This has to be a first

When I was back in Oz a few weeks ago my little digital camera threw a wobbly, then died on me.

When I got back to Dubai I took it back to where I bought it, Compu-me, because...wait for it... it was still under warranty.

You know as well as I do that products have a self-destruct device timed to activate one week after the warranty expires. The one in my camera must have malfunctioned.

Not only was I within the warranty period, after a couple of weeks they told me it couldn't be repaired and they would replace it with a new one.

I picked it up today.


I'm stunned.

Advantages of clustering

A couple of days ago the Financial Times ran an article on what we call clustering, headlined 'The added value of a group'.

It was talking about the advantages of businesses in the same industry setting up shop in the same location, something that's in its early stages in the west.

The article suggests the idea of businesses clustering has become an increasingly important part of regional development and corporate strategies since 1990, with the publication of a book called 'The Competitive Advantage of Nations'.

It's a much older concept in this region, in fact it's always been the standard way of operating.

Before I came to Dubai I was used to businesses wanting an 'exclusivity zone', wanting to be the only business of their type in the location.

I've been a big fan of clustering ever since I first saw the benefits.

For businesses it makes sense because if a number of companies in the same industry set up adjacent to each other it makes commercial sense for their suppliers to set up there too. A win win. They feed off each other and they're conveniently close for doing business with each other.

Examples in the west mentioned in the article are the financial district in London and Silicone Valley. Here we have them everywhere you look - Media City, Internet City, Healthcare City, Academic City, Logistics City. The list goes on and on.

I'm particularly a fan of the retailers clustering and I wish retailers in the west would follow suit.

Back in Sydney - or any other city in the west - the first thing is to remember where a shop selling particular stock is located. Then if they don't have what I'm looking for I have to go some distance, from long to not so long, to find another shop in the same business. If I know where another similar shop is, that is.

Here it's easy, because of clustering. And, by the way, it doesn't only apply to the souks, such as the gold souk, the textile souk, the spice souk, the perfume souk. Clustering is par for the course in the traditional shopping areas and even in the new malls.

It makes shopping so much easier and more convenient. You need a tyre changed? You know there's a cluster in Satwa, for example, where you can find exactly what you want - and in a few metres you can compare several to get the best price.

The same applies to textiles, jewellery, herbs & spices, gold & jewellery, electronics...

Talking of Satwa, one of my favourite shopping areas, there's a gold souk developing there, which is actually like the Deira gold souk used to be before it changed to rows of largely western-style shops selling western-style jewellery to tourists.

Satwa currently has thirty or so tiny shops, almost all displaying the traditional local and Indian designs.



The last couple of times we've had friends visiting they were instantly enthusiastic about clustering, wishing they had the same convenience back home.

Both shopping trips were to Satwa, one for dressmaking material the other for a particular type of gold ring.

Both visitors were mightily impressed that they had such a huge choice in a short easily-walked area. And both found exactly what they were looking for.



Financial Times is here.

A very strange mascot

Mascots, especially those designed to appeal to children, are almost always furry, chubby, cuddly.

I don't know whether the Dubai Summer Surprises mascot, Modesh, is as popular with kids as the media would have us believe, but he's not furry, not chubby and, to my mind, not cuddly.





In fact he's always reminded me of Australia's witchetty grub.

Look:


Photo: Sydney Morning Herald

No, really...

You might have heard of the witchetty grub, it's one of the most disgusting items in our bush tucker larder:



Photo: Cornell College

By the way, if you're not in the UAE you may not know about Dubai Summer Surprises.

It's promoting the summer sales, with all the major malls and some 6,000 shops offering huge discounts, activities & entertainment, raffles with prizes like luxury cars and thousands of dirhams.

It's just started, runs until August 7 and it's not a bad time to visit, with airfares and hotel rates at their lowest for the year too. A cheap holiday with shopping bargains and the chance to win a prize.

Just one thing. I should draw your attention to the reason for it.

The weather.

That's why it's the low season, that's why we need the attraction of DSS.

The weather report said today would be about 46 celcius (115F) with humidity from 55% to 90%.

And it's only early summer.



