Dubai's Getting a Metro

For about 1.5 years, construction work has been going on to build a Metro train for Dubai. This city is the perfect candidate for public transportation. About 90% of the city's jobs can be found along 2 main business corridors. The first is along a road called Sheikh Zayed Road - which runs parallel to the coast (mostly in a north to south direction). The second is along the Dubai Creek - which runs inland toward the East. The first two lines of the Metro are being built in these two areas. The plans are for there to be no more than 60-90 seconds wait time at a station between trains (Londoners - eat your heart out).

Click here to see a map of the current plans: http://archive.gulfnews.com/images/07/03/18/19_ae_metro_map.pdf

When the train is ready, I will be able to ride the red line from Rasidiyya to World Trade Center (probably about 30 minute ride). Given I have a free parking space here at the office, I'm not as incented to ride the train (which I will have to pay for personally) but for many here this will be a very welcome addition.

Trees of Dubai

Date palms are native here. I've never lived in a place with date palms. The trees are prolific. Many of the people who have date palms in their yard will place a green net bag around the clumps of dates so that as they dry and fall off the stems, they are captured. During Ramadan, the first meal to break the fast is dates. Arabs will usually have a plate of dates whenever hosting guests in their house. The grocery stores have dates in so many different varieties - I've never seen so many dates. One favorite thing to do is stuff the dates with a nut; pistachio, walnut, almond, cashews are all used. Additionally, these stuffed dates may be dipped in white, milk, or dark chocolate. And finally, you may have these chocolate coated dates also rolled in chopped nuts (again: pistachios, walnuts, almonds, or cashews). Yummm.

Another common site is the bouganvillea. Evidently, feed them a little Miracle Grow and they will bloom like wildfire. The bouganvillea were in bloom when I was here in May and they are still in bloom. I'm told they will bloom all year. They come in a variety of colors; white, yellow, pale pink and fuscia. Many people plant them so that they will grow over the tops of their garden walls or over the arbor to provide shade.

My favorite, however, is the Flamboyant tree. This tree was in bloom in May, but is mostly done by now. When I came here 3 months ago, the streets were lined with these trees - all covered with a beautiful orange flower. They still provide a great amount of shade for the laborers to rest during the heat of the afternoon.

Energy Saving Tip

Russell discovered this one.

Most of the "cold" water for our flat sits in tanks up on top of the house. As you can imagine, sitting in the blazing sun of summer the water gets quite toasty warm. The "hot" water heater is in a utility closet in the flat. So in the summer, as Russell discovered, you can turn off the water heater and use the opposite tap. The cold tap will get you hot water and the hot tap will get you "cold" (tepid actually).

We also discovered that there are two water supplies fed to all houses/flats. There is "sweet water" that is fed from underground wells and supplies your sink taps. This water tastes very good (sweet even). There is a desalinated water that is fed from the Persian Gulf and supplies the showers, toilets, and washing machines. I don't think there is a problem drinking the desalinated water, it just doesn't taste very good.

There is actually a third water supply that is for the irrigation systems that is fed from water treated at the sewage plants. Given the very low rainfall here, there is very little concern that this water will run off into the fresh water supply.

House Hunting

Well, we've found a place - but I forgot the little cable thingy that allows me to download my pictures - so that will have to wait.

Russell & I spent 2 days looking at houses in an area of Dubai called Mirdif (in case you want to look it up on a map).

First, let me explain the type of housing you can get here.

There are apartments (either low-rise or high-rise). These are the most prevalent & widely available type of housing. The low-rise apartments tend to be in the older and more densely populated areas of town. A lot of these areas are packed with wonderful little neighborhood shops and privately run restaurants. The high-rise apartments are usually in very new buildings and often in very expensive areas in town.

Because of the dog, however, we decided to go for a "villa". These can come as either an independent villa or in a "compound". An independent villa is a single family home inside of a gate and wall. A "compound" can either be a few villas (2 to 4) or many many villas (over 100). The smaller compounds are usually also behind their own private gate and walls. The larger compounds are more like a gated community - there is a gate and security guard barring you from entering the area where 100s of homes are.

We found a villa in a small compound of 6. These are being newly built and should be ready in a few weeks. Our villa is a 4 bedroom, each with their own bathroom. It has a private pool (many smaller compounds have shared pools) in a small back "yard" - actually its a back patio area. We are so excited to have plenty of space to host visitors. We can comfortably host several folks at one time.

