The plan for my Dubai stay originally was to find a host on CouchSurfing or through my other networks to cater for my budget travel lifestyle. But there were no willing short notice hosts so I quickly fired up google while on the bus there and started looking for affordable hostels to stay in. Last-minute planning will finish me one day. I zeroed in on Capitol 14 Hostel, booked and wrote down directions before my phone blacked out. After arriving in Dubai, I fumbled my way around the high-tech metro system till I found the building in the Dubai Internet City where the hostel was located. Shout out to Centenary Bank by the way for coming through with that visa card. I might have ditched you now but you never once let me down while I was gallivanting. I reached the hostel around 7 pm, checked in and was shown to my room which I was sharing with an Indian and a Russian.
The room
The view. From here, the sound of the city was just howling wind
The about 50 + years looking Russian dude barely spoke English and spent most of his time on the room balcony in a vest and boxer, smoking and watching Russian TV from his iPad. I later learnt he was an architect in town for work on one of the several superstructures under construction over there and he preferred the hostel life for cost-cutting purposes. Practical. The Indian, Rohit and I immediately struck up a conversation and I discovered he was there to make a presentation for his drone company and had managed to secure a contract that day. His first contract in the country after several pitching visits. He was flying back to India the following day so we decided we had to go and look for a place to celebrate his big win. A place that served alcohol, which is not that simple a feat in the UAE which is Islamic territory.
We left the hostel and took the metro to the neighbourhood where the Dubai Ritz-Carlton hotel is, a high-end looking place because we were told those are the ones that had alcohol. We walked by the beach and the many venues scattered along it looking for a place to drink. The one place there that looked like it had booze had a reservation policy and you couldn’t enter without one. Their loss. We moved on and after 30 minutes of no luck, I struck up a conversation with a Kenyan girl who was manning a coffee stall for information on where we could get some much-craved booze. The place she pointed me to was across town where most of the Africans resided but we didn’t have that time and energy so we turned to google maps to show us a place in the vicinity that could sort us out.
The nearest was a place called Pier 7, a building that boasted of 7 restaurants serving food from different corners of the world – and, most importantly, beers, so we walked there and were rewarded for our efforts and determination with, Fume Eatery, a nice vintage-themed place overlooking the Dubai Marina where we settled down in the bar area and ordered for food and booze. A pint of beer here costs about the equivalent of Ugx 40k. As in even me I’d stop drinking religiously if alcohol was this expensive. You should have seen me taking every sip like it was water that had been turned into wine. After taking care of the stomachs, we jumped into a cab back to the hostel were we promptly went to sleep and I was still slumbering by the time Rohit got up to catch his flight. The last time we chatted on WhatsApp, the company he had signed a contract with had become unresponsive on how to proceed with the contract. Seems Dubai is not buildings either, but the struggle continues.
Beer that is the same price as a plot of land and food served in the safulia. The view was fantastic though
I spent most of that day in the hostel resting and trying to see what I could pull off in the 3 days I had around. Research I should have done way before but now here I was wasting valuable time drawing plans. SMH. I eventually found the energy to leave the house at around 6 in the evening and decided to check out the famous Dubai beaches. From google maps, I saw that there was a stretch of beach a 30-minute walk from my hostel so I footed there. There wasn’t much activity there, probably due to the (Fri)day of worship and late hour. Some Emirati families and groups of friends had dragged their campers behind their American pickups to camp at the beach for the night. The real Emiratis are slightly above 11% of the entire UAE population and in the spirit of understanding a place from the perspective of the real locals, I wanted to hang out with some Emiratis. I, therefore, approached one of the vans and tried to make friends but the guys were not about that life so I moved on to find my level. The famous Burj Al Arab hotel was visible in the distance and since I couldn’t even dream of starting to afford the $ nightly room rate, I made peace with admiring from a distance since I do not like to oppress myself by proximity to things that I will never have. I attempted to walk to the sea reclaimed Jumeirah Palm Island neighbourhood, another famous Dubai landmark, which was one hour away, according to google maps, but I abandoned the trek halfway and went back to the hostel. I had evening plans.
Scenes from my walk
The famous Dubai beaches and skyline as seen at night
Ali, one of the people I had hollered at on Couch Surfing, had reached out to me to inform me that even though he was unable to host me, the Dubai Couch surfing community was planning to camp out in the desert that night and I could join him if I was interested in being a part of that. Burrofcos my guy. He picked me up at the hostel around 10 pm and we set off for the desert. We reached there and sipped on precious beers around a campfire while some of the members fooled around in the desert sand on quad bikes and 4x4s. Considering the economic nature of my trip, a highly recommended Dubai desert trip wasn’t possible so this was a welcome consolation desert experience.
It was also while hanging out with the guys that I got some interesting insights into the CouchSurfing community in Dubai. Present amongst us were two female couch surfers who had just arrived that day and had managed to get last-minute hosts yet my request for a host was still being blue ticked by everyone in the app. I delicately asked one of the guys there what was up with that and he explained to me that because of the sharia lifestyle, most of the guys around didn’t have much experience with girls because it was taboo till marriage and therefore had limited time to interface with them. They, therefore, used CouchSurfing as an opportunity to interact freely with female travellers from more liberal countries. Something along those lines. I have other skin colour suspicions because a French biker dude who had just arrived in the city joined us later with a last-minute host already, but I don’t want to judge based on assumptions so I won’t voice them. Maybe my profile isn’t that interesting.
