Welcome to Dubai...now learn Hindi, Maylay, Pakistani, Urdu, and Philipino.

So it's been almost one week since I've landed in Dubai and it's been a pretty interesting week...it is quite an amazing city. Dubai is one of the Emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates. Dubai has actually been a major financial port for a very long time. But it's the last 30 years that we've all heard about it, especially the last decade, because it's in the last decade that the investment and construction boom has really taken hold here. To think that about 30 years ago this was mostly desert and today it looks like this...





is pretty amazing. My hotel is pretty nice, not one of the big fancy gadjillion dollar ones, but a pretty good one none the less. Internet costs me about 30 bucks a day or 5 bucks an hour so that's why you haven't heard from me much. I'm trying to be sparing with my money until my first paycheck.

Getting around really isn't very easy if you don't have a car. My first night here I tried to take a cab back to my hotel, and quickly learned that most of the cab drivers don't really...how do I put this...know where they're going. You see, it's not like NY where you get in a cab and say "35th and 6th" or "1515 broadway please." Since this country is A: so new and B: constantly under construction and new roads are being added every other week, there really isn't a reliable address system. When you tell someone a location, you do it with landmarks. You say "please take me to the Grand Hyatt Hotel behind the Dubai Mall off the 2nd exit by the Burger King." That kind of thing. So when I explained to my taxi driver he nodded and drove off, 5 mins later he's asking me left of right at the intersection. So, what should have taken 10 mins actually took about 45. It didn't help that he really didn't speak English or Arabic, so I was out of luck. My second cab ride had an Indian guy yelling at me in what I assume was Hindi but all I could make out was that he had to make it back for shift change. So, we almost died about 10 times as he weaved in and out of traffic and I almost puked about 6 times because it was brake, gas, brake, gas, brake, gas. And he didn't even drop me off at my destination, he dropped me off across the street about 50 yards away because he didn't have time to pull in. Here's some more pics of the city for your pleasure...


This was a nice restaurant I was eating at and the view was of the Burj Al Arab on the left. Those buildings below are of a really nice hotel, but I can't remember the name.



I'm in my realtor's car here on our way to look at some apartments...those building are what we're going to look at.



The main 12 lane road (6 going north and 6 going south) that pushes right through Dubai is called Sheik Zayed Rd....Sheik Zayed is the ruler of Dubai. Someone told me this stretch of highway is the most expensive piece of property in the world because of all the high rise buildings.



Here's the Burj Dubai up close. It's the building on the left. It's supposed to be complete sometime this year. And when finished it's going to be the tallest building in the world...over 160 floors. The neighboring emirate and capital of the U.A.E. Abu Dhabi is planning on building a tower that will dwarf this one. So far I've learned that there's a kind of unspoken rivalry between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. When one completes something the other has to top it.


Being from NY, I'm no stranger to beautiful skylines of skyscrapers, but I have to admit Dubai has a pretty amazing one too.




This was pretty cool. I'm at work at the station and all of a sudden a helicopter lands behind the station in a small field. Not a helipad or any kind of landing area, just a little patch of grass. We're all thinking it was some sort of royal prince or something. My first taste of rich royal Dubai.




The beaches are very beautiful here. In this photo you can see one of the man made islands, Palm Jumierah. If you look closely you can see the "branches" jutting out. That tall building in the background is the new Atlantis Hotel that just opened.


So my current task at hand is finding an apartment. Over here the landlords want you to pay 1 year up front. You sign a one year lease for however much a month and you have to pay A FULL YEAR up front. Yes, that IS a lot of money and a sever pain in the ass. OK...enough for now. Sorry this is so short, time is slim and costly...more updates to come as soon as possible, I promise