Malls of the Emirates

Wafi Mall, Dubai

I’m going to miss Emirati malls. They are grand structures, and there are so many of them. But, just like the Eaton Centre and Crib’s Causeway, you still can’t find what you are looking for, although somehow the experience here is more satisfying.

In the build-up for Christmas all of the stores were decorated for the season. Trees and coloured balls were everywhere. One supermarket was even offering local halal turkeys for Christmas! Yet at their busiest, the crowds resemble a warm summer day in a Western mall; you are never fighting through crowds.

La Vie en Rose, Nayomi & La Senza lingerie
Deerfields Mall, Abu Dhabi

And similar stores are grouped together so you don’t have to run around looking for that nightdress or gold necklace.

The malls all have features: fountains, ice rinks and more. The Mall of the Emirates a ski hill; Ibn Battuta has courts with large animated statues and the Dubai Mall has an aquarium, one of the world’s largest with over 400 sharks and rays.

Ski Hill base - Mall of the Emirates, Dubai

One of the most endearing qualities is the presence of coffee shops, sprinkled throughout the malls – here you can sit and quietly sip your cappuccino – miles from the boisterous food court.

But some things are missing. Women’s beauty stores, hairdressers, nail spas etc. are out of sight, located around the outer edges behind solid wooden doors marked ‘women only’.

And, Emirati men don’t often wear western clothes, opting instead for their full length heavy ‘shirt’ the kandura or dishdash, with little underneath. Women on the other hand, wear a very light black robe over western clothing. So, there’s an even bigger disparity between men’s and women’s clothing stores...

India Court - Ibn Battuta Mall, Dubai

One thing that is popular is perfume. Emirati women and men are always immaculate and don’t go anywhere without a squirt of perfume, or two. Perfume or ‘oud’ stores fill shopping centres and sales people stand out front waiting to spray you with a sample.

Every mall has its anchor supermarket. Carrefour the French chain, Waitrose the British chain and the local giant Lulu grace the various shopping centres – you can find goods from home no matter where you’re from... And, the fresh produce here is fresh; potatoes from Egypt, eggs from Oman, pomegranates from Jordan, bread baked in the store; you can almost taste them on the shelf. There’s also imported produce from Australia, California and UK, but it’s more costly and less tasty.

Luxury court - Marina Mall, Abu Dhabi

Trouble finding a parking space? Not here – every mall has a team of car washers waiting to guide you in – and they’ll wash your car for less than $10/£5 while you’re shopping. Struggling with your bags? Not here – every mall has guys willing to carry them to your car for a modest tip. Tired of dragging the goods you’ve bought from store to store? Not here – shoppers buy items from a store then leave them, in bags, by the elevator while they go and shop somewhere else. They know their stuff will still be there when they return….

Many bags have big names on them. Prada, Chanel, Louis Vuitton; they’re all here, even Tim Horton’s.

But the coffee shops are still my favourite; adult areas set back in to store space with tables, chairs and good service, where you can enjoy the features and watch the world go by.

Sunset over the Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi

Links to a selection of Malls:

Abu Dhabi: Al Wahda Mall, Deerfields Mall, Marina Mall, Mushrif Mall

Dubai: Dubai Mall, Ibn Battuta Mall, Mall of the Emirates, Wafi Mall

Sand

There’s a lot of sand in the UAE… and you might think that makes for a bland, flat desert. But no, we’re surrounded by many landscapes and UAE sits on the edge of the Rub Al Khali, the Empty Quarter, the largest sand desert in the world.  The Empty Quarter is an almost impassable 250,000 square miles of desolation. It does cover huge oil reserves, tapped by Saudi Arabia and the UAE – before its discovery few outsiders had crossed this desert – now oilfield access roads penetrate.

But the area is not flat. Wind sculpts the sand into curvaceous dunes; crisp, smooth and sensuous, like mountains with their own coats of snow. And like the mountains, sunlight breathes beauty into them, especially early morning sunlight. These shapes are smooth-surfaced though, which seems to give the light a special impact.

At their heart most dunes are crescent shaped here, laying foetal with their backs to the prevailing wind. And the wind prevails. As you walk through the dunes sand is blowing off the top lip; footprints that you made as you struggled up the day before are gone by morning. Even the surface of the dune isn’t even; it’s sculpted into ripples.

Sand that I’ve met before is table-salt-like in its consistency, but here sand is dust. It appears as mist in the wind and goes everywhere, coming into the house and coating the floor, counter tops and more.

Much of the sand in this area is a reddish colour; not PEI or Devon red but a lovely rich orange. Except at dawn – in the early morning light it’s pastel pink colour.

