United Arab Emirates – Page 3 – Brave New World of Blogging

Next stop Qasr Al Muwaijii

Next stop Qasr Al Muwaijii
A mouthful for an non Arabic speaker like me – so I’ll call it the Fort
Actually it is one of many forts built over the centuries to protect the oasis (Al Ain) and irrigation channels (aflaj) that were created by the locals.

This one was built by Sheikh Zayed the Great (1826-1909)

For those who care😜it is bounded by the Hajar Mountains (east) and the rolling dunes of the Al Runb’ al

Khali (west), meaning the Empty Quarter. Just how empty, I hope to discover next visit.

Traditional dancing by elegantly clad men enchanted everyone and watching the young boys watching their obvious heroes and trying to copy them enchanted me.

Once again the men and women displayed great courtesy and patience as we asked questions that I’m sure they have had to answer thousands of time (or just maybe not- such as, what so do you wear under your hajib? She, a skirt and t shirt. I did not ask him 😜)

If it were only women she would not cover herself and at home, in the presence of her father or brothers she would uncover.

No, it is not hot, it is very light fabric.

No, generally the women don’t wash the men’s robes. They are sent out to be cleaned and pressed.

High quality Egyptian cotton for those wondering.

With eyes now tuned to detail I note the beautiful detail in the hajibs- the sleeves embroidered in black, scalloped perhaps, hemmed artistically. But always subtlety.

Nothing subtle about the eyes though – usually heavily made up, with deep lashes, dark kohl, they seem to present smouldering power and meekness at the same time.

University education is accessible to everyone and I have been repeatedly taken aback when talking to a ‘lady in black’ to discover she is a practising dentist, engineer, doctor. Says something again about my preconceived ideas 😢

The adventure continues …..

After Jebel Hafeet

We stopped at the Al Ain Mall. Deserted (it was Friday- holy day), sophisticated and very well ‘stocked’. All the brand shops, Apple, Zara, Marks & Spensors as well as remarkable individual stores – the jewellery stores were stunning – photos don’t do them justice 😩

Diamonds to die for, gold to melt your heart and security being ‘not an issue’ everything is available for scrutiny.

There is a whole level devoted to games, which also hosts an ice rink ! Oh to have had more time!

The city is spotless; disciplined in a middle Eastern kind of way. Men are courteous, not supercilious or presumptuous (of course that may be as much as indication of my advancing years as anything else 😜) and the women gracious, slightly shy but open to conversation always.

A drive through the market (Al Aflaj?) revealed a different world. Goats in tiny pens, herded together by perhaps owners, age, sex, colour, and camels too. Tall ones, surprisingly small ones, dark brown, usual sandy beige, babies suckling. We watched one bring paraded like a stud horse before a potential buyer. We watched another being loaded into a bakkie (ute). It was done very ‘unceremoniously’ and was difficult to watch, but clearly ‘the way’ here. We did not ‘engage’ at the market as both Annie and I often do, but drove through ; I was very aware of being an outsider, non local and the men hanging round the animals were equally clearly non locals, Afghani, Bedouin etc.

A quick stop off at home to have a drink and check the rugby score 😂

And we were off again

There’s eating, using and now flaunting 😂

Arriving – a quiet place

In Abu Dhabi. This time as scheduled, 😜 I am now on a bus to Al Ain.
My eyes are struggling to adapt to this terrain. Having been saturated with the green of England, this looks so, so beige, all sand, not white, not yellow, just ‘blah’

So I sit and ‘gaze’ mindlessly travelling through scrubland, weary from an excruciatingly long flight.

Then, for a moment, I See, my eyes attuned; the curve of the freeway; a building moulded, bent, shaped; a minaret, curved, detailed, elegant.

At exactly the same moment, it blurs as if melting back into the sand. So I’m not sure of anything except the cold air conditioning of the impeccably clean bus.

I then see Nothing; as far as the horizon. This Nothing is messy after the manicured Devon fields, rocks, sand, scrub, a camel, all beige and scruffy looking, as if no one had been in to tidy for years.
My breath is suspended as some dunes appear – such beauty, soaring, orange, a sweeping curve reminding me of an eagles wing
This is a different place; I must sit up and take note.

Tourists please follow brown signs – I don’t see any brown signs – what does that mean? Where do the tourists go?

The roads are magnificent and everyone travels sedately, I notice. No one speeds (what’s the secret I ask myself? Chop off their wheels if they do😜)

Everyone moves quietly, almost elegantly, perhaps the beautiful sleek dress has something to do with it. The men stand tall, robed mostly in white – So white, so clean, so uncreased 😂. The women almost exclusively in black, from head to toe.

It is a ‘quiet place’

And my bus pulls into Al Ain; to the joy of good friends waiting for me and the excitement of the unknown beyond.