DSS official website.

Last word on inappropriate clothing.

Last Monday I posted about being irritated by the ridiculous complaints that shops shouldn't be selling clothing if it can't be worn.

As I said in that post, there are two facts which the complaints ignore.

One, the clothes are going to be worn overseas by tourists visiting here briefly and by expats when they go home.

Two the clothes can be worn here.

On the second point you only have to look at the photos in the gossip pages of the local tabloids and the magazines.

You could also look at Katie's latest post over at Hello Dubai.

The inappropriate clothing issue

The appropriate clothing issue that's being discussed in many places keeps bringing up a response that's really irritating me. It's not only irritating but it's ignorant too, showing a complete lack of understanding, a lack of awareness, tunnel vision.

It's been pointed out in a couple of blogs I've just been reading. Geoff Pound has a post titled 'Malls should not sell clothes inappropriate to the UAE', which is a quote from a reader of Gulf News' article on the subject.

Samurai Sam includes in his post on the subject 'Of course about 345 people have already pointed out that the malls themselves are selling the clothes'.

Firstly, the clothes themselves - and I assume they're talking about women's revealing clothing - are not inappropriate to the UAE nor are they contrary to the culture.

What goes against the culture is for revealing clothing to be worn in public or in mixed company.

In private, and in particular at women-only gatherings, revealing clothing is not at all unusual. (Mrs Seabee was at an Emirati friend's pre-wedding party recently so I have a first-hand report).

For shops to sell the clothing for women to wear here in private or in female-only company, or for residents and tourists to buy here to wear overseas, is not inappropriate. Nor does it encourage buyers to wear it inappropriately.

Secondly, there are very many products on sale which are not for use in the malls, including, for example, cigarettes, skate boards, lingerie, bikinis, sheesha pipes.

There's not a problem with the products themselves, nor with selling them. There's only a problem if they're used in the wrong place.

Coming to a store near you...

Something I've noticed cropping up fairly regularly on forums is women's clothing in Dubai, with sneering references to Dubai retailers stocking last year's fashions.

On my visits to important fashion capitals in Europe I must admit to not noticing any difference whatsoever. This year's, last year's, they all look like they're wearing much the same stuff to me.

But according to the sneerers we're out of date, no style, a dumping ground for last season's fashion which didn't sell in the super-smart, up-to-date UK & Europe.

Actually, in the UK a couple of weeks ago I was struck by how badly people are dressed. There's been a noticeable plummeting of standards over the past few years.

Mind you, there are some really classy young fashionistas there too, so expect this stylish look to be in your Dubai retailers in a year or two:

Customer service. An oxymoron.

There was good news the other day, that the recently announced consumer arbitration courts will be up and running by the end of the year.

The plan is that instead of having to battle with the long-winded and prohibitively expensive legal system, consumers will be able to take their complaints directly to the new arbitration courts.

It's said that the judges will be specialists in the country's consumer protection law. The law covers the supplier’s responsibility to replace damaged goods and display prices clearly, and the consumer’s right to compensation for personal or financial damage.

Hopefully it will help to lift the game of suppliers here, but I'm afraid it will only help in the specific areas of shoddy goods and price cheating. I'm doubtful that it will help in a general sense to ease the frustration so many of us have in our dealings with companies.

The constant complaints about the lack of customer service delivered by our banks is an obvious one that I'm sure isn't covered.

I'm particularly irritated with Showtime TV at the moment, and again it's not something that appears to be covered by the consumer protection laws. It's just old-fashioned customer service that's lacking, a don't-give-a-damn attitude, complete disregard for the paying customers - much like the banks.

We buy one of the packages offered by Showtime which lists the channels included in the package. On a regular basis channels disappear and others appear, totally unrelated to each other. For example a news channel might disappear and a National Geographic channel appear.

There's no warning, no announcement, no information sent to paying customers. They simply do it.

Likewise the programme schedules are all over the place. Neither the information given by Showtime to the print media nor their own online programme guide can be relied upon to actually give the correct programmes or the correct times.

