New York, New York

I had my first trip to New York last week and what a great trip it was...!! First to NY and first to the US!

The journey started with an Emirates driver collecting me from my place. Checking in was a breeze, since I had the luxury of flying business class. woo hoo. Arriving 14 hours later in NY, I stepped off the plane, PROMPTLY put my jumper, jacket and scarf on (i felt like that dude out of Cool Runnings) and heading to the customs processing area. The procedure was relatively quick here and involved finger print scanning, passport stamping and a portrait photo of me - for reasons that are obvious... hmmm...

Once through customs, I looked for the board with my name and there it was, along with my checked in luggage that had already been fetched off the belt for me. Man, I didn't have to do squat.

I arrived in New York on the Monday - which was actually President's Day (public holiday) allowing me about 6hrs of site seeing.

The first thing that struck me, besides the C-O-L-D, was the ice everywhere! It was awesome!! It snowed about 5 days beforehand so the ice was rock hard and very slippery. It was a really cool site - particularly walking through Cental Park, and along streets suck as 42nd Avenue, 5th Avenue, Times Square and other iconic streets. I went up the Empire State Building in search of King Kong. I couldn't find him but did find the most fantastic 360deg view of NY! It rocked. I could see all of the building you hear that NY is famous for - including Trump Tower, Chrysler Building, Times Square, Rockerfeller Centre, Madison Square Gardens, among others. Don't ask me why I listed Trump Tower first. Crap it was cold. like, rediculously bone biting cold.

I was keen to walk down the stairs to street level just coz I felt like it. I got as far as a sign that said 'Level 84, no re-entry'. Another 15 levels and the photo would have been better. I had come all the way from level 86 and had to turn back.

Grabbing the lift... sorry.... elevator... down to 350 5th Avenue onto street level, I continued back on to the hotel and had a little nanna nap before heading out for a bite to eat.

Most of the next four days were business and very little pleasure. Although I did eat at New York's version of the Buddha Bar on the Wednesday night which was fantastic!

Arriving at the airport at 11:45pm on Friday night I was peeved to say the least that my Business class seat from New York to Dubai was overbooked. However I was soon calmed and happier after being offered a complimentary upgrade to First class. I eventually accepted. BLOODY OATH I ACCEPTED!!! WOO HOO!! It was nuts. The menu was crazy nuts - including Iranian caviar, Dom Perignon, 1980's wine, free pyjamas, slippers, dressing gown, blanket and the most rediculously over the top toiletry kit I have ever seen - it was leather, and had a gold plated toothbrush and shaver, calvin klein after shave and the usual other stuff. It's a 14 hour flight for pete's sake.

All in all, New York rocked. The trip was tiring but I was fortunate to be able to walk to all of the places i needed to, taking me along Fifth Avenue, past Times Square every day. The final meeting was in the Empire State Building which was pretty cool.

So, that's NY! Enjoy the pics. These are the best I had and are a mixture of Nokia and Pentax pics.

I would place more on Flickr but I can't as Flickr is still blocked in this part of the world.

Waste collection

A UAE twist to the good old

Otto garbage bins back home!

Dubai might the shopping mecca of the Middle East but it ain’t so flash for waste collection.

If you live in a multistory apartment building then you have it quite easy when it comes to garbage disposal. There are garbage disposal shoots on each level that lead to waste skips at the base. Complications can arise when it comes to Ramadan.

The word Ramadan is derived from the word ramd - "to burn". For Muslims, the entire month is spent fasting from dawn to dusk. Fasting during this month is often thought to figuratively burn away all sins.

So what connections do waste collection and Ramadan have I hear you say. Well in some apartment buildings the waste was not collected as often during 2006 Ramadan and garbage in the waste shoots can back up several floors….not good for the nose I dare say! But everything returned to normal once Ramadan was over thank goodness.

Back in Australia individual villas and houses have their own garbage bins not in Dubai. There is no house to house garbage collection, in place of this system are waste skips placed approximately every 50 meters along a residential street. So when your kitchen garbage bins fills up, you take a little trip outside to throw your little plastic garbage bag into the big waste skip. Back home you could duck outside out your jim-jams (PJ’s) if you were a little lazy at times but there’s no chance of that here, unless you’re fine to parade your sleepwear in plane view of the neighbours!

