Heading south from the Tecom area, we passed through Jebel Ali, the Port area and also home to huge desalination plants that service Dubai. The traffic eased off and soon the skyscrapers were left behind and scrubby desert returned both sides of the road. About 20 minutes after this, we leave Dubai and enter the emirate of Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi is by far the largest of the Emirates and also the richest as it has vast oil reserves under its soil. For this reason, Abu Dhabi city is the capital of the UAE. Having said that, Dubai is far more commercial than Abu Dhabi, although to be fair it has had to bail out Dubai financially in the recent past. The Burj-al-Khalifa in Dubai is named after the ruler of Abu Dhabu for that reason.
As we started to see signs of the city on the horizon, we turned onto the Corniche road that runs along the shoreline of Abu Dhabi. It is a work of art, but increasingly difficult to access the footpath and cycle track at its northern as there is nowhere to park a car. We carried on almost into the city before finding a car park, pulled in and took to,our feet.
Abu Dhabi is a lot greener than Dubai and there is nowhere near as much construction work ongoing. That's not to say there are no tall buildings, but it all looks completed alongside tree-lined footpaths and gardens. The footpath on the corniche is nicely laid out with plenty of shade and places to do and have a picnic. It also has nice beaches, some you pay for but get sunbeds and parasols in return and others are free public beaches. We found a semi-circle of beach restaurants near a public beach and decided to have lunch.
It was very pleasant as there was plenty of shade and a slight breeze. We were able to watch the comings and goings on the beach whilst we ate. The food prices were pretty cheap considering the location.
After lunch, we walked a bit further along the corniche before returning to the car via an ice-cream vendor. Back in the car, we drove across a causeway on to an artificial island where we parked again and had another walk and took some pictures. They are building a new hotel on the island that looks remarkably similar to the Atlantis on the Palm at Jumeriah.
When it was time to leave, we took a route through the city that went past the most enormous mosques I've ever seen. A fairly new beautiful building constructed in white marble. Cue for more photographs!
On the way back to Dubai, we called at an Outlet Centre somewhat bizarrely modelled on St Gimignano in Tuscany. A short period of retail therapy took place here and coffee consumed before we headed back to Tecom in Dubai.
After our day out, we were left with the feeling that Abu Dhabi is a nicer place than Dubai, greener, less frenetic and with a more relaxed feel to it.
Later in the evening after we'd done our packing ready for the morning, we took the Metro to Jumeriah Lakes Tower and went to a Vietnamese restaurant. It was a fairly simple affair in a shopping area, but the food was extremely tasty and very cheap.
It's certainly been interesting to see the Emirates and how things operate here in the UAE, but I'm not sure I'd want to live here for too long. That said, I'm sure we will be back again and will have to see what else the region has to offer spent from gigantic shopping malls!
No comments:
Post a Comment