Searching for Culture in the UAE

A visit to the UAE, and in particular Dubai, is a visit that will (and should) entail a whole lot of luxury. It's the UAE. Everything there is over-the-top. It would be a shame not to go and splurge on hotels, food, and shopping. I had originally planned to be in the UAE for a week, but because of some circumstances beyond my control, I ended up staying for almost three weeks, so I decided to go on a hunt for all things cultural in the UAE. This is what I found:

al-Ain: My favorite of all the cities. A nice oasis town with dry air, a good museum, and a friendly atmosphere.

al-Khandaq Fort: While this is technically in Oman, it is right on the border, and since you don't have to go through border control to see it, it is definitely worth the visit.

Hatta: The perfect getaway town. Set in the Hajar Mountains and home to the famous Hatta Pools.

Quick Tips:

If you want to feel the luxury of the United Arab Emirates but are a bit afraid of spending a little too much money, plan your trip for August-September, like I did. This is the height of the summer season, when temperatures push 45 degrees Celcius. While this may seem like a lot, it is surprisingly not that bad, thanks to the Emirati culture of putting a/c everywhere. If you can stand the heat, it is worth it, because prices fall dramatically, and tourism is very low, meaning you will have many of these places to yourself.

Best Way To Get Around:

Public transportation inside the cities consists of taxis. Public transportation between cities is unreliable, and you will end up spending all your time waiting for buses. You can hire private taxis to take you between cities, but this gets expensive. The Emirates is a car culture, and so there is only one way to see the Emirates, by rent-a-car. This is the only way you will get to see all the sights on your own, and it really isn't that expensive. You can get a basic car for /day. The roads in the UAE are very well-taken-care-of, and the driving is surpisingly organized--not as crazy as the rest of the Middle East. The only thing is that speed limits are not enforced, and you will find Emiratis zooming by you at 180 kph on the main highways. It can be a bit intimidating.

I had never heard of the Rotana hotel chain before arriving in Abu Dhabi, and I was originally staying there only because my friend, whom I was visiting, was staying in their extended suites section while working in Abu Dhabi for the summer. But I have to say that I was blown away.

The UAE is a land of excess. You do not come to the UAE as a budget traveler; you come to live it up and spend money like you have never spent money before. You come to be treated like a king (or queen) and to lose yourself in lavishness. Both Abu Dhabi and Dubai are filled with world-class hotels offering the kind of service that is usually reserved for dignitaries and important businessmen. To not partake in this would be a shame.

Because I had business to attend to in Abu Dhabi, I decided to make that my base while in the UAE, not Dubai, and while in Abu Dhabi, I made the Rotana Beach Hotel and Towers my home. This is one of the newest hotels in Abu Dhabi, and it is certainly one of the most spectacular. If I ever return to Abu Dhabi, there is no doubt where I am staying.

First and foremost, the Rotana is a luxury hotel. It has a grand lobby filled with fountains and important-looking businessmen. It has five top-of-the-line restaurants, a Trader Vic’s, a steakhouse, an Italian place, a seafood place, and a buffet. It has its own private beach and heath club. There is a pub, a bar, and the famous L.A.B. (Lounge at the Beach), one of Abu Dhabi’s hottest nightclubs. The rooms are all equally spectacular, with a modern style and amenities that will make everyone feel important.

What impressed me the most about the Rotana, though, was the service. It was impeccable; everybody there did their best to make you feel like someone special. It was luxury the way luxury should be. You couldn’t pass a hotel worker without having them smile and wish you a good morning. They treated every guest with the same respect. In the US, luxury hotels always seem to discriminate against those who don’t seem like they have the money to really be there, but here none of that mattered. If you were staying there, you were important. For example, I am a 22-year-old college student who wears jeans and a t-shirt. Nobody ever gave me a second look or failed to acknowledge me because they knew I wasn’t a CEO. The valet happily parked my Nissan Sunny with the same care he would park a BMW. And perhaps the most impressive moment was when they screwed up my reservation and, as compensation, gave me a suite on the executive floor for the same price as a regular room. I ended up with an executive suite for a whole week. Now that is service! When it comes to luxury, the Rotana does it right.

