Nightlife in Al Ain Part 1

A few years ago when I first arrived in Al Ain I was already primed in the city's nightspots. I mean, it really doesn't take long to know them all. It was comforting to know that there was a real English pub waiting there for us and we made it our priority to visit it as soon as we could.

Now for those who have never visited a UAE 'pub', the vast majority of them are in hotels with the exception of the Irish Village in Dubai of course.

First impressions of Al Ain 'pub' were:

Dark with velvet seating and dark wood fittings.....good
Dartboard....yes
Glasses hanging above bar.....all there

but

No resident dog and most importantly where's the guvnor? You know, the landlord or landlady?

We did meet the guvnor, a west country boy who sounds a bit like Gareth off The Office (sorry). One night he'd be calling out the quiz questions to know-all academics from HCT and UAEU, the next he would be trying to get people up to sing Karaoke and ending up singing a lot of the numbers himself. One time he even organised a Scalextrics race, setting up a track that took over half the room.

Then one day he left to pastures new and brighter lights: Dubai. Things started to slide...

The poor hotel management tried as hard as they could to bring in the punters but the place was never the same. Where did all the people go?

Then one day he was back. The hotel were so thrilled his face was all over the place and lo and behold the suppers came back in their droves. There ends the tale.

For more information about Al Ain's currently most slammin' night spot you can join their Yahoo group here