The Wanderer

How are you going to write a travel guide of somewhere you've never been to?

This is the thing.

Chatting. Talking to locals.

Alright. Alright.

And then,

yeah, just going off reviews, recommendations.

Okay.

I'm just going to chuck myself at it and see what it has to offer.

But like I said, I don't have a clue,

so I've got coats, swim shorts, sunglasses,

I don't know what's going on.

A bit of SPF?

A bit of SPF.

Can never go wrong with a bit of SPF.

I guess the travel guide

that I would want to see or I would like to give out to friends

and family would be kind of revolved around food, adventure,

people.

And being half Indian and half Scottish,

I've kind of always grown up with like a thirst to know

more about different cultures because, you know, I grew up in England,

but my ancestors grew up in India and others

grew up in the highlands of Scotland, and I've since visited both.

And it was actually really eye opening to to think that once my great great

grandfather was kind of walking the streets of Delhi,

and then I was suddenly in like the Isle of Skye in Scotland.

And the same could be true.

And I thought that was just kind of mind blowing in and of itself.

Right. I've just got the email, Olu.

Oh,finally.

Okay. Right.

See where you're off to.

Oh god, I'm actually very nervous.

North Pole.

Take him away.

Here you go.

Okay.

That is the complete opposite of the North Pole.

Well, it's not the South Pole, but it's

Abu Dhabi. I'm buzzing with that.

Look at this guy.

Yeah, I'm going to get my tan on.

I wanted somewhere hot.

Yeah, it's going to be beautiful out there.

The F1.

- That's going to be sick. - Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. I need to check that out for sure.

- Let's have a little search quickly. - Yeah.

The Majestic Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.

Wow. So cool.

That's beautiful.

Yeah. Okay, that's cool.

I'm buzzing with that, I need to sort out my suitcase because I've packed for the

- not Abu Dhabi. - All right cool awesome

- Bye Mum. - Bye.

-Let me know how it goes - I will do, alright. Love you

Have a great time.

Wow, I cannot wait. That is great news.

I am absolutely buzzing with that.

It's day one here in Abu Dhabi

and I arrived here last night, so I didn't even get time to check out the views.

But look at what I've just woken up to.

Unbelievable.

I'm going to jump in a taxi and just see where this place takes me.

I'm very, very nervous.

I'm very excited.

Let's go.

Hello, my friend.

Hey. Morning. How are you?

- I have nowhere to go. -Okay.

And I'm going to take your advice. Can you take me somewhere?

You have any recommendations?

Yeah, of course.

Abu Dhabi, in the city area, you can visit the Heritage

Village and the Fish Market,

which is an amazing place with a nice restaurant there.

And next to the fish market,

is the date market and also the vegetable market.

Amazing. Well, I'm I'm absolutely starving.

So I think we should probably head there first.

Thank you, Silva.

Appreciate it.

You have the grill.

You have delivery.

You can take the fish, everything.

We have maybe 200 items of fish.

Different fish.

You have the King Fish, the Cobia, you have Shark.

So you can,

you can buy your fish here and have it gutted?

Yes.

So what's your favourite traditional fish dish here?

I like the Kingfish, the Shark, the Cobia.

The big crab, do you like?

I don't like crab. No no, not a fan!

Maybe you have a phobia.

You're scared of the crab.

I've always hated crabs.

I'm not sure why or where it's come from,

but I guess part of travelling is getting out of your comfort zone.

Oh, my God.

Wow. Okay,

They are-

I don't know.

Now, up close, it's kind of fascinating, but... OH MY...!

Oh oh.

That is beautiful.

It's really good.

You can taste how fresh that is.

and imagine it's just come off one of the stalls out there

That is beautiful, there's like a smokey, almost

paprika-y taste to that.

Nothing quite like a bit of seafood

for breakfast.

So how many dates do you have on sale? What's the variety?

Here we have 160 types of dates.

160?

I had no idea that many even existed.

Okay, so what do we have here?

-Is this the dry? - Yeah.

So this is softer than this one.

Yeah, that's beautiful. Very nice.

So where would you where would you recommend I go see.

What's the top of your list?

You must go to the Louvre Museum.

The building is amazing and you can see many artworks,

by many world famous artists.

This is absolutely

breathtaking.

It's breathtaking.

The architecture here is just stunning.

It's almost like you're inside a big bird's nest.

It feels like we're in nature.

Like I'm in a jungle.

I don't get this much attention back home.

Excuse me, guys.

Do you speak English?

- Is it your first time here? - Yes!

- How are you finding it? - Just the culture. So much culture.

Different mixes of races and so much to see.

I'm very impressed with all the infrastructure and modernism.

It's such a nice place. Amazing. I'm falling in love, to be honest.

Falling in love. Yeah.

So beautiful.

A lot of nice details here.

The architecture is out of this world.

The architecture is amazing and it's inspiring, you know?

So do you have a particular favourite piece of artwork here in the Louvre?

Yes, I do.

One of my favourite ones is actually by Manet

who's a French impressionist artist.

It's called the Bohemian.

And there's a lot of feelings and emotions

that you can see through the Bohemian's eyes, actually.

It touches a lot of visitors

You kind of look like him!

- I'm serious! - I need to go check that out.

Yeah, you have to check that out

What is it, the...

I think is the curly hair, the eyes.

- There's something. Yeah. - Ok, I need to check that out.

So what what is the message that you think he's trying to convey

as well to you personally about this piece of art?

I like this saying,

or I don't know if it's a quote, but "It's not about the destination.

It's about the journey."

So sometimes

in life, we kind of, you know, go and try to search

for something in particular, but we end up with

something else that we needed more than we we wanted.

That's beautiful. That's exactly what I'm..

- Serendipity! - Yeah, yeah.

That's exactly how I feel

on this journey.

And I, as I said earlier, I'm

on the search for recommendations and especially that of the locals.

So do you have any where in particular that you think I should check out?

Oh, yeah, I think you should check out the Qasr Al-Watan.

Okay. How do I say that?

Qasr Al-Watan.

It means Castle of the Nation.

Well, I'll be sure to check it out.

- Thank you so much. - Thank you.

But before I go anywhere, I've seen some kayaks to rent,

and I couldn't pass on the opportunity

to look at this incredible building from all angles.

How long did it take to build it?

That's incredible.

Four years to build something of this magnitude, you know.

Marvin was such a good guide, but I just had to race him to double check how good he really was.

Taking the inside! Oh no!!

Well played my man.

I think I think you got there.

Thank you, my friend.

My pleasure, man.

Downtown Abu Dhabi, there's a real hustle and bustle to the city.

The sense of opportunity in business is palpable.

You can really feel that this city is in full swing.

So as my search for culture continues,

I've ended up at this place, which I found online.