Intelligent luxury under a hot blue sky | City A.M.

Intelligent luxury under a hot blue sky | City A.M.: "ABU Dhabi sounds like a heady jumble of car, construction and human. In the daytime, the air is thick with noise as it is thick with the pervading haze of dust blown in from the sandlands to the south and thrown up by the never-ending construction. It softens the otherwise relentless sunshine, rendering everything (including the sky) a sedate pastel shade.
In summer, one must wade through air sodden with 100 per cent humidity, scuttling from place to air-conditioned place or collapsing (with soaked t-shirt) into the back of a taxi. The ideal time to visit is somewhere between November and March, when temperatures drop to a nippy 20°C and a cool breeze can be found snaking through the backstreets.
Then one can explore the city in both its guises, day and night. Ramble on the dunes of the artificial Lulu Island opposite Abu Dhabi’s 39-year-old skyline, or along its newly landscaped beach road, the Corniche, with its regimented leisure facilities, patchy grass and dreamy seaside strollers. Then at night, head indoors to one of the gargantuan shopping centres, gleaming hubs for the Armani-clad local youth, or splay out on the plastic chairs of a pavement shisha café while dubbed Turkish soaps play out on a massive projection TV."

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