At midnight on January 26, I stepped on to a long-haul flight to travel from summer in Sydney to winter in Dubai (although the temperature doesn’t feel too different — winter in Dubai is much warmer than winter back home). I’ll be calling Dubai home for the next four weeks as I undertake an internship at the Gulf News.
Here are the ups and downs — or trials and tribulations if you will — of my journey in Dubai as I navigate currency conversions, complex public transport and sample a new cuisine in a new city...
Day One
Before leaving, I’d found myself a room to stay in a villa in Umm Sequeim via Airbnb. My first port of call after I arrived was to acquaint myself with the neighbourhood. So on my first day, I went for a walk around the block — a common outing back home in Australia. One thing about Dubai became clear as soon as I embarked on this endeavour: the blocks are very, very big. An intended 20 minute walk easily stretched into two hours — I’m grateful for the burger shop and beach nearby that made it a rather refreshing one.
As I hit the final corner of the block, I finally arrived at a supermarket. Here, I could complete my second very important mission for the day: grocery shopping. One thing I did not anticipate was the amount of sheer choice that would be available! My ‘quick shop’ soon became an extended wide-eyed stroll through meticulously clean aisles offering a range of cereals and snackbars I’d never seen before (although my eyes did become substantially wider when I looked at some of the price tags!). Naturally, I examined each option scrupulously before settling on a few Australian brands that I am familiar with. I picked up a copy of GN Weekend to prepare for my internship, headed to the checkout (Dh150, or A$50, for three small bags of groceries made me a little queasy) and lugged my very valuable bags of shopping through the streets that remained to complete the circuit.
Abu Dhabi
On our second day, myself and Alison (another intern from Sydney at the Gulf News) had to be in Abu Dhabi at 2.30pm for an appointment with the Australian embassy. Alison’s roommate kindly offered to give us a lift and we decided to make a day of it.
The Shaikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi looked beautiful in photos we’d seen, so we decided to visit before our meeting. Knowing it was in Abu Dhabi, we assumed it would be at least relatively close to where we’d been dropped off near the water (probably based on the fact most of Sydney’s key landmarks are walking distance apart). Not the case! A Google maps search put a 3 hour and 40 minute walk out of the question and our lack of an Abu Dhabi bus pass meant public transport was also ruled out. Against our instinct as Sydney-siders (where cabs are pricey), we hailed a taxi and were surprised that after 25 minutes, we still weren’t quite there. Luckily, taxi rates here are half the price of what they are back home, otherwise the lengthy return trip would have put quite a bit of pressure on our budgets! The mosque was stunning though so it was worth it.
Alison’s roommate spontaneously decided to stay the night in Abu Dhabi which meant we suddenly found ourselves needing to navigate back to Dubai without UAE SIM cards or internet access — a prospect that wasn’t looking too promising. After refreshing our phones incessantly for wifi, a man at an Etisalat store kindly gave us their password and after some haphazard wandering around, we were able to discover the direct walking route to the bus stop. What progressed was a long chain of transportation: a forty minute walk to the bus stop, 1.5 hour bus ride to Dubai, metro to Noor Bank and then a taxi ride to my front door to arrive around 10pm. What a day! A special thank you to the owner of Al Dar Sweets in Abu Dhabi, who welcomed us with complimentary coffee when we sat down for a quick knafeh pit-stop! Nothing puts a smile on a girl’s face quite like free espresso.
Journey to work
Day three was my first day working at Gulf News and as a testament to my disorganisation, I still hadn’t figured out the best way to get there. My taxi driver the previous night had told me about a short route to get from my house to Noor Bank metro station — cutting through a few blocks by taking the walking path between houses — and so after confirming it was possible using a Google map satellite search, I decided to give it a go. He promised: “it takes fifteen minutes, twenty minutes if you’re really slow!”
