Monday, October 3, 2011

Rants from Abu Dhabi - Part 1

A friend and fellow UofT alumnus of mine recently relocated to Abu Dhabi.
Every so often he sends me his thoughts and experiences from the middle east.
I thought perhaps potential travellers to Abu Dhabi could use some insight in preparing for their trip, so I asked my friend if I could blog his rants for him on my site.
He approved. 

Here is the first in a series of Rants from Abu Dhabi, Part 1.
Enjoy.  I know I did.



****Rant starts below****



On Fri, Aug 12, 2011 at 6:14 AM, wrote:

Ok gents, been here less than 24 hours, and here are my observations:


--It - is - hot. I knew that it was going to be hot. I read that it was going to be hot. But, it is effin hot. You literally cannot walk outside. It's unbearable and feels like you're in a sauna with sun lamps on. It's averaging 48-49 degrees all week with over 50% humidity. Anything over 100 meters away, and I'm gonna have to cab it.



--Yep, there are a lot of h00kers here. A lot. Went around to 4 hotel bars last night and those were basically the only women in there. All types and nationalities and generally nasty. Kinda feels like how I would imagine Bangkok to be. Lotsa old white dudes with youngish nasty asian 'girlfriends'.
--I met this Yemenese (that's from Yemen) chick last night, but there is a VERY good possibility that she was a h00ker, although she told me she made tv documentaries (I think the h00kers here have day jobs). I emailed her after I left the bar, but no reply since.


--I have no idea what people do here during the day on weekends. The Yemenese girl and her Ukrainian friend (supports my h00ker theory) told me that people just sleep during the day. I thought she was kidding. Then, the waitress at brunch today said that it's not great to go to the malls during the day as they are empty and no one is out during the day. Thought she was exaggerating. Well, I'm at the mall now (biggest one in city) and it is EMPTY (friday is the weekend here). Apparently people come out after 8:00 pm and the mall is open all night. I asked the waitress (aussie) what people do during the day, and she said she was really curious herself!



--It's funny, in the nice hotels, the locals are all upstairs in the main lounges in their traditional flowing white gettups sitting all refined and sipping coffees and teas chatting, and all the brits and aussies (and canucks) are in the bars downstairs or in the back (with separate entrances) getting drunk, cavorting with h00kers and being rowdy. Interesting clash of cultures..

Will report more while I have time and remain lonely and friendless.

Have a great weekend gents!

D.

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