The inland town of Al Ain was the ancestral seat of the ruling family and had been developed as a showpiece: endless wide avenues going nowhere in particular. But the livestock markets or suq in Al Ain and its Omani twin town, Buraimi, resisted the planners' efforts - dust, disorder, and dishdashas, the flowing robes of the Gulf Arab. Camels always looked ridiculous crouched into the back of a pick-up truck; Bedouin women positively malevolent behind black beaked face masks.