Dubai through my eyes

Hi there, penning down residence experience at Dubai to share with people who may have questions like a. How is life at Dubai; b. As a working professional does it makes sense to relocate to Dubai; c. As a single women, is it safe to solo travel & reside at Dubai etc. For those who have no questions, please enjoy a casual read..

I have been in Dubai since June’ 2018 and my experience with the city has been been super amazing so far; to the extent that given a choice today, I will prefer staying in Dubai instead of either in  London or New York or Paris. Just to give you some context, I hail from a small town in central India and am a resident of New Delhi currently. Strategy consultant by profession, I had been on a resident visa in a couple of countries before including UK, US, Singapore and France. The views shared here are completely personal based on my limited experience living in Tecom area in Dubai, hence my blog is titled “Dubai through my eyes”.

For the sake of factual brush-ups, to some of those who may not be aware, Dubai is the capital of Emirates of Dubai, one of the seven emirates that makes UAE as a country. Its area is ~4k sq km (~2.5 the size of Delhi), population close to 3.5M (1/8th of Delhi’s population). Its local currency is AED (~19 INR), state religion is Islam, local language is Arabic and it is ruled by Al-Maktoum family since 1800s. It has a strategic location, making it a global market where it has Europe to its west, Asia to its east, CIS countries to its north and Africa to its south. However my blog is more from an experience perspective and I will share my experience of living in the city under the headings of People, Culture, Economy, Environment and Lifestyle as below:

1. People

As I just mentioned above, Dubai has around ~3.5M population, 85% of which are expats hailing from countries like India, China, Bangladesh, Philippines, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Egypt, South Africa and rest of world. Out of these 85% expats, almost 50% are Indians out of which again roughly 50% are from Kerala and Tamilnadu. I have not been as comfortable speaking in Hindi in any country of the world as I am here. One can practically speak Hindi to anyone; taxi drivers, shopkeepers, bus conductors, hotel folks. Administrative people etc. Being a Hindi heartland girl, it feels as if you are home in a foreign country. Also in terms of safety, this is THE safest country of the world. I am practically speaking from my experience of a single women who has been staying in Delhi and have travelled almost all the major cities of the world. No other place, women can be as safe as they are here. I have been jogging all alone at 2 am and have visited whole of Dubai, practically alone using public transport. People won’t even look at you leave alone molest/harass. Coming from a place like Delhi, I felt as much as safe-heaven in Dubai as Christian Michel would have felt;)  

2. Culture

Culture is very much similar to the homeland. It’s a place which is western in outlook and Asian/ Middle east in spirits. I am not sure of what the phrase means, but I can refer to the culture as ‘Ganga Jamuni Tahzeeb’. People are very friendly, respectful, mindful of others emotions, sensitive to words/deeds, cosmopolitan as well as conservative (I always refer conservatism in a positive sense rather than leftists’s/westerner’s notion of Liberalism)**. One will find here, women from middle east/ Islamic traditions wearing Hijabs and at the same time, one will find women in western wear as well. Being a beach city, one can find men and women in casual and swim wears too. However I have observed that people here are not very open to hugs and handshakes with females, and public display of affection in any form is strictly discouraged. Generally people are friendly and Indians here have are very cordial relationships with people from Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Interacting with colleagues/ friends with Pak, I always felt as if they are just next door neighbours having same language, choice of food, culture sensitivity etc

3. Environment

Year round, the place is blessed with Sun. It has an awesome weather from October to March wherein temperature is close to ~ 15’C to 24’C. From April until September,  its very hot, temperature close to ~ 42’C to 50’C. There are beaches all around (man made and natural), and so its humid too. Nights are colder and nearby sandy deserts will give one a ‘Thar’ like climate. It rains rarely; during my entire stint of an year, it rained for maximum of 5 hours and less than 5 times. Sometimes there are dust storms but again these are rare ones. Tourist season is from November to March during which practically everything will be highly priced, New year and Chinese new year being the heaviest tourist occasions. Weather during this season is superbly amazing; equatorial temperature with cool breezes and with beaches all around, world class infrastructure, safety, security and amazing hospitality, Dubai seems to be one of the most wanted tourist destinations. Hotels in Dubai are one of the best, both in terms of hospitality and space areas.  Albeit prices during tourist season are competitive to any world class hotels. Burj-Al-Arab in Dubai, is the only 7 star hotel of the world. Cabs/taxis are affordable and city is partially pedestrian/cycle friendly.

4. Economy

Major source of UAE's income until 1990 was oil and petroleum exports. However economy is much more diversified today based on trade, services, finance and, tourist sectors. There is much greater focus on tourism since 90s and the efforts have clearly given results. Burj Khalifa, master piece of infrastructure,  is the tallest building of the world. Attractions like Grand mosque, miracle garden, butterfly garden, Palm Jumeirah, underwater zoo, tunnel aquariums, water parks, theme parks make it an amazing tourist place. Activities like skydiving, ice skating, desert safari, snorkeling, scuba diving all make it a fun place. One could also practically see most of the world’s top man made destinations having a presence here. For ex, one would find UK’s WB theme park, Paris’s Louvre museum etc, some to name a few. Also from a finance/services perspective, almost all the major companies of the world have their office in Dubai driven by zero taxation policy on corporate profits. Similarly no taxation on personal income and competitive world class salaries, attracts the best global talent to this place.Custom duties are as low as 4%. Besides, there are multiple startups and tech entrepreneurs emerging in the region like Careem, Jamalon etc.

5. Lifestyle

Dubai with its world class infrastructure, liberal policies, cosmopolitan culture has competitive cost of living (details in separate blog).  House/hotel rents one of the highest in the world. Owning and purchasing properties is easy and affordable**. In terms of daily essentials, everything is available at competitive costs, as almost everything is imported ranging from clothes to food items to household stuff. Indian cuisine is readily available, both veg and non veg options. You may get #desi thalis at around 15/20 AED. Careem Food, Zomato etc offer a lot of good deals. Gold on an average is 2K to 5K (per 10 gms) cheaper as compared to India, however there could be extra charges levied during immigration clearance. Taxis are affordable, not as costly as in US/UK and public transport is good. Most of the shopping malls have metro connectivity and everything is air conditioned. Hyper markets, dragon-marts and souqs provide another experience to the local shopping  Environment is clean, greenery (palm trees) and beaches all around the city provide a beautiful ambience.

So all in all, if you are an ‘Aam aadmi” or ‘Aam aurat’ , who prefer to work, earn & live a quality life, if you are a sun loving person and okay to bear the Delhi/Chennai like climate for 4-5 months, if you want to stay close to your home and still enjoy the best of world class infrastructure and amenities, then Dubai is THE place for you to settle for the next few years.

However if you are looking for a country to settle permanently and leave India forever, if you are not a sun-person and prefer cold weather, if you prefer natural scenic beauty over man made stuff, if you belong to neo -liberal western class averse to conservative/disciplined culture and if you are more of English taste and culture, then you may not enjoy Dubai much,  except for tourism.

**Again, all the above views are personal and revisiting the context that I white collar working women and hailing from middle class liberal Hindu family of central India. So all details and verbose like safety, affordability, conservatism etc are to be viewed from that reference.

Details like what to visit in Dubai/Abu Dhabi, major attractions, Do's & Don'ts while visiting to be shared in separate blog soon..