UAE

Hanging out in Dubai for 3 weeks is an expensive undertaking, particularly on a tight cycle tourer’s budget. We hadn’t had much luck with finding free accommodation through Couchsurfing or Warmshowers, so we were staying in a hotel. That’s why we were quite excited when Chris contacted us from South Africa via Twitter and suggested we could stay with his daughter Melanie, who lives in Abu Dhabi. || A few days later we gathered our belongings, leaving the boxed bicycles in our hotel in Dubai. There is a regular bus…

Walking into our glitzy hotel foyer it felt as if we had entered another world. Polished floors, a glistening chandelier, a serene ambience. Everyone looked so well fed, so well groomed. Catching our reflection in the lift mirrors as we went up to our room we couldn’t help but laugh: we were grubby, our clothes faded and grease stained, hair ruffled, it was clear we were in need of a good wash if we were ever going to cut it in this town. || Scrubbed and trimmed we ventured outside in search of a grocery store to buy…