After exploring the Emirate of Sharjah, it was time to discover another part of the UAE and to leave the Arabian Gulf for the desert!
My day started quite early thanks to the call for prayer at about 6 am which was impossible not to hear. Imagine 100 muezzins within a 1 km zone around you! I went to the bus station and found a private bus heading to Al Ain about 160 km away. Al Ain is in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, at the border to Oman. It was declared a UNESCO world heritage site and is famous for its oasis and camel market. During the bus ride, I was experiencing another premiere on the trip: it was the first time my backpack was in the luggage hold of the bus… and the first time I was feeling this slight anxiousness every time someone gets out of the bus and opens the luggage hold, thinking that he might steal the bag. Luckily, this irrational paranoia disappeared after a few weeks of traveling!
The 2-hour bus ride was entertaining: leaving Sharjah through the suburbs with the fancy university buildings…
…reaching a 10-lane highway with almost no traffic in the middle of the desert surrounded by rocks and sand dunes. I could even spot some wild camels along the road from time to time!
After riding through this very flat and dry landscape, it was surprising to arrive in a big quite green city! I took a taxi from the bus station in the center to reach my hotel which was quite far out. I hate taking taxi because I always feel like it’s too easy and not fun, but I had no better option, especially with heavy luggage! Again, since barely tourists go there, I did not have many accommodation option, and chose the cheapest hotel I found, which happened to be the Radisson Blu! It was the most luxurious place I stayed in for the entire trip! Nice room (with the must-have prayer set!), great breakfast buffet and beautiful pools in a palm tree garden…
I was one of the few non-Arabic guests in the hotel, and could sense that. As I went to the swimming pool, I did not feel comfortable, being one of the only guys in swimming suits. Most of the other guys were keeping their T-shirt on while lying on the pool lounge chairs, and the women were completely wrapped in their abaya and hijab or niqab! Walking around half naked made me weirdly feel like some kind of exhibitionist! The same happened in the gym and sauna. All the guys were “hiding” as much as they could in the locker room, which is apparently a must-do, as some locker room rules hanging on the wall were describing: “The Muslim customs and traditions follow certain guidelines on undressing and dressing which should be strictly respected and followed by every individual”. Only problem: they didn’t say which guidelines! Haha! Maybe a big sign saying “Don’t show your penis!” would be clearer…
One of the highlights of the area is the most famous mountain in the UAE, the Dschabal Hafit, with an altitude of 1200 meters. However, there was no public transport to reach it and the visibility was very poor anyway due to sandy winds. The places to visit in the city were closed on that day, so I spent the afternoon walking around… a lot! The first impression was that the city is pretty rich. It might be a detail but the street furniture like e.g. street lights looked very luxurious with gold paint. The reason for this wealth became clear after I read that it is the birth city of Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the co-founder of the UAE and long-time sheikh of the Abu Dhabi Emirate. The main mosque on the central square has a fancy digital clock on both minarets indicating the time of the next call for prayer! The city being in a desert, it is quite challenging to keep it green, but with money, you can do anything, in particular install complex irrigation systems. What I love in travels is to discover stores or jobs that don’t exist (anymore) in Western Europe. And a store dedicated to “typing” was a perfect example!
I walked many kilometers in the main oasis in the city center. It was a beautiful walk on plenty of alleys surrounded by clay walls, palm trees and irrigation canals.
The next day was more cultural, with the visit of the 2 main sites. First, I went to the Al Jahili Fort (by taxi, I admit… I was lazy to walk so much again!). This is a beautiful old fort constructed by the family of the Abu Dhabi rulers to protect the oasis.
Then, I walked to the Palace of the famous Sheikh Zayed and his family. That’s where he grew up and it is full of family artifacts (including super kitsch portraits!). A nice way to sense the life of wealthy Arabic families in the mid 20th century.
At mid-day, it was already time to leave Al Ain… taking a taxi to the hotel to get the luggage and back to the station to take the bus to the next destination: Abu Dhabi!
Free like a bear 