The Road To Al Ain

Today I took an all-day trip out of Dubai, to the city of Al Ain. It's in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi (seven Emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates, and Dubai is one of them.) I was right on the border with Oman... literally. The fence separating the two counties ran along one side of the street.

I was in a car with two guys from Germany- Oliver the restaurant owner, and Stephan the Chemistry teacher. Our driver was a very nice man who's originally from Pakistan. During the roughly 2 hour drive to Al Ain, he told us a lot of stories about how the area has changed in the 15 years he's been here. He said it's very hard for a local person to make a living operating a business, unless they "do the cheat." He was pretty fed up with the skyrocketing cost of everything in Dubai, and was considering moving his family to Canada. He's never been there... but, he said, "it's cold there."

The first thing you notice as you approach Al Ain is that the area is much greener. The driver pointed out full working farms in the middle of the desert. I didn't think you could grow much in sand, but I was wrong.
Al Ain is much more peaceful, and traditional, than Dubai.

Our first stop was a quiet park that cost 1 dirham (27 cents) to enter.

At the back of the park was a slide-type thing that probably wouldn't pass U.S. safety standards.

"Freefall"... was basically a cliff.

Would you let your child near this? Pure nightmare fuel.

The park had its own mosque... because mosques are everywhere.

Next, we went to the Al Ain Museum. Like the Dubai Museum, it's an old fort.

Al Ain is central to the cultural heritage of the UAE because it's the birthplace of its first ruler, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. His reign lasted more than 30 years, until his death in 2004.
In 2000, he had a kidney transplant operation at the Cleveland Clinic.


Our next stop was Jebel Hafeet, a MASSIVE mountain that dominates the skyline. It's about 4,000 feet high, and we drove all the way to the top... on what edmunds.com calls "the greatest driving road in the world." This winding road has 60 corners and three lanes, and is in pristine condition.
Here are some pictures from the ride up.



And here's the view from the top:


So what's up there? A brand-new presidential palace. Construction crews were still hammering away while we were there. (Technically, I wasn't supposed to take a picture of this.)


(But, I took two.)


It's good to be the king.

Our last stop was the Al Ain Zoo, which is the largest zoo in the Middle East.





Looking at the people there was even more interesting than looking at the animals. Since this is a more conservative area, almost every woman we saw was covered up.



By the way, I DID see a concession stand for a certain product that I won't mention, but whose Malaysian headquarters is now monitoring me. When I asked one of my new German friends if he ever heard of it before, he looked at me like I was crazy and said "yeah, sure." Looks like I'm going to Germany next.

One more thing- on the way back to the hotel, lit up in front of me, was my next job. I HAVE to work on this show:

I don't know the plot, but I enjoy imagining what it could be.