Luckily down our end of the villa complex there are only houses on one side of the street, so there’s plenty of room for garbage in the skip. But up the other end there are houses and villas on both sides of the street and that skip gets full pretty early in the week. So it’s a buggery when the skips get pretty full and you’re trying to figure out how you’re going to get big bag of rubbish into the skip without having to physically touch anything.

You will notice in the background there are a lot of construction cranes. 15% of the cranes in the world can be found in Dubai, there’s just an enormous amount of growth going on here at the moment.

Petrol

AUD$0.30
Yes that is the correct price for a litre of petrol!

Dubai is a growing centre in the Middle East so the government has to build multi-lane highways to cope with all the people, hence loads of cars, coming to work in the UAE for their little share of riches. There are five and six lane highways which are fine to negotiate as long as you’re driving straight. But it’s only when you enter four lane round abouts that when you start to sweat, you entered easy enough but how do you get out without causing a major accident! There are enough troubles with two lane round abouts back home.

Cars are left hand drive and you drive on the right side of the road, like America (hand me a bar of soap, I need to clean my mouth out after I said that word). Though there are speed limits and basic road rules, they are often not observed due to people from numerous different countries practicing their countries road rules in Dubai. Of course like always, the locals are the worst offenders behind the wheel and get this, locals don't loose points on their driving licences but expats do! And do people changing lanes with indicating tweak you? You ain’t seen nothing yet, having other drivers use their indicators is a luxury here – so get used to people nilly-willy changing lanes without notice!
As much as we love walking to as many places as we can, it just can’t be don’t here. Not because of the distance, it’s the heat!! The only time you can walk is during winter when the temperatures between 15ºC and 20ºC. Don’t even entertain that thought in summer, walking equals suicide in the 40ºC to 45ºC heat! So you have to drive everywhere even if it’s a short distance.



The public transport system is basically non-existent at the moment. Compared to the number people, there just aren’t enough buses and it won’t be til next year that the monorail system will be completed. Many employment packages include a transport allowance – people are thinking why be at the mercy of the public transport system when you can drive.

It’s not much incentive either to take public transport when the prices of cars are quite a bit cheaper then Australia, due to no taxes and possibly no shipping costs, and a liter of petrol costs AUD$0.30, yes you read right that was not a typo! To top it all off sadly there’s an unspoken clear class system in practice here. It’s mostly the “working classes”, retail sales people and construction workers largely made up of Pilipino and Indian, who catch public transport.

I guess it’s a combination of all this that ultimately contribute to the major traffic jams on the six lane highways even though you’re only traveling a distance of 15km it may take you one to two hours to reach your destination. Of course like any other country when an accident occurs, traffic is backed up depending on the number of lanes blocked and adding to the bottle necks are the onlookers slowing down to take a geezer at what’s happened.

But people manage to turn up at work on time everyday so the road system may be chaotic at times but it works none the less. Visiting Dubai and experience the roads for yourself, take it as a dare if you like!

Our new car!

We went shoppy all over Dubai on the weekend for a car. And, as is always the way, we ended up with the first car we saw. A 2005 Mitsubishi Outlander AWD! We pick up the car next weekend as there are a few things to organise first... driver licence is the biggest priority so AXA will insure me. They also recognise the no claim bonus from Australia over here. ALthough I am sure you are surprised, I am actually on a 60% NCB for life! Mum and Dad are faxing the paperwork over as we speak for me to pass this on to the insurance company over here...

The cost of isurance is very fair too. Regardless of which company you go for, it is 5% of the cars value... and drops from there with NCB history and age of driver etc. A fair system I say.

We are happy as pigs in mud with our purchase. OK, maybe not pigs in this part of the world, so let's say camels.

Sand dune bashing here we come! WOO HOO!

POST YOUR COMMENTS, ASK QUESTIONS ON DUBAI!!!!!!!

Flickr in the UAE

Need i say more....

