Shortly after I arrived in Abu Dhabi two years ago, a friend stayed on a 10-hour stopover in the capital. I didn't have the slightest idea of how to best spend that time, and we ended up at the cafe in Emirates Palace, which was hardly her cup of tea. She has hiked through the jungles of Peru and scaled Mt Etna in the snow, and is little impressed with star-rated extravagance. And, even though I was paying, in general she doesn't like places that require spending a lot of money.
But I just hadn't been in the UAE long enough to be aware of all it has to offer budget travellers and when she left Abu Dhabi that evening she said, to my chagrin, that she had no intention of returning.
One recent Saturday afternoon, however, I found myself at home wondering, if this opportunity were to present itself again, how I could be a better guide? So I rang up a friend and asked her what she was doing for the next 10 hours or so. She accepted my appeal to spend that time seeking out the best Abu Dhabi has to offer for little or no money.
Well, I did make one investment that will likely pay dividends for months to come: I rode over to Orlando Sports (www.orlandosports.com; 02 443 7356) in Al Wadha Mall where I found a badminton set for US$50 (Dh185). You see, I am not big on swimming and suntans, but I wanted to find a way to enjoy one of the greatest assets of living on this island of Abu Dhabi: we are blessed with good, clean beaches and almost six months of temperate and nearly cloudless weather that is the envy of New York or London. There are few other places in the world where I would feel as comfortable as on the public beach behind Emirates Palace when I left my wallet and car keys in my trousers on the sand and played badminton for a few hours without thinking of them for an instant. And no one catcalled my friend. Copacabana may have a catchy name but it doesn't compete in terms of hassle-free security.
And, instead of the occasional syringes you find washed ashore in Coney Island, here I was surrounded by families sprawled out on blankets with shisha pipes nestled in the sand nearby.
After we'd worked up an appetite we decided to take advantage of one of the other boons that Abu Dhabi offers - mounds of inexpensive restaurants representing the home cooking of all the ethnicities which have settled here. When I lived in New York I was a restaurant columnist and would scour the boroughs for authentic Indian food. Here in Abu Dhabi, one can not only find a dozen Indian restaurants in a single block, but each will serve the cuisine of a specific state in India. I can go for the coconut curries of Kerala followed by a Hyderabadi biryani in one outing just by walking a few shop fronts down. And there are wonderful Punjabi, Ethiopian, Sudanese, Yemeni, Lebanese, Indonesian, Filipino and Uzbeki restaurants too that would have New York foodies in fits.
In this case I headed to Arab Udupi (02 631 9676) on Hamdan Street behind Sun & Sand Sports where a counter window serves traditional pani puri, a snack found throughout India. The type at this humble eatery, however, hails from Bombay. Pani puri is not only delicious but fun to eat. Prepared correctly, the seller should have near him a pile of hollow, thin, golfball-sized fried shells with a hole poked in the top. Then he fills the inside with a dollop of mashed potatoes, a few stewed chick peas, a mix of chopped onions and coriander and a few drips of sweet tamarind sauce. He will then pour in pani - a spicy, tangy water infused with tamarind, mint and chillies. Then he passes the potent ball through the window to the customer in a metal dish. The pani puri must be eaten immediately because it is a ticking time bomb that will collapse into a terrible mess once the water begins to seep through the shell.
At Udupi you can stand there passing the metal dish back and forth with the food vendor, having it refilled five times for only $1 (Dh4) and the experience is among the most authentic recreations I've found outside of India.
When we were finished, I was pleased that in my short stint as tour guide I had already provided sport and a tasty meal. Next, I sought to add entertainment.
In addition to there being food from all over the world in Abu Dhabi thanks to its large immigrant community, there are also a variety of venues showcasing performers from the different nationalities represented in the UAE. The Emirates Plaza hotel (www.emiratesplaza.net) in the Tourist Club area caters to these communities. Every night of the week, for example, a six-piece East African band plays at the Mombasa nightclub situated on the third floor. We sat close to the stage and watched the performers sing Ethiopian pop tunes in Amharic and Tigrina and dance in a style melding western and Ethiopian moves. Occasionally, one of the patrons rose to take to the floor and shimmied shoulders while pecking his or her neck in a dance that can be seen at any club in Addis Ababa. From there we went downstairs to the second floor where a singer was crooning Bollywood oldies in Hindi besides a keyboardist and a mridanga drum player.
After two stops we were ready to call it a night, but in the same hotel there are also restaurants and nightclubs with Nepali, Filipino, Sri Lankan, Iranian, Arabic, Punjabi and South Indian music. And on most weeknights these hidden wonders charge no admission fee. While some of them seem a bit rundown, if they were transplanted to New York they would likely be taken over by hipsters seeking so-called world music. And best of all, for budget travellers, the most authentic places here also are some of the cheapest.
