by the non-Arab drivers of the reinforced Land Cruisers), we got henna tattoos, and we rode a camel.  My cousin smoked shisha like a pro and got in trouble with

 her mom and sister. 

The Grand Mosque is truly grand and a gorgeous piece of architecture, and it’s a must-see in Abu Dhabi.  Women are required to put on abayas and cover their heads with scarves, which the mosque will lend you.  Be aware that the taxi drivers that are waiting there will try to cheat you.  My parents’ flat is right in the heart of downtown, so we never have any trouble flagging a taxi, but the Grand Mosque is about halfway to the airport.  In objective distance terms, it’s not far, but the area is not densely populated yet, so there isn’t any taxi traffic out there.  The taxi drivers waiting for tourists at the Grand Mosque know that they have captive riders, so instead of following the meter, which they’re required to do by law, they inflate the price of a ride back to town.  I got into a yelling match with one.  More on that in a future post.

The malls are where you’ll see the locals, especially if you go at night.  What’s interesting about the malls is that they all have prayer rooms, so at prayer time, the mall will seem completely empty, and then all of a sudden, crowds will appear when prayers are finished.  The malls also stay open until midnight or 1am, a function of being in a hot climate culture; people tend not to go out until the sun has gone down and temperatures have dropped some.  You’ll see the local Emirati women covered up in their abayas and niqabs and carrying purses made by the luxury goods houses of Europe.  When they swoosh by, you’ll also see a lot of them wearing gorgeous, expensive shoes.

The UAE became a country and independent from the U.K. in 1971 after the discovery of oil in Abu Dhabi.  Before that, the primary industry in Abu Dhabi was pearl fishing, and with the creation of the cultured pearl market in Japan,  the economy collapsed.  Average life expectancy was only 45 years.  This is a country that has gone from abject poverty to unimaginable wealth in a single generation.  It makes for some very cool window shopping at places like Louis Vuitton, Yves St. Laurent, Gucci, etc.  There are bags and watches and shoes available in the UAE that you won’t be able to find in the U.S. because the market for luxury goods is so much bigger in the UAE.

There are two things about the Dubai Mall that I really like.  First is that it’s organized by category of store, meaning that all the children’s clothing stores are grouped together, all the electronics store are grouped together, etc.  It means that if you’re there on a specific mission, you don’t have to roam all over this enormous mall.  It took my family six hours to get through the whole thing one time.  I parked myself on a couch and read my Kindle that day. 

The second thing is that it’s attached to the Burj Khalifa, which is the tallest building in the world, for now.  In 2010, we didn’t book our tickets in advance.  The day-of cost to go up to the observation deck is roughly $100 per person.  For my family, that’s too much.  We didn’t plan to go to Dubai in 2011, but we did, so we skipped the Burj Khalifa again, but in 2012, I remembered and bought our tickets from the U.S. well in advance:  FOUR tickets for $100.  That’s the kind of pricing the Cooper family likes.  The ticket has a specific time on it, and even with that, you have to stand in long lines to get up to the deck.  And once you’re done taking pictures, you have to wait in a long line to get back down.  The day we went, one of the elevators was broken, so a security guard took us to a secret squirrel elevator onto the reception floor of the residence, and then to another set of behind-the-scenes elevators to get us back down to the ticket lobby.  It’s a fun thing to do, but gird your loins if you have problems with crowds like I do.

Because my dad works for a UAE company (rather than a multinational with a branch in the UAE), in 2010, we got to go to a camel auction.  We piled onto a couple of shuttle buses with other expats that work at my dad’s company and rode for about two hours out to Al Dhafra, which felt like it was in the middle of the desert.  Once we arrived, we were treated to a sumptuous picnic lunch with Arab coffee, and then we wandered over to the camel races. 

The camel race is not like a horse race in that not all of the camels are all that interested in running.  There are hundreds of camels in the race, and with some of them running at top speed, and some of them loping along not giving a damn about the race, it’s not a fast process, and there’s no grouping.  We saw a number of camels that had thrown their riders; eventually, you see the riders walking along the track as well.  I don’t think the camel race is something that most foreigners get to see, and it’s definitely not something that women attend.  The reason I know this is that the clubhouse only had men’s bathrooms, not women’s.  The Emirati guys that came with us from Dad’s firm had to clear out the bathrooms, then stand guard so the ladies could relieve themselves.

