Yesterday the weather was finally clement enough for us to venture out to Abu Dhabi's new public beach on the Corniche. The opening of this beach has not been without controversy. First it was free and open to all. Then it was segregated into "bachelor" and "family" sections to prevent harassment. Finally an entrance fee was instituted...with men being charged double if they were not in a group that contained women (a "family"). I'm sure some of these things can be attributed to the Michelle Palmer sex-on-the-beach-in-Dubai scandal, but authorities have also been quite open about the fact that a major motivation is to keep the labourers off the beach by making it unaffordable for them. So now they are relegated to walking the corniche and staring over the wall until a guard comes and shoos them off. The UAE always seems to come up with some way of making even the simplest pleasures complicated.
All these reservations aside, the new beach is very nice and we had an excellent day. We packed a picnic lunch and were there from mid-afternoon to early evening. The weather is still quite hot, and the water is quite warm, but there was enough of a breeze to make you comfortable with the temperatures if you stayed in the shade. The Heritage Village is right across the water, so the calls to prayer from the mosque and the music from the Eid celebrations floated across the water off and on the whole time.
The beach is open until 10 at night, and it's beautiful after sunset. The paths are all lit up with ground lights, and the beach umbrellas and shaded benches (permanent structures on the sand) have built-in lights so you have enough light to have a picnic by. I would love to pack up and come for dinner one night. It's less than 10 minutes to drive there for us...and it's also right across the corniche from my work, so we are well situated for frequent visits!
Here are some cell phone pics of our day:
I did some henna for Eid a couple days prior...so I took a picture of it with the beach as background.
Me on the sand:
A shot of both of us.
Hi Darcy,
ReplyDeleteHow are you? I don't know if you remember me, but I use to dance with you at UCPA. I hope all is well with you and your family and that you are enjoying your new venture. I hope you don't mind that I have your email address, but I asked Jamie for it, because I am interested in teaching over there. I just remembered that I have a cousin that is also teaching in Dubai, so I will have family there if I can find a job.
I am a certified mathematics teacher, grades 9th - 12th with a master’s degree, and I have been teaching all grades for 18 years. I would love to teach in Dubai. If you or your husband could advise me how to do that I would be truly grateful. I am looking forward to your response.
Take care and God bless,
Yvonne King
Sorry, but forgot to give you my mail email address Darcy.
ReplyDeleteYvonne
yvonnek114@bellsouth.net