My 2-week experiences in Abu Dhabi

Howdy guys/gals,

First of all, take a deep breath as this’s gonna be a loooong message from me. Although this is my third week in Abu Dhabi but my “journey” indeed started last week due to illness on the first week.

I just want to share with you guys my 2-week experiences & observations in Abu Dhabi.

Office Management

- My office management is pretty slow in organizing all necessary stuff for new hire. Though few focal points were in charge of the task, end of the day things would only move after I personally & consistently went to respective department – IT, facilities, security control- to get things settled. At last after 2 weeks, I got my computer & phone setup, insurance card, and what not. The lesson here, you have to be pushy in order to keep things flow.

- Had my blood taken for hiv test as part of visa requirement. The medical centre was too crowded and I had to wait about 2 hours before my no was called.
- Contrary to some comments in this forum, I managed to open my bank account with National Bank Abu Dhabi without having to have my residence visa ready. I just went to the bank with copies of my passport & work permit and my bank account ready in 1 hour. However you can only withdraw the money after your residence visa ready.

Taxi

- I commute to office by taxi daily. For time being I am staying in a hotel on Hamdan st. Someone mentioned in this forum about the scarcity of taxi and how hard to get taxi. So far I don’t have any problem to get a taxi. Max wait normally 5 minutes. There is always a taxi passing by my hotel. However i found that the best time to easily take taxi is very early in the morning before 6:30am!! For 3 km journey, normally the charge is 7-8 dirhams. Alternatively bus is available with cheap fare of 1 dirham.

Food

- Foods are everywhere. It’s a bit shocking at first as I used to be watchful with my diet. Couldn’t resist myself at first but after 2 weeks now I am back to my normal diet. If you are eating in a good restaurant, typical simple meal would cost you around 30-60 dirham. Fast food restaurant like KFC with 2 pieces chicken +fries+bun costs around 11 dirham, Local fast food like Taza – 4 pieces chicken+fries+bread_soft drink costs aound 16 dirham. If you eat in one of Indian restaurants, a plate of rice with beef curry and salad would cost less than 10 dirhams. I had a plate of fried noodles with chicken in Medinat Zeyad Mall for 18 dirhams ( food court). And yesterday I had a lamb kebab for 5 dirhams.

Fitness

- There are a few gyms in Abu Dhabi. I went to this local gym on Hamdan street, Rock Gym. The crowd there mainly arabs & most of them are huge with “fake” muscles. I soon realized that “roid” is quite popular here. These people don’t look friendly at first but once ice broken, they are like your brothers. They love to call me “ Abu Sayyaf” for a good reason. However there is one thing that annoys me a bit is that most of them don’t have patience to wait. They will simply jump in without asking permission eventhough you are still using the machine. But if they are polite enough they will stand there and ask you to finish your workout quickly. Membership there is 300 dirhams per month and 30 dirham walk in.
- I went to World gym once. It is situated in Khalidiyah. There is more elite people going there and tend to be mixed crowd. Equipment is quite new & staffs are very friendly. Fee is about 1200 dirhams for 3 months.
- I was quite active in Muay Thai & Capoeira when I was in Australia. I am glad to find there is one club here that teaches both martial arts. It is Muay Thai & Capoeira club situated on Najda street. Unfortunately the capoeira class hasn’t started yet. I went for the Muay Thai class last week and it was 2 hour session. For 3 sessions a week, you pay about 400 dirhams per month or 75 dirhams per session. As for capoeira, I joined Abada Capoeira in Dubai. I attend the class every weekend at Jumeirah Beach park.

Mosque

- As a muslim, I don’t have any problem at all to find a mosque here. Mosques are like everywhere and I could say one mosque in every 200m.

Shopping

- I have done some shopping last week and below are stuffs I bought and you judge whether they are expensive or not :
- work cloth – 2 shirts + 1 pants ( made in Turkey) = 200 dirhams after a bargain.
- but I saw some shops selling pants for less than 10 dirhams and a shirt for 3 dirhams. But of course of poor quality.
- Grocery :
o Green / red apple = 7.40 dirhams/kg
o Mandarin = 3.75dirhams/kg
o Tomato = 3.65 dirhams/kg
o Onion = 5.45 dirhams/kg
o Garlic = 4 dirhams/pack
o Red chilli = 3.25 dirhams/pack
o Milk low fat, 2L = 10 dirhams
o Meadow butter,500g = 11.50 dirhams
o Lays potato chips,185g = 5.10 dirhams
o Mineral water,1.5L = 1.30 dirhams
o Bread, small loaf = 2 dirhams
o Sweets/chocolates – snickers/galaxy/etc 270g = 13 -18 dirhams
o A dozen of SS fork/spoon = 12 dirhams
- grocery shops and super markets are like mushrooms and close very late- midnite. Some places, price is bargainable.

