Tuesday, 27 October 2015

Difference of Opinion


The other day my sister called me up to ask if Abu Dhabi was an essential part of the itinerary on the sightseeing map of UAE. Their tour operator had squeezed better options in Dubai in the time they would require to travel the 4 hours up and down in the four night package.
Now I was a resident of Abu Dhabi for almost three years and one can understand the attachment living in a place long enough. I also consider Abu Dhabi a better place with wider roads (including service roads) planted with infinite rows of dates and meadows enough to remember for the rest of your life. It has tall trees alongside that can bathe you with scented flowers if you were to walk along those footpaths and flower bedecked roundabouts that are maintained all throughout the year. It has such a visually charming beauty with beautifully laid out neighbourhoods and cute villas and a typically rich Arabic lifestyle.
What do I tell my sister? I cannot explain on phone the nuances of staying in a place so long. How can I tell her the difference between modernity and ethnicity? Dubai has the tallest city in the world. It has a mall you wouldn’t be able to walk in a day. It has a palm city that is built on water and which is a paradise. It has a desert with an unbelievable safari. You can spend days appreciating the tall buildings and the great towers with external glass lifts.
All of this occupied my mind while conversing on the phone. Finally I left it to her to decide on her own after having spoken about the avant-garde Dubai and the charming Abu Dhabi.