Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Posted in Sharing at 12:06 pm by Administrator
Hey whats up everyone. The desert is all right. If you want affordable luxury this is the place to go. This is a popular tourist attraction in the winter time. The weather getting very pleasant early in the morning. There are only two seasons here. It is still no place to be without sunglasses because it's incredibly bright. The sun has bleached the desert so it is screamingly bright white when you open the door. Indoors it's almost cold, when you walk by a bank or Lamborghini dealership with large open glass doors, it's like the frozen pizza isle.
Is America the only place with sane drivers? People drive like ANIMALS here. Maybe they once remembered that other people exist, but all the money - I don't know. It's a lot of posturing here, they feel entitled to be one car length ahead and they'll get in an accident to prove their point. The weird thing is, if you make eye contact, they'll back off right away.
When they're is any kind of cue, nobody has heard of a line. It's like hungry fish to food flakes. Remember scenes from a natural disaster and the guys in the truck are tossing life giving water to the dirty suffering masses? It's like that just to be handed a number to see the immigration officer. Even when your number is called, you have to elbow your way to the desk. The locals don't have to wait in line. The officer can ask you a question and then suddenly he's giving a high five to someone in a dik dak (white robe) like they're old friends. They've never met before, that's just how it works here. They're both wearing gleaming white robes with the white head scarf and black headband therefore they're from the same area (Gulf States). Other Muslim regions wear white robes with red, black etc. checkered head scarfs depending on their location. Either way I have to wait.
People don't exactly lie to your face here but they will tell you only what you want to hear. The culture is such that they would be loosing face if they had to inform you of something negative. For instance I was standing at the immigration counter and showed my papers. The officer motioned for me to stand to the side. He helped one or two people in dik daks. When they were finished I stepped towards him again to hand him my papers. He said for me to stand to the side again, then he went on a break. When he came back, I was glaring at him but he was just casually pretending like he was inputting something into his computer.
"Is there anything I can do to make this go a little faster?" I asked him loudly.
"You have to buy 40 day travelers health insurance" he immediately answered. It's just an inexpensive plan that you buy at the next building. No big deal at all, just a formality but I think he felt that giving that kind of advice was like telling a homeless person to stop eating garbage.
If anyone can give me some incite or tell me stories about this kind of thing, I'd love to hear about it.
The site manager put it this way; they will not answerer a question that you didn't specifically ask. You could be in a dark room. And ask "Is the door in front of me?" If it is behind you they will just say no. It's a big world.
I was waiting in line at the grocery store with a coworker the other day and a child, about 12 years old, steps in line in front of us with a newspaper. At first I thought he was with the family in front, but he wasn't. He just stepped in line in front of us, probably because we were foreigners. It was just beyond cheeky. To top it all off, the kid was absolutely engrossed in the newspaper. Who reads the newspaper when they are 12?
Apartments are difficult to find in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The landlords often only accept the entire years worth of rent up front. They don't accept checks and you must have a resident visa. If you and your roommates can come up with $30-$40K American dollars, it's not too bad of a deal. It's much better then the hotel apartment rates. However, you don't get any of that money back if you leave before 1 year.
They don't like cameras here. I accidentally went NEAR an area that didn't allow cameras. It was in my hand and the guard confiscated it. Earlier that morning, I had taken pictures of the grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. It is 3rd largest in the world - a huge stunning building that is just begging to be photographed. It's a memorial to the Sheikh Zayed who died in 2004 and is buried there. He was the founder of the UAE. Anyway you aren't supposed to have pictures of mosques. That rule is subject to interpretation because I've seen images of mosques including the grand mosques on brochures and posters. But what you definitely aren't supposed to have is pictures of your girlfriend in a bikini. In the area I was in, it's considered pornography because you can see her midsection. The secure area that I went to took that very seriously. Lucky for me there were some American interpreters at the guard house. While I was giving my information to them, my camera was sitting on the desk in front of me so I quickly removed the sim card. They told me I could pick it up on my way out and they turned it over to the Emerites. Bye bye camera.
About a 10 days later, after a lot of time and hassle, I got my camera back. The site manager said it was the first time he'd ever seen anyone recover their property. It might have been a religious act that I received it. The cameras menu had been changed to Arabic so you know they were snooping around like a bunch of moms. Ramadan is traditionally a time of clemency. I've heard about people having car debts forgiven. By Islamic law, it's forbidden to loan money at interest.
Other then that the country is very safe. The police will occasionally hand out 1000 AED fines ($272) for eating or drinking (water) in the daytime during Ramadan to set an example. There is no violent crime here to speak of. I've heard of abuse along the lines of indentured servant type situations. There is a huge foreign population from poor countries. Women have to be careful. If you're an unmarried woman traveling alone through the airport, expect to be hammered with questions. What are you doing here, who will you be meeting, how long have you been together, where is he, does he have a car, what does he do, where are you staying etc. They ask you many questions.
There is always a chance that one day you will be asked to leave the country. Apparently it happens all the time. Many times the person has no clue what the reason is. The answer is pretty much always the same… Someone who is close to the Emir (King) simply didn't like you. You might not have even known they were in that kind of position or even known them at all. If it happens, you don't have any choice in the matter. Let's see how long I can keep them off my tail.
