Well i've been in Dubai now for almost two and a half weeks now and this is my first post to date! Very poor standards!
Things are going well so far. I've acclimatised and settled in to some degree. I'm still trying to get my head around the size of some of the buildings and the sheer gaudiness of some of them, seeing how the tallest building I saw on a regular basis was Liberty Hall in Dublin which is far from impressive.
Its a bit of a strange place though. Its is what I expected in some ways, but not in others. I was aware of the immigrant workers and the poor conditions they work and live in and the complete contrast to the local Emiraties who only come out at night in their Ferraris. I wasn't aware of the ridiculous infrastructure in terms of road layout or the lack of a decent postal service. To get to my office, we have to drive past it, drive for another 10 minutes till you can hardly see it in the distance, then turn around, drive past it again, and find you're way through a glorified building site. It seems buildings are built first, then they figure out how to get people to it afterward. So you have monstrosities of office and apartment buildings, but no direct road or offramp to access them. It takes another year or so to get that in place.
Having said that, it is a nice enough place to live. I'm currently staying in the Marina which has proper footpaths, grocery stores, shops, restaurants, bars etc all in walking distance, as well as the beach. And if I do need to get somewhere outside of that area, there are a steady supply of taxis to solve that problem, for a small price. From that point of view its great. Eating out is cheap (5 main courses, 3 naan breds, 2 bowls of rice and 6 soft drinks for €19 in a nearby Pakistani restaurant) and groceries aren't that bad either. Booze is available but can be pricey but unlike Ireland, they have happy hour here so you can get some good deals.
Overall, its nice. Strange in places, but nice. I was fascinated with the place before I arrived, even more so when I did, and I can see it getting stronger as the weeks go by. I promise to be better at posting now that i'm all set up, so watch this space. Also, you can see the pictures i've taken so far here. There's some good ones and i'll be updating it fairly regularly.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
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