UAE Visitors Take Note

Unless you are good at reading fine prints, avoid visiting Dubai or Abu Dhabi. Yes, you heard me. UAE is a country where vacation is to be enjoyed with caution. Here are the fine prints that most visitors are not aware:

- It is illegal to drink alcohol without a liquor license in this country, and I suspect none of the tourists would get one considering the application process is lengthy. (story link)

- It is illegal to swear in public, especially to locals. No f-word, no middle-finger, no jokingly, no moment-of-excitement. None. (story link)

- It is illegal to have sex or stay in the same room outside wedlock. And yes, that means rape victims can be charged on the same account, oh yes. (story link)

The list goes on.

Surely all these illegal activities exist among tourists and expats, but just like car accidents, they rarely happen and most people are happy with their day-to-day lives without noticing anything until something goes wrong.

Oh yeah, and if one is really unlucky and got in the way of an important local (story link), it’s a good idea to get on the very next flight out of the country before setting foot in a police station.

There you have it. UAE visitors take note.

Touching base

My previous employer in the Netherlands (LVNL) asked me to write an article for their internal magazine updating them with what’s been going on with us since we left.

I really enjoyed my time working there, and this is a way of touching base with my previous work and colleagues.
(hallo LVNLers (and all others!), post a reply or send an email, let us know how you’re doing!)

They allowed me to publish the article on the blog, have a read if your Dutch is up to scratch :)

(for people on our mailing list, if you don’t see the picture in this post, go to the blog to read it)

(P.S. changed the link to a bigger picture...)

How to stake an Emirati tree

Did anyone else notice the odd-looking three-legged trees around Abu Dhabi?

The featured trees have been this way for at least the past year and half, and this is what happened when a thunderstorm hit:

In my humble opinion, they provide a very good illustration of relationships of Emiraties and expats in the country's development. Enough said.

FYI, the following are some Facts about Staking a Tree:

"Tree staking is never done with the intention of harming a tree. Staking is usually done with love and with a desire to promote root and trunk growth and protect a young tree from harm.

"What some tree planters do not understand is, rather than helping a tree develop root and trunk growth, improper tree staking replaces a supportive trunk and root system with an artificial support that causes the tree to put its resources into growing taller but not growing wider.

"If and when the stakes are removed, the lack of trunk and root development makes these trees prime candidates for breakage or blow-down. In the first good windstorm, down these trees come. They have lost the supportive protection of natural development."

From Abu Dhabi: Christmas Carol, Bedspace Ads and Liquor Store

Some random things to share with you of our life in Abu Dhabi.

- I crashed a private function to watch our friend Meg sing Christmas carol. The backdrop is a giant light display of UAE flag, left beaming from the UAE National Day celebration back in early December.

- Bedspace ads posted on a random bus shelter, which is not in use and simply acts as sand collector.

     - Although I’ve never visited an adult video shop in Toronto, somehow I reckon the experience would be similar to that of visiting a liquor store in Abu Dhabi, except there are really only a handful of them. As you can see below, the shop windows are all blacked out, and after your purchase, you carry your bottles in black unmarked bags… not to mention the mandatory liquor license!

 img source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/biglittlesister/3363630996

From the local liquor store, Merry Christmas and drink up, everyone! :)

"Always Welcome in Jordan"

"Welcome, welcome!" Just about every Jordanian we met in Jordan repeated the simple yet warm word to us while we were there for 11 days last week. It turned out the word can be used loosely as "hi", "bye", "thank you", "okay", or filler for moment of awkward silence. During a typical quick conversation, you can hear the word muttered at least a dozen times. It's essentially the duct tape of Jordanian's English vocabulary.

So what did we do while we were there. Let's see. My top highlights would be...

- Camping in a Bedouin tent in the middle of desert:


- Driving in the mountain range


- Sleeping in an ancient cave next to Petra:


- Selfishly and gladly having Petra's Treasury all to ourselves in a beautiful early morning:


- Mudding ourselves at the Dead Sea:


- Diving/snorkelling in the the Red Sea at Aqaba.

