Day Trip to Abu Dhabi

One of my new colleagues, Natasa, offered to take me to Abu Dhabi yesterday, mostly to see the big new mosque there but also to just see more of the Emirates. What a fantastic day of culture and history!

We left Dubai at 7 a.m. and the drive to Abu Dhabi takes about an hour and a half. We arrived at the mosque at just after 9 and after several circles around the place finding the correct entrance for visitors (the gate manned by the guard with the machine gun was definitely not it!) we found our way in. It is technically not open until 10 but we were allowed in immediately anyway. It is also not actually finished even though it has been under construction for several years.

Out of respect for the religion (and because we would not be allowed in otherwise), we removed our shoes and put on a head scarf and gown which they provide. Men do not get off easy either: the men who arrived in shorts were generously provided with an ankle length “gunny sack“ skirt (punishment for showing up in apporpriate attire???)



The mosque itself is an amazing building! Enormous. Ornate. RK: when you come, you could spend the entire day photographing it I think … if you are into photographing buildings and art. My colleague has been in Dubai for 3 years and also lived in Baghdad (before the war) so she was able to explain a fair bit about Islam, the people, the architecture, symbolism, ideology, etc. The construction of a mosque must be overseen by Muslim professionals (Architects, Engineers, contractors) and one can see why, there are may subtleties that we non-Muslims don't understand.




I was inspired to attempt an "artistic" picture :-)


This is the smaller of the two worship halls ... everything's relative!


This is the big worship hall ... and it is BIG! Seeing how things get built here in the Middle East, I would not be walking below that chandelier!

We stayed at the mosque for about an hour, it started to get busier and the temperature was heating up so it was off for something more air-conditioned.

Next we went to the Emirates Hotel, an elaborate, very posh hotel. A LOT of gold (real gold? Gold leaf? Not sure) Where Dubai is striving to be the commercial capital of the region, Abu Dhabi is making their mark on the cultural scene. The comparison that comes to mind is this: if Dubai is like Calgary, then Abu Dhabi is like Edmonton (except Wayne Gretzky Drive would be Sheikh Rasheed bin Saeed al Maktoum Street).

Within the hotel was an exhibit of the four new cultural buildings going up in Abu Dhabi, one of which is a Guggenheim network museum (FYI there is a network of Guggenheims! Who woulda thunk it) All four buildings are designed by famous Architects and each is definitely unique. I was overrun by a tour of Spaniards so I did not get any photos but even the models boggled the mind.

After lunch, we headed to the (old?) Cultural Centre where there was an exhibit of archaeological artefacts from Sudan and a documentary film there. The documentary was really well done and the exhibits were especially interesting after watching the show.

Natasa is a very interesting lady, lots of good stories, very articulate, very eager to impart her experience in Dubai which is great! It was refreshing to tour with someone who understands my quirky habit of always looking at the obscure details of how things are built. She is a bit more of a “designer” than I whereas I still have my “Engineering tendencies” but her passion for architecture was infectious.

My new friend had one sage piece of advice for those of you thinking of coming to visit: don’t come during Ramadan (which, this year will be basically the month of September.) There are a whole myriad of special rules and restrictions (no eating or drinking during day light hours, ultra-conservative dress, no alcohol anytime). I hear it is a real drag for non-Muslims during that time so plan your hard-earned vacation time accordingly.

Cost of living report (update):

The currency here is Dirhams (AED)
Currently the exchange rate is 1AED = $0.277277CDN according to this website.
The rate of inflation is expected to rise from 10% in 2007 to 12% in 2008. It is noticable

Restaurant meal:
low 15Dhs / $4.16CDN
Ave 28Dhs / $8.31CDN

Two beers, happy hour: 25Dhs / $6.93CDN

Latte at Starbucks: 14Dhs / $3.88CDN

Rent: collected up front, all 12 months of it plus deposit! So most rents are quoted as annual. Sometimes you can pay it 6 months at a time. Rental agents take a fee of 5% (or more) of the annual rent, do basically nilch to earn that fee and are currently lower than taxi drivers in my books.

