| United Arab Emirates |
| Normally referred to UAE, or sometimes after its most famous city Dubai, United Arab Emirates is a country that seemed to go from non existent to one of the most popular countries in the world. Like many countries in the middle east, UAE was wealthy ever since the world began to depend on oil. What makes the UAE unique is that its awareness that oil would not be around forever encouraged it to open its doors to the western world and attempt to base its economy on tourism instead of solely on oil. This created a construction boom, as companies invested heavily and began to build some of the most unique and outrageous hotels and attractions the world has ever seen. Within a decade, many believe UAE will become the top tourist destination in the entire world. |
| United Arab Emirates Travel - For more information on UAE please visit http://www.willgoto.com/261/1/categories.aspx |
| UAE Links |
| Post a question or comment about traveling in UAE. |
| The capital of UAE is known as Abu Dhabi and is located in the center of the country along its coast. With Dubai getting all the attention, Abu Dhabi is seen more of a destination for business travelers rather than tourists, but it is definitely worth visiting. When I stumbled across the above 'Emirates Palace' I honestly thought it was a government building or residential area for one of the royal family, this is actually a luxurious hotel! |
| On the left is a large painting of the present King of UAE, seen right outside the palace. On the right is a worker keeping the Emirate Palace Hotel clean and watering its outside gardens. |
| UAE is an Islamic nation, but with it being so open to the western world I honestly expected it to have lost much of its culture and tradition. I was surprised that this wasn't the case, UAE does a good job of maintaining Islamic law while also being open to the west. I visited during Ramadan where Muslims fast during the day, making it difficult for someone like me to find food. Many restaurants are open but the food is only to go. This way non muslims are able to eat normally while honoring Ramadan by keeping people from eating in public. Above is a large mosque that is just outside the city limits in Abu Dhabi. It is the same mosque, once at night and once just as the sun began to rise. |
| Downtown Abu Dhabi is filled with many high rise buildings and still has its share of nice hotels. The entire country is currently experiencing a construction boom, as seen on the upper right where new buildings are being added. |
| Natives of United Arab Emriates only make up 20% of the entire population in Dubai, while the other 80% is made up of fueling a demand for foreign workers. Westerners, Indians, and people from surrounding countries come to the UAE to work. The construction projects are fueling a demand for many western engineers for example. This has opened up the country to the rest of the world, Above is a shopping mall and a beach store in downtown Dubai. |
| Abu Dhabi has many city parks which are great places to find shade from the nasty hot sun. Above is a stray cat walking in a park, on the right is a common bird that I often came across in UAE standing on a light post. |
| UAE's main attraction is its beach city of Dubai which is already one of the biggest tourist destinations in the world and growing. Dubai brings people for its beaches, scuba diving, luxurious hotels and many other unique activities such as its water park Wild Wadi or camel races.. Above is a photo of the beach right along the city of Dubai. You can see the water is crystal clear, on the right is a photo I took of a fish while walking along the shore. Notice how the fish's stripes on its back look exactly like the ripples in the water, good camouflage. |
| Directly to the east of Dubai is the city of Sharjah and if it wasn't for the signs you might not know you even left Dubai. Sharjah has its share of hotels and some places of cultural significance in its downtown areas, but outside it seemed to be the residential areas of Indian workers. |
| These two photos above are also from Sharjah. On the left is the waterfront with some boats tied up along a park. The area to the right is where my hotel was. You can see it looks more like a typical city in the middle east, and its much cheaper than the rates in Dubai even though its only 20km from the city! I stayed here for $60 a night, much cheaper than the several hundred dollar a night hotels in downtown Dubai. |
| My favorite place in Al Ain was their city's museum. I'm not a fan of museums at all, but this is more of a restored village with national treasures on display. One of the rooms is dedicated to the royal family of UAE and shows a portrait of each King and a family tree. On the left is a Emirate soldier guarding at the front gate, on the right is one of several rooms showing how people lived not too long ago. Below shows a piece of art work on the left, with an old traditional ladder on the right. |
| South of the UAE away coast, the weather is hotter but fortunately the air is dry unlike the humid city's of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Most of the land is flat, until you get near the border of Oman where you'll see mountains and rock formations along with an occasional Oasis. On the left is a dry rock mountain, on the right is the Al Ain Oasis. |
| Along the border of Oman is the city of Al Ain, UAE's third largest. It looks more like a typical middle eastern city, and I even found a few nasty areas, like the trash on the floor of bridge on the right. Like the rest of UAE though, Al Ain is being transformed and is under construction, like the main street and a new building being built below. |
| Al Ain is a good place to visit, as it is considered the culture capital of the country. Many old buildings such as Jahili fort are found throughout the city. This fort above was built in the 19th century. |
| These two structures above are some of the ruins inside Hili Park. On the left is some type of stone house with two gazelles facing each other above the window. On the right appears to be the remains of a tower, or circular home. |
| Also in Al Ain, right next to the Hili Fort is the Hili Archaeological Park. This park features ancient ruins and artifacts, but there aren't very many that have survived and those that did are mostly completely gone. I think the Hili archaeological park should be seen more of a city park with a few interesting ruins. There are plenty of trees here to provide shade, and if you like bird watching then this is another reason to visit Hili, I saw several different new species I had never seen before. On the left is a lamp post in the center of a garden, which is in the middle of Hili Park. Above is a stray cat who is also enjoying the park. This cat was very shy, just like the birds in the park. |
| Along the beaches are dozens of hotels with some of the most expensive restaurants and rooms I have ever seen. Prices range for several hundred US dollars to over ten thousand for a single night. On the left is a group of hotels on the beach, not the most impressive designs but the other ones I took didn't come out clear because of the high humidity. |
| Another famous place is called the Mall of Emirates. It's one of the larger shopping malls in the middle east, and has just above everything else you would expect to find in a mall. This one is unique not just because of its large size, but its so big it had enough room for an indoor ski resort. One of the restaurants in the mall was right next to the resort, so you could watch people snowboard and ski while you had dinner. |
| Huge shopping malls, indoor ski resorts and their large buildings are just the start of some of the unique projects going on in Dubai. On the right is the Burj Dubai, now the tallest building and structure in the world. Burj Dubai didn't just barely take first place, but is higher by a whole 700 feet, and its not even completed yet! One of my favorite things in Dubai are the artificial islands that were created just off the coast that make up several different designs if seen from high above. One includes the Palm Jemeriah which has the islands organized like the leaves of a palm. A newer one is called the world, and has several small islands that form all the continents. These islands are just for nice views; houses and hotels and other attractions are actually built on them. I didn't get any photos because I never found a good vantage point that let me see the islands from a high view. Next time:) |
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Shishir from India: I found this webpage very useful to get to know the beautiful UAE. I would also like to appreciate
the work of the person who put up all these pictures and the elaborated descriptions....i actually felt as if i was live in
Dubai. Keep up the great work...awesome photography!!!
the work of the person who put up all these pictures and the elaborated descriptions....i actually felt as if i was live in
Dubai. Keep up the great work...awesome photography!!!
