Ramadan in Abu Dhabi

It's nearing the end of Ramadan and this post is kinda late, but better late than never!

This is my first Ramadan in UAE, save for my visit to Dubai 2 years ago for interviews, and it's definitely a very different experience to Malaysia. In Malaysia, nothing really changes, except offices shut 1/2 hour earlier, and there are tons of stalls open in the evenings where people buy food.

Over here, hours are dramatically shorter, most offices are only open from 9am to 3pm, including mine. Unfortunately my team doesn't follow these hours, so no good there :( All or most restaurants are shut during the day, and only open in the evening, so you can't go into a mall to have a meal. The only place to eat is in a hotel where the restaurants would be covered by a huge curtain shielding the food from public view.

You can't eat or drink or smoke in public. In the gyms they even move the water coolers to a separate room so you can only drink in the room. There isn't anything to do during the day as most shops are also closed in the afternoon and only open at 7pm but they all open late till 1am. I was at a mall one weeknight after watching a movie and eating dinner, and the mall was packed at 11pm, including little kids running everywhere. We were probably the only non Muslim person around though! I have heard that most people who are fasting just stay up all night until suhour and then they sleep at 5am and if they have to go to work they wake up again at 8am.

It's quite interesting to me, coming from Malaysia where even people who are fasting would be serving food in a restaurant while they are fasting. Here, there is no tolerance for people who are not fasting to eat, drink or smoke. What I find sad is that while this is supposed to be the Holy Month, where people help the poor etc, this is also the month where the most food is wasted. I went to an Iftar (open fast banquet) and the food buffet was incredible. And they have it at every single hotel in the city...that's kinda ironic for me. But there are tons of good charitable causes going on too, like free food boxes for the poor given out everyday at the mosque and at hotels.

All in all, its been interesting, i'm glad when it is over and when things go back to normal!