1 BR apartment, 800sf:
low 55000Dhs / $15,243CDN per year (so about $1270 per month) plus utilities
average 90000Dhs / $24,940 (about $2,078 per month)

Taxi:
Bur Dubai to Emirates Towers (hotel to work and vice versa)averages 15Dhs / $4.15CDN
Emirates Towers to International City (where I will probably live): 55Dhs / $15.23CDN

Car rental for a month:
Small car 1200Dhs / $415CDN
Medium car 2000Dhs / $554CDN

Gasoline: 6.7 Dirhams per gallon. This is a metric country so not sure why gas is in gallons and not litres, the gas jockeys didn't have an answer for that but told me 1 gallon is 4 litres. 6.7 Dirhams = $1.85CDN per gallon, works out to about 46 cents per litre.

Groceries: I have not bought a lot of those yet since I also don't have a home. However, when I wandered the produce section at Spinney's (the local grocery store), most of the vegetables are imported from the US. How interesting that our fruits and vegtables in North America are imported from elsewhere yet exported to the Middle East? From what I could tell, it was very expensive but I'm told that the markets where the locals and other immigrants buy their produce are much much cheaper.

Day trip to Abu Dhabi

I’m quite stoked! A lady at work offered to take me to Abu Dhabi on Saturday to see the big new mosque there. Apparently it is not common for non-Muslims to be allowed to enter a mosque and I’m told one must dress appropriately (which I expected). Abu Dhabi is about an hours’ drive from Dubai. I’m not entirely sure but I think this is the mosque she is referring too.

Observations …

Been in Dubai for 3 weeks now.

People here are all about the bling! Not only is the Architecture over the top, so is everything else! Saw 2 red Ferraris the other day while waiting for my taxi. The day I arrived here the front page of the Gulf News showed a +$1M cell phone encrusted with diamonds and gems purchased by and Emirati (I think). And this from the Edmonton Sun (courtesy of Rhonda K.)…

CAMEL WORTH MORE THAN AN NHL STAR
PRESMADINAT ZAYED, United Arab Emirates -- Dubai's crown prince paid the equivalent of about $2.7 million yesterday for a camel during a desert festival celebrating Bedouin traditions.
The festival also included a camel beauty contest, where thousands of owners strutted their animals in a bid for the top prize of finest overall camel, and separate categories such as best neck, head, lips, nose, hump, legs or feet.
Sheik Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the son of Dubai's ruler, Sheik Mohammed, bought 16 camels for $4.5 million, including one female camel for $2.7 million, the state news agency WAM reported.
More than 17,000 camels were registered for the beauty contest, which gave out millions of dollars in prize money and more than 100 four-wheel-drive vehicles and pickup trucks.

Everyone smokes here. Shisha is very popular but proven to be even more damaging than cigarettes and I have always associated bongs with illegal substances. I tried shisha on the desert safari, love the aroma, not so big on actually smoking it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hookah


Everyone is constantly on their mobiles (aka cell phone). Incessantly! Obsessively! Etiquette has no meaning here so go ahead and answer that call in the middle of an important meeting.

Nobody recycles here. The “green” movement is still in it’s infancy so no real facilities for it however I believe that will change relatively soon. I have been conditioned to separate my cans from my paper and to compost my organic waste, it just feels so wrong to throw paper into the same container as that banana peel!

Nobody car pools here. Logic would tell you that when traffic is this bad, the alternatives such as public transit and car pooling would be pretty attractive! Not so much. Gridlock is a sad reality.

Handicap accessibility is non-existent (sadly). If you are in a wheelchair, forget about it. I work in the Emirates Towers office building. Brand new. State of the art. Not a wheelchair ramp anywhere. Although I see a guy in a wheelchair there sometimes, I should ask him how he got in?!

