Day 5, 6
The few remaining days were uneventful. I thought about renting a car and heading out to Dubai, but I was getting pretty sick. Plus, I had spent more than I had expected, so I stayed back and went to places close by. It was Valentine’s Day, but the festivities were less feisty. I guess it still was more so a Western festival.
I visited the Heritage Village, Marina Mall and the Old Souk. I also had dinner at the Galleria.
Looking back, I was a complete stranger to the Middle East. The little knowledge I had was that the country had oil and conflict. I learned that not all the Middle Eastern countries were at war. Abu Dhabi certainly was free from conflict.
The most fascinating part of the whole trip was seeing Abu Dhabi as a whole. United Arab Emirates was celebrating its 44th year as a nation. It was indeed a nation coming into being. Those stories of growing nations in history books were actually happening. The vast wealth of the nation rocketed metropolitan development, but the population growth did not seem to have matched the spurt, hence the ghost town like environment.
The city was full of potential and it certainly seemed less corrupt than any of the other nations that have reached its old age. I was reminded of the cycle of a nation, in which a nation begins its journey with bondage to faith, to courage, to liberty and to abundance. Abundance soon leads to complacency, than apathy, than dependency than to bondage yet again.
As I was heading home, I hoped perhaps that this nation would not follow course. I also hoped that I would not fall victim to such a cycle with respect to spirituality.
I will soon be back in Wonju to finish my last year of medical school. Though unsure still, I hope my break was beneficial to my walk with God.
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