Adventures off the beaten (mall) path

Up until today in Al Ain, I had only been to the two major malls. My friend and neighbour Zofie and I decided to go out into the town and see what else there is to offer. We decided to walk up the street from the mall and find the Al Ain Souk, which is like a much cheaper outdoor market. We quickly found out we were in the other expat neighbourhood, meaning the people who are here from Pakistan, the Philippines and other countries in the Middle East. It was neat to see a whole different side of Al Ain, but we were definitely out of place there as we were the ONLY women on the street. Well...that's not true. We saw four other women over the span of two hours, but this is in comparison with the hundreds of men there. We came to the assumption that the women must be at home taking care of the kids. Being "Westerners" and the only women there, you can imagine how we stood out a bit. Or, a LOT. We were stared at by every single man that walked by, but no one spoke to us or made any advances so it was not too bad.

We took some pictures (look on facebook for those) and then when it started to get dark we decided to catch a cab back to "our" territory. In our neighbourhood there is my building with all teachers and then we are surrounded by Emiratis who live in HUGE houses. Mansions, is really a better description. As such we do not see many people walking on the street. For one because it is too damn hot, and two because they all have pimped out Escalades to drive around in.

Before stopping at home, we made a trip to the liquor store. Most people in the UAE are Muslim, which means they cannot legally drink. As such there are no large liquor stores in Al Ain. There are a few in Abu Dhabi city which are a section of the grocery store. Here though, where it is much more conservative, they are a bit harder to come by. We asked a local and they told us there was one behind the Hilton hotel. We took a cab to the Hilton and asked inside the hotel and the concierge said to go behind the hotel, pass security, go around the corner and you will see it. I asked "Do you know if it is open still?" The concierge looked at me wide eyed and said "I DON'T KNOW MA'AM!" Oops! I guess you shouldn't ask a Muslim man if he knows information about the hours of the liquor store. So we headed behind the hotel and the scenery started getting more and more sketchy. We found the security booth and he told us to keep going, around the corner and look for a SMALL building. We went around the dark, scary corner and came upon a tiny shack with a pile of garbage outside of it. Liquor boxes, though...a good sign. With much trepidation I opened the door of this dingy, no name shack to find a bright little liquor store that looked much like a tiny LCBO at home. They had all the brands stocked. I bought my booze, noticing that it was CASH only and no receipt was given...aka: no paper trail. Before they went out the door, people who had bought booze were stuffing it in their backpacks and they had cabs waiting for them outside. We definitely came to the conclusion that it was a sketchy black market booze operation. I sooo wish I could have taken a picture of it, but I feared that I would get in real trouble if I did! I'm glad to know where it is now, but I will always go with a friend ;)