Al Burairat: life is beautiful

Sitting in the cool shadow of the picturesque Hajjar mountains is a small Ras al Khaimah neighbourhood where goats gambol in the streets and Emirati families follow a traditional lifestyle. Anna Zacharias reports Seih al Burairat is a neighbourhood patrolled by goats. They strut across its gravel plains and torment shop keepers. They stop traffic, they have been known to climb into the acacia trees and - when the need arises - they become dinner for the families who live here.

When people come away from RAK thinking that it's an old outpost where livestock runs free, the chances are that they're thinking of Burairat. Until recently this neighbourhood consisted of little more than a few scattered houses on the gravel plain that stretches between Ras al Khaimah's commercial district and the barren wadis of the Hajjar mountains. But now, Burairat has become the place to be.

A few years ago a family might have counted only acacia trees as its close neighbours. Today flamboyant mansions rise from Burairat's earth, each sprawling up and out with its own brash opulence. Their colours are a rebuke to the muted browns of the landscape.For every house painted in a tasteful cream or light brown, others have had their awkward angles accentuated: coral pink with white trim, baby pink with ochre, peach and orange, light brown with circles of rusty red, striped blue and white, pink and red, pale orange and burgundy.

Some families have even painted their walls with fake stone facades - a tribute to the stone houses that their ancestors lived in just a few decades ago in the mountains behind Burairat. The government built houses here 20 years ago for Emirati nationals and it has been a favourite neighbourhood for Emirati families ever since. In recent years, it has become increasingly popular with Arab expatriates - yet it still holds a traditional Emirati feel.

There are dozens of date palms and a khandoura-clad scarecrow; goat pens are common - although with the number of goats roaming freely, you would question how often they are used. Some families even have a full-sized traditional stone house in their garden, where the men of the house relax in the evenings with friends. For them, Burairat's proximity to the mountains is not a matter of beauty but one of identity.

"The history of the people there, they are the original people from Ras al Khaimah," says Omar Bakheet, a 25-year-old resident who was born in Burairat and has lived here his entire life. "It's a big difference to other areas to be honest with you. It's a quiet village." This, says Omar, is its big draw. "Most local people started taking land to build a house here because it's so quiet," he says. "They like the mountains, you know - they're mountain people."

And Burairat's residents are only a five-minute drive from the flashing neon signs of Nakheel's markets, where they can pick up a shwarma, shop for a mosque alarm clock or catch the latest Bollywood blockbuster. This guarantees residents the best of both worlds - convenient modern shopping and wild natural beauty - at their doorstep. Burairat is also on a main route for lorries, which rattle through the neighbourhood, their bright tassels and pompoms swinging.

Otherwise, the neighbourhood is largely silent - apart from prayer calls, which beckon from a tiny minaret that is too small to contain the megaphone it holds. The neighbourhood's commercial centre comprises a tyre repair shop, an Indian restaurant and two grocery shops stacked high with all of life's needs. "Every day is OK," says Sidhik Basher, aged 31, one of the two men who work in the branch of Al Misfar that has stood here since the neighbourhood was built. "There's old and there's new people. People here are good and all types of people come here."

Still, he concedes it can be a bit slow-paced for a young man from Kerala like him. For others, it is this slow pace of life that is appealing. "I swear it's all good here," says Mohammed Saif, a 38-year-old Emirati. "We always love where we grew up with our brothers and sisters." Like many residents of Burairat, he still has family in Wadi al Baih. Smoking a cigarette and twisting his tiger's eye ring, he remembers life in Burairat as it used to be.

"I was a child here," he says. "Before it was very nice but there were no supermarkets or places for shopping. It was like a desert before the rain and then it would be filled with plants." A flood control system stops rainwater from Wadi al Baih from gushing into Burairat, making life less green but a little easier for residents. Although the area is no longer an open plain dotted with acacias, the seasons are still strongly felt.

In summer even the mountains that are just a few hundred metres away are hidden by the haze. In winter, when the humidity dissipates, the mountains that cradle Burairat dominate Ras al Khaimah's skyline. As soon as the weather cools, tiny leaves appear on thorny acacias. With the first rain, the ground is covered with a green tinge - tiny blades of grass. Last April the streets of Burairat were thronged with visitors when people from all over Ras al Khaimah rushed to the mountains to see the running waters of Wadi al Baih after a heavy rainfall.

And, although Burairat's numerous speed bumps couldn't slow them down, its goats, sauntering slowly along to their next meal, did.

Ismail Kamis, UAE

Life is beautiful in Burairat. Everyone is grand, every thing is here. We've been here for 24 years. Before there were not so many houses or stores but now there's roads, shops, schools and everything you need.

Salem Mubarak, UAE

Burairat is so cool in winter because we're next to the mountains. The view becomes so amazing, so awesome. The whole area turns green. That's why I love Burairat.

Philip Dale, UK

It's close to town, to Carrefour, to Manar Mall, but it's a lot more spaced out. It's not massively built up. There's loads of stuff around but it's still secluded. The other thing is, I have an Emirati style house so I'm not hidden away from the rest of the world and living in a compound. It's a nice area.

Nathan Tolman, Canada

The reason we stayed in the area is that we have no energy problems. At the time we moved in it was the only house with electricity supply and we were in a stable grid. I work with the HCT and I'm right across the road from the men's college.