The next time that a friend hops off a plane on a citybreak, I'll be spoilt for choice for things to do.
lkummer@thenational.ae
The specs: 2019 Chevrolet Bolt EV
Price, base: Dh138,000 (estimate)
Engine: 60kWh battery
Transmission: Single-speed Electronic Precision Shift
Power: 204hp
Torque: 360Nm
Range: 520km (claimed)
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
Sanju
Produced: Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani
Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal, Paresh Rawal, Anushka Sharma, Manish’s Koirala, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Jim Sarbh, Boman Irani
Rating: 3.5 stars
Joker: Folie a Deux
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: 2/5
Sonchiriya
Director: Abhishek Chaubey
Producer: RSVP Movies, Azure Entertainment
Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Manoj Bajpayee, Ashutosh Rana, Bhumi Pednekar, Ranvir Shorey
Rating: 3/5
The bio
Date of Birth: April 25, 1993
Place of Birth: Dubai, UAE
Marital Status: Single
School: Al Sufouh in Jumeirah, Dubai
University: Emirates Airline National Cadet Programme and Hamdan University
Job Title: Pilot, First Officer
Number of hours flying in a Boeing 777: 1,200
Number of flights: Approximately 300
Hobbies: Exercising
Nicest destination: Milan, New Zealand, Seattle for shopping
Least nice destination: Kabul, but someone has to do it. It’s not scary but at least you can tick the box that you’ve been
Favourite place to visit: Dubai, there’s no place like home
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Petrarch: Everywhere a Wanderer
Christopher Celenza,
Reaktion Books
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
Cases of coronavirus in the GCC as of March 15
Saudi Arabia – 103 infected, 0 dead, 1 recovered
UAE – 86 infected, 0 dead, 23 recovered
Bahrain – 210 infected, 0 dead, 44 recovered
Kuwait – 104 infected, 0 dead, 5 recovered
Qatar – 337 infected, 0 dead, 4 recovered
Oman – 19 infected, 0 dead, 9 recovered
ABU%20DHABI'S%20KEY%20TOURISM%20GOALS%3A%20BY%20THE%20NUMBERS
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Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hoopla%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EDate%20started%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMarch%202023%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Jacqueline%20Perrottet%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2010%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EPre-seed%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20required%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%24500%2C000%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Top%2010%20most%20competitive%20economies
%3Cp%3E1.%20Singapore%0D%3Cbr%3E2.%20Switzerland%0D%3Cbr%3E3.%20Denmark%0D%3Cbr%3E4.%20Ireland%0D%3Cbr%3E5.%20Hong%20Kong%0D%3Cbr%3E6.%20Sweden%0D%3Cbr%3E7.%20UAE%0D%3Cbr%3E8.%20Taiwan%0D%3Cbr%3E9.%20Netherlands%0D%3Cbr%3E10.%20Norway%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
Mina Cup winners
Under 12 – Minerva Academy
Under 14 – Unam Pumas
Under 16 – Fursan Hispania
Under 18 – Madenat
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Dunki
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Bob%20Marley%3A%20One%20Love
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Zayed Sustainability Prize
Seven%20Winters%20in%20Tehran
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%20%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Steffi%20Niederzoll%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Reyhaneh%20Jabbari%2C%20Shole%20Pakravan%2C%20Zar%20Amir%20Ebrahimi%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Developer: Treyarch, Raven Software
Publisher: Activision
Console: PlayStation 4 & 5, Windows, Xbox One & Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
DMZ facts
- The DMZ was created as a buffer after the 1950-53 Korean War.
- It runs 248 kilometers across the Korean Peninsula and is 4km wide.
- The zone is jointly overseen by the US-led United Nations Command and North Korea.
- It is littered with an estimated 2 million mines, tank traps, razor wire fences and guard posts.
- Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un met at a building in Panmunjom, where an armistice was signed to stop the Korean War.
- Panmunjom is 52km north of the Korean capital Seoul and 147km south of Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital.
- Former US president Bill Clinton visited Panmunjom in 1993, while Ronald Reagan visited the DMZ in 1983, George W. Bush in 2002 and Barack Obama visited a nearby military camp in 2012.
- Mr Trump planned to visit in November 2017, but heavy fog that prevented his helicopter from landing.
ELECTION%20RESULTS
%3Cp%3EMacron%E2%80%99s%20Ensemble%20group%20won%20245%20seats.%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EThe%20second-largest%20group%20in%20parliament%20is%20Nupes%2C%20a%20leftist%20coalition%20led%20by%20Jean-Luc%20Melenchon%2C%20which%20gets%20131%20lawmakers.%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EThe%20far-right%20National%20Rally%20fared%20much%20better%20than%20expected%20with%2089%20seats.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EThe%20centre-right%20Republicans%20and%20their%20allies%20took%2061.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Abu Dhabi Grand Slam Jiu-Jitsu World Tour Calendar 2018/19
July 29: OTA Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan
Sep 22-23: LA Convention Centre in Los Angeles, US
Nov 16-18: Carioca Arena Centre in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Feb 7-9: Mubadala Arena in Abu Dhabi, UAE
Mar 9-10: Copper Box Arena in London, UK
The%20Color%20Purple
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