The food is awesome. You can get the very best smoothies ever here. It's fruit, in a blender - that's it. No ice, usually no sweetener. Same with the juice you by at the store. Just blended up mangoes for example. It's thick like it would be if you pureed a bunch of mangoes or bananas. Great stuff. You can get shawarmas which are pita bread wraps with gyro meat. They come from the large, cone shaped mass of spices and meat that's slow cooked on a rotisserie. Absolutely spectacular. It's originally from Greece or Lebanon. They cost a little over $1.
Cant wait to read your responses. Ramadan Kareem!
Joseph S
Permalink
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Posted in Sharing at 11:58 am by Administrator
Abu Dhabi is very different then any other place I've been. First of all, there are few women here. There are officially 2.5 men for every women, but it seems more then that. Seriously, from my observation so far it's like 1000 per 1 women. More women come out in the evening when it becomes cooler. Commuting to and from work in the daytime you see only men. Crowds of workers, usually from other asian countries are milling around. When you reach downtown you might notice one women. If she is Muslim, she'll be wearing a full black burka showing only her eyes or face. Otherwise she is usually Filipino or Chinese. Even in the hotel, which caters to Westerners I only see one or two women. Who by the way, are older and don't look like they're on vacation. I've been told that women get what they want here.
5 times a day beginning at day break they broadcast prayer songs. Through loud speakers attached to mosques plays the traditional mournful singing. People don't stop and bow towards Mecca like I thought they would. Nobody does anything. It's a reflective moment, especially early in the morning. There are mosques everywhere. Most of them are a little bigger then a house and some are much larger. The biggest and most beautiful building I've ever seen is just outside of town and is like a little city. No mosques are allowed to be bigger then the most important one in Mecca. Non Muslims are not allowed to enter a mosque.
There isn't any urban sprawl in Abu Dhabi. It goes downtown, residential area, then blistering desert. That's probably for water management. There is lots of trees and green spaces in the city. The Cornish is a long boardwalk along an inlet that leads to the Persian Gulf. It is about 10 blocks away from the tall buildings of the city. In between are parks, roads, sculptures, etc. The boardwalk overlooks a long beach for westerners so people can wear swimming suits, bikinis are not allowed. I think there are two separate beaches for Muslim people, one for men and one for women. The water used to be farther up where the buildings are. They moved the beach back to create more usable space. A big time developer began building offices and hotels on the other side of the park, separate from downtown in the newly created land. The sheik at the time, sultan Muhammad al Zaiyed, the creator of the UAE stepped in and said, permits or not nobody can build here.
There will probably be lots of big soap opera stories like that for me to hear about.
Tomorrow Ramadan starts. That means eating or drinking is forbidden from sunrise to sunset, including twilight hours. That goes for everyone. I can do it, but my co-workers say to be quick and very discreet about it. I'll have to actually hide, like a crackhead, and drink my bottled mineral water…"from the foothills of the Massafi mountains". The businesses will have shortened hours, restaurants will be closed. It's very likely that I'll be fasting whether I want to or not. That will be interesting. I'm glad I'll be able to be a witness something like that because I've never seen anything like that. It lasts for about a month, maybe I won't be so enthusiastic in a couple weeks.
Traditionally Muslim families break fast together at the end of the day. Nowadays, it takes a long time to get home because of traffic. The workers will get together and eat under the trees. It's hot here, so driving home without drinking all day is dangerous.
People drive fast. The cops don't care about speeding, that is for the traffic cameras. People figure out where the traffic cameras are and slow down. If there aren't cameras, Audubon rules apply. Most cars won't let you go faster then 212.5 km/per hour, that's about 140 mph. The cops are only there to fill out accident reports.
There aren't any billboards. Strict Islamic laws ban images but I'm not sure if that is the reason. There are images here just not big advertisements. There is a lot of ornately designed windows and furniture. The buildings all clean and very stylish. From the pictures you can see that marble and custom lighting are very popular.
Joseph S
Permalink
Posted in Sharing at 11:54 am by Administrator
Finally checked into my hotel in downtown Abu Dhabi. The electrical outlets are not the same so I'm running on battery power until my computer dies. Just wanted to send a quick e-mail.
I went through Kuwait instead of Amsterdam. The flights were all fine. Abu Dhabi is very friendly and relatively unhurried. First thing I noticed was how well organized everything is. The city was definitly well planned. There was not even one single turn in the road from the airport to downtown. It was perfectly lined with palm trees the entire 10 or so miles. It's also completely flat here.
Lots of upscale retail stores and exotic cars. No surprise there. Apparently gold is less expensive here. There is no tax. Food is cheap but otherwise I'm guessing it's pretty expensive to live here overall.
I asked the person who picked me up at the airport what the best part of living here is. He said it was clean safe and quiet. He said sometimes the UAE citizens (only about 20 percent of the population) will carelessly drive their land rovers - expecting you to let them pass. It doesn't happen that much. Wow, what a big difference from Seattle drivers.
Joseph S
Permalink
