Monday, January 12, 2015

Finally, a legal driver in the UAE

I finally went out to get my local driver's license today. I've been using my US license and supposedly that's illegal once you have your residence visa. Who knew! Anyhow, the whole process probably only took about 20 min where they processed my paperwork, took my picture and then, printed my license. Success!

But... it took me probably 45 min to get to the Driver's License Dept from the house because of morning commuter traffic. Once there, they said I had to get my documents translated into Arabic (seriously??!). So... back into the car and 20 minutes later to get to the street where the translator was. But then I couldn't find it so it was another 15 minutes backtracking. Love how they use landmarks on their business cards! Once I found my landmark, I figured it was just best to find a parking spot.  Well, it probably took 20-25 minutes just trying to find a spot! And I think I was actually quite lucky!

After parking, it was time to search for the translator and voila, just as I started walking towards the general direction of where it might be, there is was! I had driven by it twice without even realizing it!  I could have just double parked.  Anyhow, 100 dhs later, it was back into the car and back to the Driver's License Dept. Thankfully, the "Ladies Only" line was only 5 people deep.  And thankfully I didn't have to take the driving test.  Supposedly with a Malaysian passport, you are required to do so but since I have my US driver's license I was just able to skip that. Phew! 200 dhs later, I'm back in the car driving home.

Yet another interesting day in the city.  I meant to drop by the Municipality office but figured I would save that for another day. There's some landscaping blocking the view of our exit by the apartment complex. We'll see how that goes. Until next time Abu Dhabi!

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