The attitude is summed up by the response of their telephone help (another oxymoron) service I called a while ago - I forget now exactly what my particular complaint was at that time. Anyway, after hearing my complaint the answer wasn't what they could do to solve my problem but was: "If you're not satisfied you can always cancel your subscription".

The corporate version of 'if you don't like it here you can always leave'.

Right now I can't even get the online programme schedule on the screen, I get an error message and the whole thing freezes. I have to switch off, switch back on and I can then get into the channels - but I can't get the programme schedule.

Will I call the 'help' line? I can't be bothered. They've achieved what I assume so many companies set out to achieve, make it so difficult, so frustrating that we just go away and stop annoying them with our complaints.

Research regularly shows that there's huge disatisfaction with the level of service provided by retailers and businesses here. There's much talk about how companies understanding customer service leading to customer loyalty will thrive while those which don't will struggle.

I see no evidence that things are improving, but maybe the new courts will at least help in one small area.


The report on the new courts is here.

Dubai Marina Mall opened today

Dubai Marina Mall opened earlier today, the first part of the complex that will include Gourmet Tower, a hotel, an office/residential block. The others aren't ready, so as usual in Dubai it's a bit of a construction site all around.

However, the mall building itself seems to be pretty much complete even though most of the shops are still doing their fit-out.




It's circular and here's the basic shape from the guide:



Plenty of uniformed staff all over it to guide visitors around, including staff at the car park and taxi entrances waving traffic in. They also seem to have all the signage in place and there are information panels with a store guide and floor plan plus the little pocket size versions to take away. These simple things all too often aren't done in time, so well done Emaar.

The main entrance is on the road with no name which runs round the Sheikh Zayed Road side of Dubai Marina, and the main circular part looks like this:



And looking back towards the entrance:



The food court is on the top level (only Cinnabon is open at the moment) which has an outside balcony area overlooking the marina and Jumeirah Beach Residence. Very importantly, Baskin Robbins will have an outlet so we'll be able to sit on the balcony enjoying the view and a scoop or three of ice cream.



More than half the outlets are not ready yet, including what will be a cinema complex and a kids entertainment area, both of which will be on the top level alongside the food court.



The majority of outlets have signs like this:

There's a worryingly high number without a store name though, just the generic 'store opening'...

...and with the current downturn maybe they'll stay boarded up for a while.

There will be a Waitrose supermarket, otherwise the names are the usual suspects, the brands we see in every mall. A random sample from the directory: Al Jabar, Areej, Mothercare, Sharaf DG, Arabian Oud, Rivoli, Billabong, Monsoon, Tommy Bahama, Reebok. And inevitably, Starbucks, KFC, TGI Friday etc etc.

This year's Global Village

Here's what I said about last year's Global Village :

Sad to say, I was disappointed in this years Global Village. It wasn't anywhere near as interesting as last year I thought.

What I liked about it in previous years was the souk-like arrangement and atmosphere, with hundreds of stalls selling anything and everything. There were less country pavilions this year and far fewer traders.

The usual Dubai problems are the first hurdle - hardly any road signs to the event so confused motorists were adding to the chaos on the roads leading to it.

Nothing much has changed with those complaints.

I also said:

Even just after opening at 4pm there were big crowds pouring in and I assume visitor numbers are looking good for the organisers. It's still only Dh5 entrance fee, which is good value for money I think.

That's changed. For a start, the entrance fee is now Dh10. And the numbers were way, way down.

We went on Saturday and got there just before opening at 4pm. The traffic was by Dubai standards very light, the car parks were empty, we parked right ouside an entrance.

The signage is still up to, or is that down to, Dubai's usual standards of course. All over the city, tens of kilometres away, for example on Al Wasl Road, there are signs to Global Village. But when you get out of the built-up areas there aren't any. Arrive at the ever-changing roadworks around Arabian Ranches, which must be totally confusing even to people who live there, and you're on your own. In true Dubai road signage fashion, if you happen by accident to take the correct road you'll eventually see a sign that confirms it. But signs to help you take the correct road in the first place? Not a hope.

I fear the souk-like atmosphere of the original GV has gone for ever and it's turning into just another theme park.



