Foggy Saturday

It was a really foggy Saturday morning when I headed to Abu Dhabi for a day trip. The fog was really thick and the radio DJ actually commented that the fog was ridiculous. As I was driving, I could not even see beyond the next street light and mind you, I was on the highway! It feels a bit like driving blindly, not sure what is ahead of me and what to expect! According to the newspapers, the wind from the north has brought the humidity inland from the sea but the wind from the desert did not blow out this moisture. As a result, fog was formed when the temperature drops over night. Some parts of the UAE have already recorded temperature below 20degC now. All I knew was it makes driving tiring since at times, I cannot even drive above 80kph as I could not see anything ahead of me. Many cars and trailers actually pulled to the side of the road to wait for the fog to clear. It also makes Abu Dhabi rather hazy throughout the day.

Anyway, I still made it to Abu Dhabi. I visited the Heritage Village at the Breakwater. It was more like a handicraft village with live demonstration of handicraft making of pottery, bronze ware, Arabian daggers and carpentry. I strolled around and felt quite bored. It was a far cry from the Heritage Village of Dubai. It does have an ‘old souq’ in it selling typical Emirati souvenirs. I also find a cow used to lift water from the well to irrigate farmland, which I thought was quite interesting. And as usual I enjoyed looking at black and white photos of what Abu Dhabi was like in the days before they found oil. I always had a liking for B&W photos – dunno why.

After a short stroll there I went to Marina Mall to chill out. Hey, I need some civilization after spending days in the desert. And some crazy part of me actually submitted to the idea of catching a movie at the cinema despite it costing Dh30 (approx. RM27)! No wonder I saw people paying for their movie tickets with credit cards. This was actually outrageous, as the last time I was here the ticket only costs Dh20. A 50% inflation? And another funny thing was the cinema is actually free-seating, i.e. no seat numbers assigned. Funny… And the advertisement part before the movie – I actually saw the ‘Malaysia Truly Asia’ advertisement. Kind of a reminder of Malaysia for me even in Abu Dhabi. And what did I watch? Well… I watched Ben Stiller’s latest movie ‘Heart Break Kid’. It was not bad, typical Ben Stiller movie about a guy who got married with a girl whom he later regrets. Lots of suggestive humor and the use of the f*** word which is surprisingly not muted or censored here! But it was not really the best comedy from him in recent years… and he does look a bit old now with grey streaks on his hair.

That was basically my Saturday. On Sunday, it’s back to work. Yes, we work on Sundays here.