Introduction
Abu Dhabi is pretty big, but its local population accounts for only 20 percent of the people there. Why?
* Almost no Arabs work in the service sector, and most don't work at all. Taxis are driven by Pakistanis, check-out counters are operated by Filipinos, the waiters are from India, the flight attendants from East Asia.
* Because the Arabs don't work, the malls are full of Arab guys all day. They sit around smoking hookas and hitting on girls.
* There is a "culture" in the UAE in the sense that people there think differently and act differently from people in other places, but there's almost no culture in the sense of art, music, literature, theater, etc. The only music is Arab dance pop. The streets are empty during the day - there are no festivals or musicians or whatever.
* We went to a resort in Dubai that was one massive artificial lake, in which the rooms, restaurants and shops were accessible by ferries. To get from the restaurant to your room, for instance, you'd wait for the ferry to come by, hop on it, wade around in a circle, then hop off at your room/island.
* In the middle of Abu Dhabi is the famous White Fortress, which the White Castle burger chain appears to have borrowed liberally from. Famous as it is, no one in Abu Dhabi goes there, taxi drivers don't know it, and we were the only ones in it for the hour or so we looked around.
* Almost no one smiles in Abu Dhabi. I once walked down the beach on a beautiful day and passed a father walking his little girl. He was grimacing the whole time, as if nothing pissed him off more than having to walk his daughter along the beach on a warm sunny day.
