I am on the way to Abu Dhabi from Dubai as I write this. I picked up a Nokia E75 yesterday and I am using it to blog. May be I will take net connection for my E75 to blog on random subjects when I am on the move. The E75 has browsing and email facilities. It is a cute little thing and a pretty capable device. Right now I am typing on a word doc, the QWERTY key board of the E75 is helpful. I really prefer travelling by bus rather than driving myself as the bus service is excellent with luxury buses every few minutes. The distance between the two emirates (cities) is around 160 kms and the bus makes it in less than 2 hours. If I drive myself it will take a few minutes lesser. If some one drives like a mad man he can travel 160 kms in 80 minutes! but not me definitely! The drive is a lovely cruise and the roads here are great, but if you have to do it regularly it can get monotonous and stressful. And then the risk of accidents which can be fatal at high speeds.

Most people have heard of Dubai and not Abu Dhabi, the capital of UAE. Dubai as you know is the more showy, flamboyant city and Abu Dhabi the big brother is the quieter, richer laid back capital. Dubai diversified itself into areas like tourism, real estate and is a trading hub for the middle east and GCC countries. Dubai has almost run out of oil, Abu Dhabi has loads of oil reserves. It is what primarily differentiates the two cities. The ongoing recession has hit Dubai quite severely as it is focused on tourism and real estate both of which are down in the dumps after the credit crunch battered the world economy. But I am confident that Dubai will turnaround quicker than most people guess due to the visionary proactive leadership and continuous developments for the public good. The Dubai metro service which will open on 09-09-2009 is one such example. And Dubai has lots of such mega projects in the pipeline. Its success story has just begun.

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