The saga continues...

Well, the good news is that I eventually got my resident visa! Woo hoo! Which now means that I can get my drivers license! Double woo hoo! Except...the saga continues...

Yesterday morning Peter and I went off to the Dubai traffic department to get my drivers license only to be told that they will not issue it because my resident visa is issued in Abu Dhabi, another UAE Emirate which is about 140 km's drive away. Peter's office is based in Abu Dhabi and therefore, the reason why it was issued there. Peter and I were absolute sure that there was a law that came through at the beginning of March that you can get your license issued in any Emirate but obviously not!

So Peter decides we will take the drive to Abu Dhabi after work as the Licensing Department in Abu Dhabi closes at 20h00. So if we left around 17h30 we should make it in time before they close. Well, how wrong were we! We did get there at around 18h45, got some forms in Arabic and trying to understand the procedure that the information desk was giving us we eventually find out from a very nice Emirate man that we need to get my driver's license typed into Arabic at a typing office. Okay! So off we rush to find a typing office - one thing about the UAE is that no one uses a physical address here - it blows my mind! Basically, if you follow that road, you will get a building and if you turn right there after the next building you will find it, etc. What more can I say...easy to find! No problem! Wrong again!

So off we head to a typing office, to get what we think are the right documents and head back to the Licensing Department at around 19h30 (traffic is a nightmare and isn't it so true that when you want a traffic light to change it takes forever!) only to be told by the very nice Emirate man that it is the wrong documents! So fustration reigns! We now have half an hour to get to the right typing office in the middle of Abu Dhabi city centre which is about a 10 km drive there and back and be back by 20h00! So we get back into the car and head off to try and find the right typing office! Well, you can just imagine how we were feeling at this stage! Peter and I both felt we were part of an amazing race team trying to find clues along the way, it is still hot at 33 degrees and traffic is still a nightmare! Well, as you can imagine, the odds were against us and we never made it in time. We only found the right typing offices - there was a whole street of them - behind that building that the Emirate man told us - after stopping off at various buildings, asking various people who had no clue what we were talking about, eventually after we were just about to give up Peter spoke to another typing office who graciously explained where we needed to be - two ladies, I must add and guess what! At 20h45 we found the right typing office! Unfortunately we did not make it back to the licensing department in time!

In all this going on we still had Logan and Bryce with us, moaning that they were hungry, irritable because they are confined to the car, they are tired and each time we keep trying to put them off to explain that we have to race again time to get what we need! We eventually only managed to get them supper at 21h00 and Peter and I had a much needed Cafe Latte from Starbucks! We left Abu Dhabi - mission not accomplished! We got home at 23h00 - so what can I say, tired and fustrated we have to put it down to an UAE experience which I am sure there will be many!
This was our second trip to Abu Dhabi - the first was last week Thursday to get visa's for my aunt and uncle visiting this weekend and I took pics of the Sheik Zayed Mosque. It is the third largest mosque in the world - beautiful building - facts about the mosque which has broken a few records:


The carpet laid out on the vast expanse is the "World's Largest Carpet" made by Iran's Carpet Company. The carpet measures 5,627 square meters, and was made by around 1,200 weavers, 20 technicians, and 30 workers. The weight of this carpet is 47 tons - 35 tons of wool, and 12 tons of cotton. There are 2,268,000 knots within the carpet.

• This mosque also holds the largest chandelier. There are seven imported chandeliers from Germany. The largest chandelier has a 10 meter diameter and a 15 meter height.
• The Mosque is large enough to accommodate more than 30,000 worshippers.
• There are four minarets on the four corners of the mosque which rise about 107 meters in height.
• There are 57 domes covering the outside yard and the main building as well. The couryard is paved with floral marble designs and measures about 17,000 square meters.

Abu Dhabi is a beautiful city and true to its Arabic influences. Unlike Dubai which has these huge high rise buildings, Abu Dhabi has only a few high rises in the main city centre.

So I will update with the continued saga...