Abu Dhabi - 12th November
I had booked myself on a evening Desert Safari (that morning - I never got a chance to book it before I arrived), where they come pick you up from your hotel in a 4-wheel drive, take you out into the desert towards Al Ain (which is east of Abu Dhabi and Dubai) and drive around the sand dunes for a while before taking you to an Arab camp-type place for dinner and other activities.
Dubai - 13th November
Another big day, this time catching the bus from the hotel at the Airport to the central bus station, to then catch a bus to Dubai. The airport bus is only supposed to take 40mins to reach the bus station but in the morning traffic, it was over an hour. That was okay - the Dubai buses are frequent, although there was already a bit of a queue and for some reason I thought you bought the tickets from the driver rather from inside the terminal - a quick dash inside this 1960's green monstrosity of a terminal and that was sorted and I was on the bus. The sucky part was the bus then heads almost all the way back to the airport before then heading north to Dubai, in all the trip is 2 hours although the first 45mins is basically exiting the Abu Dhabi environs, desert for 30mins then Dubai environs for the other 45mins. As we started paralleling large skyscrapers as we entered Dubai I started to identify features and places, and eventually noticed the Dubai Metro paralleling us which was how I intended on getting around. The Metro was abut the only thing I looked up in Dubai a few days out and confirmed it went to where I needed to go. The Metro is interesting - it's a commuter train system with a difference - there are no drivers, it's all automated and it works quite well. The bus then stopped at one of these Metro stations - I was expecting the bus to go straight to the Dubai bus terminal and then I'd make my way to the Metro from there, but since it stopped and we'd already passed where I wanted to go, I got off since it would save time. Inside the station, I got an all-day ticket and then proceeded to the platform to go to Dubai Mall/Burj Khalifa Station.
I read the signs above the ticket counters and realise, there's timed sessions and also the sessions for the day until about 9.30pm onwards are sold out - the idea is that you are meant to pre-book your ticket in advance and nominate ahead of time what session you want. The realisation set in that I might not get up the tower, after coming all this way and winging it and not doing the research properly might have bit me in the bum. I stayed in the queue and asked the guy when I got there what were the chances of getting up the tower today. He said there would be, but it depended on how high I wanted to go - 124th floor or 148th floor (didn't know there was more than 1 floor you could visit). Preferably the higher one was my response.
"Ok, the ticket for that is 500AED". Whoa, that's a bit.
"How much is the ticket for 124th floor?"
"300AED"
"Ok I'll go with that one"
"Ok sir"
"No... No wait. I change my mind. Let's do the higher floor, the 500AED one"
Although it was more expensive and only a little bit higher, I figured what the hey why not. The guy then went off to check something and came back saying there was room on the 12pm tour so I could go up on that one (it was about 11.50am) at that stage. I was then ushered past the queue at the door entrance round the corner into a side room, where other people were and was served Arabic tea and there were plates of what looked like chocolate covered mini eclairs but what turned out to be dried prunes with cream-coloured nuts in them. We were ushered past all the people lined up for the 124th floor elevator (a very long line) straight to an elevator which took us to the 125th floor, and from there another elevator took us to the 148th. When we got to the 148th there were waiters offering us drinks and nibbles and plush couches, which was fine except I wanted to get past them all and see the view first. And what a view!
In all, we spent nearly an hour up on the 148th floor before we were ushered down to the 125th where we could spend as long as we wanted but there wasn't much there. It was right above the 124th floor and you could see all the people out on the 124th viewing deck. By now it was apparent to me that spending the extra money was money well spent - for 300AED I would have had to wait until there was a free spot on a timing; I would then have had to stand in the queue for the elevator for maybe 30mins or more; and then you're only allowed to spend 30mins on the 124th before they send you back down PLUS I got to visit two floors and had "free" drink and food. For someone who only had a limited amount of time in the day, it was the best way to maximize my time. Deciding it was time to move along, I went down back into the mall.