Sultan keeps up

Just like snow, sand offers a playground. Emiratis drive into the desert on the weekend to play; cooking over an open fire and enjoying the clear night sky. The vehicle of choice here is the Toyota Land Cruiser, fitted with big, underinflated, sand tires. Dune-bashing is the favourite desert sport; you drive up the gentlest slope of the dune and propel your vehicle off the top, or drive as far as you can up the steepest slope and just before you stall, turn hard and head down, trying not to roll your vehicle in the process.

Qasr Al Sarab at first light

We had to try it, of course, so we joined a desert safari. Three couples crammed in with our driver Sultan. The young Danish couple sat quietly in the back. Not so with the Italian woman, who sat beside us behind the driver. She screamed with terror all through the trip. Frankly, the bashing wasn’t extreme but her cries of “Mama Mia, Santa Maria; No no no, Sultan!” made it seem that way. So, far from calming her, we encouraged her hysteria. It was fun but no damage sustained – except perhaps to our ears!

And in among the dunes, away from the city, is quiet. For Carol’s birthday we drove more than 2 hours into the desert, almost to the Saudi Arabian border, and stayed at the Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort. It was a wonderful place to relax, watch the stars and see the sand.

Al Ain Dunes in morning light

First Rain

Rain in UAE is like the first snowfall of winter. It’s rare.

Children run out into the street in their bare feet to jump in the puddles, arms out, looking up into the sky.  Even clouds are unusual here…

Rain leaves standing water in the desert

And structures here are not built with rain in mind: there’s minimal drainage, roads and parking lots are built flat. So, if you get a lot of rain it lies around. Standing water sits on the highways, sometimes an entire lane, sometimes just a pool here and there; and it’s hard to see through the spray.

Emirati drivers are fast under normal conditions and they don’t adjust their driving style for the wet; but nor are they experienced in rainfall driving. The result; the water catches one front wheel and spins them off into the side barrier – they stand beside the remains of their vehicle with a ‘what happened?’ look on their face! So much like the first winter snow.

Roofs that have been parched by the sun and the relentless dusty wind for months are suddenly expected to repel water and, guess what, they don’t. In the shopping mall, the Security Guards were running around placing buckets under the drips until they had no more and hadn’t got half of them covered… They are lucky if the building floor is high enough to stop the flood rushing in through the door – not always the case. …And, you park your car there only to step out into 6 inches of water. There’s no escape.

The rain started at around 7am. By 10 am the Department of Education had declared all UAE schools closed. A Welsh friend picked his son up from school: “Why do we have to go home, daddy?”

“Because it’s raining, son…”

“Because it’s raining??”

“…I know; I know!” (in Wales, excited children run into the street when it stops raining!)

We were sent home from work at 2pm due to a weather warning. The 5-day Dubai Airshow had to close for its final day. An unfortunate week for them – all flying had been cancelled on its first day due to a sand-storm. Not quite as infrequent as rain but not that common.

The colour of the desert changed. The light beige on either side of the road on my drive to work turned to an orange/brown coffee shade after a three-day soaking. I swear you could see the plants quivering as they stretched higher with hydration. Everywhere is showing green, and without the usual sprinkling…

The only road into our subdivision was closed to traffic – it was submerged in more than a foot of water. They brought in a huge water pump to suck the water out and discharge it into the desert. We had to enter through a long-forgotten construction entrance…

Attendees to last year’s Dubai Rugby 7’s tournament were shoulder-to-shoulder in the beer tent enjoying the ambiance as a sudden shower poured down outside, when my friend’s feet suddenly felt strangely cold – he looked down to see he was standing in a 3-inch deep, fast-flowing river; he was so shocked, he ordered another round!

Well, at least we don’t have to shovel it…

Abu Dhabi City - Skyline with Cloud

UAE National Day

Spirit Of The Union

National Day is something to behold. It takes place annually to commemorate the founding of the United Arab Emirates on 2 December 1971. And it’s a party…

In the days before, companies host parties for their employees and schools cater celebrations for the staff and pupils, with speeches, dancing, horses, camels or falcons (falconry is big in UAE culture), and food. December 1^st and 2^nd were national holidays this year.

It was a lovely winter’s day (28C) as we walked along the Corniche. In Abu Dhabi city the celebration centres on this 8 kilometers of sandy beach, sheltered by Lulu Island and the Heritage Village peninsula. The Corniche Road runs parallel to the beach and is flanked by parks, hotels and recreation areas. For National Day the whole area is jammed with cars decorated for the occasion, crammed with youngsters firing silly string, artificial snow or supercharged water pistols on each other and the crowds that line the way.

Buildings are festooned with flags, lights and bunting, but the effort people put into their cars is truly unique. Hand painted, silkscreened, or simply cloth covered, the graphics are stunning. Many send their cars to the shop to get them decorated in the couple of weeks prior. Often the graphics depict the UAE's leaders; as one friend said - it's a bit like pasting portraits of John A. McDonald, Pierre Trudeau and Stephen Harper on our vehicles for Canada Day. 

