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🎧 E47: I flew to UAE for $25 USD
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📖 Six grown men snoring in an eight-bed hostel room.
They sound like chainsaws.
I’m lying there in Abu Dhabi thinking, “THIS is the glamorous Emirates experience I’ve seen on Instagram?”
Fortunately, I’m deaf in my right ear.
I buried my good ear in the pillow and let the whole bloody room rumble
I’d seen Emirates football jerseys and those ridiculous first-class airline suites.
Then an Uber driver said the UAE could be affordable.
When I bought the Wizz Air All You Can Fly Pass for around five hundred US dollars, Abu Dhabi and Dubai went straight to the top of my list.
Flights were just ten euros apiece!
Fall of twenty-twenty-four. I’m checking standby seats and hostels.
After Austria, it finally works.
FlixBus from Vienna to downtown Budapest.
Uber to the airport.
A few hours before my six-hour flight.
Sitting there, it hit me.
Holy shit!
I’m actually going to ABU DHABI!
About twenty euros in round-trip flight fees.
Twenty-five US dollars, give or take, on top of the pass.
And what exactly is the UAE?
It’s not one kingdom. It’s a federation of seven emirates, each with a hereditary ruler.
Six came together in nineteen seventy-one, and the seventh joined in nineteen seventy-two.
Abu Dhabi is the capital, and Sheikh Zayed became the founding president.
Before oil, fishing, trade, pearling, and desert life shaped the region. Oil transformed Abu Dhabi; Dubai grew into a global trade and tourism hub.
Back at my hostel, there was a courtyard where everyone could hang out.
That’s where I met a guy we all called Bahrain, after his home country. An absolute GEM! He was out there in traditional Gulf clothing, smoking cigarettes, drinking a beer, and holding court.
Bahrain spoke hardly any English.
No problem!
His hands and facial expressions did the talking, with some help from translation. I kept laughing at his animated stories.
He knew I was laughing, so he kept going!
Over the next few days, Bahrain, another friend we called Syria, and I spent hours talking.
I also learned about people and traditions connected with Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Qatar.
No travel brochure could have given me those conversations.
I was fascinated by the clothing, too.
Many Emirati men wear a kandura, the long traditional robe, often with a ghutra headscarf.
Women may wear an abaya. It’s about tradition, modesty, and comfort in the heat.
My shorts, flip-flops, and light T-shirt?
Let’s just say I wasn’t blending in with the local fashion!
We visited Qasr Al Watan, the Presidential Palace. Magnificent domes, intricate details, and halls on a scale that’s difficult to describe. Part of a presidential complex, it also welcomes visitors to experience Emirati heritage.
Afterwards, Bahrain, Syria, and I went for lunch at a Yemeni restaurant. The manager sat with us, made us feel welcome, and even sent me home with some tea.
Unforgettable hospitality!
Abu Dhabi’s architecture was on another planet. Etihad Towers: five gleaming towers by the Corniche. I rode up to the Observation Deck at Three Hundred on the SEVENTY-FOURTH floor of Tower Two. Almost a thousand feet in the air, looking out over the Arabian Gulf, islands, and a futuristic coastline.
And Dubai was just a bus ride away! Around two to two and a half hours, for twenty-five dirhams each way.
About seven bucks
Then I saw the BURJ KHALIFA.
Eight hundred and twenty-eight metres. Two thousand seven hundred and seventeen feet. The tallest building in the world! It opened in twenty-ten and was named for Sheikh Khalifa, the UAE’s former president.
I looked up, and up, and UP!
Beside it, Dubai Mall was enormous. Luxury everywhere! I wasn’t treating my retirement savings like a shopping voucher! And Dubai Marina, with its yachts, waterfront, and towers? Unreal.
Dubai was another world!
Funny, though: I keep picturing Bahrain gesturing in that courtyard and the restaurant manager handing me tea. The people stuck with me!
But one ridiculous mission remained.
I needed a driver to help me with it.
FIND ME A CAMEL!
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LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST!
Check out the rest of the amazing pictures of my time spend in Abu Dhabi and Dubai including my the friends I met.
Bharian and Syria!