As you'd expect, Pakistan, China, Iran have big pavilions:





The biggest is India of course, and it's probably the best presented. It still has the jumble of stalls inside so it retains some of the souk-like atmosphere missing almost everywhere else.



Once again our favourite pavilion is Yemen. That's stayed as it was before and it's a great place for sights, sounds and smells. There's some excellent produce to buy too:

So parts of GV still have the old magic, but not much of it does.

A smaller Christmas?

Christmas isn't as big in Dubai this year, or not so far anyway.

Not a bad thing in my opinion, the commercialism was getting to be way too much and the mall decorations were way over the top.

Wandering around Mall of the Emirates earlier today I noticed that the majority of shops have no Christmas decorations. But not all...

An old Dubai evening.

As I said yesterday, we had a good evening in Satwa on Saturday, enjoying Dubai as it used to be.

There are two new baby girls amongst my in-laws and, as we're going to see them in a couple of weeks, Mrs Seabee decided we should buy them some gold.

Forget the famous gold souk these days, it's turned into a tourist attraction selling the same kind of bland jewellery they can find back home, it's just a bit cheaper here. The real Dubai gold shops are in the traditional areas these days, such as Satwa.

In the cluster tradition, being used now on massive scale with developments like Academic City, Healthcare City, Internet City, Media City and all the others, twenty or thirty little gold shops have set up side by side in what's really a mini gold souk.

So, a warm, humid evening, small shops crowded together, traffic in narrow streets, footpath crowded with people, the call to prayer starting...

The final piece of the jigsaw is the smell of all kinds of cooking on the heavy air...it looks, feels, sounds, smells like the real Dubai.

Then the shopping. Not the modern malls but how it used to be - into a gold shop, looking, weighing, haggling, on to the next...

...and eventually we get the right gift at the right price.

Then it's into one of the wonderful perfume, herb, all-sorts shops to buy some frankinsence...





And to round the evening off, a meal in our favourite Thai restaurant, Ruan Thai in Al Diyafah Street.

It ain't one of yer posh, upmarket, pretentious and outrageously expensive restaurants of the type many European expats seem to think it's necessary to waste their money in.





But the inside is well enough fitted out, it's clean, comfortable and you get excellent, friendly service...






The special bit that we particularly enjoy is the complimentary appetiser:




Clockwise from top left, all chopped into tiny pieces, hot red chilli, fresh ginger, lemon, onion, with roasted grated coconut and salted peanuts.

Spread some of the sweet chilli sauce on a leaf, pop on a small portion from each dish (be easy with the chilli, it's hot), wrap it up and enjoy an explosion of flavours.

Then we had chicken with chilli & basil, mixed vegetables...



...vegetable fried rice, jungle curry with chicken...




All this plus a large bottle of mineral water and the bill was Dh94*

I managed to resist a stroll across the road to Baskin Robbins ice cream, a highly unusual demonstration of self-denial.

If you're missing the old Dubai, or you never experienced it, I recommend you spend an evening in Satwa.


*Dh 94 is about US$25, £12.70, €16.

New Naif Souk

Some good news...the recently destroyed Naif Souk won't be replaced by a high-rise tower or 'iconic' building.

According to Dubai Municipality the new one will look like this:



Hussain Nasser Lootah, Acting Director-General of Dubai Municipality, said:
"It will have the theme and spirit of the old souq and will be built following local architectural designs." There will be around 350 shops, almost double the capacity of the destroyed souq. The souq will be a two-storey, air-conditioned building, and will have additional facilities for traders and shoppers.

They say the new souq will be built quickly. "We will bring the hustle and bustle back to Naif Souq by the end of this year."

The story is in Gulf News here.

Global Village 2008

Sad to say, I was disappointed in this years Global Village. It wasn't anywhere near as interesting as last year I thought.

What I liked about it in previous years was the souk-like arrangement and atmosphere, with hundreds of stalls selling anything and everything. There were less country pavilions this year and far fewer traders.

The usual Dubai problems are the first hurdle - hardly any road signs to the event so confused motorists were adding to the chaos on the roads leading to it.

