Finding my way
Before I arrived in Abu Dhabi, a friend forewarned me about giving directions to taxi drivers. He said taxi drivers aren't locals and they don't know the roads very well, it's best to give them the names of the landmarks/buildings instead of street names.
Then I started navigating around town on foot and found out that wasn't the only reason. A hotel engineer advised me to go to Nadja Street to find myself some water filters (since I read the tap water here can cause alopecia). I went onto Google maps and couldn't find any Nadja Street. It turns out Nadja Street is now called Fatima bint Murbarak Street.
Later on, I read somewhere that starting in 2013, around 12,000 streets across the UAE were renamed. However, in day-to-day life, people still use the old street names (or what they called common names). What makes it even more difficult to navigate is that there are no street numbers given. I've been on different websites in order to find out the detailed addresses of where I want to go; all I got was either a P.O. box number or a street name. If I was lucky enough, I'd get a building name or map coordinates!
The next hurdle is the names themselves. The one Arabic word I've learned so far is 'bin/ibn", meaning "the son of". Fine, that's easy enough. Then to confuse the hell out of me, I found these two streets: Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Street and Sultan bin Zayed the First Street. So is Zayed the son of Sultan or is Sultan the son of Zayed? I guess only the locals would know better.
It took me a few strolls around town to realise that Zayed the First street isn't Zayed the first street. The main roads running parallel to the Corniche (seafront) are named in odd numbers; starting from 1st Street in the "North". However, when it comes to the 7th Street, it becomes Zayed the First street.
So, I guess there is still a lot to be learned when I start travelling to other cities.
Then I started navigating around town on foot and found out that wasn't the only reason. A hotel engineer advised me to go to Nadja Street to find myself some water filters (since I read the tap water here can cause alopecia). I went onto Google maps and couldn't find any Nadja Street. It turns out Nadja Street is now called Fatima bint Murbarak Street.
Later on, I read somewhere that starting in 2013, around 12,000 streets across the UAE were renamed. However, in day-to-day life, people still use the old street names (or what they called common names). What makes it even more difficult to navigate is that there are no street numbers given. I've been on different websites in order to find out the detailed addresses of where I want to go; all I got was either a P.O. box number or a street name. If I was lucky enough, I'd get a building name or map coordinates!
The next hurdle is the names themselves. The one Arabic word I've learned so far is 'bin/ibn", meaning "the son of". Fine, that's easy enough. Then to confuse the hell out of me, I found these two streets: Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Street and Sultan bin Zayed the First Street. So is Zayed the son of Sultan or is Sultan the son of Zayed? I guess only the locals would know better.
It took me a few strolls around town to realise that Zayed the First street isn't Zayed the first street. The main roads running parallel to the Corniche (seafront) are named in odd numbers; starting from 1st Street in the "North". However, when it comes to the 7th Street, it becomes Zayed the First street.
So, I guess there is still a lot to be learned when I start travelling to other cities.
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