If there’s one attitude I find essential when traveling, I’d say it’s the respect you give to the country’s culture, traditions, and way of doing things. You can compare and contrast, but you cannot push the issue of making it similar to yours. The thing is, when you travel, you have to understand that things and people vary from one place to another. As a visitor, you are ought to adjust and get accustomed to these differences.
When I arrived in Dubai as a first-time immigrant, I knew I had to adjust on several things. At that time, I didn’t know what those things were, but I just prepared myself. Generally speaking, since UAE is an Islamic nation, most of the adjustments were by cause of religious customs in the country. Despite having a huge Filipino community in UAE, particularly in Dubai (there’s around 670,000 population of Filipinos in the UAE, 21.3% of which are in Dubai!), there are still a few things an immigrant Filipino has to get used to.
Saturdays and Sundays aren’t the weekend
During my first few days in Dubai, I tried to meet up with as many people as possible to get away from the feeling of being homesick. Since most of them are employed, I’d usually set a weekend get-together to make sure I don’t get in the way of their work schedule. I once sent a Whatsapp message (it’s the most popular chat app there) to a friend trying to schedule a Sunday meetup, but to my surprise, she said she has to work on that day.
What I had to learn and get used to is that Fridays and Saturdays are the weekend in Dubai or in the entire Middle East actually. Depending on the company, some people have 2 days off while others only have one, which is usually on Fridays. For an Islamic nation like UAE, Friday is a sacred day of worship for them as stated in their Qur’an (Islamic Bible). On Fridays, Muslims go to the mosque to pray. Also, based on my observation, Fridays are like Sundays in the Philippines where most people just stay at home, thus the streets are quite empty and quiet compared to the rest of the days.
In the absence of calls, man, LDR is for real!
Being away from your home country is one thing, but not being able to talk with people there via video or voice call is another thing. Honestly, it’s the biggest adjustment I had to make while in Dubai. As we’re now all in a fast-paced era where communication is an easy reach, the absence of a live call is sort of a retrogression. Funny as it sounds, but it felt like I got left behind, isolated, and on a long distance relationship (LDR) with the world when I found out it’s not easy to make an overseas call in the UAE.
Chat apps with video and voice call capability such as Messenger, Whatsapp, Viber, Skype, and any other with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service aren’t allowed in UAE. Per UAE officials, VoIP service raises concern over the national security and so it’s been banned for many years now.
For a call to push through, I had to put Virtual Private Network (VPN) in my device, which sometimes worked and most of the time didn’t since I only installed the free ones. With that, I had to find other ways when talking with people outside of UAE. It’s either we talked via recorded audio messages or just settled with the old-school text messages. Also, I remember in one of my job interviews, I was requested to go to a nearby hotel or coffee shop to connect to their internet network that’s VoIP-capable. Since the interviewer is from the UK, video chat doesn’t work with a home internet, which was true and I ended up skipping the interview because I find it a hassle.
Getting drunk isn’t that easy
When you go to a grocery like Almaya or supermarket chains like Carrefour in Dubai, you won’t see an alcoholic beverage aisle. Not that alcohol is really banned in the UAE, but rather, the Sharia law which UAE follows prohibits alcohol. Muslims aren’t allowed to drink alcohol in public. Also, anyone who gets caught with drunk driving, whether a Muslim or not, is punishable by the Sharia law.
In Dubai, it seems much more relaxed with alcohol. I noticed there are several hotel bars in the city where you can consume alcohol, but you only drink it there as a hotel guest. A friend also told the same goes in Abu Dhabi since these 2 cities are tourist-laden and the law exemption is meant for foreigners. However, there are other UAE states where purchasing and carrying alcohol publicly is completely prohibited, such as in the dry state of Sharjah.
To buy, carry, and consume alcohol in a legal way, you have to possess a certain liquor license, issued by the Ministry of Interior of UAE. However, there are certain requirements to meet, including being a non-Muslim, possessing a UAE residency permit, and paying a 270-AED license fee every year.
Pork isn’t always accessible
The Philippines is a huge pork-eating nation with an array of pork dishes such from lechon, sisig, adobo, menudo, afritada, to even chicharon, so when I first arrived in a country where eating pork isn’t allowed for Muslims, I had to adjust with food choices. Though I’m not a heavy pork eater at all, but whenever I craved for it, I knew where to go.
There’s pork for sale in UAE, but not in all areas. If you want to buy pork, you access it through a separate pork section of the grocery of either Filipino or Chinese-owned stores. Usually, there’s a huge signage that says “Only Non-Muslims can enter” upon entrance to the pork section. True as to what it says, the vendors only sell pork to non-Muslisms because in case they get caught, both them and the offender get punished by the law.
Rain is hugely missed
I'm so used to the monsoon season in the Philippines. There’s even a joke that there are only 2 seasons in the country: the wet and very wet season. So when I arrived in Dubai, I had to unlearn the habit of carrying an umbrella or raincoat in the bag. The chance of rain is very rare in the UAE as it’s geographically located in a desert. It would probably just happen during winter time, which runs from December to March. When I first experienced rainfall in Dubai, I thought the thunderstorm was a flash of a camera since I haven’t experienced rain in a while, haha.
Most of the time, it's all warm and humid in the UAE. It could get as insane as 40°C during summer time, which runs from early May to late September. I arrived in late September, and got welcomed by a very humid temperature. My body was so shocked with the temperature I got sick with flu and severe cough for a week.
Revealing clothes could get attention, especially from men
Though not all the time, I had to watch out and be mindful of what I wear as part of respecting the culture since Muslim women there usually wear an abaya with their shoulders, head, and knees covered as part of following the teachings of Qur'an.
I have to mention that it’s stricter in the state of Sharjah, which exercises Saudi law where publicly wearing a short dress, sleeveless, and shorts are prohibited. Luckily In Dubai, it seems more relaxed with regard to clothing. Especially during summer, I was able to wear thinner clothes to stand the heat. Though honestly, I got stares from men while wearing them. The treatment I had is comparable to what I experienced while traveling around India.
One time, while walking in Al Muteena district (where most Pakistanis live), men stared at me from head to toe while wearing a dress. At Dubai beaches such as in Kite Beach and Dubai Marina, it seems foreign women are the only ones in bikini, while the rest are in rash guards. It’s allowed to wear a bikini at the beach, but expect to get an eye from some men who find what you wear a bit of a taboo.
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