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Driving in UAE (United Arab Emirates)

I drove in UAE when I was traveling on my silk route tour in 2017. I reached Sharjah (Near Dubai) by ship from Bandar Abbas, Iran and it took me a full day to get clearance from the Customs for my bike. 

In that process, overall I understood that basically I am importing the Bike into the UAE and it costs total 175 Dirham as a custom fee, out of which some value ( About 25 Dirham) is refundable if I take out my bike from country within a certain period of time (and I was sure that I am not going to come to this office again for such a small amount of Refund).

I was happy that this port was operated (Workers) mostly by South Indians and I was so relaxed, happy to see 'My people' after landing from the ship and I was not in a hurry to finish the formalities for bike clearance and get out from this port.

I told the guy 'Ramanathan' " Sir, I am not in hurry. I need to eat first. Please tell me where to get 'Food' and later we will start again with procedures for bike clearance".

Well, he was a bit surprised because I am sure he hardly deals with people who are not in hurry.  Last night in the ship I got complementary chicken biryani and I gave all the chicken pieces to a fellow Iranian family passenger (the facial expressions of the family were telling me that they were surprised that I am giving the main content of the food to them and eating only rice. "What kind of stupid man is this", they must be thinking.

I half-heartedly ate that rice. So I was very hungry in the morning and I finally got the South Indian food after about 6 months. That's why I was more concerned about lunch then bike clearance process.

Many checking points, Inspection in that port area. My bike got an X-ray examination and I needed to submit that report to some other office before I could go for final paper work and at the Final Exit Gate. This took me about 4-5 hours.

Two UAE police officers (Arabic men) took the pain to get out from their AC offices and inspect my bike. Within 5 minutes, the police officer was dripping sweat from his forehead like a leakage in a tap and I understood that he is going back to his Cabin in next few moments.

Overall he was very polite and gentleman. After finishing the Bike Inspection like Engine number, chassis number etc., we went Inside quickly, because of the Heat I reckon. But once inside, he was eager to listen my trip story and how I get here in UAE with the motorcycle I purchased in Spain. 

Anyway after spending a little time with officers, I started my drive towards Dubai to my friend and Driving was really really dangerous for such a small bike of 150 cc into UAE mega highway connecting Sharjah to Abu Dhabi via Dubai because it's very fast traffic of the cars in the lane.

My Travel Route from Iran to UAE and than Muscat, Oman.

I stayed with my friends at night and next morning started my journey towards Oman.

When I was getting out of Dubai towards Oman, I tried to find out a shortcut inside a road construction Patch and caught by a Government of UAE officials. He was not from Traffic Police but from the road construction authority or something like that. So he was not trying to fine me but was surprised that I am driving on a motorcycle which is very dangerous. He was really concerned and gave me a lecture of 5 minutes (With a very good intention)  which I did not understand as he was speaking in Arabic. I understood only one world which he said many times and is common in Hindi also, "MAUT" (Death). All I understood is that he was trying to make me understand that driving with motorcycle on highway is very dangerous and can caused death. I nodded in affirmative many times that I understand and showed him hand direction that I have to go to Oman. He then left me and I left the site with commitment of no short-cut and following the road otherwise someone might catch me again😆.

Driving was beautiful here in a sense that mostly it's desert around you for initial 150 Km (not like any other desert where small plants in the terrain). This was pure sand,  the desert of pure yellow sand and then at the Oman border its mountain range starts. Mountain without any presence of Life (Plant).

Crossing Border and Entering in Oman is also a bit of a  story which I will explain in the next Post. 

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