The first days of Ramadan

I honestly thought, apart from the odd thing, I wouldn't notice much difference around Abu Dhabi during Ramadan, but I am completely surprised by how different things become so quickly.

On the first day of Ramdan I was in Dubai all day for meetings, and literally went 10 hours on just 2 glasses of water, no food and no cigarettes. One of the glasses of water was only because a local Muslim Emirati who we we were meeting with, after we declined, kindly insisted we took a drink, though was fasting, himself. When you are out and about in public, whether in hotels or walking the streets, you just don't eat, drink or light up.

At the office it's different, we have a closed off room set aside where we can eat and drink, and an area walled off outside where we can smoke. In the office, we simply do not eat and drink at the desks during the official Ramadan working hours (10-3), and also outside of this period as longs as our Muslim colleagues are not around.

Out and about it's also very different. The hotel bars are different, they start serving alcohol at 7pm, there is no music and you can't drink in the open air spaces for those that have them. Our apartment over looks a very busy road, in fact the road is constantly busy, 24/7 apart from on a Friday morning. The first thing I noticed on the first day of Ramadan, was how quiet the road was at 7pm when the fast is broken, and how busy it is at 3.30am shortly before the fast is about to start.

It is literally as if the whole place becomes nocturnal and the day turns upside down. It's easy to forget and carry on as normal, I like my coffee and cigarette on the balcony first thing in the morning and walk out there with them both every day, only to remember and walk straight back in!

We are in a foreign country, it may be odd for us, but it is the norm here. It is part of the culture, and you accept it, adapt, make your small sacrifices and live according to it. Personally I find it both fascinating and actually quite honourable. In a world where in a lot of places commercialism has overtaken the importance of religion, faith and belief for most, it's nice to see a period where the priority is given back to peoples beliefs. Things don't stop, they just for this period come second to this religious observation.