Join the "half" mile high club

As is pretty common knowledge around the globe, there is a phenomenal amount of building work going on in the UAE, and will be for some years to come.

Abu Dhabi is building whole new communities on new islands as well as race track for the first ever AD F1 Grand Prix in 16 months time and Dubai, as well as everything else, is building the worlds tallest tower, the Burj Dubai, which as I have mentioned in a recent post will stand over half a mile high!

There are loads of images available of the tower, and a fair few have been sent to me. However I was sent one recently taken from the top of the tower, some 2600 feet high or 800 metres, looking down onto Sheikh Zayed Road.It is absolutely breathtaking.

I was driving down Sheikh Zayed Road the other day and was in awe of the scale of the towers either side of me. The tops of those towers are what you see in the photo above. They are about 40 to 80 stories high, and to give you some perspective of the height of the Burj Dubai, that photo is taken from the top of it, about 800 metres high, over half a mile, or about 156 stories high.

Five fascinations

Over the past few weeks I have noticed there are a host items and inventions, that actually have no use over here in the UAE, items that most people would deem as useful and necessary.

1. Mirrors on cars - in most cases pretty damn useful, and in my opinion a necessity, to ensure your path is clear from traffic coming up behind you, over here though that is not necessary. Changing lanes is a lot simpler than that, just move over into any gap and expect the driver of the car you are cutting up has noticed your move and can slow down in time!

2. Indicators on cars - again a necessity in most countries, but over here they just seem to be lights on your car, controlled by a stick near the steering wheel, that you should never use. When I learnt to drive many moons ago, the thing you learnt was Mirror - Signal - Manoeuvre, over here it's ignore the first two and just manoeuvre. However the hazard light function is useful as with these magic little lights, you can park, double park and even triple park, literally wherever, but only as long as the hazards are on!

3. Zebra crossings - they look good and provide a guide to where pedestrians can cross the busy roads in apparent safety, however it is not to be assumed that cars will stop for you, the opposite in fact! And if you see a car approaching, the onus is on you to run the hell out of the way, which can be a bit difficult if you are wearing Havaianas or Burgenstocks!

4. No smoking signs - good idea, and nice thought, with the aim of benefiting every ones well being, however if you are seen smoking under one of these signs you are more likely to be given an astray instead of fine.

5. The green light at traffic signals - red for stop, amber for get ready, and as Murray Walker says it's green for Go! Go! Go! Not in the UAE, it's red for stop and amber for "Go very quickly"! If you haven't pulled away by the time green comes up, or actually the second amber comes up, then you are literally subjected to a blast from the horns of every car around you.

And the winner is .......

Huge congratulations to all our Turret ME colleagues who worked on the World Future Energy Summit 08. As I mentioned in a previous post, this event about 6 weeks ago won Best Congress at the Middle East Events Industry Awards. Well, they've gone and done it again!

On Wednesday the WFES team were all at Earls Court in London for the annual Association of Exhibition Organisers Excellence Awards, and picked up the award for the best launch show, beating competition from 3 other events organised by 2 much larger event organisers. A great achievement, but thoroughly deserved.

It is a hugely successful event on all accounts, sales, delegates, speakers, press exposure etc. which was all recognised by the wider conference, event and exhibition industry.

This is what was said about it: 'The judges chose the winner because of their genuine launch in an emerging market that surpassed its own very ambitious objectives and achieved extraordinary PR coverage on a global scale'

If you are struggling to recognise this event, it was across all the main UK papers and news stations in January, and was the event where Prince Charles gave a 20 minute opening address, and to save 15,000 tonnes of carbon emissions, he didn't come over to Abu Dhabi for it, he appeared on stage in the form of hologram!

Fun on the roads

I'm nearly done with all the paperwork and bureaucracy now (hopefully I haven't spoken too soon), all I think I'm missing is my alcohol license. I was issued with my UAE driving license last week. A very quick process in comparison, which involved a letter, translation of the UK license, more photos, an eye test, about 220 dirhams, then actually having a separate photo taken for the license. However, less than one our later I was the proud holder of a 10 year UAE driving license.

We ordered a new car straight away which we should get any day now, but hired a car till then. Getting mobile is good, though taxis are cheap, it's nice to have that bit of freedom to just not have to rely on lifts into work and taxis to shops etc. As it turned out I needed to be in Dubai twice this week, so just jumped in the car and hit the E11 from Abu Dhabi to Dubai.

