A Day in Al Ain

Or that time Mike got lice*The first two years I lived in Abu Dhabi I only made a few short visits to Al Ain. I was either visiting the zoo (horrid, horrid place), or staying with a friend overnight before heading to Oman. I didn’t really do much sightseeing.

Finally, with just a few weeks left in the country, I managed to do a bit of proper sightseeing. It was the day I took these engagement photos for some friends. We decided that if we were going out in the dunes, we might as well spend the day in Al Ain until golden hour.

Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that the white balance on my camera was set to something funky. The first several photos I took turned out blue!!

Our first stop was Jebel Hafeet, the most well-known mountain in the UAE. A lot of people think it’s the highest mountain (it’s 1,249m), but actually some other no-name mountain wins that prize (it’s 1,910m).

At Jebel Hafeet it was really windy and hot. We didn’t stay too long. Just long enough to get a few photos and to play on the playground.

Next, we visited the Sheik Zayed Palace Museum. You can wander around the compound and explore many of the rooms. The rooms are decorated in the simple and traditional way so it’s easy to imagine what the palace would have been like 50+ years ago. The palace was built in 1937 and Sheik Zayed and his family lived here until 1966.

Our last stop in Al Ain was at the camel souk. This was an interesting experience. One I would not like to repeat. Basically, we drove up and of course were stared at. Normal. Then we were separated and led to different sections of the souk. One man unlocked a pen and ushered us in. Another man was very angry that this happened. We were then led to a different pen. That’s when one man took my camera and proceeded to take the following photos:

Then he demanded 100dhs ($27). We of course were not going to pay that rate. It started to get a bit touchy so Mike held him off with a few dirhams while we ran for the car. Safely inside the car, Mike noticed that his hands smelled bad. Like, really bad. Like, possibly urine. All from handing back the man’s gutra that was placed on his head. No good.

At this point we grabbed a quick bite to eat and raced into the dunes for the photo shoot. I’d call it a pretty productive day!

xo, jill

*Hehe, just kidding. Mike didn’t get bugs!! But he did refer to that photo as, “Oh yeah, there’s me getting lice!”