Mirdif is a relatively new area. Up until about 3 years ago, there were some isolated homes in the area, but then the area started getting built up with "villas" - mostly for expats. Now, there is quite a city that has sprung up. It is very close to Lyra's new school, Gulf Montessori, in Garhoud (a neighboring area). For me, it will be about 20-25 minutes to work. Given the horror stories about traffic here, that is a very reasonable commute.

Will post pictures - hopefully tomorrow.

Visit to Chao Hu

Quite honestly, I don't know why I have a job in IT. Back in May, we took a trip to China. Russell & Lyra were able to make a side trip to Chaohu, the city where Lyra was born and visit the orphanage and staff. It took me this long to figure out how to get the pictures off of my camera and posted on the internet.

Here is Lyra getting ready at the hotel in Anhui. Any Chaohu families out there recognize these hotel rooms?

Lyra met with the staff from the orphanage. Here she is with Madam Director. They were very pleased to see her and remembered her from when she was with them 3.5 years ago.

Russell's Coming

He arrives in 4 hours, to be exact. We've got 3 days of house hunting, fitness club visits, and car hunting to do. I went out last week Thursday, just to see a couple of houses and make sure that the orientation company was going to select the right set of properties for us to view (they have a reputation of showing you things that are outside of your budget and then you just get disappointed when you see things that are in you budget). As luck would have it, we saw something that I really liked. So, it may be that we settle quite quickly on a place.

Last summer, however, I learned that Russell & I have a very different idea of what we're looking for in a house. So, I may be surprised that the house I think is great is completely in contrast with what he would like. Two big drawbacks for the house: 1) its not near any shops or areas within walking distance and 2) it is across the street from an empty block which means that there is sand blowing across the street and into the front area of the house. Pretty soon though, I expect that empty block will be built up - and then that problem would be solved. In the meantime, there will be extra dust.

Top 10 Ways Dubai Reminds me of London

In 1971, the UAE gained independence from Great Britain. Also, many of the expats here are either British or from a former British colony. So, it's no surprise that there are several ways that Dubai reminds me of living in London. Here are the top ten ways:

10. Light switches that you flip down to turn 'ON' and up to turn 'OFF'. I never did get used to this in London.

9. Bathroom light switches that are outside the bathroom.

8. No electrical outlets in the bathroom (except for 110V shaving outlets).

7. BIG HONKING 3-prong plugs for everything.

6. Exit signs and direction signs that never say North, South, East, or West, but instead point you toward the name of a city that is the same direction you need to head (not necessarily near where you're going, but in the same direction). Needless to say, if you are familiar with an area this works well, but if you're new then you must consult your map very carefully to see what cities may be on the exit signs when you approach your intersection. For example, if you are in Milwaukee and you need to get to Port Washington, one sign may say "Green Bay" and another says "Racine". You know that Green Bay is not where you need to go, but it is in the right direction. So, that is the exit you take.

5. Parking your car in the "car park" (but exiting via the "exit" not the "way out").

4. Paper money in different sizes and colors for different denominations (and I can't exactly remember, but I think that the denominations are the same size & color as the UK.)

3. People being late frequently and always using traffic as an excuse.

2. Printers using size A3 and A4 instead of "Legal" and "Letter" (I think this is metric somehow).

and the Number 1 reason Dubai reminds me of London - - -

1. Afternoon tea time can cause a traffic jam in the company kitchen.

A Day Out

Today, I went down into the center of town. The old souks and historical areas are there. My intent was to go to the Dubai Museum and then possibly see some of the souks. However, I forgot that on Friday everything is closed. So, when I got down there, the only air conditioned buildings (the museum and historical center) were closed. But having got down there and found a parking place, I was determined to see some things - despite the heat. A small proportion of the souk shops were open and I took a wander. I was one of the few women out. The streets were heaving with Indian, Pakistani, and Sri Lankan men. There were the occasional family or other western tourists - but as a western woman out on her own I got a huge amount of attention. Nothing that made me uncomfortable, just lots of guys trying to sell their stuff. So, now I know where the bargains and bargaining can be done in Dubai.
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Here's the Dubai Museum. It is an old fortress down at the port area of the city.

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Well, in case you were wondering, you can get Dickies in Dubai. Hee, hee.