I’d always considered myself to have a relatively speedy walking pace so was excited by the idea of a quick commute to work. It turns out, however, that we learn new things about ourselves every day: I am indeed what my driver would describe as “really slow”. The walk itself didn’t seem too bad but when one factors in the direct sunlight, uncomfortable new shoes and a journey through sand and construction sites, an extra fifteen minutes is easy to accumulate. When I finally saw the metro footbridge glistening with the sun in the distance, I was immensely relieved, to say the least and hobbled across the escalator onto the train.
I arrived at Gulf News an hour after leaving home, sweaty and with a blister on every toe, so finding out I’d be assigned desk work for the day was welcome news.
Journey to work: second attempt
After the blisters and bleeding feet I incurred yesterday, I thought it would be best to lie low on the walking for a day or so. Equipped with bandaids and comfortably tucked into a pair of sneakers, I walked to the bus stop via a quick stop at the supermarket, where I had been told I could purchase a Nol card. Well, what would a day be without a little morning drama? I was regretfully informed by the cashier that they no longer sold Nol cards. Where will I be able to get one? “Only at the metro station,” she said. With my feet fresh from the trauma of yesterday, these words triggered a quick wave of panic. After a difficult cost-benefit analysis (I feel myself stretching my budget every day) I decided to splurge — I jumped into a taxi and was dropped right at the door to the office. Note to self: this is a luxury you cannot afford to get used to. Tomorrow I will try the bus, round two.
Journey to work: third attempt
“Another day, another unsuccessful commute.” This, so far, seems to be the pattern of my travel adventures. To cut two long stories short:
Morning route: I caught a bus down Jumeirah Beach Road from Umm Suqeim and wandered through the backstreets of Jumeirah to get to Al Wasl road. Decided to walk further, all the way to Gulf News. Bad move. Thankfully, I was offered a ride by a kind stranger for the final two blocks for which I was immensely grateful (I think he saw me struggling!).
Total travel time: One hour and ten minutes.
Afternoon round: Went to catch a bus to Al Wasl Road but it was 20 minutes away so decided to walk. Once again, bad move. At Al Wasl Road, I couldn’t find the right bus stop so I started walking up to Jumeirah Beach Road. Without access to a map on my phone, however, this quickly became an exercise in improvisation. When I saw
signposts in Jumeirah with maps guiding me towards the Dubai Canal Boardwalk, I was relieved. “Brilliant,” I thought. “I can enjoy a scenic stroll by the water. This isn’t too bad after all!”
As it turns out, the signs to the boardwalk have been erected before the boardwalk itself. Much to my despair, street after street, I was met with “ROAD CLOSED” or “DEEP EXCAVATION” signs blocking off street access for construction work. I walked back and forth, over and over, until I arrived at Jumeirah Beach Road to catch a bus back to Umm Suqeim.
Total travel time: One hour and forty minutes. I think this is a new record.
A change of scenery
It appears I missed a rather crazy weekend of weather in Dubai! While the city was covered in sand and the fierce wind was strong enough to send cranes falling, Alison and I escaped to Kuwait to see a different part of the Gulf. As Australian passport holders, we are eligible for visas on arrival in both the UAE and Kuwait, so luckily we can make quick weekend trips without much hassle.
A friend from home had told me she’d had “one of the best weekends of her life” in Kuwait, meandering through galleries and stopping by cafes and restaurants, so I was excited to emulate her itinerary. Naturally, the museum she recommended, along with all of the art galleries, was closed for the weekend.
So how did our day of nice cafes and galleries turn out?
Well, it begun with breakfast at McDonald’s (fancy, I know) and progressed with a trip to the local cultural centre, Bait Al Othman Museum. Its entrance was guarded by a giant tea set and a few tanks, if that gives you any indication as to the general vibe of the place. In all fairness, though, it turned out to be an interesting experience...
We soon figured out that all the information was in Arabic, so we wandered through the exhibit rooms trying our best -- with mixed success -- to piece together what we could (and accidentally spent a few minutes too long in one man’s office that we mistook for a display).
A man from the museum came into one room as we were browsing and approached us excitedly. “Do you want to see the desert?” he asked. “Camels? Come with me.”
