Abu Dhabi through your eyes...

That was a title I saw over the weekend for a photography competition. I'm not much of a photographer, but it did get me thinking about how I'd sum up life over here. For Abu Dhabi and Dubai cities, one image sticks with me

- the day after Eid Al Fitr (end of Ramadan) was called I was having a bit of lunch in what I think was an Irish bar. A Muslim guy wearing full traditional clothing, the white robe and red headscarf, comes in listening to an i pod, lights a cigarette and orders a beer. It's the most literal depiction of a clash of cultures I've seen so far, though seeing fully covered women in Starbucks with La Senza shopping bags also rank highly.

Dubai and Abu Dhabi just seem like cities that grew so quickly and became so Westernised straight away that now they're facing an identity crisis. Dubai, by far the most 'touristy' of the to cities has recently started putting signs up in malls demanding that visitors dress more conservatively. Not a huge ask, but possibly too little too late in the struggle to keep things in the (Arabic) family.