Everyone (the women, including the Muslims) wears obscenely high heeled shoes! The higher and the spikier the better! The Carrie Bradshaw in me is in heaven (reference Sex in the City) -- bought 3 pairs last weekend!!! The challenge though is finding good, sensible walking shoes that don’t fill up with sand.

Speaking of TV references, I was joking with the guy who shares my cubicle about the lack of walls, I cracked a joke about Less Nessman from the show WKRP which, in my circle of influence, would have been hilarious. Unfortuantely, cultural references from 1980’s North America don’t translate well, he just gave me that smile and nod that says “I don‘t understand but I‘ll just fake it”.

I’m starting to lose my command of the English language when speaking with non-English speaking people. Short simple sentances, just the important words. Regular conversational English is too complicated.

Pork is not allowed according to Islam. In the super-market there are separate rooms where the pork is sold and sometimes there’s a sign that says, ”not for Muslims“. I haven’t gone into one of the special pork rooms yet, it has the same sort of aura as the porn section at the video store.

The coffee here is on par with camping coffee only stronger and with more grit. No Tim Hortons. Guess I will have to go to Afghanistan to get my extra large double double.

Not very dog friendly, at least not for big dogs. I contemplated bringing Minka here, but I can see that it was the right thing to leave her in Canada. I see a few people with smaller dogs and the occasional larger one but not often. Muslims believe dogs are dirty. The people who have them don’t seem to think to pick up after them.

K, Nuff' about the taxis, traffic and weather

So maybe its time to talk about something other than the taxis, traffic or weather.

Here’s a little bit about the new job:

My new job is with NORR Group Consultants International and our office is in the prestigious Emirates Tower office building (it must be prestigious judging by the retail shops on the lower levels … the less products on display, the more expensive the shop!)

I have taken over a project that is nearly complete (drawing-wise) and lucky for me the previous job captain stayed an extra 2 weeks to help me phase in. I was lead to believe that our drawings were complete however, since he’s left, I am finding that there is still some unfinished business and therein lies the challenge for me: finishing what someone else started. On the chaos scale, it rivals the traffic (oops! wasn’t going to talk about that!) My saving grace is that the project manager I am working under is hard nosed but a straight shooter. He’s very clear and concise in his communication so I have a pretty good idea of where I’m at. Such is the nature of the job.

The buildings in UAE are pretty cool. There are some “duds” (architecturally speaking … but not by NORR of course!) but there is no such thing as a plain ole “square box”, no lack of creativity here! On the face of it, some that appear to be rather ordinary actually have many intricacies that one must stop and examine to really comprehend. There are a lot of proposals and models and pipe dreams floating around that are purely academic (and are virtually unbuildable me thinks … but what do I know! I'm just an "architect"!) When I’m more settled and have my own car (instead of a taxi … grrrr!), I want to tour around and really stop to look at some of them.


I was told that NORR is doing the site supervision on the infamous Burj Dubai, known affectionately around here as simply “the Burj”. (Hmm, the Wikipedia article says something else; I’ll have to ask around about that!) If you are not familiar with the Burj, it is the tallest building in the world (for now!) breaking all kinds of records, I believe it dethroned Toronto’s CN Tower as the world’s tallest free standing structure not long ago. With any luck, NORR will take us on a field trip there however security around it is tight so might not be so lucky. I’ve driven by it a few times and it truly is a giant!

http://www.burjdubai.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Dubai

And on another note, Happy Birthday, Grandma! I believe its number 88 and she’s doing fantastic! Hope I can be half as well at her age. Also HBD to my friend Richard! I forget what day it is but I know it is around now and I think it might be a ‘round’ one for him (not sure???)

And on yet another note, it looks like the apartment deal might fall through. There are many unscrupulous characters in the rental-biz and my spidey senses are telling me this guy is one of them. Gonna let that one go and continue the search. I have another one to look at tomorrow, same neighbourhood, different agent.

This from a collegue here ...

REAL FACTS TO BEAR WITH, IF DRIVING IN DUBAI
1. If your road map is more than a few weeks old, throw it out and get a new one.

