A conversation with myself

Someone said to me that they wanted to ask lots of little things but thought that they sounded silly. A past English teacher always told me "That there's no such thing as a silly question". So I've taken the liberty of creating some questions and answering them for myself; pretty much like having a conversation with myself, which I do everyday anyway.

If I've missed something that you want to know about, just ask.

What's Dubai like?
Before I came here someone told me that Dubai is like a large sand-pit with lots of cranes and construction. They weren't wrong. Dubai apparently has 20% of the world's cranes and there is construction everywhere you look. It's a very international city and in the supermarket queues you hear accents from all over the world.

The people seem very friendly and if you ask about their culture or country they are very respsonsive. The majority of the local population is Muslim and there are mosques all over the city. Food is abundant and cheap and there are lots of cafes and restaurants representing most nationalities. Pastimes include shopping, shopping and uh...shopping. People spend their spare time in malls because they're air-conditioned and often house cinemas and cafes. Arabic is the official language and English is widely spoken.

What's the weather like?
HOT! Every day since I've been here the paper says its 36 degrees. According to http://www.gulfnews.com the weather has never altered in that time. How strange is that? Now as the seasons change and the city goes into summer the expected average daily is 42 degrees. If its get hotter than that, according to urban myth, it's not reported in the paper, because people go a bit crazy. Apparently during June, July & August a lot of things close down. If a pub or club has an outdoor bar they close it down until September when the weather becomes cooler and many people take a whole month of work and leave for Europe where it’s cooler. Everything is air-conditioned. The only time when you're hot is when you're waiting for a taxi or walking somewhere.

What are the toilets like?
The toilets I've seen are Western and also have a hose attachment for those who prefer water to paper. Of course, eating with your left hand is considered dirty. You work it out. Some public toilets, like at the BurJuman Centre, are huge. I stumbled across them one day and was amazed when I pushed open the cubicle door to find a small room complete with toilet, basin, mirror and tissues, all for the one user with marble bench tops and lovely interiorss.There are also cleaning ladies waiting as soon as you walk out, ready to wipe down the basin as you leave.

What's your apartment like?
It is quite Arabic in style and is obviously made for short people. I'm 5'8"and I stoop to chop vegetables at the kitchen bench, which is all marble by the way. Our bathroom was designed by some future starved individual that thought that they would create a shower that is really a space ship. There are two shower heads, a spa and a radio inside something that looks like its about to take off. Mind you as with a lot of things here only half of it works. The radio never worked and one of the shower heads died.

The floors here are all typically tiled, ours are large white slabs, and the place is quite cool all day and night. We have some rugs on the floor to make it less noisy as you can hear when people above get up to leave the table after dinner.

There is a garbage shoot in the hallway, which makes me feel very American and we have a doorman. He's called a doorman but he's really a nice Pakistani man who seems to be asleep in his chair for most of the afternoon.

How much is rent?
Rent here is very high and is generally speaking paid by the quarter or annually. An average 2 bedroom apartment costs 60,000 dirhams per year. In the area I live, Bur Dubai, a 2 bedroom place cost around 30,000 dirhams in 2002. Rent increases are huge and there is serious competition in finding a place.

What's your address?
No one here has postal delivery to their home. If you want to receive post you have to rent a post box or know someone who has a post box and use theirs. Of course, you can only do this once you obtain residency.

How do I become a resident?
To get residency is when you are sponsored by your spouse/employer and you have applied to the local authorities to stay here on a permanent basis by filling out a lot of paperwork and getting your life documented and notarized for lots of money. The rules change regularly and its worth speaking to the UAE consulate to find out exactly what you need to do to qualify for this.

Burnin' rubber
Driving here is a major hazard. As I write there have been 120 deaths in the UAE this year. That's one a day. The driving itself is atrocious. No one really indicates and even though the speed limit is 120km on the freeway people drive at 150km because the speed guns are set at 160km. According to the police most accidents are caused from speeding. The police have recently introduced fines for people who stop and watch accidents because it is such a sport and cause major traffic jams.

Traffic is a serious issue here. Due to bad driving, not enough roads and general lack of confidence on the road the roads are jam packed from 4pm onwards. A lot of businesses work from 8am - 4pm and never stay beyond that time because driving home can be so bad and something that would take 5 minutes in a quite period can take over an hour in peak.

Trains, planes and automobiles
The only public transport here is buses which are really cheap but unreliable. Taxis are plentiful, cheap and know where they're going. Flights out of Dubai are very reasonable due to the cheap fuel here. Cars are cheap to buy. A second hand Jag which was 2 years old and with low mileage was advertised for 10 k AUD. There are heaps of 4WDS and Hummers.

There are no trains but there are plans for a metro which is currently under construction.