Free like a bear

And here we are on the bus again… crossing the UAE desert back to the Coast! As I learned at the Al Ain bus station, the public transport can be paid all over the Emirate of Abu Dhabi with the so-called Hafilat card. God… I love these transport chip card systems so much… I cannot wait for Germany to be the last developed country to introduce them in maybe 50 years…!

I reached Abu Dhabi at the end of the afternoon. Abu Dhabi… capital city of the UAE… I had seen millions of pictures of the Zayed mosque on social media, but I didn’t know what else to expect. Unlike Dubai, Abu Dhabi’s income still relies a lot on oil. However, they try to decrease the oil dependency and to develop tourism following the success recipes of Dubai (i.e. attracting arrogant rich tourists with soulless concepts!). A good example is the Ferrari World, a huge indoor theme park built on Yas island, a new neighborhood quite far out of the the city, which got famous for having the fastest roller coaster ride in the world. Next to it, they just opened a Warner Bros theme park. To step out of the shadow of Dubai, there are also lots of activities to develop Abi Dhabi as a cultural destination. A huge museum neighborhood is currently under development: the Saadiyat cultural district.

But back to my arrival in the city…! On the way into the city, we drove past a bridge that jumped out at me. I loved the architecture and took a quick snapshot out of the bus… and found out that it was from the great architect Zaya Hadid (R.I.P.)!

At a first glance, I didn’t see as many high skyscrapers or futuristic buildings as in Dubai. It looked more like a classical middle Eastern city, but I will be told wrong while exploring later on. I arrived at the main bus station in the middle of the main island of the city and was again surprised by how old fashioned it was since I was expecting a fancy building!

I was lucky to be hosted for my 2 nights in the city by Dale, a Canadian expat living in a condo in the middle of the city main island. And since the city is wide spread, it was about 10 km away from the central bus station.

Walking there from the station was obviously not an option! Like Dubai, Abu Dhabi was not designed for pedestrians. In some areas, it is really hard to find your way by foot. In order to cross wide highway-style roads, you sometimes need to walk 1 km to find a pedestrian traffic light or bridge. If you are lucky, there might be a “subway”, as they call the pedestrian tunnels under the roads. The first time I saw the sign “subway”, I was excited to find a metro… but no! Not only it is not designed for pedestrians, but it is in general not designed for people without a car. Most of the people without cars take taxis, but it can become really pricey since the distances are quite far! I didn’t want to ruin my budget and my cheap backpacker pride, so I challenged myself not to take a single taxi ride during my stay and to explore the city using public transport only… which means bus only! And this was a real challenge because, to say the least, the system is not very efficient. There is a network plan – which is a good start – and most of the bus lines share some main roads but then go to different places and it’s hard to keep track on the map! The reason why only few people use the buses is because of their frequency! To reach some places, there is only one bus line, and the frequency of the bus is at its best twice an hour… without a schedule! Taking the bus means walking to the bus stop and hoping that the bus didn’t just pass by, in which case you need to wait – in the little air-conditioned bus stop shelter – for worst-case 29 minutes or so! It’s getting even more interesting when you need to change bus line… If you are lucky, you might need to wait another half an hour there! Overall, it took me at least 1 or 2 hours to get from one place to another, but it’s the kind of experience that makes you proud of yourself and of your patience! Haha! And it was so cheap… really! Like less than 50 cent a ride! Taxi drivers couldn’t believe a Westerner was waiting at a bus stop. They were always horning shortly and stopping at the bus stop, waiting for me for a few minutes. They were hoping I would give up… but they didn’t know how stubborn I am!