First time on the roads is a bit scary, 4 lane motorways, where under taking is as common as over taking, tailgating is constant, and if you can't move out of the way for someone to pass, they will just slip onto the hard shoulders, and literally squeeze past! I don't think it's taken me long to get used to driving on the "wrong" side of the road, and being able to do u-turns at every traffic light junction. Hopefully I won't pick up too many of the bad habits the drivers have over here, but I'm not so sure.

Driving in the UAE seems to follow Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution and is very much a case of "survival of the fittest", so to get ahead on the roads, it is a case of if you can't beat them, join them!

Friday Brunch

A very popular activity on a weekend over here is Friday Brunch. Brunch over here is not a big fry-up at about 11am on a bank holiday Monday, it is a long lunch held in most of the hotels around town. Friends and families get together, from lunch time to late afternoon, eating good food, having the odd drink, and basically enjoying a relaxing day together.

Today four of us went over to Al Fanar restaurant at Le Royal Meridien. This is probably one of the most talked about brunches in town, mainly because Al Fanar is at the top of the hotel, on the 25th floor, and is a revolving restaurant, offering fantastic views of the city. You get to see both extremes of Abu Dhabi, from the calm seas of the Arabian Gulf to the Manhattan like skyline that is emerging as AD develops.

Al Fanar is an experience, the food was endless, your glass was never allowed to go less than half full, and every time you looked out of the window you had a different view and different perspective of the city. Seeing the hustle and bustle below one minute to the tranquility the next.

It does take a bit of time to get used to the motion, though set at a steady pace, you could see and feel that you were moving. But nonetheless, it was really good fun and a very popular place, and you have to book a month in advance!

Top Nosh

As you may have read in some of my past posts, a lot of what you do in the evenings in Abu Dhabi is geared around bars and restaurants (unless you are a keen shopaholic and just love the malls). As I go to new eateries I will try and summarise them as much as possible, and so far have written about some great places ranging from top restaurants in hotels to cheap as chips curry houses in the side streets of AD. Well, last nights food tops the lot so far! Not only because the food was good, but because of the whole experience! And it wasn't in a restaurant or a back street cafe, we actually ate at home.

Yesterday evening we took a drive down to the AD fish market by Port Zayed. As we walked into the market hall, even at 7 in the evening there was the hustle and bustle of fish mongers selling the days catch. We walked up to a couple of stalls and chose a large whole hamour fish that was in the sea less than 12 hours ago. It was weighed at 2.5k, packed into a plastic bag and cost us a tenner!

Armed with our carrier bag of fish, we walked over to another side of the market, where for less than 1.50 a guy guts, fillets and chops the fish for you in front of you. A fantastic sight, done with skill, precision yet great speed! Then, with the same fish already now prepared and looking nothing like the whole sample we'd bought, it was over to another side of the hall, where special stalls coat and fry the fish for you to your specific requirements for less than 80p. 10 minutes later you have fresh, fried, hot hamour ready to take home and eat with a salad. Beautiful! What surprised me the most as how there weren't any expats there at all but apart from us, just locals, however it is a definite must visit and try experience! Will be going there regularly just to try all the different seafood, from whole tuna and sardines to sherry and hamour.

Residency at last but still more forms and photographs

My residency came through on Wednesday, so now have a visa for the next 12 months. As I said in a recent blog, with residency you can do the things we would take for granted being on the UK. I opened a bank account, and began the process of getting my UAE driving license. Opening the bank account was straight forward enough, the branch is in the exhibition centre where our office is so, right on my doorstep. All I needed to do was sign and few forms, was given my account number and in a couple of days would have access to Internet banking and have my cashpoint and debit card. A simple enough process, or so you'd think. Popped in today to check if my salary had been paid, and it had, but into my pals account. The bank had given me my pals account number, which I gave to HR and they paid my salary into. The banks reaction? They just laughed about it! Anyway, lucky I know who's account it's in so it will get sorted.

The driving license application is an whole new experience. Firstly had to have my UK license translated into Arabic at a cost of 50dirhams (7 quid ish). This was done, apparently everything translated properly, but the only bit that wasn't translated, the license number, which was just copied, but was copied incorrectly. So back it goes to get changed. In the meantime I had to get a letter from my employer, and then down to police HQ, for more form filling, more copies of your passport, more photos, an eye test, another photo taken and bingo! An hour and a half later I am the proud holder of a UAE driving license!

Takes a bit of time, can be very bureaucratic, as well as frustrating, but it's worth it to just get the small things you are used to and take for granted.