Dubai. Review on Dubai

Life has taken a turn by allowing me to come to Dubai/Sharjah. It not always that you get a chance to come to a foreign country. I had visited Jordan years back and looked forward to making it outside India for its excitement that covers it. But it took sometime for this to materialize.  First thing that occurred to me when I landed here were the cars and the roads. It took me no time to notice the movement of vehicles, the discipline and order they followed. I was told that there were hefty fines if you didn’t follow the rules and that this would act as a deterrent. The roads are immaculately marked and traffic rules are by god followed. There are these cameras to monitor over speeding, jumping red lights and all kinds of traffic rules. Just don’t drink and drive. There is zero tolerance. You might be put in jail.As it sunk into me, I didn’t fail to see the tall buildings and the cranes. The cars here can be of all kinds. Land cruiser is normal. Everyone has Honda. With the price of one liter of petrol in India being equal to a gallon and enjoyable roads with safe traffic rules, driving is, undoubtedly, such a pleasure. But driving here for a new comer is no cake walk. Infact, getting a license may require you to pay through the nose. And you may have to try for months for upto 20 attempts to get one. But cars are comparatively cheaper.

We were to move here and there and as I enquired about the demography of the place, I came to know that Dubai was a major tourist destination and people from other nationalities - about 100-200 ranging from Filipinos to Ukrainians, Europeans, Americans, Indians and Pakistanis – outnumbered the locals who formed the government and administration mostly. Therefore the culture had to be cosmopolitan with hotels and restaurants of a very wide variety. Then you have these pubs and bars in Dubai, while some other emirates were having restrictions and prohibitions.  UAE is made up of seven emirates, Dubai and Sharjah being two of them. Sharjah has rules of Prohibition but Dubai is without restrictions.

What has made Middle East abundant in wealth? Obviously, it is the Oil. Long time back Englishmen found Oil somewhere in the regions of Persia – now Iran – and paid a sum to the local Arab leader. From then on as there was plenty of oil, there was no looking back. Middle East accounts for 66% of the worlds Oil reserves and hence phenomenally rich.  What is interesting is that although Middle East has lot of oil, what’s there in Dubai to make it known? Oil is just about finished in Dubai and accounts for only 6% of the GDP with other areas flourishing with their resources like Saudi Arabia etc. It is the tourism, marketing and the Hospitality Industry. Everyone wants to come to the tallest building in the whole world, Dubai Mall - of the size of a city almost, the Indoor ski resort, the underwater water hotel etc. Not to forget the Palm Jumeriah, place built on reclaimed land - often seen in aerial photos in the shape of a Palm tree. You can find a lot of Malayalees, Filipinos and Ukrainians occupying various posts in companies. One thing worth mentioning is the pattern of expenses here. Taxi is a bit expensive but never out of reach. Prices of laundry and barber pinch a little. You may feel it could have been lesser. Price of accommodation has become reasonable because the rates have gone down due to recession. It was enormous sometime back and has the potential of eating up more than half of your expenditure. Medical is abhorrently expensive and mostly done with company’s medical card. Household expenses including electricity, water, grocery, gas are reasonable. But if you step outside this there is no limit to which your pocket can be bruised. It turns out that no amount is enough.

And when you have these malls –Dubai mall being the largest in the world- where everything under the sun - so attractive - is available, you have to be cautious.  Visa formalities are mostly are part of the company, but it takes time. Usually you come here on one of the visas like employment visa. Then you submit all the documents like the passport etc., your medical gets done, and then your passport gets stamped with resident visa in approximately 2-3 weeks. Then you submit the documents of the family with photos and marriage certificate and you sponsor them. This takes another 2-3 weeks. Your family gets residence visa and they can come over. Once their medical etc is over after coming here, their passport also gets stamped with resident visa. After passport gets stamped, labor card and identity card are prepared. Meanwhile you get you medical card. Whether Identity card is made or not made - although it has become mandatory – you have to surrender either of the two – labor card or the passport to the company. Identity card serves as you proof of your residence in the new place and helps to get all the connections. Trying to switch jobs is not easy here. As the company you are already in has paid all your visa expenses, they may not give you No Objection certificate, in which case, you may have to go back and you would be banned from coming in for 6 months unless your next company helps you in the event.

All in all, look forward to come here. More than worth some time. It was really a joy penning all in one place what I experienced in last 2 months. I hope you enjoy using it and reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.