To make it more difficult, I didn’t buy a SIM card in the UAE since it was not worth it for the time… and there was no WIFI at the bus station. However, I was a bit prepared! I flagged the address of my host on Google Maps and I downloaded the map to have it offline! Unfortunately, Google Maps has no public transport data in the UAE, but I got the tip of one of my Dubai hosts to use the travel planner site Rome2rio which is surprisingly good over there! I double-checked the bus line info of this site with my Abu Dhabi host on WhatsApp, who also gave me a list of bus lines I could take to get to his place. However, I noticed differences in bus lines between my two info sources, but I decided to trust internet instead of my host…. which was a good idea! After asking him, he admitted he never ever took the bus…! And they had changed the bus network many times – to connect the new neighbourhoods growing like mushrooms! – but he didn’t keep track of the changes! Haha! Anyway, I finally managed to get on one bus going to Dale’s place and I could tap in using my Hafilat bus card! I was not surprised after my Dubai experience not to see any Arabic person in the bus, only Asian! And I almost committed a huge faux pas… I entered through the middle door, and all the seats were taken on my left, so I went to the right where many seats were free… before noticing it was the ladies-only zone!!! So I had to stand in the packed back of the bus, looking at the almost empty other half… No comment!

My host Dale was fun to stay with. He seems to love having people around and rents (or hosts couchsurfers for free) each square meter of his apartment. He has 3 couches in his living room, which he rents individually on Airbnb, so his guests all sleep together in the same room. One could wonder why people would rent this, but real estate prices are crazy in the UAE and it’s hard to afford an apartment if you start a new job and come without lots of savings. While I was there, it was not that busy. He only had one Chinese guy sleeping on one of the couches. The 2 other couches were rented, but the guys were out of town! It was quite interesting to talk with the Chinese guy. He had been hired by the UAE government as an IT expert and was working on an artificial intelligence program to automatically track people using the surveillance cameras placed all around the city… I guess Chinese are top candidates for these kind of jobs…! He was nerdy but nice though, especially after being so surprised as I told him my age… He was thinking I was in my 20s… hahaha! This is by the way an interesting aspect of cross-cultural experiences. It is indeed very difficult to estimate the age of somebody of another ethnical background than yours. I learned that big time during this trip, as I was estimated to be between 25 and 55 years old! When this discussion topic pops up, you never know the outcome: sometimes a great compliment, sometimes a slap in the face! Hahaha!

I had 2 full days to explore the city and since I didn’t plan to go to the theme parks, it was enough. I visited the 2 main touristic sites – the Zayed mosque and the Louvre museum – which I will describe in separate articles. Apart from these “artificial” sightseeing places, there is not so much to see, so I just walked around to get a feel for the city. The temperature was perfect… about 25 degrees with a chill wind. And I managed not to get too annoyed by the taxi drivers who were slowing down next to me and horning to signalize their presence. Like they couldn’t believe a Westerner could take the bus, they couldn’t believe a Westerner would want to walk around in this city!

Like in Sharjah, the mosque density was quite impressive. Sometimes, it was possible to have 2 or 3 mosques on one picture at the same time, even if they looked tiny next to higher skyscrapers. The city was definitely more “religious” than Dubai. One could hear the call for prayer anywhere, even through the speakers of the airport… !

Note the antenna disguised as a fake palm tree!

I walked for hours along the coast road called the Corniche. Skyscrapers, private beach clubs… it had a Miami Beach / Malibu feel!

At the horizon: the Emirates Palace and Presidential Palace

Here are a few of the highlights, mostly of architectural nature:

• The Al Bahr towers, taken from the bus windows… Some twin towers with an ever-changing façade. The structure moves with the sun position with a smart system of high-tech mashrabiya (see them move here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5tLY9lyxI4).

• The Capital Gate – bad bus picture. It’s in the Guinness book of records for having the highest inclination.

• The Burj Bin Rashid, the highest tower of Abu Dhabi and one of the highest apartment buildings in the world with 380 meters.

• The Founder’s Memorial, memorial to Sheikh Zayed.

• The Etihad towers, skyscrapers between 250-300 m high, and their tasteless mall.

• The Emirates palace hotel, the most luxurious hotel in town, and the most expensive hotel ever built (3 billion US dollars), which I had no time (!) to stay at…

• The Presidential Palace, which was unfortunately inaccessible, but looks absolutely amazing on drone pictures… a real 1001 nights palace! (Update: it opened to public after my visit in March 2019, so go there if you can!)