"OK, now just don’t get into an accident…"

That was the first thought to cross my mind when I saw the sign welcoming me to the Sultanate of Oman. I was on my way to the town of Hatta, which is actually in the UAE, but because of its place nestled in the Hajar Mountains, it is only accessible by traveling through 20km of Omani territory, and my rental car was only insured for the UAE. Any accident would put a quick stop to this vacation.

Then, within moments of crossing the border I looked up at the road to see a huge heard of camels making their way onto the road. I slammed on the breaks, turned on the warning lights, and listened to the tires screech. Where I come from a couple people die every year from hitting moose with their cars, and I imagined that hitting a camel would yield similar results. Luckily I was quick enough on the breaks and didn’t have to find out personally.

Hatta is one of the real gems of the UAE, a small town tucked into the mountains, seemingly cut off from the rest of the UAE. Its dry air is a great attraction to Emiratis fleeing the coast and the surrounding Hajar Mountains are some of the most spectacular scenery in all of the UAE. All of this makes Hatta a great getaway from the excesses of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and the Hatta Fort Hotel is the best place, well actually to only place, to spend a couple of relaxing days in Hatta.

Because it is the only hotel in Hatta, it is of course, not cheap, but then again nothing is really cheap in the UAE, and the Hatta Fort Hotel at least gives you your money’s worth. The hotel consists of a set of lovely chalets all with A/C, TV, and a balcony that overlooks the lovely grounds of the hotel as well as the surrounding mountains. The grounds of the hotel are particularly green and impressive and the hotel has set up a couple of 5k and 3k walking paths through the palm groves and surrounding hills. There are also many sports facilities set up including a pool, archery range, and 9 hole par-three golf course. In terms of food and drink, the restaurant has a top quality restaurant for dinner as well as a poolside café for lunch and coffee. There is also a small bar located upstairs that has happy-hour everyday from 7-9.

In addition to all this the hotel has various tours that it can arrange for you, the most popular of which is a 4X4 tour of the surrouding wadis (dry river valleys). In terms of services the Hatta Forth Hotel has all you need and is a great place to kick back and relax.

You can technically make al-Ain into a day trip from Dubai. What used to be a five-day camel ride is now just over an hour by car, depending on how you drive. If you want to cruise down there at 180kph like the Emiratis, then it’ll be a bit quicker. I made it in about an hour and a half going as fast as my Nissan Sunny rental could take me, which was about 130kph, 140 downhill. The road is well-paved, straight, and tree-lined. Most of it is a rather boring drive through the desert, but as you get closer to al-Ain, the desert comes a little more alive with seas of large iron red dunes dotted with palm trees. If you can hit this part of the drive around sunset, it is absolutely beautiful. However, if you really want to do al-Ain right, you should spend the night, and al-Ain has plenty of international luxury hotels that will make your stay extra comfortable. There of course are some cheap hotels, but these are seedier places, mainly for people from India, Pakistan, the Philippines, or other Arab countries, coming to visit relatives. Staying in one of these places could turn out to be a very uncomfortable experience, in more ways than one. Plus, you don’t come to the UAE for budget travel. You come to the UAE to live it up like you have never done before, so to not stay in one of the great hotels available would be a sin.

While in Abu Dhabi, I fell in love with the Rotana hotel chain, a Lebanese-Emirati hotel chain that has numerous hotels in the Middle East, so I elected to stay at the Rotana Hotel while in al-Ain, and I was not disappointed at all. It certainly wasn’t as grand as its cousin in Abu Dhabi, but they still managed to run an impressive hotel. The hotel is located just a bit out of the center of town, a walkable distance, but if you are like me and are there in August, you won’t want to be walking anywhere. If you have a car, they have a nice, shaded parking lot where you can stow it, so that it doesn’t get too hot. The hotel is designed in a sort of pyramid shape, with four floors, all overlooking the lobby. The rooms are fairly standard, with all the amenities you will need, including Internet, and all have balconies.

