Sand storm

Last week, there was a sand storm that lasted about three days. The city was gray all over and we avoided going out as much as we can. My car had blocks of sand on the windshield after not using it over the weekend!


Never mind the audio (lol!) I thought the tallest building on the horizon was the Burj Dubai (the world's tallest tower - at least, once it's all done. I heard that they have not officially released the actual height it will be once finished). But you can still see it here, I panned to the left and Burj Dubai is in the last frame.

To view it better, here's another video of Burj Dubai as we sped past it:

Scorpion update

Got an update yesterday with TECOM - they finally got through to my former company and they're maintaining that they have released everything that was due to me (duh! didn't get a cent, not even my last salary). According to them, the only thing remaining is the 5TAED check I issued as guarantee to get my passport back.

Oh man. That's low.

THREE

At 5:30pm, I left the office to go to Al Murooj Rotana for the launch of this new make-up line. Saw another Filipina and chatted with her and like other conversations, the usual question popped up, "So how long have you been here?"

And it dawned on me, for the first time today (though I've been running around so much lately, that at first I thought it was already the 15th of the month) that it's my 3rd year anniversary! Well, technically it's on the 14th because I left the Philippines on the 13th. But well...

Three years. I should be going home now according to my original plans, but I'm still here. Carving my name in a new magazine.

On to more adventures!

Dubai Desert Safari 2

If you're a tourist in Dubai, I think the three top things to see are: 1.) desert safari (for the desert experience), 2.) gold/spice souq (for the traditional scene) 3.) Madinat Jumeirah Mall/IBN Batuta Mall (for a taste of the national pasttime). Of course there are plenty more to do, but for me, those are the top 3.

I Joined my friends (Abet & Malen, Benjie & Aileen, Ena & Tito Dan, Jo & Rafik, Albert, Love and Mirzi) for a desert safari yesterday, it was my second time. First time was last year with Tito Aman. Got the chance to video a bit of it this time, so here's a peek:



After the dune bashing, which lasts about 15 minutes, you go the camp where you have dinner and after the foods, a belly dancing show. Read once, that it's ironic, the sensual belly dancing art of the Arabs is now being saved by the Europeans because their women is no longer allowed to learn it.

Slices of Dubai - the intro

Tenshi was just telling me about a post of her friend who also cross-posted a friend's post about Dubai - I read it and I shared some similar stories which I heard or experienced myself. So we ended up talking about Dubai, the people here, the irritating stuff, the eyebrow knitting and eyebrow raising instances... and she told me that I should have told her about those stories! I guess, I just became so used to it.

So here comes the resolution, I will post Dubai stories -- the Slices of Dubai series, starting with a soft intro on impressions:

Dubai is a small world. I met Ye on my second day here (as I was looking for a job) and it turned out we came from the same university, same college and have even common friends. I've even found a relative I've never met before. I moved out of the room I've been renting recently and who moves in? My friend's cousin -- and we only found out the connection pretty recently. Another friend gets married (in Canada), and it turns out that one of his godmothers is a relative of one of our friends in Ajman.

One easily observed characteristic of Dubai is the blatant discrimination. You don't need to interact with anybody here to know that, all you have to do is open the classified ads. Jobs and even flat rentals are rated accordingly to nationality. Western-educated preferred. Looking for Indian Accountants. For UAE nationals only. Fit for British, South African nationals.

Speaking about flat rentals, it's so hard to get flats here, especially now that landlords are taking advantage and jacking up the prices to unbelievable figures. The goverment has responded by instilling measures such as rent caps but still, the prices are remain exorbitant. So, the cheaper majority of Dubai goes the route of 'sharing', which literally means sharing a flat (rooms can be divided into two with a makeshift partition - hence the other term 'partition room' or different groups of people can occupy the bedrooms and another set the hall) In my first year here, I've moved 5 times! In one of those moves, I got a phone conversation like this:

Me: Hello? I'd like to inquire about the room for rent?
Landlady (sounded Indian): Where are you from?
Me: Philippines
Landlady: For Indian only. No Filipinos, you wash too much!

Kalas. End of conversation. We wash too much. Indeed we do, we come from a country surrounded by water after all. It has become a joke here, you'd know if a person is Filipino if his/her hair is wet in the morning. But I swear, it's true! On the other hand, we can also be called a cheapskate, lazy nationality -- why? Well, wet hair means we did not invest the money and time in a good hair dryer (hehe).