- Moon walking in the dark night under full moon in Wadi Rum:



- Riding very spirited Arabian horse:

- Camel Riding!! (Smell you later!)

Special thanks to our couchsurfing hosts for helping make such a memorable trip: Akram and Bianca in Amman and Nawaf in Petra!

Crossing Expats' Boundaries

Q and I are wexpats - expats who came from western countries. And that essentially defines our "environment" long before we even landed in Abu Dhabi: from what type of car we would drive, to what range of accomodation we would choose, to what type of friends we would hang out with, etc, etc, and surely and naturally we did just that - settled very comfortably in our wexpat environment. But once in a while we venture out of our comfort zone and into other expats' "environments". And the result? It's always surprisingly pleasant. One such example was watching the Pakistan v.s. New Zealand cricket match in the Cricket Stadium last Saturday.

The first thing we noticed was that bad traffic jam leading to the stadium turned a two-lane side street into a four-lane. Some Pakistanis opted for parking further away and made up the lost time by running towards the stadium. I can't recall the last time I saw even one person running towards a sporting event, let alone crowds. The enthusiasm caught on me before we even reached the parking lot.


It was our first cricket match ever, and it was a "50-overs" "one-day match", i.e. a long form, and long it was - the match started at 3 pm and we left at 10 pm - an almost-herotic SEVEN hours, and it still had another good hour to go by the time we left! It was an all-around wholesome experience: the crowd, the teams, the stadium, the friends, and the poster! Okay, some may argue beer was missing. :)


I can't quite describe it but the level of dedication and enthusiasm somehow made me respect the Pakistani expats much more so than before. A lot of them may be alone here, they may not earn much, and they may not be able to afford many hobbies, but for what they can manage, they really make the most out of. The cricket match was quite a display of such spirit.


I wish I had something more intelligent to say about this boundary-crossing experience, but really at the end of the day I felt truly happy, for the people surrounded me at the stadium were truly happy - and that is something I don't get when walking into the fancy hotel bars of Abu Dhabi.

Wastas + Abu Dhabi = ?

Wastas are "connections" in Arabic - they are about who you know to help make *things* happen. Think them as wheel teeth that keep the clocks ticking, and in the case of Abu Dhabi, often for free!

These are what Wastas have got us during the past two days: Beyonce concert last night, F1 Grand Prix practice at the circuit this afternoon and Jamiroquai concert tonight - all for free! A little background on these F1 concerts - AD organizers made an interesting decision that they were only available to race pass holders, and not available for purchase by general public. It turned out for the Jamiroquai concert alone, a total of 15 friends/acquaintences attended mostly, if not all, without ever purchasing any race passes. Oh yeah, the arrangements were all quite last minute as well. So even though three days ago we didn't plan on having anything to do with Abu Dhabi F1, already we've been to three events at the fresh-paint-scented venue!

Yas F1 Circuit from West Grandstand-that's RedBull car racing across on the bottom there.

Jamiroquai was only 20 meters away!

I don't think Q and I quite get the hang of this cultural phenomenon, but why should we even bother. Sometimes, it is easier to just go with the free flow.

Mistakes and Passports Don't Mix!

The following are the stories that both Q and I have gotten tired of repeating over the past month or so. Our mission was to get me a replacement UAE residency visa since my passport got stolen while traveling in China. Now that I typed it all up, I can see how tricky the situation was and that it would take a miracle for any UAE immigration office to understand, not to mention helping us.

The Story of Four Passports

Every single immigration counter we went - and trust me, there are many of them - we had to explain that my passports #1 and #2 were stolen in China, while holding a mint #4 backed up by a certified copy of #3.

#1: Regular Canadian passport issued in Toronto. I moved to Abu Dhabi with it in 2007, so it has my residency visa. It had to be replaced back in April this year because it ran out of blank pages for visa stamps, but I still kept it for the residency visa page.

#2: Regular Canadian passport issued in Abu Dhabi. It was a replacement for Passport #1. It had my Chinese tourist visa and was what I used to enter China.