My instant reaction was confusion. “We have to leave in a few hours,” I thought. “We don’t have time to head into the desert!”
What he had in mind, however, was something a bit more different.
We followed him towards the back of the museum and then up a ramp. In a Willy Wonka-esque moment, he opened the door into a giant room mimicking the Kuwaiti desert: murals lined the four walls, faux grass covered the floor, stuffed camels and goats abounded and fake women cooked by fake fires in real tents. To top it all off, the room was filled with hundreds of exotic birds, each very much alive and vocal.
We were under strict instructions to sit in the bedouin tent and enjoy, so that is precisely how we passed quite a bit of time, absorbing the soundscape with roosters and all.
The rest of our weekend was a bit less bizarre: we saw the Kuwait Towers, wandered around in the souqs and enjoyed a lot of excellent Lebanese food in the malls by the water. With only one major mishap - we didn’t realise that Kuwait has two airports and, of course, were initially dropped at the wrong one - we headed back to Dubai on Saturday night ready for another week of work.
Food, glorious food
I seem to have finally figured out a bus routine that gets me to work in about half an hour -- huzzah! -- and, believe it or not, I was even able to help somebody else out with directions.
So, I took only a week to get oriented. With that nuisance out of the way, I could finally start exploring Dubai. Our first evening adventure was to the Mall of the Emirates --- my first "Dubai mall experience" -- and from the second Alison and I stepped out of the metro station and into the shadow of Cold Stone Creamery, it did not disappoint.
Cold Stone Creamery
We don't have Cold Stone back home, but Cold Stone along with the Cheesecake Factory are two of my favourite international treats. You can imagine my ecstasy when it turned out that Mall of the Emirates has both!
We perused through the shops, goggled at the people inside the famous Ski Dubai, and I delighted while scoffing my much-anticipated two desserts, which were eventually followed by dumplings for dinner at Din Tai Fung -- another favourite from home. All in all, an evening spent feasting on familiar food was not a bad way to begin the week.
We spent the next night in a similar fashion: Alison and I went to Kite beach after work, just in time for a beautiful sunset, and found ourselves overwhelmed by food truck options. A cheesy chappati was followed by a falafel which was in turn followed by knafeh. It got chilly by the water so we went to the Madinat Jumeirah Resort (which was my first taste of traditional Arab architecture) and followed up our first meal with shisha and cinnabon for dessert #2.
Kite Beach
This week was getting off to a much better start than the previous one.
Global Village
Alison and I were given a surprise assignment at work -- to visit Global Village -- and without knowing much about where or what it was, we were off. As we rolled into the car park in the taxi, I noticed something poking out of the park grounds that seemed to resemble the Burj Khalifa. Was it a mini-Burj, peeking out of a mini-skyline comprised of miniature versions of the world's most famous landmarks? Was that a scaled-down Eiffel tower, nudging through just beyond it? I virtually skipped out of the car and through the World Gate. It was all very exciting -- who knew it would be possible to see the Pyramids of Giza, Big Ben, the Taj Mahal and Statue of Liberty within a single turn of our heads?!
Dahi Puri
Kakigiori cheesecake
Naturally, the question of 'where to eat first' was the most pressing. I carefully calculated all our options to make sure we'd fit everything in and devised a scrupulous eating plan. A feast soon followed: a knafeh to share between the two of us, a serving of dahi puri each, a margarita pizza cone, a kakigiori cheesecake, knafeh again, corn on a cob and multiple chappati omelettes.
Pizza cone
The pavilions themselves were a treat, especially the Middle Eastern ones. The music in Kuwait, fur in Afghanistan and spices in Yemen offered teasers into cultures we hadn't experienced before and our travel bucket lists grew by the minute.
We were ridiculously full by the end of the night, but every new stall still brought about a food envy that was hard to get over. I had never heard of ice-cream rolls or waffle burgers before, but I was craving them by the time I got home... there'll just have to be a next time!
Natassia Chrysanthos is an intern at Gulf News.