There was a souq selling local crafts and a stage was set up around the middle of the Corniche hosting entertainment including traditional Arabic dancing, where lines of men sang while dancing with thin, cane-like sticks.

Traditional Arabic Dancers

Carol gets Stringed

The sun goes down before 6pm these days and as darkness fell the activity became more frenetic. Police were distributed along the Corniche to control the flow of traffic and try to prevent youngsters from falling under moving cars; their actions seemed polite and sympathetic though. We walked along to the Emirates Palace Hotel, bathed in patriotic red and green light, lasers flying from its main dome. As we walked back to the main beach, young boys dodged through the crowd randomly spraying string and snow, most often in your face; Carol seemed to attract much activity dressed as she was in the colours of the UAE flag - many asked her if they could take her photo, but she also became a target!

The symbol of the UAE is everywhere – not just the flag but also the ‘Spirit Of The Union’ graphic showing the seven Sheikhs who formed the UAE alliance in 1971, all passed now. Sheikh Zayed, considered the father, is the one on the left.

The cars on the Corniche drove slower as kids hung out of the roofs and windows firing for all they were worth; string and gunk building up on the cars (and people); the road was littered with debris, cans, ribbon, paper and dead string…

Finally the sky lit up with fireworks; half a dozen identical displays fired off all along Lulu Island so that no matter where you stood you could see it all, full on. 

Then it was time to try and drive home!

Emirates Palace Hotel - 2 December 2013

Maitha's Getting Married

My friend Maitha is getting married. ‘I wanted a small wedding,’ she told me, ‘I was thinking of inviting around 250-300 people…’

‘Women?’ I asked.

‘Of course, women…’ 

The wedding ceremony is a ‘women only’ event in Emirati culture, with men only appearing at the end, when the groom’s immediate family bring him onto the stage and place him on the throne, next to his bride, for the final ceremony. This ceremony is the Aurs (urse), the final stage before beginning married life.

‘But, my mother said: ”What, my first daughter is getting married with such a modest affair…? You have become too Westernized!”

‘How many people were you thinking of inviting?’

“Seventeen hundred and fifty,” my mother said.

‘Mum…, you don’t know that many people!’

They settled on eight hundred and fifty.

What about the men? ‘Oh they don’t even have a ceremony sometimes; the groom’s immediate (male) family will invite a few of his friends and go for a meal. Then the friends will leave and the father and brothers will take him to the finale of the women’s ceremony.’ Often though, weddings have male parties too, although not as large as the women’s and not in the same hall. Men and women do not celebrate together here.

The bride will spend much of the day getting ready and she will be escorted to her party at 10:30pm, although it will have commenced at around 8pm.

The party sees the women arrive in their black abayas (gowns) and shelahs (headscarves) but discard them to reveal evening gowns, ornate jewellery and finely coiffed hair. They keep their scarves close by though, to use when the groom arrives.

The young girls dress to impress, hoping to find a husband, moving to the music in front of the stage; there, they can be seen by all the mothers and sisters.

Maitha: ‘I found a beautiful dress for my cousin’s wedding – I was really pleased with how I looked in it. But, I came home from work a few days before the party and my sister was admiring herself in it.

“Hey, I bought that dress to wear myself,” I told her, although she did look nice in it…

“Oh, you don’t mind if I wear it do you; …you know?” …Yes, she wore it.’

The men’s party starts at around 6:30pm and often includes traditional dancing. Most participants leave after the meal, some as early as 9:30, with only the groom’s close family remaining.

Engagements are not uncommon here but are falling out of favour. Marriage commences with a ceremony called Al Melcha. Melcha takes place a month or two before the (Aurs) wedding party and is where the marriage bond is signed. Unlike the wedding, this ceremony takes place in the groom’s house, or a hall; often he has a party with his friends first and once they leave he goes with his family into a separate room to meet his bride and her family. There they sign the contract in front of witnesses and a Muslim official.

Once the contract is signed at Melcha, the couple is married, but they do not move in together and do not consummate their relationship; they do plan their Aurs though.

The groom’s family generally pays for the wedding and it’s expensive, although the bride generally chooses the arrangements. One fellow at work paid $10,000 (₤7,000) just for the throne, then there’s wedding jewellery, hall rental, the party, etc… 

The importance of the Aurs planning must not be underestimated – in rare cases divorces, so called Melcha-divorces, can result from disagreements over Aurs arrangements.

The groom’s father and brothers bring him to join his bride on the stage at around midnight and then leave; the couple pose for pictures and cut the cake before leaving for their honeymoon. Finally, in the early hours, the women’s party ends. Married, at last…

Best wishes to Maitha for a long and happy marriage.

Sunset on the beach - Ras Al Khaimah