#3: Temporary Canadian passport issued in Shanghai after #1 and #2 were stolen. It was issued and given to me in Shanghai on 26 August - ahh, what a glorious day! It also contained the replacement tourist visa for China – it was "zero entry" as I only needed it for leaving the country. This is the passport I entered UAE with.

#4: Regular Canadian passport issued in Shanghai but picked up in Abu Dhabi. I had to return #3 in order to get #4. For some odd reason, we were not allowed to keep temporary passports. I had a certified photocopy of #3 including the UAE entry stamp. It was essentially blank and this is where the replacement UAE residency visa should go. The problem is…

The Story of One Mistake

When I left China with Passport #3, I got an exit stamp of “31 August 2009”. It was all good until I entered UAE after the overnight flight. Instead of “1 Sept 2009” the stamp I got “1 August 2009”! Unfortunately I didn't notice the error until several days later when staring at a certified copy of #3.

Of course this whole thing didn’t make sense and we all thought it was obvious to the UAE Custom that they made the mistake, but I was so wrong. Essentially it appeared that I was in UAE without any paper record - in anther word, illegal.

The Story of Two Residence Visas

In order to make my Edinburgh and Italy trip, we had to pull a last-minute Mission-Impossible stunts on the day of my flight. It was pure drama and I only wish we weren't doing it. Doing one of those door-to-door car switches at highway pit stop and zooming down highway at lightening speed definitely pushed our adrenaline to a new high.

In the end we had to cancel my old residence visa on passport #1, so I could leave UAE at all. While I was in Italy, Q worked with his company to get me a new residence visa, so now #4 is on its way to be completed with a visa sticker.

As we learnt from this experience, one of the fastest ways to learn the local government culture is to lose your passport. If you don’t believe us, try it. :)

--------------------------------------
To reward those of you brave souls who reached this point of the posting, here are some photos from our trips in China, Edinburgh and Italy. Enjoy - we certainly did! And do let us know how you are doing. We miss all of our family and friends dearly. Love from Abu Dhabi!!

A breath of fresh air…

…well, relatively speaking, of course :)

This morning at 6 am, when I left work after my graveyard shift, it was a very amiable 27 degrees (81 Fahrenheit for you non-metric lot). It felt like a draw of fresh air!

It means the height of the summer is over and in a few weeks temperatures should be down enough during the day to be able to venture outside without being scorched to a crisp!

The visa saga continues meanwhile. Having spent another 4 1/2 hours at the immigration department, the new resident visa is on its way and I should have it tomorrow. That means Shu would be able to enter the country legally again! The rest of the work is mostly hers, getting all the tests required for a residence visa. But we’ll do that when she’s back next week.

The two accompanying photos have been shot at Sheikh Zayed Mosque here in Abu Dhabi. I guess the last photo sums up two important aspects in Abu Dhabi life quite well, religion and commercialism…

Shu has left the country...

That's actually a good thing! We had a lot of issues trying to replace her residence visa when she got back from China. The visa was in the passport that got stolen in Shanghai. It's not resolved yet, but the situation was such that she also couldn't leave the country without it either! We managed to resolve the issue temporarily, but we'll have to work on the rest when she gets back... I'm sure Shu will inform you later on about the whole procedure (to give you a slight hint what we've been through, so far I've spent a good 15 hours at the Immigration Department....).

She's off to attend a wedding in Edinburgh before flying to Italy to tour over there together with a friend from Toronto! This was the message she sent me yesterday:

'I found the Mound and the Prince Street Garden, and sat on the grass, and walked on the grass in zigzag. I loved and missed how nice it felt. :)'

The Princes Street Gardens, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Or as a friend put it: 'having actual weather again is interesting!', when commenting on her move to The Netherlands after having lived in the Middle East for several years.

Other than that all is well. We're experiencing full on Ramadan, and will end in just over a week from now. We went to an iftar celebration in the posh Emirates Palace . The food was hidiously expensive, but also very good. Still only did it for the occasion...

Later this month, one of my best friends arrives for a few days before we set of to fly to South Africa, where we'll rent to motorbikes and tour the country for two weeks!

Let us know how you're doing!