Capital: Abu Dhabi

Language: Arabic

Currency: United Arab Emirates Dirham

Do Indians need visa pre-arrival: Yes (around Rs. 5000-6000) on arrival visa for the holders of USA visa for the payment of 100 Dirham.

Places I Visited:
• Dubai- Largest city in the country has the tallest building in the world (Burj Khalifa), has the largest man-made islands, and equally has the largest shopping mall in the world (Dubai mall), suitable for buying gold and shopping and visited desert safari. (there are lot of stuff to do in Dubai).
• Abu Dhabi- Capital of UAE has lovely mosques, Sheikh Zayed, Grand Mosque, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi an award-winning amusement park, Yas Island with formula 1 race track.
• Sharjah- Emirate in UAE. Fewer costs of living. Good to visit for a day tour.
• Hatta- It is an exclave of Dubai, high in the Hajar Mountains.

I was to come to India for a vacation, and it was to be like surprise visit to my family. On my way, I will have like 20 hour of layover in Abu Dhabi. I thought to myself "why can't I go out for half a day in Abu Dhabi and get back to the airport to catch up with my flight at the appropriate time. I applied for my visa online in USA and I got my visa for 30 days. I took a flight from Washington dc to India with a 20 hour Abu Dhabi layover.

At the airport, I was continually checking my bags at the counter. I told the lady at the counter that I want to get my bags in Abu Dhabi because I wanted to go out for half a day and that I will get back to the airport and check in my bags again for my flight to India flight. She agreed and put a sticker on the bag. On getting to Abu Dhabi, I went through immigration, and after clearing immigration, I went to pick my bags up.

I got my bags, took them went out and got a taxi as I thought of doing a half day Abu Dhabi. I toured in the cab as we entered the city, I was amazed by this ultra-modern architecture. Then I thought half day would not be enough to explore the city and the country then I said to myself, "I should skip my flight to India and stay here for few days. But on a second note, I was scared, I had this thought that if I should skip the flight, the airlines may not allow me to get on their airplane in future (stereotypic belief).

I called the airline, made an inquiry, and I was told I could skip the flight but without a refund and that they won't even provide me a free seat after a week I needed to buy a new ticket.

Okay, no problem if that should be the case. I decided to stay there and buy a new ticket after a week.

I took a bus to Dubai as I got to Dubai bus station; I boarded a taxi and went to my childhood friend’s house who is working in Dubai. I collected his address few months back. On getting there, I knocked on his door; he was even surprised seeing me. It was already evening I didn’t do nothing that day.

The next morning, my friend left for the office, and I had no idea of what to do for this unexpected trip but after an hour, I took a metro ride to Dubai shopping mall, this mall is as big as hell it took me 1 whole day to walk around the mall. Later that evening, I spent my time in front of Dubai fountain and went back to his house at night.

Next day I revisited Dubai mall, there I saw the ad of hop on hop off bus, I went to counter to make inquiries. They showed us places the tour covers. Almost all the places in Dubai, then I took the 2-day pass in the counter and went back home.

The next 2 days, I spent my time going around the city in the hop on and hop off bus. As I was traveling alone, it was a little boring for me, but somewhere in the touristy place, I met a German who was even traveling alone out of curiosity I asked him if doesn’t he get bored traveling alone.

We discussed, and he told me about backpacking staying in hostels meeting people and traveling for months. Before then, I had no idea about traveling for a long time, that got me amazed then I thought why can't I do this? I left him and continued with my tour.

Done with the 2-day hop on hop off bus tour, I almost visited all the places in Dubai but now I needed to do a full tour of Abu Dhabi. I was not interested in hop on hop off to Abu Dhabi then I thought of renting a car.

The next day, I rented a car and went to Abu Dhabi alone, I visited the mosque then went to the city visited emirates palace and Yas Island. I came back to my friend's place late in the night. My friend had a day off so the next day, we decided to go to the Hatta with a bunch of his friends. I extended my car rental for few days.

The next day we left for Hatta sightseeing, and that was like 3-hour journey from his place. It was like a whole day trip for us, we got back to our house at night. The next day, I and my friend went to Desert safari. I still didn’t book a ticket to India. The next day I called my uncle who was staying in Kuwait and told him I was in Dubai and it’s been a week since I got there. He was even surprised, He called back after few hours and told me he got a visa for me to visit Kuwait, I was shocked.

I flew to Kuwait after 2 days. This was how my 20-hour layover turned into a 10 day UAE trip.

And my next destination was Kuwait.