Where to live...

This is by far the toughest part of the whole settling in process in Dubai and making it our home. With rents currently increasing at crazy rates, it’s hard to keep up with the market. There is currently a big shortage of supply due to a few major projects being delayed – approx 150,000 apartments in various areas of Dubai that were due to finish by end of December are now pushed out to end of March – and then people are tipping the prices will start to fall. This is creating a big headache. We have until the end of Jan to find a place. The question is – do I choose a place now if I do see one out there or wait until Quyen comes over?? As much as I would love to wait until Quyen comes over, the risk is that we may find it harder to find a place in our price range, we may get less for our money, or may find nothing at all!

To help with the process though, I am having a look and spending a bit of time in each area that I think would be OK. I have had a couple of whirlwind trips of Dubai to give me an idea of proximities and general feel of the place – this helped narrow the selection down to five key areas. The thing is that they cover all four corners of Dubai, and the middle.

Part 1 – the middle – DEIRA.

(as I type this blog at about 5:15AM Monday morning I can hear the first call to prayer of the day – it’s very faint and it’s only because I am awake I can hear it. On the street though, it’s pretty loud and a well selected place in relation to a mosque is advised!)

(also as I type this blog, i have burnt my sausage. oh.)

I went for a nice long walk in around Deira – starting with the main shopping centre ‘Deira City Centre’. This was the original biggest shopping centre in the Middle East. Deira itself is situated by the creek and has some lovely gardens and parks. I took a few snaps. Here are a few, there are some better ones on the flickr site - http://www.flickr.com/photos/aidanwinny/ . (When more time is available on the net - instead of US$12 per hour i will make this blog a little more technical!) The advice I have had on this area is that you have to choose carefully which spot you live as the horns and traffic noise can drive you mad (yep – getting me back for my years of sitting on my horn).

I am heading out on Tuesday to look at a whole lot more places… and have appointments for actual apartments. Let’s see how we go…