Job Discussion Forums

turtlepi1 · Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 94

I'm new to the Gulf and I made a one-day 16 hour drive through all of the Emirates. While you can't get a feel for life at 160 km/h I did get the impression that each emirate holds its own unique charms and challenges.

I'm in Abu Dhabi. I find the population less "transient" than Dubai. It is more conservative than Dubai, but I wouldn't consider it restrictive.

Traffic is not a major concern compared to Dubai but probably worse than some other emirates.

Plenty of restaurants, bars, movie theatres, etc. Our housing allowances could be better but we are hardly living in poverty. (Apartment vs. villa)

I want to start racing dirt bikes but getting off the island requires a trailer and something to pull it. Not a problem in places like Fujairah.

Guess I am bored today. But maybe I will learn a little more about the different Emirates.

younggeorge · Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Posts: 350 Location: UAE

I only have personal experience of Dubai, where I'd say:

There has always been a good choice of places to live, villas included and quiet/busy areas to choose from, but it remains to be seen whether this will continue, given the exponential rent increases in the past year.

There's an incredible amount of entertainment and night-life, but somewhat pricey - drinks in bars, for example, are at least 25% more expensive than in Abu Dhabi.

The shopping is amazing - I doubt if there's anything you can't buy here and prices, on the whole, are a shade lower than most places I've lived.

On the other hand, the idyll may be timing out:-

The traffic has become ridiculous in the past year - the centres of Deira and Bur Dubai are almost completely grid-locked in the evenings. The Emirates Road is as good for by-passing Dubai as the M25 is for by-passing London. (For non-Brits, that means "not at all" - it's a car park at peak hours).

Rents, as mentioned above, are rising at an unbelievable rate and I'm not sure the allowances at HCT and ZU, never mind private employers, can keep pace.

And there are rumblings in certain quarters that the nationals are becloming less enamoured of the expatriate takeover. Virtually all new developments are aimed at expats and not everyone is happy to see pink-skinned women in bikinis and bare-chested men in shorts acting as if all of Jumeirah is their beach party.

younggeorge · Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Posts: 350 Location: UAE

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

SheikItUp · Joined: 07 Jan 2005 Posts: 14

Just wondering...from your posts, it seems that getting a villa is "not good"...? Are apartments newer or better somehow? Thanks!

younggeorge · Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Posts: 350 Location: UAE

shebab · Joined: 17 Sep 2003 Posts: 168

younggeorge · Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Posts: 350 Location: UAE

well-travelled · Joined: 19 Mar 2003 Posts: 97

Dubai has, for a while now, been transforming itself into an unreal emirate - hence Dubailand; the World: the various Palms; the tallest building in the world etc..etc..

I guess for some this is visionary, but for others, myself included, it's tasteless, tacky and environmentally ill-thought through.

Still, whether you think this development is good or bad, I think that most people would say that it's happening far too fast.

Unless you're an Emirati property owner, of course, who, for some reason, has been able to increase the rent on his villa/flat by anything up to 100% in recent weeks. And this in a place where general building standards and, more importantly, maintenance are - to put it politely - not of the highest quality.

Combine this with the poor exchange rates at present, the increasing pollution, the ever-increasing traffic congestion etc., then Dubai, it seems to me, is no longer the promised land - especially for teachers who have always been at the bottom of the (white) expatriate pile.

well-travelled