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Last weekend, I went to the Mandinat Jumeriah. It is a luxury shopping mall designed to look like this. This is an old covered souk in the center of Dubai. The souks are divided into specialty areas. This souk specializes in Textiles. You can by lots more than that though. But most of the shops will sell fabrics and then you can have them tailored into a suit, sari, curtans, pillows, whatever.
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Here is the Gold souk. Just like it sounds, this souk specializes in gold, jewels, and pearls. I was also approached endlessly to buy fake handbags, watches, shirts, etc.

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A lot of the shops sell the traditional Arab costumes. These costumes are actually geared toward the tourist buyers. I had to take this picture because of the manequin. If you look closely, it is a small girl manequin with a mustache painted onto her face.

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Running through the center of Dubai is a "creek" (more like a river). There are souks on both sides. These boats are called Abras. They are essentially a water taxi. You just hop on and they will run you across the river. You can also rent one individually and get a river tour. I hoped on. The fare is 50 fils, but when I handed my dirham to the pilot, he didn't give me any change. I didn't argue though. One dirham is about 27 cents. Very affordable little trip across the creek.

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Here is an Abra station along the creek. In the background are more souks and what also look like apartments. The tower in the background is one of the mosques in the area. The shorter sqaure towers at the corners of the buildings are called wind towers. These are essentially natural air conditioners for the buildings. The tower catches the wind and directs it down into the center of the building, creating a breeze. It is actually quite comfortable - even on a blazing day like today.

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This is the Sheikh's royal palace along the creek. He actually has several homes. There is one south of town that stretches along the beach. Back in the "old days" (say 5 years ago) his beach house was out of town. Now, it is right in the middle of the city. I went down to that area, to see the new city that is being constructed down there. I didn't even bother to take pictures because there was NO WAY I could capture how unbelievable it is. First, they built a new harbor. Now, they are building a city around it. There are probably at least 100 new skyscraper apartment and office buildings that are either built or being built.

May I Help You?

The level of service that you get here is definitely above what you would expect in any Western country. Probably because there is such a vast divide between the middle class and the poor. There are literally over 1,000,000 poor people here from countries such as India, Pakistan, Phillipines, Sri Lanka, etc. Each of these folks is happy to make the equivalent of $100/day (350 AED). Some make more, but many make less. As a result, there is a huge population of people in service jobs - and the cost to employ them is minimal. As a consumer, most of these services are "free" - it is included in the cost of what you are already paying for. You can tip, but it isn't expected.

For example:
1. Any restaurant or fast food place (including McDonald's or Burger King) will deliver to you at no additional cost. At lunch time, there are motorbikes cruising all over the city delivering Subway sandwiches or Big Mac meals to an office. They ask your order to be about $5, but will deliver a smaller order anyway.

2. Any grocery store will deliver. I heard someone say that they called and ordered 3 Cokes to have them delivered. Personally, that sounds a bit indulgent to me.

3. At the malls and grocery stores there are men pushing trolleys/carts around (resembling a housekeeper's trolley at a hotel) to wash you car for AED10 (about $2.50). When you get out of your car, they will come over to ask you if you'd like to have your car washed. You pay them AED10 and when you come out of the shop, it's done. Given how dusty it is in this country and the fact that you can be ticketed for having a dirty car - this is a great service!

4. All petrol/gas stations are full service. The guy will pump your petrol, wash your windows, and even run into the forecourt to get you a soda, water, or snack if you'd like. Odd note, all petrol stations are "one way". In other words, they want all cars facing the same direction when pulling up to the pumps. There is a definite advantage to having a car with the gas cap on the right, because there are just a lot fewer cars built that way here and there's always a wait for the pumps for gas caps on the left.

5. All stores have shop assistants in every aisle. Many have indicated that they will often get a shop assistant following them around the shop standing about 1-2 feet away. That would get very annoying to me! However, with that many shop assistants, you are always being asked if you need some help when you are browsing.

6. All grocery stores have a bagger at the check out lane and someone who will take you groceries out to the car for you. In the US, sometimes you can still get this service, but here it is expected that the shop will have this service for you.

7. Live in help is available for about $250/month. Housemaids will ususally do cooking, cleaning, child care, and pet care. If you're lucky, some of them can drive and will also run errands, do the grocery shopping, and pick up the kids from school. Houseboys will do the gardening, take care of maintenance, clean the pool, and other odd jobs. Drivers will take care of the cars, drive you or your kids around town, run errands, and do odd jobs. I have heard some people hire live in help for only room & meals, but that is actually illegal. But there are so many people desparate for good housing that they will take the job.