2. If you are in Rashidiya and your map is one day old, then it is already obsolete.

3. Forget the traffic rules you learned elsewhere. Dubai has its own version of traffic rules, which can be summarized as "Hold on and pray!"

4. If it is your priority to cross, forget it and wait.

5. There is no such thing as a dangerous high-speed chase in Dubai. Everyone drives like that.

6. When you plan to get a new car, ask first about its acceleration from 80 to 160 Km/h (recommended: 3 seconds). Very important if you frequently use the Emirates Road.

7. All directions start with Sheikh Zayed Road, which has no beginning and no end.

8. The morning rush hour is from 5:00 AM to 1:00 PM. The evening rush hour is from 1:00 PM to 10:00 PM.

9. Thursday's rush hour starts Wednesday evening. (For you North-Americans, Friday is the holy day here so Thursday is like our Friday. It's a good deal until you have to resume the regular work week on Sunday morning).

10. If you slow down at a yellow light, you will be knocked behind by another motorist and then, rewarded a white ticket by the Dubai Police.

11. If you are the first one at the intersection, when the light turns green ignore the car honking behind you and count to five to avoid crashing into one of the cars jumping the red light.

12. Construction on all main roads is a way of life and a permanent form of entertainment."Sorry for the inconvenience" is an honor for your long-suffering

13. All unfamiliar sights are explained by the phrase, "Oh, we must be in Sharjah !"

14. Car horns are actually toys for Adults.

15. Anyone in a Land Cruiser, Armada, Tahoe, Dodge, BMW or Mercedes with less than 5 digits in their number plate and tinted windows, has the right of way. Fact!

16. If you are driving a Corolla, Sunny, or another small Japanese car, stay on the far right lane. No comment!

17. Most roads mysteriously change names as you cross underneath intersections or bridges.

18. (this one was blank for some reason)

19. A trip across town will take a minimum of four hours, although Sheikh Zayed Road has an un-posted minimum speed of 150 Km/h.

20. (Refer to #18)

21. 18 wheeler trucks are one of the fastest vehicles in Dubai; they can do 120 Km/h on Hatta-Oman Road when fully loaded.

22. The minimum acceptable speed on the Emirates Road is 160 km/h, anything less is considered downright sissy. (Yikes, my new apartment will be down Emirates road!!!)

23. Al Khail Road is Dubai's daily version of NASCAR.

24. Dubai Autodrome has a new extension: The Emirates Road.

25. WELCOME TO DUBAI

Crazy taxi

Taxis are becoming a pet peeve of mine. Yesterday, I had a taxi driver from hell (or probably Pakistan). Some of the taxi drivers are excellent, some are OK and some are bad. This guy was off the charts!

In my usual wait to go home, I was in the queue for only about 10 minutes! Along comes the car, I hop in and at the same time, he got a call from dispatch (legally, he should be picking up the call) I thought he might boot me out but I stayed put and off we went ... in the wrong direction! I confirmed the he knew where to go and he said yes, but less traffic this way (HA!) So there we were, driving all around Jumeirah (which is no where near where I wanted to go) and traffic was definitely NOT better than the usual route. Madly weaving in and out of traffic at break-neck speeds, all the while muttering under his breath in whatever language was his mother tongue. The non-existent seatbelt in the back seat did nothing to ease my apprehension.

We came on some exceptionally heavy traffic and in the lane next to me, there were several big dump trucks, fully loaded. In an effort to get into that lane, my driver decided to go nose to nose with one of one the trucks. Of course, the dump truck won that showdown.

Now, in spite of all the chaos on the roads here, there is surprisingly little "road rage". People are tense but not confrontational. Not this guy! He edges up besides the truck, rolls down his window, yells out a few things that I can only assume were profane and flips him the bird. The trucker wasn't impressed, he starts to get out of his truck! Yikes! I thought they were gonna brawl! Lucky for me, my driver drove off but not before flipping a few more birds and yelling a few more profanities.