Weather

- Weather during this time is so perfect!! Not so much humidity and temperature is within 25-35 C range. But I was told in summer the temperature could soar to 50+ C with high humidity and I am quite nervous with that.

Accomodation

- I didn’t spend so much time searching around for house. I searched for it online, made few calls and inspected the houses all in one day.
- Someone suggested this website http://www.bhomes.com/uae/ but I found that it has so limited choice and most of the accommodations are away from Abu Dhabi. Since I don’t have a car, I opt to have an affordable accommodation in the city.
- I found this website http://abudhabicity.olx.ae/ and I think it’s quite useful with broader range of choices. I managed to secure a spacious & nice 3 bedroom apartment on Corniche Road West facing the beach and a walking distance to my office for 200,000 dirhams per year. I have paid 2000 dirhams booking fees and no commission ( after a bargain).

Medical

- When I got sick on the first week of arrival, I paid all the medical expenses from my own pocket as I had no insurance card then. It is very important to have the insurance card here in Abu Dhabi so that you are covered. I paid around 150 dirhams for medical consultation and another 100 dirhams for medicine. This is Ahalia Hospital in Al Markaziyah.

Class

- I went for my first Arabic course class yesterday at ADMA office ( Al Masaud Tower). 1 session lasts about 1-1/2 hours and conducted twice weekly, the whole course costs 800 dirhams but I paid 400 dirhams because I registered through my company. The teacher is Mr Hassan Loubani contactable at 050 4462678 if anyone interested to enroll in his class.

Clubs

- I am not a clubber but I did go once to 2 clubs in the city after a friend of mine insisted. We went to the acclaimed famous Captain’s Arms pub ( Le Meridien Hotel) & Rock Bottom Café ( Al Diar Capital). These 2 pubs have nice ambient with live bands. Captain’s Arms is pretty much an English pub, a favorite among expats and has an outdoor seating. I noticed there was more African background expats in Rock Bottom Café and the band plays mainly hi hop and R&B. I am not sure about the price of the drinks as my friend paid for them but I reckon soft drink should be around 10 dirham and beer around 15-20 dirhams? Please correct me if I am wrong.

Abu Dhabi - Dubai Trip

- I traveled to Dubai twice already. On the first trip, I took a taxi and paid for 160 dirhams ( after a bargain) to take me to Dubai Mall & Burj Khalifa ( the tallest building in the world). Some taxi drivers asked for 200 – 250 dirhams for the trip but thanks to my bargaining skill as I think I got a good deal. On my second trip, I took a taxi too but this time I insisted on meter. The trip to Ibn Battuta Mall, Jebel Ali costed me about 150 dirhams on meter. And if I were to travel further to Dubai Mall, it should have costed me another 50 dirhams on meter. So basically if you travel from Abu Dhabi to Dubai Mall with taxi on meter should cost you about 200 dirhams. From Ibn Battuta Mall, I took a metro to Mall of Emirates ( not too far from Dubai Mall, 10-15 dirhams by taxi) and it costed me about 2-3 dirhams. The reason why I took the taxi because if you are making a trip to Dubai on Thursday after work, there will be a long queue of people waiting for the bus. And I hate waiting in queue. But on the way back, I took a bus and it costed me only 20 dirhams.

People

- If you are walking down the street in Abu Dhabi, you will notice how multiracial this city is with most people came from India/Pakistan/Phillipine. Couple of times I spotted local Emirati on the street but normally I see them either in restaurants or in shopping malls. It’s good to see that they are so patriotic that they wear their national cloth ( white robe ) most of the time. Surprisingly I spotted some expat women wearing skimpy clothes in public. I am not sure about the law here but in my opinion these ladies should respect the culture & custom of Emirati. People are quite friendly here. I always receive smiles and greetings from Pilipinos especially as they thought I am pillipino. Whereas local Emiratis stopped me on the street just to ask me where I am from probably due to the beard I have.

BEWARE

- And yes as I mentioned earlier people are friendly BUT BEWARE some of them are not genuine. Don’t smile unnecessarily to people on the street and don’t be too friendly with taxi drivers as this might give a wrong signal to them. They might think that you are flirting with them ( I think). I might be wrong on this one but I have experienced couple of times when I did that, they started following me or giving me sexual gestures. Either they are just too horny or I am just too sexy..LOL. Just kidding.

As I said these infos purely based on my personal experience and might not reflect the true situation in general. If any of this info is misleading or annoying then heaps apologies.