The journey, incredible wealth and a marriage proposal

I flew Wgtn-Chch-Syd-Dubai-Codoo. I had a 12h layover in Dubai during which Emirates kindly put me up in a hotel. After a much-needed shower I walked around the local area for an hour or so. The heat was similar to a hot day in Melbourne but I was disturbed to hear that the temperature was 30 degrees when we landed at 6am. I booked a 4h tour of the old and new Dubai through the hotel staff and was happy to meet a young lass, Emma from NSW who was also on her way to Codoo to work as a paeds nurse. It was an enormous blessing to share the day with her and especially as we arrived in Codoo with some trepidation, frustration (already!) and exhaustion, and discovered that we are roommates.

The tour was excellent. We visited the Dubai museum, a small general souk, the gold souk, took a cruise on the Dubai river and paddled in the sea near the hotel that looks like a sail (water temp. 30 degrees). Emma and I were rather parched at the gold souk and couldn’t find a single store that sold anything other than gold. We eventually asked a gentleman who agreed to take us to get water if we would visit his store. We bought our water and then agreed to see his shop. Emma was quite concerned about going with him and I agreed to pike on the adventure when he took us down a laneway, inside a building and then wanted to take us upstairs to see his cheap illegal imports. We high-fived our survival of our first dodgy experience and carried on our merry way.

We visited a very expensive traditional craft mall and Emma and I managed to score our own private tour guide. He was very helpful at describing the techniques used for carpet making (I was particularly taken by the magic silk knotted-rugs that change colour when you turn them and are fire-resistant, demonstrated with a lighter in front of us), inlaid marble, inlaid silver, embroidery and exquisite tailoring in bright and bold colours. Mum, you would have loved it. I took the gentleman’s card and he’ll send a driver for us next time :)

We met 3 other Australasian nurses at Dubai airport while awaiting our flight. It wasn’t difficult to spot them. We felt incredibly uncomfortable. The men stared at us unashamedly, and poor Emma felt particularly awkward as she’d been advised that she wouldn’t require an abayya to enter Doo. While officially true, she was rather conspicuous. The flight was interesting to say the least. All 5 of us were sitting in different locations. I had chosen an aisle seat to avoid sitting between two men but it didn’t really make much of a difference. I quickly put my headphones in and began watching a movie whilst feeling very concerned about my exposed wrists and visible long pants beneath my open abayya. The gentleman next to me watched my video screen or leaned on me as much as possible for the entire flight. I was leaning so far into the aisle that I was constantly bumped by passing passengers and trolleys. The gentleman sitting across the aisle one seat in front made an absolute show of turning around and staring straight at me. Even whilst he ate. I had to resist a strong urge to stare straight back at him. After dinner, the gentleman next to me leaned over and spoke a little close for comfort straight through my earphones “American?”. I was unsure whether to answer, but couldn’t have borne the staring, and didn’t feel confident to fake being German so removed my earphone, said ‘no, New Zealand’” and replaced my earphone. He continued to talk in broken English so I stopped my movie and began to converse. He asked me where I was going, what I was doing, where my husband was (thank aroha for my wedding band) and very quickly, whether I would like another one. I wasn’t certain that I’d understood so ignored it, and he then said that if my husband was in NZ, then perhaps he could have another wife. I asked how many he had and he said only 1 but 2 was good for a fuzzy man. Would I consider marriage? “Ah no, thank you”. He asked me if I was fuzzy and I said no which he accepted but he was very surprised that my husband wasn’t fuzzy and couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t want more than one wife. I’m not sure whether I should have been offended. I was fairly comfortable with my husband fabrication until the questions became more specific. Where did my husband work? Why did he send me to Doo? How many children? No? Why not? Why was my husband not fuzzy? How long until I see him? Hmm. I was glad when we landed.
We had a long wait for our luggage, and headed to customs with trepidation. I was mildly concerned about my rongopai whereas Emma was fearful of her ‘saucy’ movies on her laptop(!). We were guided through customs by a hospital rep while the officer neglected to even look at the video screen of our luggage.

One of the first things I noticed on the 1h drive to the hospital included the vague lane markings on the roads if any at all and all roads are at least 4 lanes wide in each direction. The cars go wherever they can fit and if they can’t, they honk and push in anyway. They will drive on the footpath if it is clear or at least until it ceases to be, drive over the mid-road boundaries, and drive in the wrong direction if it suits their purposes. Suicide circles (aka roundabouts) are unbelievable. I don’t think I can actually describe it. I’ll take some video for you one day. Imagine a full roundabout, cars coming from every direction, not waiting for anyone and no one has anywhere to go. Approx 70% of cars have incident markings on their bumpers. Kids bounce around in the front and backseats, oblivious to seatbelts, some even assisting with steering while Dad talks on his mobile. Young men seem to enjoy standing up through the sunroof while the car is moving. If there’s a shortcut across the desert people take it.

The compound is enormous. There are two major areas of accommodation and a bunch of smaller ones. I am in a lovely 4bdrm villa as far from the hospital and shops as possible which suits me well. It’s about a 20min walk to the other compound, shops, pool and gym or 45min to the hospital…not very pleasant in the heat though, so there are buses every 15mins that circle the compound. Buses leave twice a day to various shopping areas too but you can catch a taxi at any time. We can wear western clothing (below knee, covered shoulders) on the compound but must be fully covered at the hospital or if leaving the compound. Emma and I were stoked to find that we have a private walled rooftop terrace on top of our villa that we can use to sunbathe in our bikinis. We went to sleep happy, excited and completely exhausted to the sound of our aeroplane-engine strength air conditioners.