8. Dry cleaning is picked up and dropped off at your house. Everything is a 24 hour turn around.

9. The curtain guy will come out to your house with swatches of fabric, measure your windows, you choose your style and he will come back in 2 days to hang the curtains in your house. Russell's going to LOVE that. We've lived without curtains in much of our house for nearly 6 years now.

10. The tailor will come out to your house, measure your trousers, shorten them and have them back to you within 24 hours.

A Few Photos

Finally, I have a digital camera.

Here is a picture taken from my lounge chair at the pool. I love these towers - The Emirates Towers. To me, they are just so beautiful. I believe that one of them is a business tower and the other is residential. They are located down the block from our office.

Here is our office tower. We're in the blue building on the left on the 19th floor (about 1/2 way up the building). This picture was taken about 2 hours after the one above (approx 11am) and you can see the humidity and haze of the day is already getting thick.



















Here is a shopping center called Madinat Jumierah. It is brand new, but has been designed to look like an old medina shopping souk. The advantage is it is airconditioned in the summer (they will open all the doors and it is outdoors in the winter). The disadvantage is that it is SO EXPENSIVE!! However, that didn't stop me from finding some very cool things.






I tried to take a picture of the Burj Dubai's construction site. It's still hard to convey the enormity of it all. In the background on the left is the Burj (soon to be the tallest building in the world at over 800m tall). Next to it are 20 or more towers also going up at the same time. Each of these will probably be 50 stories or more. You can't see them all from this photo.

In case you're wondering, the large cement pylons you see in the foreground are the construction of an elevated commuter train that is going in here.

The Arabs Love Bidets

So far, every where I've been -- all hotels, apartments, office buildings, malls, airports -- have a bidet. Granted, the "bidet" in a public restroom is a hose with a sprayer on it coming out of the wall next to the toilet (just like the hose you have in the kitchen sink). I've read about bidets and how to use them http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mbidet.html but I can't see myself as a convert. Quite honestly it seems like too much bother.

Its amazing how this one cultural difference has created issues over here. Evidently, the sewage systems in Dubai are quite a bit less capable of handling toilet paper. I've been told this is because the Arabs assumed that everyone would use the bidets; they've made them available everywhere and just assumed people would use them. Therefore the capacity needs for toilet paper weren't taken into account. As a result, it is quite common for westerners to need plumbers - since a lot of people are never informed of this and will discover (much to their horror) that they have a clog.

Here is 1 of 2 Toilet/Bidet pairs in my apartment. Note the lovely Burnt Orange enamel (can you say 1970's decor). All you Longhorn fans, just stand back! You can be envious of me. Only in Austin, TX would this decor still be in style.

Answers to "Hi Lo"

Well done, amygirl. Have you booked your ticket?

Answer: 1, 3, 4



Prices are:

1. $2.73

2. $1.50

3. $6.00

4. $2.10

5. $1.22

6. $1.63

Dubai - WOW

It is hard to convey how utterly amazing it is. This morning, I was trying to explain to Russell on the phone one of the development projects here. The project is an entire city's worth of towers, skyscrapers, roads, landscaping, etc. When finished, the world's tallest building will be here, the Burj Dubai (http://www.burjdubai.com/). The picture below is an estimate of the tower's height. Actual height will be kept a secret until it is finished (in case any other country tries to pass it up). Right now, it is probably about 400m or 450m high.

In addition to this GIANT sky scraper, there are 20 other towers - each the size of the Empire State Building - all going up around it. Any one of these buildings, if built in Milwaukee would be the biggest active building project in the Midwest, but here there are 20 of them (just in that one site alone) all going up simultaneously. And just down the road is another project just like it (minus the tallest building in the world). And another one further down the road. And another. I mean, if you're going to build a building, why not build 20 of them? Right?

I'll say it again, WOW!

Dubai version of "The Price is Right"

Today we're going to play "Hi Lo". You will be given six grocery items. Pick the three highest priced items to win. Correct answers win a free stay at the Ragland/Grabczyk B&B in the luxurious city of Dubai (flights not included.)

1. 1 Can of Potato Leek soup
2. 500g of Granulated sugar
3. 1 box Special K Red Berries
4. 250g Peanut Butter
5. 1 box of 25 Lipton Tea Bags
6. 3 Nectarines


Answers tomorrow.

