Umm Suqeim Beach with the Burj-Al-Arab in the background
Hi! For my family and friends who’re wondering how we’re doing here in Dubai, we’re fine. It’s now our third month here, and the temperature is shooting steadily up. I have nothing much to write about because I’m all grown up now and have now started being responsible, and serious at work (I’m 38 after all, and married). Very soon, I will be like all the typical middle-aged men with serious and boring mindsets, thinking only of career and the future of the family, and then I will finally have nothing to write about. Before I become that serious, here’re some tips if you wanna visit Dubai in the future.
Come to Dubai only if you have to work here, or if you wanna fly to some exotic destinations, like in Somalia or Iraq which you can’t get a direct flight to from wherever you are. Or if you are a sand lover with loads of cash to spare.
Dubai is beautiful. It is sunny, all the time (except at night). It has a long coast line, it is hot (even at night) and it has lots and lots of sand. There are no animals roaming around the streets, no mosquitoes so far (to my delight), and only tiny little cockroaches which are not as scary as the huge ugly ones in Malaysia. It has generally no trees along the sides of the roads, no grass on the shoulders or the middle divider, and only 3 drops of rain since I step foot here. In other words, it is a gorgeous desert.
Our ‘villa’ in Mirdif, Dubai – there’re 7 ‘villas’ in that building
However, Dubai is very rich, and it runs water pipes (called irrigation pipes here) with sprinklers to all the road sides and middle dividers at prominent areas and to gardens of rich people (which means most of the locals) to keep the grass and flowers alive and date palms flourishing. For some reason or other (or maybe because no other fruit trees grow in a bloody desert), date palms are the favourite trees in Dubai and in Arabia in general, so much so that it features prominently as national symbols, and in Dubai, the authorities built 3 huge groups of artificial islands shaped like the beloved date palm in the sea adding more than 1000km of coast line to Dubai.
A billboard showing the planned development on Palm Jumeirah
The Dubai Government is one of the most efficient governments I’ve ever known, especially at making money, which is what is important for the country right? It requires foreign workers to get all their certificates attested at their home country and a second time when they arrive here in Dubai (or that’s what our Company’s PRO tells me). Attesting a certificate at the UAE Embassy in Kuala Lumpur costs RM 150 per certificate (or RM 225 per certificate if you want it ‘express’ i.e. within the day). (For comparison, attesting a certificate at Wisma Putra, i.e. the Malaysian Foreign Affairs Ministry, costs you RM 10, and you get it within 15 minutes). Attesting certificates a second time here in Dubai costs AED 150 (about RM 130) per certificate. The UAE Embassy will only attest certificates / documents issued in Malaysia. And therefore by that logic, if I want to attest my University Degree which is from the UK, I’d have to fly to London, get the British Foreign Ministry to endorse it and then the UAE Embassy in London to attest it. Similarly, if I want to get my Indian Marriage Certificate attested, I’d have to do it in New Delhi. This is brilliant for generating air travel.
I did not have the privilege to travel around the world and therefore I am a ‘Follow-Up Clerk’ here in Dubai, albeit a not-doing-too-bad Follow-Up Clerk. I have no problems with this as long as the Company pays me what they’re supposed to pay me plus give me all the benefits I’m entitled to. The Follow-Up Clerk is now drafting a Project Quality Plan for a new multi-million Project and Procedures for operating the Asphalt Plant – pretty heavy work load for a follow-up clerk I’d say.
Anu and our car at the road outside our ‘villa’ (car number? – C 20586, for the empat-ekor enthusiast)
A road to nowhere near our ‘villa’
Dubai Creek overlooking Deira
Gary & Anu at the Souq Madinat Jumeirah with the bloody expensive 7-star Burj-Al-Arab in the background
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