A snapshot of the Middle East:48 hours of no proper sleep and loving it.

Thursday May 4 2017

My cousin Dana and I arrived in Abu Dhabi around midnight after the long haul flight from Melbourne. The best part about plane trips I think is being fed all the foods and watching all the movies. Despite trying to sleep in an upright position and having your sinuses dried out by air con, I think that flight travel is great. It's one of the only times in my life that I am forced to sit down and relax for a substantial time period.

Of course, We had a drunk Slovenian man who tried to harass and intimidate us a lot of the journey (he smelt so bad too), but Dana is pretty effective at delivering the right messages deter seedy men. I think that the theory is true, that approachable people get everyone trying to talk to them: wonderful and interesting people and creeps and weirdos included. It also means that you have about a 98% chance of being the person chosen to have the 'random' explosives scan, because approachable people usually smile and say yes and don't put on too much of a fuss. At the end of the flight, I found a plastic ball wedged under my shirt. I thought that maybe the drunk man placed it there but later realised that my deodorant must have exploded with pressure as I was applying in mid ear and left the ball down my top.

My friend Amy has been working as a flight attendant living in Dubai for the last couple of years. Amy and I have known each other since playing together in basketball in college and since that. Amy's housemate in Dubai is also a Canberran who Amy was friends with and decided to be a flight attendant. Amy lives a very different life to mine, she is all over the world all the time, the income is tax free and Emirates seems to cover everything for their employees. I'm envious in many ways but I know that Amy finds it hard to be away from family and friends, relationships in Dubai can be hard to sustain as people are coming and going and the shift work means being jetlagged most of the time. It's the trade off o being able to tarvel all over the world for your work! Amy came to pick up me and Dana at about 1am from Abu Dhabi alongside her friend Russell ( Russ for short, who's last name also starts with K to make it confusing). Russel is from Canada but works in the finance field in the oil rigs in Dubai. Amy doesn't really have a body clock due to shift work and crossing different time zones. It was really sweet for Amy and Russ to come and get us in the middle of the night, especially as it is about an hour drive each way from Dubai to Abu Dhabi and back.

Dubai is certainly a place that looks different to anything I have seen before. The buildings are tall, it's dry, dusty and industrial.

Amy pretended we were her cousins so that she could have time off from work and so we could stay with her. The emirates accommodation is across the road from an abbatoire. You need your passport checked to do everything, children for some reason are not strapped down with seatbelts and crawl around the car while the parents drive around on busy roads. It's hot, 40 degrees but can go up to 55 degrees.

We already made plans together to drive out to Oman, another country in the United Emirates.


Oman has great places to snorkel and see Dolphins and is picturesque. It's a 2 hour drive each way and we needed to catch a boat in time. So subsequently we slept for about 2 hours (I didn't sleep but the others did) then got up at 6am to start our road trip. Amy said before 'bed', 'we are crazy aern't we'. 'Yes' I responded.

Getting through the border is a ridiculous process: people are checking passports with no logical order and form and then you need to go to another building across the road to do it all again (check out of one country and check in at the next).

You are asked to not take photos add the border. As my phone is new and I don't know how to use it, I accidentally took one anyway.

As a result, we were late for the boat but they said they would take us on a speed boat out to the big boat, which is generous. The seamen kept calling to ask how close we were. Russell kept telling them that we were a few minutes away and told them that we were passing landmarks that we had not crossed yet. Russell said that this is how things are done in the middle east. 

I loved the drive to Oman, through the dry dessert and hills,seeing all the camels and goats. The snorkeling was amazing and the dolphins were beautiful. We got to chat and laugh together on a beautiful boat covered in Persian rugs (not practical but makes you feel very glamorous). Although incredibly jetlagged, I feel that being among nature (and jumping in the ocean) is the best way to fix everything.

 
 
 







Russell said that Oman is 'his special place and one of the most unique places in the world. Russ drove us on a sketchy feeling windy drive up to a major viewpoint (palms sweaty the whole way up), and what we saw, I felt was a beautiful representation of the uniqueness of the middle east.

 
 
We had lunch together after at a Yemeni restaurant, fish, fried rice, salad and avacado drinks with aniseed and sugar? As a digestive after dinner snack. The food was incredible and I loved that we were all sitting on the floor together to eat.

The drive home was insane, traffic in combination with conversations conjusive of not having properly slept for about 50 hours. I have not laughed this much in so long. I would never power on like this back at home, but travel forces you to make the most of every opportunity, tough it up. 'Get amongst it' and 'yolo' might be my mantras this trip.

Saturday 6th May 2017

I have slept! The world is a different place. I went on an awkward industrial jog for 5km. Time to wake up Amy and Russell soon to go to the traditional middle eastern tea house and then the mosque in Abu Dhabi.

The  malls in Dubai are an experience in themselves:

Aqaurium in a shopping mall: why not?

Giant candy shop.

 

Arabian tea house:




After a chaotic attempt of trying to  get back to Abu Dhabi with public transport, we arrive at about 2000 at night, no taxi drivers were even keen to take our money to get us to Abu Dhabi as they are all changing shifts . We can't even fathom how we will get the energy to get to the Mosque as public transport is so hard to get around in but are desperate to go there. I ask our airbnb host Mohamed if he wants to join us for dinner and a trip to the Mosque on a whim and he says yes. Mohamed is fantastic, he has a Western edge to him and speaks amazing English. When we arrive, he is dressed traditionally.  His parents house where we stay looks like a presidential suite.


 

President Dana.

Mohamed talks about how he lives ' a double life' . His parents don't know that he drinks alcohol and he gets changed to go out. Our time with Mohamed is a continuous reminder that you never know what to expect of people, and new  and interesting experiences will exist with everyone if you are willing to be approachable and keep an open mind. Mohamed was pleased to come to the mosque as he said he has not been to the mosque in over a year.

The mosque is incredible.





Mohamed makes a remark that Dana and I look like we are from Star Wars when we wear our Abaya's. We say to Mohamed, that what he says is hilarious and a bit true, but if we had said that it would have been deemed culturally insensitive!

The fact that Dana and I are taller than most people here adds to our Star Wars look

Mohamed takes us to  a Middle Eastern fast food joint where we don't even have to get out of the car. Moahmed, what a dude Thank you to AMy and Russel for such generous hospitality and an amazing aventure.

Shukran,

Rasa