Navigating Abu Dhabi

Previous article written on Abu Dhabi in Spring 2011

There are no addresses in Abu Dhabi. It’s a bit like when I was a kid in the UK and we used to navigate by landmarks, usually pubs, to get to my cousin’s farm (turn left at the Cat & Fiddle and drive 1 mile and you’ll see a lane to your right…), but this is a city the size of Calgary – and there aren’t any pubs.

But there are stores, banks, hotels and disappointingly lots of Western fast-food restaurants. Downtown, some of the key landmarks are the KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King, the Abu Dhabi Mall, Marks & Spencer Building and Le Royal Meridian Hotel. There are lots of KFCs and Pizza Huts, of course, but these are major corner landmarks that everyone knows. I’ve shown a map to one of the Offset Bureau buildings from their website to give you an idea.

 Unfortunately, I used a map like this to get to their building. I carefully gave the cab driver directions, naming the building (Almamoura Building B) and directions (close to the Pizza Hut on Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed St). I even showed him the map – he didn’t want to see it – they never want to see it. And we searched the area around the Pizza Hut, asking people if they knew the building. Some of them thought they did but couldn’t direct us. Turns out they’d moved across town, taking the building name with them! I didn’t need Pizza Hut – I needed Jones the Grocer…

And if you think it’s hard finding an address downtown, try going into a housing subdivision…

And with no addresses, there’s not really any mail. Some people get a PO Box but essentially the place operates without it; so don’t send postcards... One example is speeding tickets: speed cameras are everywhere and the way the locals drive, there are lots of tickets – but no one tells you when you’re caught. Until you go to get your licence renewed that is; then they give you the accumulated bill; and no licence until you pay. So, many guys call the license bureau every couple of months just to make sure they stay on top of their tickets.

Talking of Western fast-food restaurants, as I walked past the MacDonald’s counter at the airport, a woman called out to me to come and have breakfast.

‘What is breakfast?’ I asked

‘Egg McMuffin, of course.’

‘What’s in an Egg McMuffin?’

‘Egg, cheese and sausage,’ she said.

‘What kind of sausage?’

‘Chicken, of course.’

‘And is all of your food halal?’ (meat prepared for Muslims).

‘Of course it is,’ she replied…

Chicken Shawarma Salad

Of all the Western restaurants in UAE, the one that surprised me the most was TGI Friday’s, the American chain, and I saw several of them. I wondered if the locals knew what it meant… I mean, shouldn’t it be TAI Thursday’s? The working week here runs from Sunday through Thursday, but then again Friday is the holy day and people here are more devout, so maybe the American title is appropriate.

We didn’t eat there, of course, plumping instead for the ‘Automatic’ Lebanese restaurant right across the street from the KFC. Here they serve you way too much food, much of which you have to prepare yourself – see the trappings for chicken shawarma here. And, they ask you how you want your coffee, when you order it (the answer is ‘no sugar’, ‘some sugar’ or ‘lots of sugar’).

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Abu Dhabi at sunset