In a brief stop over in the UAE, I took a local bus to Abu Dhabi from Dubai (about £3 and 90 mins long). I discovered a very strange place (in my opinion anyway). An awesome place though. Deserted streets and huge sky scrapers. Obviously the city is geared up for the heat, the shops are almost set up for drive through (parking spaces everywhere) - and the result is that there is little human interaction on the streets. I took a long walk from the bus station right through the centre of the city to the top of the Island and found a park!

Abu Dhabi - Abu Dhabi visitor guide showing a virtual tour of 'Abu Dhabi' linked to an interactive map with local and travel information. 360° panoramas from Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

This panorama was taken from the seaside promenade known as the "Corniche" near to the Marina Mall.

Caught between two cultures and two continents lies the Arabic city of Abu Dhabi. Sleek and metropolitan like its near neighbour, Dubai, but as rich in millennia-old Arabic culture and traditions as it is rich in oil-industry wealth.

Extraordinarily varied, Abu Dhabi has been unkindly described as soul-less or like a teenager struggling to find their true identity. It is perhaps better described as a cultural milieu of ancient and ultra-modern, of honoured tradition and quirky international fashion all melded together and jostling for social supremacy in a city rebirthed in the 1970s.

5000 years after it was first settled by nomadic Arabs living off the land as livestock herders and fishermen, it evolved through the rule of a patriarchal clan dynasty type of system. A lush oasis (known as Buraimi) in a logistically important location for trade and defence, this settlement prized by sheiks still forged only a modest and humble existence based around camel rearing, pearl diving and vegetable farming to support neighbouring communities. Even the dwellings of the wealthiest families were typically mud huts or made of woven palms. That is, until the mid 20th century when oil was discovered.

Suddenly a desert oasis living hand to mouth became an international economic giant and 50 years later, the theoretical wealth per capita is £17 million UK equivalent / $34M USD - each. Over 80% of residents are expatriate, predominantly oil workers or corporate experts brought in from around the work, or service industry personnel to support the lifestyle the wealth has generated. The city was designed and built for 1 million people but has already exceeded growth by 50% leading to overcrowding, congestion and strained resources for those not actually so wealthy. Alcohol sales were recently relaxed to be permitted only in hotels, so often the streets are deserted of pedestrians as people gather either in their tourist hotels or in their expatriate compounds (small, often walled-in communities) or travel by vehicle due to the intense heat and long distances.

In essence, the instant wealth led to an instant city but one which is almost entirely unrepresentative of its native population and their needs. Different from Dubai which was built upon a "blank slate" of no previous settlement of note, Abu Dhabi has tried to combine the heartland of Arabic traditions and heritage and integrate it with its sudden vast wealth in a spectacular futuristic status-orientated showcase of a city. It remains a topic hotly debated by travel writers and social commentators as to whether this ambitious development was a comprehensive success. Either way, it remains a remarkable and unique destination.