The camel race was accompanied by an auction and a Heritage Souk.  Apparently, someone purchased a camel for twelve million dirhams, or roughly $3-4 million.  When we asked what distinguished a 12MM dirham camel from a 3K dirham camel, we found out it’s the shape of the head and body and legs, not speed or quality of milk, which were our guesses.  At the heritage souk, we saw traditional, Emirati crafts; these were items that the women made to eat and use before the country got crazy wealthy.  While the goods that we saw bore little similarity to ones you’d see in the U.S., the Heritage Souk had the feel and atmosphere of any crafts show you’d visit here, which I thought was awesome.

I’ve traveled to a lot of foreign countries, including ones in Asia and Africa, but the UAE feels the most foreign and disorienting of them all.  Part of it is that my family is from Korea, so Asia never feels that foreign.  The country I visited in Africa was South Africa well after the end of apartheid and where the business climate feels like Europe.  Part of it is also the contradictions that surround you in the UAE. 

I mentioned that the country is only a little over 40 years old, and you can see it in the architecture.  Skyscrapers and construction equipment dominate the downtown skyline.  The air conditioning will give you chills.  You can drink alcohol at all of the nicest restaurants.  The only cars you’ll see are brand new or almost new – very few jalopies here.  Abu Dhabi planned the landscaping in the city, so you’ll see palm trees every few feet, and bougainvillea and other beautiful flowering shrubs are everywhere.  The beach has been constructed to maximize its beachiness, and construction continues in the effort to mold the shoreline into a tourist’s paradise.  The grocery stores look just like Kroger or Safeway.

But if you look at places where the sidewalk, made in some places of cement and in other places of ceramic tiles, has broken or cracked, or if you see laborers digging into the dark, moist soil to plant annuals, you can see the sand underneath biding its time to reach sunlight and air.  The bougainvillea and palm trees are fed by an infinite supply of black, irrigation hoses.  Some of the older downtown buildings have been constructed in a way that for me approximates the rabbit warren feeling I get when I watch movies set in the Middle East and someone is being chased through an open-air market or souk.  You have to get a special license to buy alcohol and drink at home.  The vegetables cost five to ten times as much as they do in the U.S., and there is a special room where they sell pork (it reminds me of the over-18 room in video stores).

The Emiratis continue to wear their traditional dress:  black abayas and niqabs for the women, and white thawbs and multicolored agals for the men.  The expats, who overwhelm the locals in numbers, wear western clothing.  I won’t think twice about being in a tank top and shorts anywhere in the U.S., but when I’m in the UAE, even though there are no official rules about what expats and tourists are permitted to wear, I try to cover my shoulders.  Part of this is my attempt to be respectful of my host country, but part of it is also that the UAE imports most of its workforce, especially its manual labor.  This means that at any given time in the UAE, the population is 75% men.  I’m already paranoid about my personal safety, but I also don’t like the odd looks that I get from the blue collar workers.  It’s not like in the U.S., where construction workers might whistle at you, and for the most part, it’s in good fun.  In the UAE, there’s something else behind the stares that makes me want to cover up.

There is little socializing between the expats and the locals.  I saw an Emirati teenager holding hands and doing some light canoodling with a European girl, and the sight jarred me.  My family went to a company dinner party where Emiratis were also invited, and they kept to themselves, especially the men.  I think this may be a function of the country being Muslim and having strict rules on interactions between men and women, because the Emiratis were otherwise quite friendly and hospitable.

I haven’t been anywhere else in the Middle East, but I think of the UAE “the Middle East for beginners.”  It’s tourist-friendly, and like any totalitarian state, there is very little crime or litter, so it feels safe and spotless.  It’s still deeply traditional, though, and what I’ve learned from visiting has colored the way I take in news about the area.  What we have in the U.S. is rare and shouldn’t work, and there are days when our local news inspires despair.  Travel broadens the mind, but for me, it also reminds me to appreciate the opportunities and comforts I have at home.

Reinforced land cruisers sliding down desert dunes, sometimes sideways. Excellent adrenaline rush, if you like that kind of thing. 🙂

One of the towers of the Grand Mosque from the main courtyard inside.

A view into the main courtyard from a window in one of the prayer rooms.

Prayer room chandelier. As I tipped my head back to take the photo, my head scarf (hijab?) slipped, and I was immediately warned to put it back on. They’re so light, it’s hard to tell whether they’re on or off.

One of the views straight down from the Burj Khalifa observation deck.

The middle of the pack.

One of the booths at the heritage souk. You’re not supposed to take pictures of the local women, and it was local women who ran the souk booths, so taking pictures was a perilous operation.

This was everywhere. So pretty. So not native.

A bonus if you’ve read this far — it turns out the Arabs have a different set of numbers from the ones we use and call “Arabic numerals.”