The most genuine of UAE sports events is a domestic football match. Perhaps the national team is a bigger deal than the upper-tier clubs … but not always. Especially when it is a leading rivalry, like Al Jazira home to Al Wahda, Abu Dhabi rivals whose stadiums are about three miles apart. When opportunities like […]

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  So, our visitor wanted to see a camel up close. Generally, interactions with camels here come as part of a “heritage” package that likely includes tea on a stretch of carpet inside a tent, a falcon or two, a “dune bashing” ride in someone’s SUV … and a ride on a camel. A very […]

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I’m a bit slow on the uptake. Or maybe I haven’t been down to the water enough. After 4.5 years, I have decided what Abu Dhabi … well, actually, the whole of the UAE … should focus on as its business model, After The Oil. The beach. It won’t bring in megabucks, like oil has […]

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When a visitor arrives in the UAE, you pretty much have to take that person to a Dubai mall. Or two. Dubai is about shopping and malls even more than it is about top-end hotels and tall buildings. Dubai’s motto: “I shop, therefore I am.” The plan was to go to one mall, but Dubai […]

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I know just enough about wind-powered sailing to have deep respect for those who do it. Those who cover great distances over blue water. Distances so great they eventually turn a lap of the planet. I find that mind-boggling. Around the world, however, is the idea behind the Volvo Ocean Race, originally known as the […]

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Up for nomination? Only those countries I have never visited. I have been inside several I would like to see further … like Spain. I’ve done Barcelona but not Madrid. But these 10 are “never been there at all, and changing planes in the airport doesn’t count”. Let’s do them Letterman style, counting down, with […]

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A few of these surprised me. Starting with No. 1. Other surprises came from the cities not on the list. These are the 10 most heavily traveled routes, leaving from Abu Dhabi, per Etihad Airways, the government-owned, Abu Dhabi-based carrier — which just had a record year, as this National story notes, by number of […]

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999 magazine is published in English by a UAE government ministry, and the December issue had an interesting bit of information that makes for a handy list, too. (This was picked up by nearly every media outlet in the UAE, including The National. With comment from local law officials who make the point that ignorance […]

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We expected the one, but not the other. Yes, it’s perverse to live in Abu Dhabi and fly 3,100 miles to Thailand looking for sun, but we thought we would find it here, and we have not. We also were confident of some excellent Thai food and that, at least, has come to fruition.

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On the edge of the grounds of the hotel where we are staying is a raised platform, about 30 inches high, perhaps 10 feet wide and 30 deep, and over it is a canopy, so that most of the rain stays off the deck. A few feet from the platform is a sign advertising manicures, […]

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