Sunday, January 27th - Abu Dhabi

I have to admit that I lost my notebook with all my notes and all these countries are starting to run together so my stories might be a bit out of sequence or mixed up, but you get the general idea.

OK. I thought Qatar was crazy.

The Abu Dhabi skyline is completely ridiculous. If Qatar was from a space movie, this one is from another universe. I really can't believe these places exist. This is not the Middle East you are seeing on the news. There is NO crime. NO unemployment. In Abu Dhabi if two people are having a fist fight on the street, the police don't care who started it. Both are deported within 12 hours and not permitted to ever return. That pretty well keeps things under control. Of course you can't drink, partake in drugs etc. Of course, things differ from country to country, even within the seven Emirates. But without exception there is very little crime...next to none. In Abu Dhabi if you are a foreigner and out of work for more than an month, you are asked to leave. Of course, there is work everywhere here. Tourism is really just starting and they are crying for people at the management level or even things like tour guides. The tourism potential in enormous. Locals all have jobs courtesy of the government...or don't work because they are from the ruling family.

Our tour guide for the day was Mohamed. A unique fellow to say the least. He'd be about 25 and was stylin'. He was quite a hoot. He took us to this Island that they are developing to be bigger and better than Palm Island in Dubai.

Here is the Palm Island website.

http://www.palmsales.ca/

The plans are, again...out of this world. I can't quite accept what I am seeing. They are building complete cities within cities. Each country gets more and more 'out of this world'. Sorry to keep saying that, but it is the truth. There is no need to go to Mars or to the future. The future is here!!!!

Mohamad, our guide in Abu Dhabi.

Abu Dhabi skyline.