I familiarized myself with Al Wasl township by chance and immediately fell in love with its quiet and friendly streets, beautiful houses behind high fences and small tidy flowerbeds. There is nothing here reminding of business and tourist Dubai rush though it is quite nearby – on the other side of Sheikh Zayed Road. But two sides of one road differ so much!

Being in Al Wasl you seem to be not in Dubai but in another town: quiet, cozy and a little rural. Here and there cock-a-doodle-dooing and bleating can be heard. It smells like mowings and flowers. Sunny streets remind of either Greece or Montenegro but with Arabic colouring. Many houses have jar, sculpture and planter compositions in front of them.

Al Wasl is a very cozy and quiet a modest place in comparison with neighboring Jumeirah. The word “quite” is used because a homestead in this community costs dozens of millions dirhams.

Upscale villas and terraced houses are being built here intensively. I hope due to new residents’ influx the place will remain as charming as it is now.

Actually the construction is being conducted everywhere: inside and outside the community.

For example, the neighboring Al Safa Park is almost completely blocked: a new water channel is being cut from the sea to Sheikh Zayed Road. You are not allowed to take an adjoining to the park street. Neither goes on foot.

The desire to find an unblocked road made me start my April trip. The weather is wonderful: it is spring and 29 degrees above the zero. My specific mood – “walk without any purpose” – turned up just at the right moment.

My experimental journey has been a success. It improved my mood and made me feel much better. Four-hour-walk is not a patch on a treadmill in the gym. Pictures are flashing before eyes, my nose is catching floral fragrances bunch and my hearing – warble.

A cabbage-patch with Burj Khalifa view is worth stumbling upon! Does such exclusive strike you?

Being both a summer-visitor and a fancier gardener I couldn’t prevent myself from passing by and had been zoning out for about five minutes studying sprouts. Cherry tomatoes are about to fill, eggplants are ready to be fruited off, cabbage is lavish, carrots are… What a beauty! The sculpture of a deer emerging from behind the bushed completes the picture.

You are making your way along one beautiful street taking a turn to a deserted side-street and find oneself on a paralleled road. You keep on walking staring at swanky forged gates and modest metal boxes with drinking-water.

I didn’t risk having tap water.

There was even a mug in one place. It remained me of a drinks dispenser in the Soviet Union with one thick glass tumbler for everybody. The idea of my childhood remembering didn’t find next step forward.  I made my mind to reach the nearest shop (it’s about thirty-minute-walk) and get a bottle of water there.

On the way I often see huge trees called Prosopis spicigera (ghaf in Arabic). It is not just a tree. It is a wonder of nature! These trees are capable of sprouting and surviving in extremely dry and deserted areas. Due to this peculiarity these trees are often compared with a mythological Yggdrasil or the Tree of Life from the Garden of Eden. The root system is so big that can easily ruin both the pavement and plate asphalt.

Ghaf trees seem huge not so much due to their height (10-12 meters at an average), but due to their wide and dropdown boughs. Their spreading crowns are always colonized by a birdy kingdom. Birds themselves are hardly can be seen but you can perfectly hear their loud chirm, warbles and clip- clopping. You can scrouch down in the shade listening spring hits.