Well I'll be Rama-damned

It's that time of year again. When all the world is fasting (or so it seems). Ramadan began on 1 August this year (the Arabic calendar being only 354 days long, means that it moves earlier each year by 11 days) and so all food and drink outlets in Dubai are closed during daylight hours and no alcohol is served anywhere for the entire month.

Or at least that's how it was the first year we were here (2003 - was it really that long ago?). Ramadan was in the comparatively pleasantly temperatured month of November then.

Fast forward 8 years and things have changed a little. Or a lot, depending on your perspective. There is, for example, an ever increasing number of Brits it seems who choose to take advantage of the cheap packages that are being offered in the UK to come and stay in the Atlantis hotel during the month of August, no doubt because of the sweltering temperatures making it otherwise the quiet season, but also with Ramadan falling across August this year, one assumes that without concessions the City would otherwise be like a ghost town as far as tourism is concerned. There are, I'm sure, the obligatory few tourists who arrived having had no appreciation in advance about either the heat or the fasting at this time of year, but I can't help but notice that it really isn't as bad as it used to be.

For one, hotels simply seem to erect shades, or curtains, to cordon off those restaurants that they are keeping open. Even at the Atlantis, it is business as usual it seems.

You can go the gym during Ramadan and all water coolers are still being used freely (but then what chance of finding a fasting Muslim wanting to go and exert himself in the middle of the day knowing he is forbidden from drinking water). And on the way home, feeling good about one's exercise, you can even stop by Subway or McDonald's to collect a take-away. No eating-in of course, but actually in this example the take-away-and-eat-it-at-your-home-slightly-cold option is not a wise one either.

But in the evenings, the bars and restaurants are seemingly unaffected, and the beer and wine flows freely.

So whilst I may be here all alone whilst Michele and the kids enjoy the British summertime, it's not the need to be respectful in public and avoid eating and drinking in front of those that are fasting that actually bothers me. It's just the lack of friends in town at the moment to go out with. Oh well - time to catch up on those box sets. I can recommend "Mad Men" by the way.

Roll on September!