Oh this is fun! I can write all day long about this. But I have to cut it now. That's just the intro to Slices of Dubai.

Dubai Crimes

Interestingly enough, when I opened my email today, I got this message:

Subject: very important......

This is to remind everyone, particularly the ladies, to be vigilant at all times when you are out in the streets at night (at kahit pa sa araw)...dumadami na ang mga masasamang elemento dito sa UAE (bad elements in the UAE are on the rise).

Just last Friday at 10:30 pm after attending a Bible study class, my sister's bag was snatched by a young Arab looking man. My sis tried to hang on to her bag pero nalagot yong straps so naitakbo. Hinabol sana ng Natur namin (kasi 2 hakbang na lang nasa parking lot na namin sya kaya buti at narinig ang sigaw nya) pero hindi inabutan, bakit kanyo? Eh kasi me naghihintay na kotse dun sa kalye ng Holiday Inn Downtown, getaway car baga...and take note, Sharjah ang plate number. (Our Natur was about to go after him... he was only two steps away from our parking lot! But there was a getaway car, with a Sharjah plate, waiting for him near Holiday Inn Downtown).

My sister was naturally shaken because of the incident but thank God, she is doing fine now, except for the big bruises in her arm caused by the struggle. Mabuti na lang nasa right shoulder nya yong bag, eh kung nasa left kawawa lalo (di ba nabali buto nya last year). Maswerte rin at hindi sya nagdala ng wallet that night, talagang bible, notebook, ballpen, cellphone at susi lang since wala pang 1 block away ang pinuntahan nya. Pero di kami nakatulog that night knowing that someone out there has our house key, kasi di ba sobrang lapit sa amin ng pinangyarihan, eh what if alam nila kung saan kami nakatira? Nakakakilabot isipin. so we immediately took care of that matter na. (Good thing her shoulder bag was on her left shoulder not the right, which she broke last year. Good thing too that she didn’t bring a wallet that night, she only had a bible, notebook, ballpen, cellphone and key because she was only one block away from our house. We couldn’t sleep that night knowing that somebody out there had our house key. The incident happened so near our house, what if they know where we live? We still get shivers thinking about it, so we immediately took care of that matter.)

At kahapon, we learned that this is happening everywhere, minsan naka motor naman ang snatcher... at sabi pa ng Natur namin last week daw may sinaksak na Pinay malapit sa Reef Mall (Roel/Ayeth - totoo ba ito?). (Yesterday, we learned that this is happening everywhere, sometimes the snatcher is on a motorbike… and our Natur said that a Pinay was stabbed near Reef Mal last week.)

Ano ba ito??? Dubai pa ba ito??? (What is this? Is this still Dubai?)

So mga kapatid, please take care and BE ALERT AT ALL TIMES... kung hindi dapat gumala sa gabi, avoid it...kung kailangan naman, practice the buddy-buddy system, don't go alone...have someone accompany you... (Friends, please take care and BE ALERT AT ALL TIMES... if it’s not necessary, don’t go out at night, avoid it. If you need to, don’t go alone… practice the buddy system, have someone accompany you.)

And of course never forget to pray for Lord's protection. Ingat kayo lahat lagi...(take care always) God bless us all!!

- Signed -

Crimes do happen. But like I said, not yet the norm – thank goodness!

Dubai people are honest

It still amazes me. It's true. Though of course, crimes also happen here, but thank goodness, it's not yet the norm. You can leave your phone in a public place and it will probably still be there when you get back. Your car won't get carnapped if you leave it running, while on hazard (but of course, don't).

And like today, I got my package (finally! An iPod, a belated Christmas gift from my mom) even though it ended up at the Dubai Investments Park Office (many thanks to Rujad who gave me the best news today!)! They could easily have stashed it somewhere and not breathed a word to anybody but of course not, that's not the way things here work. My mom sent the iPod through ordinary post with no way to track it. Whew! I still love it that people here are so honest.

No matter if you see seedy guys, they won't mug you in the middle of the night, or even after you've just withdrawn money from the ATM. They'll probably leer at you, yes, but not mug you.

Oh Dubai, on that aspect, please don't change.

My new iPod (30gb) is black. I'm looking forward to downloading Spanish lessons for the long drive home! Thanks ma and pa! Love you!