1st 1437 Hijriyah we went to Al Ain Zoo, me, husband and collegue family. Honestly this is second time I am visited Al Ain. The first time I came there, I really like with the city structuring, I saw the light at all the way is like design on city games. If you in Dubai, you can feel modern city, but at Al Ain you can feel the quiet, keep calm and feel like warm. The city like said, "Come here, and stay with me".
I got little description about Al Ain from the internet. Al Ain, the second largest city in the emirate of Abu Dhabi and emerging third in the UAE following Dubai & Abu Dhabi, located 150 km east of Abu Dhabi, and approximately 140 km southeast of Dubai. Al Ain is just a few kilometers from the foothills of the Hanja Mountains and bordering the Sultanate of Oman. Al Ain is linked to Abu Dhabi and Dubai by fast, six-lane dual road networks, and it generally takes about one and a half hours to either city. Al Ain has a population of around 614,180 with estimated growth at 6% per year. Indigenous population in Al Ain, as recent surveys demonstrated, represents 63% of the Residents.
Al Ain is the home city of HH Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, former President and founding father of the modern United Arab Emirates. Al Ain is home to leading UAE figures who enjoy high net worth and disposable income with some of the highest spending powers in the Gulf Region. Al Ain is a favorite weekend destination for many Emirati nationals and their families from the Capital as they have holiday houses in the city.
Al Ain, famously known as “Garden City of the Gulf” is one of the major tourist destinations in the UAE with foremost attractions like Al Ain National Museum; Jebel Hafeet - a 1340 meter high mountain; Al Ain Oasis, Zoo, Fun City & more than 70 parks. These tourist destinations attract lot of Europeans and foreign tourists from world around through out the year. The mega projects launched in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Al Ain have considerably increased the European population in all these Emirates and Al Ain houses a good number of western expatriates.
Back to the topic about Al Ain Zoo, we can explore the place with all animal collection of over 4,000 animals. Of course the place is very large, we need to walk from one place animal to the other places of animals. Honestly for me it's very tired, thats why we are only visit half place and only saw some animals. I do not mean compare with our zoo Taman Safari in Indonesia, but at Taman Safari, we feel real journey, we are road with own car, and we can touch animals directly, give food for them, very interesting. But in this zoo we need more than one day for explore, maybe if the zoo management is give us facilities, some car for explore inside is more interesting and save energy especialy for some parents with the baby and with the kids.
Regardless bad and good for some peoples certainly different views , but I am enjoyed at the moment, I can seat at the green grass and enjoying with the view and at the end I am still like Al Ain by the way. Let see I will more explore UAE, include Al Ain city and the other places.
Note : Picture taken of the internet document