And instead of spreading the load, in true Dubai fashion all but one of the car park entrances were blocked off, so even though we'd arrived at GV we sat in a queue for forty minutes to get into the car parks.



Getting out was the same problem, just one exit open so the car parks were full of traffic all being forced onto one narrow lane and one exit. I missed most of that because a helpful attendant moved the cones from one of the blocked exits for me.

Even just after opening at 4pm there were big crowds pouring in and I assume visitor numbers are looking good for the organisers. It's still only Dh5 entrance fee, which is good value for money I think.



It can be quite a walk from the far car parks, particularly for families with older people or with children, and it is very much a family event. The last part of the walk can be avoided if you take one of the trishaws, and there are plenty of them lined up waiting for passengers. Coming back laden down with stuff you've bought the trishaw might be a sensible idea - we walked so I don't know what they charge but I'm sure it won't be much.



We particularly liked the Yemen pavilion, it has a real souk atmosphere with the most amazing looking and smelling spice stalls right by the entrance. There's a whole row of stalls selling many different types of honey in bulk too.



As part of the future plan to have GV as a year-round permanent attraction a waterway has been added between major pavilions. There's a canal with several bridges over it and a couple of small lake areas, people sitting and resting at the waterside. And the reflection of lights on water always looks good.



While I'm sure the water will work in future the problem is that with the crowds going to GV now because it's still only a one month event, the waterway has taken out much-needed walkways. The crowds packed into either side of it and on the bridges are absolutely awful.

The crush isn't simply the huge number of people but the added facts that many have children in pushchairs, most are those huge things which are the pram equivalent of a Toyota Landcruiser, and many more are struggling with bags of their purchases.



As in previous years the Indian pavilion is the star of the show. I'm sure it's the biggest, it's full of traders and has a great atmosphere.

More on old Dubai today...

This is the second post, which I meant to do much earlier than this, on Dubai's older shopping areas that I so much prefer to the new malls.

The first one was about Satwa and today it's the area in Bur Dubai around Al Faheidi Street.



The shopping district is between Bank Street and the Creek, with Al Faheidi Street running parallel to and in between them. Bank Street, by the way, has a big concentration of computer stores, especially clustered around the junction with Mankhool Road.



This part of Bur Dubai is another area of mainly small roadside shops with a bewildering variety of things to see and buy. From designer clothing to the cheapest clothing, souks, supermarkets, hardware, household goods, tailors...you name it and it's almost cetainly here.

It's also a residential area of course, and it's quite different from the over-the-top opulence the world thinks all Dubai consists of.



These local shopping areas are attracting little clusters of gold shops selling the traditional Indian and Arab jewellery now that the gold souk is catering more for western tourists. I've always thought it makes the most stunning window displays.



The area is full of little cafes, restaurants, juice bars all adding to the atmosphere, especially with the hunger-making smells coming from them.



It also has dozens of the little lanes and alleyways, most with tiny shops both sides. And they're perfectly safe to walk down - a side of Dubai that often gets forgotten or we become blase about. It really is astonishingly safe for a city of its size.



You can start up in Bank Street and just wander in the direction of the Creek, checking out all the little streets and lanes and eventually you arrive at the souks.

Down by the Creek there are some household goods shops, crammed from top to bottom with kitchen gadgets, cutlery, pots & pans and stuff I have no idea what it's for, sweet shops, spices, pharmacies, travel agencies - as I've said before, if you don't know where to find something just go into one of these older shopping areas and you'll find it.



This Creekside area is where the textile souk is located, wholesale and retail, and there's more material on offer than anyone could ever need. The materials, the designs, the countries of origin, the vast choice is amazing.

There's also the more general souk with a lot of touristy stuff but also amazing bargains for the rest of us. For example, a Pashmina shawl for Dh10 is great for tourists, but it's also not a bad buy for residents considering the cold weather we've been having.

And of course there are watches and shoes and bedsheets and hats and T-shirts, antiques, leather belts, jackets, snacks, juice...



Then you eventually arrive at the Creek, my favourite part of Dubai. The sights, the sounds, the smells of the Creek - that's Dubai.