Flashing Lights

I may have mentioned quite how ridiculous, crazy and down right dangerous the driving is here. Here’s a case in point. As I’ve been pootling around, with my British manners, I often flash my lights at people to let them out at junctions etc. I couldn’t work out why so few people responded to this and actually moved. Then I realised, the only way that people use the lights on their cars here is to flash you from behind, in the fast lane (when you’re already doing 140) to get you to move over!

I regularly drive to and from Abu Dhabi, and in any one journey this will literally happen to me….oh 30 times. I am not exaggerating. I only use the fast lane for overtaking (hello guys this is what it is supposed to be used for!) and the amount of times when I’m checking my rear view mirror that my heart sink, as I see a car zooming up to my rear, lights flashing the entire time. I think these people drive with their lights permanently flashing. It’s rude, unnecessary and dangerous.

They’re also a bit overkeen on the horn here. In Manchester, the ‘parp’ from my little Renault clio was a bit too Minnie Mouse-ish to be taken seriously, so I used it sparingly. Here, there is always someone beeping at you. Either you’re going too slow, or sometimes they beep just if they are driving past you on the highway, to warn you not to come out of your lane. This frustrated me massively to begin with(hello, I have mirrors, I do use them, I learned to drive in the UK, we have white lines on the road there!) but now I almost zone out the endless beeping.

So all in all, driving in Dubai: don’t do it!