Going Gulf

OK, so here's the deal - a two-week trip around Myanmar (aka Burma -somewhere we've never been before) wrapped around my unfortunate-milestone birthday, prefaced with a few days stopover in the Gulf, where we've never been either, and where Sian is due to speak at a conference. So far, Abu Dhabi, via a brief overnight stopover in Dubai. Then Sunday fly on to Yangon (Rangoon as once was) via Bangkok before on to Mandalay, and a few more places after that. So the blog could more accurately have been titled On the Road to Ngapali Beach - or (back) to Yangon Airport. But where would be the fun in that?
So, anyway - what to say about where we are, and where we've been? So far, a fairly disorientating experience, hard to locate in the culture / identity sense, with most people living and working here having originally come from somewhere else. Neither Dubai nor AD existed in anything like their current form until relatively recently, in the case of Abu Dhabi having been grown out of the desert just in the last few decades following the discovery of oil in 1958. So, what you get are big urban sprawls, not that much green space, lots and lots of skyscrapers, with plenty of evidence around of money by the bucket. Not surprisingly the car is king here, which in more ways than one explains why you see so few folk out and about on the streets - they're all in their cars, both avoiding and helping to create the air pollution that hangs as a haze over what seems like the whole region, growing thicker as the day progresses.
There is, to be honest, not that much to do or see beyond the hi-rise and the odd rather sumptuous Mosque, unless browsing designer tat in high-end retail Malls is your scene (and it really isn't ours). But there is the odd little curve-ball treat - for instance in Dubai, where as well as by the motor car the city is (well) served by a metro system that runs most of its length. The trains are clean, efficient and totally driver-less (crikey don't tell Southern Rail) - meaning that you can stand or sit right in the very front of the train, getting a bird (or driver) eye view of the track and approaching vista as the train speeds ahead. OK, so its infantile, but for most of us little boys who grew up yearning to be train drivers, this is probably as good as it gets.
Better say something about the hotel we're staying in (but thankfully not paying for -well, not the room, at least) in Abu Dhabi. Blimey. It's opulent - as in, 'if you need to ask the price don't step into the lobby' opulent - the view from our (33rd floor) bathroom alone sufficient to make your jaw drop. The Other Half are right here, and living it up in luxury with a capital L. The Jumeirah at Etihad Towers - one of the considerable number of five-star establishments across the city - offers anything you could ever possibly want - gourmet restaurants, bars, gym, spa, pools, beach plus a whole load of other stuff I  haven't even thought of - oh, and a branch of Waitrose, though I'll be blowed if I could find the wines and spirits department.... The hotel is also so technologically advanced it took us nearly half the first night to work out to how to close the curtains, whilst the TV and the opening of the fridge remain largely things of mystery. I would say I could get used to staying somewhere like this, but the sad truth is, I probably couldn't, and wouldn't.