Flickr has been blocked by the Government since mid December. Reason: Porn.

However, YouTube is still up and running. go figure.

I know there are alternative, but I like my Flickr!!!

AARRGGHH!!!!!

Residency Update

On Tuesday afternoon i headed off to the Zulekha Hospital for my Medical - the last step toward getting my Residency here in the UAE. I arrived at the Hospital at about 1:30PM. I headed up to the first stage area to have the blood taken. That process had a wait of about 2 hours. By the time i walked out of the blood test place it was about 3:3oPM. I then marched on down to to the x-ray clinic to have my chest scanned for TB.

Following the green line painted on the ground to get to that building in the grounds, i soon noticed that there was another line. Of people.

I counted 120 men. Yes, 120 men in front of me before it was to be my turn. I didn't have a choice but to stay as I need my passport processed and stamped before heading on my first trip on Sunday to the US.... hmmm....

Knowing that there was only one x-ray machine in operation AND knowing how long it takes to have an x-ray, i figured that I would be more likely celebrating my 40th birthday before it were to be my turn.

In the line I chatted with a phillipino guy (about 23yo) about his past 9 months in Dubai. Although visit visas are issued on arrival and are only valid for 60 days, he got around that by doing the one hour drive border run over to Oman. He grabs a coffee, then re-enters the UAE with a new visit visa. Bingo, another 60 days. However, he finally secured a job he was happy with and decided to stick with them to sponsor him. He is staying in an area called Bur Dubai - quite a nice area near Dubai Creek. THe shitter is that he is in a 4 bedroom unit sharing with 23 other men. Yep, a common occurance around here. And, when you consider that that unit would be going for about $1600/wk, it's no wonder!

....

Soon after counting the men in the line and doing the time maths and deciding that i should at least be out before my 30th, let alone 40th, a nurse came out counting heads. She counted to 60 (all of them Indian construction workers), and then said everyone else has to go home as they won't process us tonight - and to return tomorrow. I was a little dissapointed with this (aka shitty) but accepted this. I called our company PRO (Permanent Residency Officer) to explain the situation. He ended up meeting me the following morning at the xray clinic, escorted me to the front of the line and, bingo, 35 mins in and out.

Where it normally takes two days to get the results of both tests and then another two days to get the passport, he used his Emirati status and Arab language to push the results through in 2 hrs and passport returned today. Wow. So......today......

I RECEIVED MY PASSPORT BACK AND I AM NOW AN OFFICIAL PERMANENT RESIDENT OF THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Woo hoo!!

Post your comments.

We are still alive!

OK, so there hasn't been a post to this blog for two weeks. Give us a break! We are setting up home over here...!!!

Thanks to everyone for the emails wanting to know why we have stopped posting. However, rest assured from now forward you will see action. Blog action that is.

With Quyen now having been here for two weeks and is enjoying the start of a life in Dubai. THe last two weeks have been hectic with most nights being spent searching for furniture and electrical to setup everything in the home from shower curtains and toilet roll holders through to an oven and a bed! It's a good thing that the shops here trade from 10AM to 10PM, 7 days a week.

Last Friday we spent 10 hours in Ikea. That was just nuts. Nuts I tell you, nuts. 10 hours.

I had already organised a bed, bedside tables and a dresser from a place for Quyen's arrival, so that was sorted. At Ikea we purchased window coverings, a lounge, TV unit, computer desk, chair, two wardrobes, bits and pieces and a few other things.

This place was literally a shell when we moved in, so we even had to get our own bathroom vanity cabinet...

The electrical items were gathered from 5 different locations. We have a fridge, an oven (one of those wide ones to fill the big space - check out the pics - stay tuned), TV, surround sound system (of course), microwave, printer and a washer.

We are both pretty proud of ourselves to have organised so much in so little time.

It was all capped off with the installation of Showtime. We didn't think we would ever have a need for PayTV. With the options being Arabic or Arabic plus one English channel, we thought it best for our own sanity to have Showtime installed.

The shitter is that it doesn't include any cricket coverage Fox is an extra charge each month. We will organise that very soon. VERY soon...who's benefit could that be for?