For more than three years of my six year stay in Al Ain the garden city of UAE my fifth floor apt balcony looked out into the real center of downtown city .
Sheikh Khaleefa road was the main road in Al Ain lined with commercial shops .offices .malls .restaurants .coffee bars .shavarma centers .perfume shops.mobile shops.high end watches showroom.etc
Best part of it was it really lived to its name as garden city with neat greenery colourful flowers huge trees all along all ro...ads in the city .
Sheikh Khaleefa road was the main road in Al Ain lined with commercial shops .offices .malls .restaurants .coffee bars .shavarma centers .perfume shops.mobile shops.high end watches showroom.etc
Best part of it was it really lived to its name as garden city with neat greenery colourful flowers huge trees all along all ro...ads in the city .
The road had one big signal just near my balcony a busy one which was a round about earlier.
It was mesmerising to watch the cars go around the RA so fast but never touching each other , as all drivers are well trained in UAE
Initially when I learnt driving I was not very confident of others stopping once I enter the RA as they come at same speed !
Sulaiman my driving instructor used to tell me dr hari please be assured they will stop as they are trained to drive in UAE and not India
He was true
But still accidents did happen as the RA was so busy , finally traffic lights was a better option .
Though in summer the balcony wasnt a very pleasant place to be in ,in winter it was a grandstand to watch the ballet happening down
Fast cars at times real groovy ones
Lamborghinis
Even Rolls royces werent strange in Al Ain home to a big local Arab population some from very rich families too .
Huge SUV with Arab youngsters would cruise the service roads till late nights stopping at well known famous Shawarma bars .
They would sit in and get served and then move on .
No one would interfere with another and all were polite to each other .
Expatriates carried on with total freedom and even at midnight women could walk safely
The huge mercedes bus of Al Ain transport plied the roads till late night mostly empty as only expatriates without cars used them .
At that time I owned a lengthy camry an American model previously owned by a Sheikina !
It felt good to drive in the royal warmth till I sold it to get a Nissan Xtrail .
Though my hospital was around twenty km away I still liked the downtown apartment as it was very homely and my kerala neighbours Abbas family were like family to me too
All the exotic food cooked in thier house would find way to me ,the doctor from naddu or from home .
I would go for long walks in the late evenings have a sandwich in one of the many mallu sandwich shops
The taste of those burgers and french fries would beat any mc donald or KFC flat and i really miss them these days .
My family kept coming every six months as they should to maintain the resident visa they had also like the center of toen better than the villa I moved into later nearer to my hospitsl but a bit quieter area .
And thus time flew and now Al Ain is just a sweet memory .
It was mesmerising to watch the cars go around the RA so fast but never touching each other , as all drivers are well trained in UAE
Initially when I learnt driving I was not very confident of others stopping once I enter the RA as they come at same speed !
Sulaiman my driving instructor used to tell me dr hari please be assured they will stop as they are trained to drive in UAE and not India
He was true
But still accidents did happen as the RA was so busy , finally traffic lights was a better option .
Though in summer the balcony wasnt a very pleasant place to be in ,in winter it was a grandstand to watch the ballet happening down
Fast cars at times real groovy ones
Lamborghinis
Even Rolls royces werent strange in Al Ain home to a big local Arab population some from very rich families too .
Huge SUV with Arab youngsters would cruise the service roads till late nights stopping at well known famous Shawarma bars .
They would sit in and get served and then move on .
No one would interfere with another and all were polite to each other .
Expatriates carried on with total freedom and even at midnight women could walk safely
The huge mercedes bus of Al Ain transport plied the roads till late night mostly empty as only expatriates without cars used them .
At that time I owned a lengthy camry an American model previously owned by a Sheikina !
It felt good to drive in the royal warmth till I sold it to get a Nissan Xtrail .
Though my hospital was around twenty km away I still liked the downtown apartment as it was very homely and my kerala neighbours Abbas family were like family to me too
All the exotic food cooked in thier house would find way to me ,the doctor from naddu or from home .
I would go for long walks in the late evenings have a sandwich in one of the many mallu sandwich shops
The taste of those burgers and french fries would beat any mc donald or KFC flat and i really miss them these days .
My family kept coming every six months as they should to maintain the resident visa they had also like the center of toen better than the villa I moved into later nearer to my hospitsl but a bit quieter area .
And thus time flew and now Al Ain is just a sweet memory .
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