Last weekend we took a day trip to a town called Al Ain, which is about 140km south east of Dubai. The road there is a big, long, straight highway which cuts through the desert. Aside from looking at sand dunes, camels, and the odd oasis, the only thing to do on the drive to keep oneself awake is to keep watch for the stationary speeding cameras which are positioned every dozen or so miles, so you can temporarily slow down from the breakneck 170km/h you're doing the rest of the way there ... that is, until I saw what a local was doing in his SUV.
As we came up behind him (he was doing at least 140km/h), we noticed through his tinted windows what appeared to be a fully open newspaper in front of him on his steering wheel. Sure enough, as we got closer we saw that it was that morning's Gulf News - a full size daily paper - and he was busy reading the business section. Between pages he would occasionally look up to steer his truck back into the lane, but otherwise he was pretty into his reading, so much in fact that he barely noticed us as we went by. It was then over our laughter that I noticed my complete lack of surprise at the situation - just another day driving in the UAE.
As we came up behind him (he was doing at least 140km/h), we noticed through his tinted windows what appeared to be a fully open newspaper in front of him on his steering wheel. Sure enough, as we got closer we saw that it was that morning's Gulf News - a full size daily paper - and he was busy reading the business section. Between pages he would occasionally look up to steer his truck back into the lane, but otherwise he was pretty into his reading, so much in fact that he barely noticed us as we went by. It was then over our laughter that I noticed my complete lack of surprise at the situation - just another day driving in the UAE.