On the plus sides it was great to eat at some really nice restaurants, to eat McDonalds again, to shower without having to squeegy the floor afterwards, to have an abundant free supply of toilet paper in all the bathrooms, to go to the movies, to go to some huge shopping centres and buy some books.
On the down side it was really expensive. When I was in Dubai 2 years ago I stayed at a hotel for $70AU a night - this time the same hotel was $155AU after their best discount. But I ended up staying somewhere else which was just as nice for $95AU after some very agressive haggleling by my travel partner. But then what really stung my bank account was paying for almost everything because my travel partner 'just had to have' some $700 Italian boots and now I'm left with a possibly empty promise that she'll pay me back soon. That's life though, trust much and get stung much.
Anyhow, some other mistakes you might want to avoid if you're going to take a somewhat similar path to me. If you have a residency visa for Yemen MAKE SURE you have your exit visit before you leave for the airport. Exit and Reentry visas are single use items!! And it's not a simple matter of getting an Exit visit at the airport. The immigration must have a letter from your employer saying they give you permission to travel. Seems a bit like a prison sentence hey? The other thing, if you fly AirArabia DON'T BE LATE. If you don't check in 45 minutes before your departure time they'll cancel your ticket without a refund or a replacement flight *SHKLACKY!*. I was meant to fly AirArabia to Dubai on the Tuesday but as I arrived about 40 minutes before departure without an exit visit I didn't get to fly. After some whinging about how unfair they were AirArabia offered me the Yemen airport departure tax as a credit on my next ticket . I ended up losing $150 on the ticket but found out if immigration did let me through without an exit visa they would have charged me $100US to reissue me with a residency visa when I returned to Sana'a.
- Al Ghurair near our hotel,
- the gargantuan Mall of the Emirates,
- the former largest shopping centre the City Centre (now second largest) and
- a big glamourised souq at Medinat Jumeirah.
But then on our last night a major traffic accident on Sheikh Zayed Rd caused us to take a detour on Jumeirah Road and we found the Mercato Mall. Following that I tried to find the Magrudy's Bookstore my Lonely Planet book said was on Jumeirah Road. However, neither of the two taxi drivers knew where one was on Jumeirah Road, I guess it has closed since my edition of the Lonely Planet was published but a guy at Virgin Megastore in Mercato gave me directions to it. Anyhow, taxi number two told me he knew where it was and then drove me most of the way to Abu Dhabi to a ridiculously massive shopping centre with a Magrudy's Bookstore. I bought two Arabic books there and a fascinating book called 1421 which gives evidence that the Chinese discovered Australia, Africa and America before the Europeans had seen those countries and claimed to discover them.
As for the job hunting I didn't apply for any jobs while I was there because realistically there wasn't time to apply and get interviews in before I returned to Sana'a. But being in Dubai has motivated me to go get a job where I get paid for working. And I bought a few editions of the Khaleej Times which has a classified section with dozens of jobs I feel I'm qualified for. So all in all allow me to quote one of the great men of our time .. my holiday was great success!
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