The hotel also has a bar and about five restaurants offering various selections. There is a Trader Vic’s, an Arab restaurant, and a buffet that changes daily. There is also a lovely pool and a small gym for your fitness needs. The staff is extremely friendly and helpful. My room was about $150, which I was happy with, but this was also low season. All in all, it lived up to Rotana’s reputation, and I recommend it.

Amidst all the skyscrapers, shopping malls, and Land Rovers, it is sometimes easy to forget that Dubai was once a small fishing village with a very distinct culture different from the rest of the Middle East. However, this doesn’t mean that there is nothing of cultural value left in Dubai, and if you want to find them, they are there, even if they have been shamelessly repackaged for tourists by the Dubai government.

The first stop on your cultural tour of Dubai should be the Dubai Museum. Housed in an old fort, the Dubai Museum certainly doesn’t have the quality of artifacts that the al-Ain Museum does, but they definitely spent enough money turning it into a visual wonderland. Like the rest of Dubai, what the museum lacks in real culture or history it makes up for in showmanship. The museum is basically one set of dioramas after another designed to introduce you to Emirati culture. There is a diorama of an old souq, of a traditional Emirati house, and even one on the connection between Dubai and the sea. Even with all the flashing lights and sounds, the dioramas are valuable as a tool for learning about Emirati culture and the Dubai Museum is worth a visit if not just to spend one day not at the mall. Also, probably the most spectacular part of the museum is the section on the development of modern Dubai, in which you are taken through a pictorial tour of Dubai decade-by-decade, from 1960 onward. The change over the forty years is absolutely stunning.

Another good reason to visit the museum is because it is located right next to the main souq area of Dubai. This area, once a maze of covered bazaars bustling with activity, is nowhere near its former glory today, having lost out to mega-malls, but it is still worth a visit. The souqs have been generously restored today and serve the tourists as much as the locals. If you have been to the souqs in other Middle Eastern cities like Istanbul, Fes, Cairo, or Damascus, you will probably laugh in the face of the Dubai souqs, but they are still a nice place to buy some crafts, especially gold. Also, a walk through the souqs will end up on the banks of Dubai Creek, the most attractive part of Dubai, where you will find many nice restaurants and cafes where you can smoke some shisha on the banks of the creek.

On the edge of the creek, you will also find a couple of boat landings filled with wooden dhows. These water taxis once filled Dubai Creek, but the building of bridges and tunnels has made them more or less useless. They exist today mostly as a novelty, but a quick ride across the creek provides you with the best views in the whole city and is well worth your time.

And that is about where the cultural side of Dubai stops--now go live it up…

The Emirate of Sharjah is usually referred to in guidebooks as "the cultural capital of the UAE," which, well, isn’t really much of claim. That’s sort of like Fargo calling itself "the cultural capital of North Dakota." Basically what this means is that Sharjah, because it doesn’t have the oil of Abu Dhabi and isn’t the center of trade that Dubai is, hasn’t completely lost itself in nouveau-riche glory and excess. It’s louder, it’s dirtier, it’s more chaotic. It is the land where alcohol is forbidden and "decency laws" are enforced, and it is desperately trying to find a unique niche inside the UAE. This niche is as its cultural capital.

What this cultural capital really has to offer is a small collection of museums and an all- too-enthusiastically restored fort. The museums are all located in what Sharjah calls the Heritage Area, an area that has been constructed using traditional techniques and designs in order to give the impression of history, and even though the construction is rather impressive, the illusion somehow just fails to work. However, despite the Disney World atmosphere of the Heritage Area, many of the museums are actually worth a look and do provide you with a good background on Emirati and Islamic culture. The main museum of the area is the Heritage Museum, which displays the same sort of stuff you will find in Dubai and al-Ain, but the architecture of the museum itself is nice. Across from the museum is Beit al-Gharbi, a "traditional" Emirati house with a courtyard that displays some lovely jewelry and costumes. The most interesting and unique museum in the Heritage Area is the Islamic Museum, which houses the best collection of Islamic artifacts in the UAE and is a good change of pace from the various "cultural" museums scattered around the UAE. Slightly less exciting are the Arts Museum and the House of Poetry, both of which have nothing really spectacular to offer the casual visitor.