The monorail runs the length of the Palm Jumeirah's "trunk" and has two intermediary stops at stations which are not open - one is right in the middle of a gaping construction site hole. You can sorta see the palm fronds stretching out after a while when the buildings got low enough, still some vacant land on the palm too. You then arrive at the Atlantis hotel station, where you can see a lot of the water based activities there - it's basically a resort with a water theme park attached, including that water slide which goes through a shark tank.
Arrival in Abu Dhabi was about 7pm, and we arrived just before the bus that left earlier than us somehow. I found the bus to the airport, but realised it would be 8.45pm before I'd be back at the hotel - so I caught a taxi instead. Taxi's are cheap - the 30min trip to the airport cost about 60AED, which is about NZ$20. I then had dinner at the hotel restaurant, hungry as I hadn't had lunch as I'd figured what I'd had up the tower was enough - after boarding the bus back to Abu Dhabi my stomach let me know it definitely wasn't!
Abu DHABI and Flying to the UK - 14th November
Faux Pas
There were a couple of cultural faux pas I made, these are the ones I remember (Or at least know about!):
- At Sydney airport, I went to the currency place saying I wanted UAE money and then asked for 1000 Arab Emirate Dollars, only to be told firmly "you mean Dirhams". All I knew was the currency was called AED and never bothered to find out what the D stood for!
- I kept calling the money Dinhars instead of Dirhams, and could not for the life if me tell how much the coins were worth as Arab numbers are not the same as our "Arabic" numbers. Turns out I had 1 Dirham coins and a 50c one at one point
- I kept forgetting people weren't quoting me money amounts in NZ$ from time up time and would repeat the figure back at the person in exclaim. Not always in a bad way but it may have come across like that. Sometimes I knew the money was different but stuffed up the computation in my head. Being told a beer was 35 Dirhams caught me off guard, but after I thought about it I realised getting an imported German Pilsner in a 500ml can was probably a good deal at NZ$12ish.
- Toilet Shoes. When visiting the mosque I needed to visit the bathroom, everyone was taking their shoes off at the entrance and in between the bathrooms proper and the entrance hall there were feet washing baths. I went to go into the stall area only to be barred from entry by a cleaner who then pointed at at some sandals. I must have looked confused as he then said "Toilet shoes" and then something clicked - they wear communal sandals into the stall area, to do with the squat toilet. I ended up with a western toilet by luck but did see squat toilets in the opposite row when I came out. I never did have to use a squat toilet, I'm not quite sure of the logistics of them either so probably just as well.
- I can't speak a word of Arabic and didn't have time to try and learn a couple of basic greetings or phrases. On my arrival at the airport they kept greeting me in Arabic but I didn't know what the response was meant to be. Although not really a problem as they all speak English to varying degrees, I did feel bad that I came to the country relying on them speaking English and didn't know even "hello" in Arabic.
Some Observations
- The country is fueled by money, but runs on water and petrol - water is not a given here, they make it by converting salt water to fresh in desalinization factories but Abu Dhabi particularly lines it's main roads with some grass, but also lots of trees and there's a huge industry and infrastructure around providing water to the trees and grass. When the city hits tough times, probably the trees and grass will die And be the first real indicator things are not well in the country. Petrol Stations are the real Oasis' however - on the highways every 20-30km there would be an ADNOC or the Dubai equivalent, with at least 12 petrol pumps, other shops and fooderies (such as McDonalds) and a prayer room on site too. And every single one of them would be over-full of vehicles, sometimes with huge lines of vehicles waiting to get in there. But literally there would be another one 20km down the road with the same problem.
- neither Abu Dhabi nor Dubai are set up for walking around - but then neither is Canberra in Australia
- Abu Dhabi is super clean and image conscious in that regard; Dubai less so but more interested in "gold plating" the big stuff. There are areas in Dubai where tourists go which are dirty or rough around the edges; not so in Abu Dhabi. All the over-massive buildings and edifices are in Dubai though. In both places it seems a bit hard to find parts of the "old" city before they started building everything modern and clean and huge - Abu Dhabi bus terminal is clearly straight out of the 1960's though and was refreshing in that regard. While Dubai doesn't have a big bus terminal building, the terminal is rather dirt stained - at least Abu Dhabi's is clean if somewhat dated. I feel like an extra full day in Abu Dhabi and I would have seen and done everything - but to see and do everything in Dubai, you'd probably need 4 or 5 more days.