Do I Want What?

Something I never expected to hear when looking for a house or apartment; "Do you want the tiles?"

Pardon me? - the tiles?

Yes, in Dubai you have the option to "rent" the tiles along with your house or apartment. If you choose to rent the tiles - you can pay up to an extra $100/month. If you choose not to rent the tiles, then the landlord will rip them out and you will have to pay for retiling of the house. I'm told that retiling takes about $1200 to $1500.

Granted - not all landlords operate this way. In fact, it seems to be getting more and more rare. But what a waste - if you're going to be renting a place for more than one year, its actually more affordable to have the tiles torn out and then re-tile the place yourself - even if the tiles are perfect.

It's not the Heat, it's the SUN!

Well, you knew this post was coming, didn't you?

People tell me that the worst is yet to come. Evidently August is when it really gets blazing.

So, I'm probably jinxing myself with this post. But so far, the heat hasn't been too bad. That is - as long as you can stay out of the sun. When walking, as long as I'm in the shade, even though its hot, its not any worse than a hot summer day in the US. However, if you're walking in the sun, forget about it - that sun is brutal!! There is NO WAY you want to get caught walking down the sunny side of the street.

Granted, I've only been here 3 days, so I really cannot give a statistically valid opinion. But in the evening, when the sun goes down it is pretty nice.

This morning, when I left my apartment building at 7am I remember thinking to myself, "Hey this is actually pleasant." It definitely is warm (there's not even a hint of coolness in the air) but mornings and evenings so far have been nice.

Arabic Numbers

I'm trying to get used to Arabic numbers. Here's what they look like.

I guess what makes it hard is that some of them look like our Latin number, but mean something different.

Also, even though Arabic is written from right to left, they still write their numbers from left to right. So, in the middle of a sentence that says "50 Apples" you would see O* (that astericks is supposted to be a dot). That is 50. But all the other words in the sentence would be written from right to left.

I had an "of course" moment in the elevator this morning. I looked up to see what floor the elevator was on and there was a strip of numbers (luckily using both the Latin and Arabic notation) across the top of the elevator door. Each number would light up as we went up to each floor. However, instead of the numbers being listed " 1 2 3 4 5 6" they were instead listed

"6 5 4 3 2 1" and the numbers lit up from right to left as we went up. When you think about it - that makes sense, just something I never would have thought about.

I'm Here

I'm here - arrived last night.

Had to laugh. After weeks of checking the weather in Dubai with nothing but sunshine and warm weather, I arrive on one of the few days that it was overcast.

Maybe I built the heat up in my mind, but it wasn't too bad. Definitely warm - no doubt. But not the furnace that I had expected. Temps were around 35 (near 95). Probably because I arrived after the sun went down.

This morning, is Sunday. I was awake a 4am (equivalent of 7pm Saturday at home). Work week here is from Sunday to Thursday. I had a short walk into the office. Most of the walk was on the shady side of the street and wasn't too hot. However, in the sunshine, it's a different story. You can feel the sun is so powerful! I think that I will soon do as the locals and convert my umbrella from being a "rain shield" to being a "sun shield". It seems to make a big difference.

Julie

I'm Off

Well - my flight leaves Milwaukee at 4:55pm today. I head to LaGuardia in New York where I will catch a ride to JFK. Flight from JFK to Dubai on Emirates Airlines leaves at 11pm Eastern Time. I'll be landing in Dubai at 8pm tomorrow (their time).

I'll be 9 hours ahead of Central Time (until the fall, then we'll be 10 hours ahead).

You can all write to me on my email: julie@london-kids.com.

Lyra Loves Her Scooter

In early June, we got together with 6 of the 9 families who we traveled with in China. All the families adopted children from Chao Hu orphanage. Here is a photo of the 6 kids together.

The kids from left to right are: Lyra, Ellia, Charis, Peter, Faith, and Grace.

We had the BEST TIME!!

Lyra has been having a great time learning to ride her scooter. After a couple of times around the block, she has gotten pretty confident. No wheelies or acrobatics so far, but her friend Charlie has offered to give her some lessons.

Another great fun day is going to the park. Many hours of fun can be had on the slide & swings. Just recently, Lyra has learned that she can hang from the monkey bars and swing back and forth. Still not enough bravery to drop from a height more than a couple of inches, but that time will soon come.

Family Photo

In February, we went to a fundraising event called the Make Believe Ball.