One street over from the Heritage Area is the al-Hisn Fort. Built in 1820, the fort today looks no more than five years old, mainly because of the extensive restoration performed on it. The fort itself is nowhere near as impressive as al-Khandaq, but worth a look. It also houses some nice artifacts on the inside.

All-in-all, if you have the time, Sharjah is a worthy day trip from Dubai since they are right next door to each other, but it’s not necessarily someplace you should go rushing to. Also, sorry for the lack of pictures but I ran out of batteries as after taking the first photo. Trust me, though, you aren’t missing too much, because the only stuff worth photographing is in the museums.

Out of all the places I visited in the United Arab Emirates, the city of al-Ain has to be my favorite. Like much of the UAE, al-Ain was little more than a small oasis town until the last 30 years, when the town grew substantially, thanks to money from Abu Dhabi. These days, al-Ain is desperately trying to find its place in the UAE. Knowing that it cannot compete with Abu Dhabi in international appeal, al-Ain has tried to establish itself as a vacation destination for Emiratis, with its greatest attraction being the strikingly dry air that stands as a welcome contrast to the humidity of the coast. In its attempt to turn itself into a summer getaway, al-Ain has undergone large construction of hotels and resorts, offering everything the vacationing Emirati needs. But what makes al-Ain so attractive to the casual visitor to the UAE is that it is one of the few places that has made an extra effort to preserve its cultural sights. With a couple of forts, a nice museum and a livestock market, al-Ain may be one of the few bastions of true Emirati culture left in the UAE.

The main attractions in al-Ain are its forts, The Eastern Fort and al-Jahili fort. While the Eastern Fort itself isn’t terribly impressive, the museum housed inside it is wonderful and probably one of the best in the UAE. The main attraction of the museum is the recreation of a traditional majlis, or sitting room, where Emiratis would meet their guests. One of the biggest surprises for me in the museum was the large collection of pre-historic artifacts that give you a look into pre-historic life in the UAE, a life I had no idea existed. The artifacts here are some the oldest human artifacts in the world. Other than that the museum also has a nice selection of photographs taken in the UAE from around the 1960s that allow you to see just how much the country has changed. And perhaps the best part of the museum is that you will most likely be completely alone.

Al-Jahili Fort is a very nicely restored fort that gives you a good idea of the sort of forts that were built in this area. It is now surrounded by a public garden, and while you cannot get inside the fort, a walk around the grounds is worthwhile.

Beyond the forts, there is Round Structure, a large round stone structure that dates back to about the 3rd millennium BC, located just outside of al-Ain. It is from here that most of the artifacts in the museum come. There is also the Livestock Market inside the town, which is probably the most "cultural" of all the sights. It is best to go in the morning, when the market is bustling with camels and horses to be traded. Beware, though--it is crowded, noisy, and dirty, but an interesting experience nonetheless.

Located right across the border from al-Ain, the Omani town of Buraimi doesn’t have much to offer itself, but it is home to the very well-restored al-Khandaq Fort, probably the best example of an old desert fortress you are going to see while touring the UAE. Supposedly there are much better forts elsewhere in Oman, but this is the only one you will be able to see without actually touring Oman. In addition to the fort, Buraimi does actually have a small souq, which is worth a visit because it’s a good place to buy silver and khanjars, the curved daggers that are traditionally worn by Emirati men. Also, it’s worth a visit just so you can say that you have technically been to Oman, even though your passport won’t get stamped.

The actual border check is a few miles beyond the town of Buraimi, which means that you can visit the fort and the souq without technically leaving the UAE or entering Oman. For avid collectors of passport stamps, this can be annoying, but it is especially nice for those who have to pay for their visas.

The al-Khandaq Fort lies only a few hundred meters from the border, and you will doubtlessly see its intricately carved walls as soon as you cross the border. When I arrived, the parking lot was completely empty except for one small pick-up truck with an Omani man taking a nap in fully reclined seat. The entrance was open, but there was nobody to be found, so I just walked in. The fort has a set of outer walls and then a set of inner walls that protects the main courtyard. Inside the courtyard, you will find four towers, each of which you can enter and climb to the top by way of a ladder. Beware, though, of the one immediately to the right of the entrance; for some reason, this is the big pigeon hangout, and it is littered with pigeon droppings. The views from the tops of the towers are wonderful and give you a nice look at the lush oasis surrounding the town. Besides the towers, there are a few rooms inside the fort that you can enter, the most impressive being the majlis, where the leader of the fort received his guests.