Ali had to go back to his family and I wasn’t comfortable enough with the rest of the community to do the whole night and get back to my hostel easily so I went back to the city with him and he dropped me back at the hostel. In an ideal world where money is not a problem, I would have taken a cab to some sleek looking club in the middle city where African House legend, Black Coffee, was playing but the world is anything but ideal. This is the second dream live performance I was missing that month thanks to unhealthy pockets, the first being Red Hot Chilli Pepper who had performed at the Pyramids of Giza while I was in Egypt the week before. Omwavu alabye really. The FOMO was still real and I wasn’t sleepy yet so I decided to see if there were any bars open in the neighbourhood.
I followed the noise to a club in a nearby building and sat down to watch the global representation mix of revellers dance the night away to house music. You have to give Dubai its props for the katogo of people you’ll find there. They have really cracked this tourism thing. A curvy African lady came over to my table and in a West African accent asked me if I wanted company. I wasn’t opposed to company per se but I hadn’t shaved in months and wasn’t the most loaded looking person in the place thanks to my caveman look so I figured she approached me coz of African kindred ship, or I was going to be billed for this “company”. It was the later. I told her I don’t pay for “company” and counter-offered free conversational company as she scouted for other clients. From our exchange over the next few minutes before she went on to continue looking for paying company, let’s just say if you have a female relative who is in the UAE and you are not sure what exactly they do for a living there, fundraise money, get them a ticket back and pay for some therapy. That’s a life you wouldn’t want to wish on anyone.
I eventually got my fill of loud club music and retired back to my hostel to doze off. I’d made plans with Ali to go to the beach together at 6 in the morning for a morning of beach volleyball and other activities with the couch surfers from the night before but thanks to my nocturnal activities and a phone that was in silent mode, I slept through his calls and my alarms and he left me. I tried to get there by myself but my metro card was out of funds and the tills for recharging were closed since it was a Friday so I had to abandon that plan since taking a cab there was a luxury. There went my dreams of shirtless selfies from the beach, slaying and what not. Dammit! I went back to the hostel and instead caught up on some extra sleep.
In the afternoon, I set off by bus for the neighbouring Emirati city of Sharjah (a 1-hour journey) where the 2019 UAE Biennale was being hosted. If I were ever to live in the Emirates, I think this is where I would want to stay. Sharjah doesn’t have as many high rises as Dubai and Abu Dhabi and there’s a certain picturesque quality about it that drew me in. It’s a city of compromise. And thanks to the efficient transport system, commuting to Dubai would be a breeze.
I walked from the bus park to the Sharjah Art Foundation which was the starting point for the biennale. During the walk, I saw a market on my google maps and upon deciding to check it out, was pleased to find it was a bird market where I saw the largest concentration of birds in different colours, shapes and sizes that I have ever seen.
The Biennale exhibitions were spread around the city and with a guide in hand, I walked to the different venues taking in art in very many forms from around the world. I find visual art hard to review because of how limited my knowledge is so I will just share with you some of the pictures I took.
Outside Sharjah Art Foundation
My favourite was some psychedelic virtual reality show which I, unfortunately, couldn’t take pictures of. You’ll just have to experience that one yourself one day. It was almost time for the last bus back to Dubai to leave the city so I hurriedly made my way back to the park and arrived with some minutes to spare so I got a quick bite of some Turkish vegetable burgers from a roadside restaurant that had a waiter that looked like Mr Bean. I got back to Dubai and my hostel late and exhausted from all the walking and promptly blacked out.
From this sneaky shot, tell me that posture isn’t Mr Bean’s?
The following day, I decided to venture out even further and got the bus to another Emirati City, Ajman, which is even less busy thank Sharjah. Ajman is recommended for its more private beaches but I reached late thanks to oversleeping and didn’t get to enjoy the sand. I think by this point I had allowed that the UAE beach slaying life wasn’t meant for me. Instead, I walked by the coastline taking in the sights and sounds of people closing for the day to go home. I then checked out the Fairmont Hotel which looked like the most prominent and after admiring, I set off on my walk back to the buses using a different route.
Ajman Fairmont Hotel as seen from their pier
I stopped by a Lebanese restaurant to eat some shawarma before grabbing the metro back to Dubai for my last night in the Emirates. This trip almost covered the entire length of the metro to get back to the side of town where I was staying and I was lucky enough to be in the last cabin this time so the view of the city and all its main landmarks as they rushed by was spectacular. If you ever find yourself travelling around Dubai on a budget like I was, the metro is your friend as it passes near all the main attractions the city has to offer. I regret not recording a time-lapse of that last train ride.
The university had agreed to pick me up from Dubai for the airport drop off so when I was done checking out the following morning, there was a Lexus this time waiting for me at the hostel entrance to take me back to the Abu Dhabi airport. Mehn, I was back on that VIP lifestyle. This time, the driver was from Pakistan and we spent the journey talking about his home country and how they have been misrepresented by mainstream media yet the country is beautiful and the majority of the people are peace-loving people just trying to make a living for themselves and their families. Sigh, that’s pretty much all of us my guy. The people and the governments are usually living different realities in most countries that have a bad rep.
He dropped me at the airport, shared his contacts and we promised to reach out to each other in case we ever ended up in each other’s countries.
This story should ideally end with me waiting for my flight and heading back to Uganda but where is the fun in that? Look out for the epilogue soon.
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Part 3 can be read here, http://muwado.com/rolexinuae-part-3-almost-missing-my-flight/
Hahahaahahahahah, I love this, I was there with you the entire time. ???
Thanks for reading, Sharone. Glad you enjoyed it.