United Arab Emirates

considering the narrow sea way between iran and united arab emirates (uae), namely the strait of hormuz, one would never believe that travelling from one into the other country has taken almost two fully days. the process of emigration started early in the morning at the port of bandar abbas. there, we spent hours with jumping from one to another office in order to get all the paperwork done for the car. while waiting for stamps in the humid and hot atmosphere caused fatigue, dizziness and wet clothes, two people made this long day more pleasant: one was our constantly yattering fixer, whose help in explaining and translating all the steps was indispensable. the other person was our dear french friend and crazy biker man adrien, who we got to know in front of the fixer’s office. our shared sense of adventure connected us straightaway and from this moment on, we went together through the «path of suffering». accompanied by the irish backpacker claire and the german cyclist brian. we could finally board the iranian ferry boat at the end of the day, which left the harbor at midnight. as the only non-muslim tourists on board, we spent the upcoming twelve hours together in the «family section», while telling our travelling experiences to each other and trying to get some sleep on the benches.

as we were making out the first contours of skyscrapers at the hazy horizon, our exhaustion changed suddenly into excitement. at this time point, we had not known that another four hours of immigration were awaiting us at the port’s border of sharjah. although the process at the customs for people disconcerted us a bit in terms of procedure habits, the process for the car was much more straightforward than expected and facilitated by the fact that everyone of the customs' staff was capable to communicate in english. after we had passed the final step at «yard-6», we immigrated into uae, which felt like entering a totally different world. we were not only stunning about the ultra-modern buildings, the luxury cars, which passed us on the roads and our working credit cards, but also about being surrounded by all commercialized brands that one could imagine. honestly, in the first few hours we could hardly cope with all the shiny luxury of dubai. but as we became almost residents of this emirate, we could easily adapt and after three weeks spending there we felt like locals. we have to mention that Flora was the attraction par excellence: while dubai is used to tourists arriving by airplane from all over the world, it is absolutely unusual for the people there to see a car with a european number plate. this fact let us become famous on uae’s roads within shortest time.

our extended stay in dubai was mainly because we had to organize our visa for sudan. and after we had tried to get it unsuccessfully at the embassy there, we finally sent our passports back to switzerland, where a visa agency helped us getting the visa. well, how could one spend the waiting time as «sans-papiers» in dubai? nothing easier than that because we enormously appreciated to have enough time to enjoy wonderful moments with our dear friends there: the enriching conversations and delightful dinners with anastasia and farhad, the epic halloween party together with markella and fokion and of course the two days full of memorable moments with our beloved friends from home, giannina and mark. and besides visiting some of the ordinary touristic attractions like the tallest building on earth the «burj khalifa» and enjoying the sea by swimming and kitesurfing, we also had the incredible opportunity to experience an ultimate ride on the back of wonderful arabian horses in the dunes of the arabian desert together with our friends that we had get to know during this occasion. we were totally overwhelmed by this high-speed ride through the sand dunes while endless happiness was our constant companion. afterwards, we drove the dunes with our offroaders, whereby some or others got stuck (actually, only Flora did. but by the help of all those experienced desert guys, lora was well released again). this memorable evening was completed by a very delicious barbecue dinner out in the desert, accompanied by guitar musique, singing, shisha smoking and chatting with each other. what a great chance to experience this fantastic arabian night and to get to know such lovely friends!

the longer we stayed in this opalescent city, the more we had the chance to look behind the scenes, which showed us dubai far beyond a city that is attracting business and tourism in the same way. it is this peaceful and respectful living together of various different nationalities and cultures, it is the vibrant energy of actively shaping the future, which gives the seed to positively influence and strengthen gender equality and environmental topics. dubai is far more than a so often and wrongly described retort city. and we have experienced this not least through the incredible hospitality of the locals.

furthermore, we used this time for a checkup of Flora. while we were cruising around in search for a workshop, Flora was suddenly accompanied by another defender. as we stopped, mo (the other defender’s driver) warmly welcomed us and told us that he had already received some pictures of us from the uae land rover community. and of course, he could also recommend a good workshop. as we felt familiar to each other from the very beginning on, we went together for a coffee and shared plenty of defender moments. Flora’s next day checkup was done easily, and, in the end, we had replaced some bushes and changed the oil of all three differentials.

after we had received the visa for sudan and our passports back from switzerland we continued our journey to abu dhabi, where we not only got impressed by some cultural sights like the louvre, the presidential palace and the sheikh zayed mosque, but also drunk the first camel milk in our lives. as we were heading along the coast, we decided to spend our last night in uae in a small town next to the country’s western border. by driving through the town’s streets in order to find a suitable site for overnight camping, we were invited spontaneously by a group of men sitting and chatting together in their bedouin tent next to the street. they not only warmly welcomed us to their country but also invited us to use their beach house for the night. we could name many such examples of great hospitality that is often hard to find in our latitudes.