All-in-all, I spent a good hour looking around the fort. It’s not particularly large, but I was enjoying the solitude and the wonderful views. The sun was starting to set, turning the stone and mud walls of the fort a beautiful red hue. Upon leaving, I noticed that the man in the truck had woken up and was waiting for me at a table near the entrance. When I asked what the fee was, he said that it was free and then provided me with a few maps and booklets on Oman in case I wanted to do some more traveling around the country. The visit was well worth it.

"I have no idea where I am," I thought to myself as I sat inside my Nissan in the middle of a bumpy, two-track dirt road on the edge of a field of date palms. I opened up the Lonely Planet to go over the directions again. "After the sign to al-Bon, the road goes over a steep hill." I had seen the sign and I definitely went over a hill, but if it was what one would consider to be "steep," I don’t really know. I was then supposed to take a "sharp left" at the bottom of the hill. I had certainly done that. The road was then supposed to follow a fallaj (irrigation canal). Well, I was definitely standing right next to a fallaj, so where had I gone wrong? Where in the world were these famous
Hatta Pools I was looking for? The Lonely Planet directions had gotten me this far, and even though their idea of directions was "turn off when the tarmac ends" or "after the bump in the road…" I had to be close. Luckily, out of the field of palms appeared an aged Omani man in a white jalabiyya and a red kafiyyeh. He shouted out in Arabic if I needed any help, and I shouted back that I was looking for the pools. He smiled and pointed me back towards the main road and said that I had to continue for another good kilometer. Satisfied, I thanked him and then moved towards the car. "You want some tea?" he asked me. I smiled and, as Arab custom dictates, declined. He didn’t repeat the invitation, and I went on my way.

After about another kilometer on the road I hit a hill, a very steep hill, so steep I worried that my poor Nissan would never make it back up. "Lonely Planet really should have said ‘extremely steep’," I thought to myself. At the bottom of the hill, I found the road, like the book said, and soon, I located a small parking lot on the edge of a fallaj. When I got out of the car, I looked around to find a path down to the pools but couldn’t. Soon, though, I noticed a herd of goats making their way down the hill and decided to follow them. After a bit of walking, I ran into two young boys who pointed me in the right direction, and soon I was at the Hatta Pools.

The Hatta Pools are a natural formation of pools that have carved a narrow canyon into the rock of the valley. Many of the pools are deep down inside the narrow canyon and impossible to get to, but there are some more towards the surface that are filled with cool and clear water, perfect for a quick dip, and since it was about 120 degrees outside, I willingly hopped in and was enjoying myself plenty until a couple of Emirati teens showed up and…well, let’s just say that they made me a bit uncomfortable, and sent me hurrying back to my car. It was a situation that is not fit to be repeated on the pages of IgoUgo, but it was indeed an uncomfortable one, and this is the reason I don’t have any pictures of the actual pools. I had been planning on taking some after the swim, but the circumstances dictated otherwise. So I’m sorry for the lack of pictures.

Anyway, the Hatta Pools are a beautiful place, not just for the pools themselves, but also for the surrounding hills, which make for a spectacular backdrop. Despite my experience, I still definitely recommend visiting the pools, but I guess I would just have to recommend that you not go alone so that you can avoid the extremely awkward position I was put in. Granted, these were just spoiled Emirati teens who I am sure got some strange pleasure from playing with a foreigner, and in general Emiratis are very respectful people, but it scared me enough to send me running for the hills. So bring a friend along, or better yet, go as part of a tour with the Hatta Fort Hotel. I hate to give a bad impression of Emirati culture--a culture that is very different from the rest of the Middle East--and scare people from visiting the pools because of this one incident, but the fact is that I was put in a very uncomfortable situation and would hate for that to happen to anybody else. So even if you are a big, strong young man like me, bring along a friend, but don’t let my bad experience dissuade you from a visit to the pools, because they are beautiful.