Ahh Mussafah.

There is a certain section of Abu Dhabi makes you realise exactly where you are. That place is Mussafah, a dusty industrial suburb, off island and full of labour camps and labourers. Probably not the best place for a woman to be (unless you like being stared continually at), but there is nothing quite like driving through safely in behind tinted wndows of your own car.

You may remember this post of one of the first times I drove in Mussafah.... Driving here, well, you can drive anywhere.

Sometimes you can forget where you are - there are areas of this country which are full of glitz and glam and western ex-pats.  Then there are places like this...

The iPod (& belly) belong to me, my reflection from the window.

From a distance you wouldn't realise that Mussafah has dusty streets, full of ex-pats from Pakistan and India (and other countries too), gutters that are 6 foot high (it seems), lack of proper paving for footpaths, a zillion trucks lining the streets, lots of bargain basement stores (not that I've been shopping there you know!)

They have actually built a massive shopping mall there though, called Dalma Mall and is becoming quite the hub.  It is huge and only partly opened.  It is a little glitzy and houses Abu Dhabi's only Matalan store.  There's a big clean hypermarket there and many other stores waiting to be opened, including a new Marks and Spencer and Toys'R'Us amongst others.

There is also an impressive water fountain inside which my two girls thought was great.  I swear, Lily would have stood there all day if it wasn't for us taking her away due to a dozen Indian men wanting to take her photo - (this is nothing out of the ordinary and I never see it in a 'creepy' way when men want to look at her - remember most of these men, most who are labourers in this country, have children back home whom they never see, maybe every few years.)