- There aren't heaps of Arabs - in fact most of the people I encountered during my time there weren't Emirati but Indian and Pakistani nationals or Filipino and possibly Malaysian. Seems that the booming economy has enticed a lot of migrant workers from these countries to come and work in the UAE, particularly in a lot of the tourist and service industries. The crew on the Etihad Plane also were a mix of Filipino, Emirati, British and Japanese with Baltic pilots I think. The Sheikh's vision was to make the UAE a place for everyone to come but where are most of the Emirati? Or are there just so many more jobs available than people?
- Seemingly, food from pigs is offensive - my hotel breakfast I had on the last day toured bacon and eggs, but the bacon was either turkey bacon or beef bacon. And beef bacon is practically beef jerkey.
- All the cars seem to be less than 10 years old, although there are a lot of 1990's era hino-type buses by the looks of things and trucks and utes of all descriptions tend to be older as well. The roads are immaculate - nowhere can you see any sign of new seal or repairs after road works, and yes I saw road works happening. Other things of note are in Abu Dhabi city at least, the roads are monitored by laser radars (you can see the radars on separate poles on the sides of the roads), there are signs saying as much and in taxi's if they are going too fast a message comes up on a console with a series of beeps. Road speeds in the city tend to be 40 or 60km/h, 80km/h a bit further out and then on the highways they are either 120 or 140km/h for cars and 80km/h for trucks and buses which must travel in the outer-most lane.
- Women have separate seats up the front of buses and on the Dubai Metro, between certain hours some carriages are women and children only. For the bus back to Abu Dhabi there was a separate line for female passengers and their travel companions, with everyone else in another line. The women got priority at getting on the bus, and I think this is all for their safety as there are probably a few immigrant workers (maybe Emirati as well although I would suspect not so much) with grabby hands on public transport. Women don't have to wear headscarves, burka's or hijabs all the time either - only at the Mosque were women required to wear at least a headscarf, mind you men couldn't wear shorts or uncovered arms (t-shirts and polos were ok though).
- Western culture and influence is everywhere - traditional Arab dress was by far in the minority and western clothing the norm, and western fast food is prevalent too. McDonalds, KFC, Burger King and Subway all apparent and in force along with a few others. Pepsi seems to have the sway over Coke in the UAE too, Pepsi and 7-up everywhere with Coke not really anywhere to be seen (was at the BK though). Both the BK and Maccas had lots of different stuff on the menu in addition to the key staples. The way Subway is spelt in Arabic looks rather funny and the Arab side of a 7-up can has a very digital looking 7, but a normal one on the English side - what's up with that?
On the whole, I felt safe and apart from that one instance in Dubai on the metro I didn't feel like I was going to get robbed and I don't feel like crime is much of an issue. While I felt safe, I didn't feel wholly comfortable - I was a bit relieved each day to retreat back into the hotel. I'm not sure why - the only stage did I feel distinctly uncomfortable was on the Metro, otherwise I felt fine (even being the only white person on the bus to Dubai or back to Abu Dhabi, and definitely the only "classic" tourist on board the bus). I didn't feel comfortable enough to try and eat in one of the local restaurants or eateries at any stage, preferring to "play it safe" with western food places. It could have been a bit to do with me just being on my own and feeling a bit isolated with no way to contact anyone while out and about due to the Sim card situation.
Would I go back sometime? Yes, for sure. If I had a preference I think I'd rather stay in Dubai next time, just because there's more to do there and I've done most things in Abu Dhabi. Mind you, I'm not sure I'll get the chance to visit the country again for a while but I can say I've been there, it was my first foreign language country and I've got the stamps on my passport. !
I'm currently ensconsed in London, after spending a weekend in Liverpool. Give me a few more days and I'll get around to putting on here that part of the trip so far!