Cause and consequence

As I wrote before, overall happiness here depends in 80% on a car. I had my international driving license from the first day I was here, but I always knew it was temporary, because the license and the resident visa cannot exist together. And because Sultan surprisingly kept his word I got my visa in ten days so I became an illegal driver sooner than I liked to. Illegal or not, I had still my car and still needed to drive at least to Dubai to move myself to the apartment. So I drove very carefully. Having a car is very tempting so I used it a couple more times, but then strictly forbid it and park a car for a last time in the garage, where it stays until now L

Knowing all this I had to finally face my destiny and I went to RTA (Road and Transport Authority) to see if I can transfer my license to UAE one. Confronting Arabic officials without Sultan was really uncomfortable. When I finally got to the desk and asked my question “Can I transfer my license to UAE one?” the white robed official with a smile took a paper from his desk, looked at it and with a wide grin replied “Your country is not on the list”!! “And can I see the list please?” I asked like drowning guy catching at a straw. He passed me the paper and I actually saw Czech Republic on the list!!

The problem was that somebody stroke it off along with some another countries so it was not there anymore. It was so frustrating and desperate. My world just collapsed and sadly looking to the ground was leaving the room with one thought spinning in my head “And now I am screwed!!”

And I definitely was, because had no idea how to get to Yas Island in the middle of the day. “OK, let’s get into the taxi and drive to the nearest bus station” I thought. Unfortunately the taxi driver told me that the only bus goes from Bur Dubai which is 25 kilometers in the other direction and it doesn’t make any stops until Abu Dhabi main station which is already 40 kilometers behind my place!! After some thinking I told the driver to make a u-turn and drive me back to Discovery Gardens. There I realized that there were only two options now. Go by taxi or hitchhiking.

And it wouldn’t be me if I wouldn’t have chosen the second option just because I was curious if it is possible and because I saw a lot of Pakistanis standing along the road waiting for something what couldn’t have been anything else than transport.

So on that beautiful sunny Sunday I was standing on the six lane Sheikh Zayed road in a yellow trousers and shirt, with an “AD” sign in one hand and smiling about the ridiculousness of this situation!!

First car stopped a taxi. I refused because just because of principal I didn’t want to pay 400Dhs when twice as long bus ride costs 15. And my patience paid off when after 25 minutes a white minivan stopped. It was this typical Pakistani minibus carrying them between worksites. “Mussafah, 20 dirhams” said the driver and I happily agreed. They were driving to Abu Dhabi so they could let me off on Yas exit. Next 20 minutes we were riding in circles around Jebel Ali industrial area trying with sounding a horn and shouting “Mussafah, Mussafah” on every guy around to attract more passengers. We were only half full when the van suddenly stopped and we were ordered to get out. First moments I thought I had got fooled but then I saw another same style minivan where we joined some others and filled every seat. The ridiculousness continued when I was sitting on a tiny Indian size seat in my shiny yellow work clothes in a dirty minibus along with 14 dark and equally dirty Pakistanis.    

I knew that as soon as I get to the exit to Yas Island, to get to the site office will be a piece of cake, because there are so many cars going to the construction site. And it was exactly as I expected. There is no need to explain how ridiculously I looked on a dusty road where there were passing tens of trucks. Fortunately right the first one stopped so I wasn’t feeling weird for a long time. It was a rusty old water truck with a Yemen driver who didn’t speak a word English, but he didn’t care and all the way he was explaining me in his language something about English, Arab and Yemen people by clapping himself to his forearms!!

But he took me almost to the site office. I passed the security check on foot and easily stopped a SUV for the last kilometer. In the office everybody was knocking his forehead after hearing my story, but I had a sweet feeling of accomplishment J