The venue itself could not have been more promising; Abu Dhabi's world renowned 7-star Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental hotel with its cool, cavernous lobby, a classical pianist gently practicing his foreplay on the ivories and herbal teas to welcome all those who crossed the threshold. We had been summoned by the most respected of Saudi clients to solve a contractual wrangle which had escalated via increasingly irritated emails.
The Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental Abu Dhabi;
quite possibly the only place to buy Snickers bars from a solid gold vending machine.
On the other hand, The Palace's $1 Million Deal will help you to spend US$1m in 7 days with a private jet, chauffeur-driven car and personal butler.
(NB: it is not clear which of these you get to keep afterwards, if any)
(NB: it is not clear which of these you get to keep afterwards, if any)
The pre-meeting etiquette required a round of personal introductions during which I met the most impeccably tailored, groomed and manicured gentleman in two decades of globetrotting. If it were possible, his Oxford accent was even more precisely clipped than his beard.
On learning my background the gentleman advised how unimpressed he was with the UK's government of the day. I conceded that most of my countrymen probably shared his disappointment. Without skipping a beat he revealed that while he had no qualms indulging his wives' request for a £37million Knightsbridge property from which to complete two weeks of shopping each Christmas, he thought the taxes levied on his purchase were quite scandalous. When I lamented that if only I had such problems, I might be able to offer some advice, he took a moment to consider if this was my veiled contempt or just my unfiltered honesty. Either way his subtext was clear; in the brinksmanship which was about to unfold, we were the bottom of the food chain. In these waters he was a shark, we barely ranked as shrimp and we were totally out of our depth.
During the three days of negotiation which followed we had no time to walk the gleaming beaches of the Corniche, to cool off in the inviting, turquoise pools of the hotel or to explore the majestic white mosque whose white domes gleamed on the horizon.
The Corniche;
8km of pristine, artificial, lifeguarded beach, segregated for families, singles and the general public
We flew home satisfied with a difficult job well done, totally unaware that everything we had negotiated was being vetoed by our own executive management, so that by the time we landed we had effectively wasted 3 days of the client's patience and lost all credibility for the rest of the entire project. There would be no recovering from this mistake.
Almost ten years later and in the middle of Ramadan, Abu Dhabi's gentle March heat is still balmy enough to walk the beaches by day while the nights are warm enough to eat alfresco under the horns of a downturned crescent moon. The archaeological evidence suggests this is pretty much what waves of previous travelers have been doing here on their way out of Africa for the last 400,000 years. Back then much of the Arabian Peninsular would have offered lakes, lush savanna and wild game to nourish hunting migrants before the vegetation eventually succumbed to the eastward expansion of the Sahara.
UNESCO Prehistoric Sites
Today the emirate of Abu Dhabi is something of an elder brother to the six other Emirates, holding the presidency and about three quarters of the territory of the United Arab Emirates. That said, the southern 20% of its lands have been lost to The Empty Quarter which hosts little more than the world's largest continuous sand dune.
'Abu Dhabi' means 'Father of The Gazelle'; a reference to the sparse wildlife which survives here and the long history of nomadic herding which kept people busy before the more lucrative trading of high value items such as frankincense, myrrh and pearls between the Orient and the Mediterranean. A patient search for oil started on land as early as the mid 1930s but it was not until 1958 that the first field was discovered offshore at a depth of some 2.5km. Within a mere 60 years this allowed a modest farming and trading population of about the size of Wales (3m people) to industrialise virtually overnight. Unlike Wales this process allowed the nation to accrue assets worth a somewhat immodest 1 trillion US$. That's twice the GDP of Norway, one third the GDP of the UK or half the annual US defence budget.
Today the emirate of Abu Dhabi is something of an elder brother to the six other Emirates, holding the presidency and about three quarters of the territory of the United Arab Emirates. That said, the southern 20% of its lands have been lost to The Empty Quarter which hosts little more than the world's largest continuous sand dune.
'Abu Dhabi' means 'Father of The Gazelle'; a reference to the sparse wildlife which survives here and the long history of nomadic herding which kept people busy before the more lucrative trading of high value items such as frankincense, myrrh and pearls between the Orient and the Mediterranean. A patient search for oil started on land as early as the mid 1930s but it was not until 1958 that the first field was discovered offshore at a depth of some 2.5km. Within a mere 60 years this allowed a modest farming and trading population of about the size of Wales (3m people) to industrialise virtually overnight. Unlike Wales this process allowed the nation to accrue assets worth a somewhat immodest 1 trillion US$. That's twice the GDP of Norway, one third the GDP of the UK or half the annual US defence budget.
Little surprise then that the drab, close-packed, low-rise concrete boxes of Abu Dhabi's 1970s down-town have been rapidly overtaken by by sprawling, iconic, skyscrapers and executive marinas as each new development pushes the coastline incrementally further out into the sea.
The towers are connected by vast new malls hosting rich and poor alike as they seek refuge from the searing desert heat, which occasionally tops 52'C during summer.
Gulf Today
The wealth of Abu Dhabi is obvious from its twelve-lane highways, the private residences styled like European castles, not to mention the Bentley coupes and Lamborghinis used to casually pop out to the local supermarket. While many countries cannot afford to desalinate water even for drinking, Abu Dhabi can afford to irrigate it's leafy suburbs with unlimited supplies of the stuff.
The wealth of Abu Dhabi is obvious from its twelve-lane highways, the private residences styled like European castles, not to mention the Bentley coupes and Lamborghinis used to casually pop out to the local supermarket. While many countries cannot afford to desalinate water even for drinking, Abu Dhabi can afford to irrigate it's leafy suburbs with unlimited supplies of the stuff.
How to put this enormous wealth to good use, to leave a grander legacy than one-stop malls and prestige office space has clearly exercised the finest minds. Like latter-day Médicis, Abu Dhabi has embraced education and the arts.
The Art Newspaper
Outstanding amongst several initiatives is the Louvre Abu Dhabi, floating in its own reflection pool beneath the shade of a vast latticed saucer where visitors can walk in a shade similar to that of a real oasis.
Outstanding amongst several initiatives is the Louvre Abu Dhabi, floating in its own reflection pool beneath the shade of a vast latticed saucer where visitors can walk in a shade similar to that of a real oasis.
The over-arching theme of the exhibit is the similarity found between dispirate cultures all over the world. For example; death masks of beaten gold from Peru, Sudan and the Philippines; an idea common to people separated by time and distance.
Laying about 15km out of town, the Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque hosts the gleaming white domes which can be seen rising above the horizon from most vantage points around Abu Dhabi.
Designed with a capacity for over 40,000 worshipers, the mosque covers a vast 30 acres and came with a price tag of over US$2bn in 2007. Unlike traditional mosques where decoration is limited to patterns, every part of this mosque is decorated with prolific plant and flower designs covering floors, walls and ceilings.
The skill of the artwork is only understood when realising that the designs are not merely painted or etched into the stonework but actually inlaid into the marble.
The carpet in the main prayer hall weighs in at 35t and is thought to be the world's largest.
Coming as it does from Iran, one presumes it simply flew in ?