After exploring the Emirate of Sharjah, it was time to discover another part of the UAE and to leave the Arabian Gulf for the desert!

My day started quite early thanks to the call for prayer at about 6 am which was impossible not to hear. Imagine 100 muezzins within a 1 km zone around you! I went to the bus station and found a private bus heading to Al Ain about 160 km away. Al Ain is in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, at the border to Oman. It was declared a UNESCO world heritage site and is famous for its oasis and camel market. During the bus ride, I was experiencing another premiere on the trip: it was the first time my backpack was in the luggage hold of the bus… and the first time I was feeling this slight anxiousness every time someone gets out of the bus and opens the luggage hold, thinking that he might steal the bag. Luckily, this irrational paranoia disappeared after a few weeks of traveling!

The 2-hour bus ride was entertaining: leaving Sharjah through the suburbs with the fancy university buildings…

…reaching a 10-lane highway with almost no traffic in the middle of the desert surrounded by rocks and sand dunes. I could even spot some wild camels along the road from time to time!

After riding through this very flat and dry landscape, it was surprising to arrive in a big quite green city! I took a taxi from the bus station in the center to reach my hotel which was quite far out. I hate taking taxi because I always feel like it’s too easy and not fun, but I had no better option, especially with heavy luggage! Again, since barely tourists go there, I did not have many accommodation option, and chose the cheapest hotel I found, which happened to be the Radisson Blu! It was the most luxurious place I stayed in for the entire trip! Nice room (with the must-have prayer set!), great breakfast buffet and beautiful pools in a palm tree garden… 

I was one of the few non-Arabic guests in the hotel, and could sense that. As I went to the swimming pool, I did not feel comfortable, being one of the only guys in swimming suits. Most of the other guys were keeping their T-shirt on while lying on the pool lounge chairs, and the women were completely wrapped in their abaya and hijab or niqab! Walking around half naked made me weirdly feel like some kind of exhibitionist! The same happened in the gym and sauna. All the guys were “hiding” as much as they could in the locker room, which is apparently a must-do, as some locker room rules hanging on the wall were describing: “The Muslim customs and traditions follow certain guidelines on undressing and dressing which should be strictly respected and followed by every individual”. Only problem: they didn’t say which guidelines! Haha! Maybe a big sign saying “Don’t show your penis!” would be clearer…

One of the highlights of the area is the most famous mountain in the UAE, the Dschabal Hafit, with an altitude of 1200 meters. However, there was no public transport to reach it and the visibility was very poor anyway due to sandy winds. The places to visit in the city were closed on that day, so I spent the afternoon walking around… a lot! The first impression was that the city is pretty rich. It might be a detail but the street furniture like e.g. street lights looked very luxurious with gold paint. The reason for this wealth became clear after I read that it is the birth city of Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the co-founder of the UAE and long-time sheikh of the Abu Dhabi Emirate. The main mosque on the central square has a fancy digital clock on both minarets indicating the time of the next call for prayer! The city being in a desert, it is quite challenging to keep it green, but with money, you can do anything, in particular install complex irrigation systems. What I love in travels is to discover stores or jobs that don’t exist (anymore) in Western Europe. And a store dedicated to “typing” was a perfect example!

I walked many kilometers in the main oasis in the city center. It was a beautiful walk on plenty of alleys surrounded by clay walls, palm trees and irrigation canals.

The next day was more cultural, with the visit of the 2 main sites. First, I went to the Al Jahili Fort (by taxi, I admit… I was lazy to walk so much again!). This is a beautiful old fort constructed by the family of the Abu Dhabi rulers to protect the oasis.

Then, I walked to the Palace of the famous Sheikh Zayed and his family. That’s where he grew up and it is full of family artifacts (including super kitsch portraits!). A nice way to sense the life of wealthy Arabic families in the mid 20th century.

At mid-day, it was already time to leave Al Ain… taking a taxi to the hotel to get the luggage and back to the station to take the bus to the next destination: Abu Dhabi!