Highlights from the Middle East: The Best of Abu Dhabi
Hidden beauty of a local souk
Fresh spices, colorful smells
Every room doused in some unidentifiable Arabic perfume
Beaches of sand and dunes in the distance
Somewhere camels roam along fenced off roads
Cover your face and embellish your inner beauty
Dance to the faint call of a goat skinned drum
Beating, breathing
One of my favorite things in Abu Dhabi was the beautiful local souks - markets and markets - each one with their own personalities. I ventured out to find a carpet souk, and in the end found a better store in the city center where where the store owner sole beautiful Pakistani carpets at a very good price! We also drove around the Al Mina area looking for the plant souks and pottery souks - beautiful handicraft items that really bring out a sense of the traditional cultures.
Beautiful view of the amazing Tilal Liwa Hotel outside of Liwa, UAE. This is near the border of Saudi Arabia, surrounded by beautiful orange, red and yellow sand dunes, and home to one of the largest sand dunes in the world (third largest!). The area's most popular hotel is Liwa Hotel in the center, but Tilal is a gem and even tho its a 30 minute drive from the city - I highly recommend it! Wonderful staff and much more lavish for the same price! There are also activities to do at the hotel, including four wheel desert safaris, sunrise and sunset gazing over the dunes, belly dancer shows, and traditional food and music. Such a lovely place!
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@originalworks
I haven't travelled to an Arabic country yet. You're feeding my traveller spirit. "Go explore!"
I didn't know they had such shops. It reminds me of the stories I read as a kid, something like 1001 Nights in Arabia, I think it's called.
I do listen to a lot of Arabic music. I don't know why. It just falls on my lap. I was listening to some random French music and then Spotify just threw in a recommendation of a French lady singing with an Arabic man and I just followed that stream until I had an Arab man ask me why my last.fm was playing his favorite album.
Your pictures are very nice. I hope to see more of them in the future, together with your anecdotes of adventures abroad. They are mesmerising and very interesting.
@originalworks
To be honest, in Abu Dhabi these "souks" or markets are harder to come by, more so off the beaten tourist map. But they do exist in Dubai also, although they are probably much more locally prevalent and part of the culture in countries like Turkey, and many of souks in UAE are driven by goods from Turkey, Parkistan, India, etc. Local Emirates are typically not running these shops, so it is hard to know where the goods are coming from all the time. Arabic culture is incredible, and I cant wait to experience more of it!
And I love Arabic music as well - you should check out Sufi music - I learned about it in Egypt and the images and videos of it being performed is incredible!