Eventually we were headed in vaguely the right direction and I finally spotted the Manazel Towers, the landmark closest to my hotel. By now the fare was already over 20 dirhams (normally the whole trip costs 15Dhs or less) and I told the guy to just let me out, I would walk the rest but he apologized and turned off the meter.

When we get to the Manazel Towers however we are on the wrong side of the road. He started muttering again and suggested that I should get out there in the middle of a 6-lane highway! I was astounded. When there was a break in the traffic, I threw him some money, gave him a few profanities of my own and walked the rest of the way home.

Time to get a car.

The Taxi Game

Well I've had my fill of Taxis. Stuck in traffic is one thing, you may not be going anywhere fast but at least there's the prospect you'll get there eventually. Getting a taxi is a crap-shoot. Sometimes the laws of supply and demand are just not in your favour and taxis in Dubai are one of those times.

Earlier this week I waited in the taxi-queue for about 35 minutes to get home (which happens every day). I finally get to the front of the line and a taxi finally shows up and I gleefully jump in and say, "to Al Raffa please", expecting the car to zoom away and I'd be home in a jiffy. Not so. Driver says he doesn't know where. No problem. I whip out a business card from the hotel which, conveniently, has directions and a little map printed on the backside c/w major landmarks. Still not moving. Still doesn't know. Like, WTF?! I point to the GPS on his dash. Suddenly he doesn't understand English and I lost the battle. He was determined to not pick up a "short" fare and I had to get out and wait again (but not before I gave him a schooling in Canadian superlatives and I know darn well he understood. Idiot!)

Next taxi that came along was more agreeable and spoke excellent English and was most pleasant (as most of them seem to be). As nice as he was to me as a passenger, that did not transfer over to the other drivers on the road -- he was the epitome of everything we hate about other drivers! But he got me home.

During that white-knuckle ride home, a motorcyclist rode past my taxi, weaving in and out of traffic, squeezing in between lanes of cars and busses and Hummers. As he rode past, I caught a glimpse the slogan on his t-shirt, “Have fun, Ride safe”. Ha!

This is Week 2

My first week in Dubai went very well! I did not suffer any jet lag to speak of, I have not really had any culture-shock, I'm starting to think in Dirhams rather than dollars and the weather has returned to seasonal norms which is very pleasant! Maybe a little bit of sticker-shock when apartment hunting but I have rented a place and will probably move in on the weekend.

My apartment is in International City 'England' cluster. Its a quaint little one bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment on the first floor. It has a little balcony with doors off the living room and bedroom and overlooks what will some day be a park but at the moment is a big sand box. Strangely, the place does not come with appliances. The rent works out to be about $1263CDN per month which is cheap (relatively speaking -- approximately half of what other areas charge.) Traffic is a problem here but since cars and petrol are cheap here, I decided to forego location and commute time in favour of affordability (in other words, I cheaped out.)

My new job with NORR is very busy! I have had a crash course in the UAE from the construction side of things although a lot of things here are the same as in Canada and my bosses are Canadian so they are able to translate the UAE way into terms I understand. Lucky for me, the person I am replacing is still there so I have had some "grooming" before he leaves on Wednesday. Some of you who know me will be shocked to hear that I have been on time, in fact early to work every day! I am up by 6am most days and in the office before everyone else! A big part of the new "morning" me is the Muslim call to prayer every morning over the Mosque loudspeaker at 5am, sometimes earlier. I don't believe there is a Mosque near my new apartment so I may have to invest in an alarm clock when I move if I am to keep this up (strangely, there is no alarm clock in my hotel room.)

Last Thursday, NORR had a social outing "Desert Safari" which was a lot of fun! Got to meet a few more of my collegues in a more relaxed setting and it was my first glimpse beyond the city. It felt like we were out in the middle of no where however the jumbo jets flying overhead to and from the airport kinda gave it away that the edge of town was really only a sand-dune or two away.