East Middle Earth

'It's a dangerous business, going out of your door. You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.'

I seem to have been swept off roughly 5500km from where I started!

Greetings from Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Though not that many Emiratis here, mostly Filipinos and Indians.

I arrived at the end of winter, (or spring, I don't know, we only have summer where I come from), so despite it being in the Middle East, it was quite cool.

Now it's summer time, and I'm experiencing summertime madness. Due to the heat mostly.

Apart from the very hot weather and high cost of living, I'd say it's a very nice place to live in.

Very safe. No worries of losing your shoe after prayers.

No worries of getting your Myvi splashed with paint just because it's a Myvi.

Not that they drive Myvis here.

Left-handed driving here in the UAE. Took me awhile to get used to it.

It's 4 hours late compared to Malaysia. And weekends are Friday and Saturday.

Most people are well off, and Syariah law is implemented here, so practically no crime at all here.

I had the idea of learning Arab before I came here, not anymore though.

Everyone speaks English, and like I said, not that many Arabs.

0% tax here, so anyone wanting to escape GST is welcome to migrate.

Although to rent a room is on average 3000 dirhams a month, and food-wise a decent meal for one person costs more than 50 dirhams, so might wanna think things through.

1 dirham is about 90 sen btw.

You won't find any halal-certified stickers on restaurants here. Coz they're all halal. You can just walk in into any Chinese, Indian or whatever restaurant and it's halal.

All meat that comes into the country has been certified halal beforehand, so that's taken care of.

Of course there's no such thing as halal pork. And they do sell non-halal meat at big department stores. But none at restaurants.

And if you walk into a bar and ask for beer, that's probably not.

Although they do have halal beer. Haha.

Food here is meh. Not spicy and not salty. If you're a picky eater, probably want to cook on your own.

But the portions are huge though. I often have leftovers. And I pack them up and eat them later.

Not that many Malaysians here. But they're mostly very friendly. And mostly very rich (compared to me anyways). And most of them are staunch opposition supporters.

They literally took the advice of that minister, "kalau tak suka keluar Malaysia".

Reason for them being richer compared to me is most of them are 10 years older than me, I would say. More experience, hence better pay. You don't see that many young Malaysians here.

To be honest, when they see where I live, they seem somewhat worried whether I can actually afford staying in Abu Dhabi coz of the somewhat old apartment I'm living in.

Rooms here are huge. Mine is 12x14 ft. And I'm not sharing it with anyone. So I don't mind.

Cars here are super cheap. Too bad it's left hand drive, otherwise I'd buy one already.

Using a loan of course.

I take taxis most of the time to get from place to place. Very reliable, everyone uses a meter, no hanky panky going on.

I don't really go out that much, not that many things to see here really.

You see one mall, you've seen them all I say.

Items I would say are somewhat cheaper here. If you're a shopaholic, you'd probably want to come visit. Especially during the summer sale, I hear.

Well, that's it for now. Been wanting to update, but write too long and I suddenly find myself loathing what I just wrote and I end up deleting the whole post. Haha.

Peace.