Sunday, September 30, 2007

Did I miss much?

Just got back to Dubai - it's nice to be back too.

Apart from the heat, humidity, the first half of Ramadan - did I miss anything important?

I'm trying to catch up, with sleep as much as the news. I've read enough so far to see our beloved RTA has said the first year of its three year plan to solve the traffic problems is to be ignored, the three years now starts from now. Apparently Dubai's growth caught them by surprise, they hadn't planned for it.

I did agree with one of their pronouncements though - the traffic police need to enforce the laws. Just about all of us seem to agree with that, judging by the letters in the papers and blog comments.

Talking of papers, congratulations to Gulf News on reaching the ripe old age of thirty today. I remember the very first edition, in fact I have a tattered yellowing copy of it somewhere. In those early days I really didn't think it was going to last, so well done to all concerned.

We had three weeks in UK/Europe, I have five-hundred photos to upload and sort out, millions of spam messages to get rid of - I've just spent an hour sorting through and deleting the spam comments on here and on Dubai Metblog. When I catch up with it all I'll probably post some of the better holiday photos and chat about the more interesting bits.

One thing I can confirm, that I've talked about before - western-European expats, and especially Brits, who complain about Dubai being expensive are living in lalaland. We spent a few days each in Holland, Germany, France, Switzerland, the UK and the cost of just about everything is terrifying. Only rents in Dubai are higher, everything else to do with daily living is way lower than western Europe. I'll give you examples when I sort my paperwork out...

5 comments:

M. Majora said...

It's exciting that they say the Dubai Metro should be running by 2009, that may help with the congestion a bit. :D

i*maginate said...

Before you get down to sorting all your paperwork out, please, if it doesnt cost you much time, could you please post your photos, would love to see them. I love holiday pics.

Never heard about any +3 yr plan from the RTA.

Don't know about the "cost of living in Europe" only that the currency is different and of course it's a bit more but don't you think the holiday-cost is worth it? Entertainment 'an all? Transport? Accommodation? Sightseeing?

Yours is my favourite blog of late; very much looking to reading your next post - pics an all.

Regards to Mrs. Seabee and hope you both had a wonderful holiday.

Seabee said...

i*maginate, thank you for the kind words :-)
I'm sorting through the photos so I'll try to post a few as I get them ready.

Anonymous said...

You are so right about the cost of living in Europe. Just got back too, having spent over 80 quid on mobile phone calls with orange who are BOASTING about their 15p per minute tariff! Makes you want to hug etislut, until that is, you use broadband that is truly lightning fast and costs 9.99 a month! Still happy to be back though.

Seabee said...

Rose, the big problem with Etisalat isn't so much the cost, high as that is, but the awful slow speed. How Dubai can be an international business centre with its internet in the Dark Ages is beyond me. Thousands of people just sitting watching screens, unable to get on with their work while the pages very slowly load. The Big Boss needs to get onto it...