What Goa is to Mumbai, Al Ain is to Dubai — a well-developed holiday destination offering footsore shopaholics a feast of rest and recreation opportunities History is likely to prove that the rulers of the tiny port city state of Dubai (pop. 3.49 million) were considerably wiser than the sheikhs and princes of other states, nations and kingdoms of the Middle East. For over four decades, Dubai has progressively reduced its dependence on crude oil revenue and has metamorphosed into a thriving entrepot and shopping mecca attracting shopaholics from around the world, and South Asia in particular. Last year an estimated 900,000 visitors from India visited or transited through Dubai and the number is growing at nearly 15 percent per year. Contrary to popular opinion, there’s more to Dubai than mere shopping and gourmandising. For a start, it’s important for visitors to appreciate this port city is a self-administered constituent of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a federation of seven independent sheikhdoms which represent the liberal accommodating spirit of Islam, widely perceived as uncompromisingly militant. Unlike most Middle Eastern countries, the emirates with their high tolerance of tourists from West and East have a thriving tourism industry. With an aggregate population of 9.89 million, the UAE comprises Abu Dhabi (Abu Zaby), Ajman, Dubai, Al Fujayrah, Raas al Khaymah, Ash Shariqah aka Sharjah, and Umm al Qaywayn and sprawls over an area of 83,600 sq km with a 1,318 km coastline. Although contemporary Dubai is also promoted as a holiday destination in its own right with white sandy beaches stretching to the horizon, exclusive hotels, Ali Baba’s cave style shopping malls and activities such as snow-skiing, desert safari, camel and ostrich racing, dune and wadi bashing, the UAE’s prime holiday destination is Al Ain, the tourist town of the emirate of Abu Dhabi, a 90-minute drive (144 km) from Dubai. What Goa is to Mumbai, Al Ain is to Dubai − a well-developed holiday destination offering footsore shopaholics a feast of rest and recreation opportunities. Built around an oasis close to the Dubai-Oman border, Al Ain (pop. 766,000) is a green low-rise city sited in the shade of the Jebel Hafeet mountains. Surrounded by awesome red sand dunes and the craggy Jebel Hafeet range of mountains, Al Ain is linked by excellent motorable roads to Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah. The drive from Dubai to Al Ain down an eight-lane autobahn-style motorway is just over an hour. Blessed with generous groundwater resources and self-renewing aquifers, Al Ain is one of the most fertile agricultural areas in the UAE, often described as the ‘garden city of the Gulf’. In Arabic Al Ain translates into ‘spring’ and the region with its ancient but efficient non-mechanised falaj irrigation system boasts sprawling date plantations. Al Ain has a history which can be traced back over four millennia as evidenced by numerous archaeological excavation sites which date settlements to around 3000 BC. Its more recent history is centered around seven restored plantations or oases where 42…
