My first week in Dubai

My first week in Dubai has been a interesting experience to say the least. The plane ride was all together fairly uneventful other than leaving my house in Houston, Tx at 1430 on Friday and not arriving in Dubai until 2200 on Saturday night. But once we were here that is when the fun began because our flight was delayed the person from the hotel was not there to meet me and Dubai has no real addresses for you to give the Taxi driver. So my colleges and I load our bags into the Taxi get in and hope for the best.  After a few wrong turns some mild discussions and a bit of luck we were able to find our new Hotel apartments. Hotel apartments are some thing I was not familiar with or have heard of in the states, of course there are extended stay hotels but this is a real one bedroom apartment with a separate kitchen and living room. The goal for the next day was to find a grocery store and stock the apartment. It was not a FULLY furnished appartment as the night before I found myself trying to make dinner with my pocket knife and the limited pots and pans I had. This to was an experience because of what we were about to find out a large problem in Dubai is the amount of taxis and there willingness to pick you up. After waiting for about an hour at the hotel we decided to venture out of the hotel and on to the major street and hail one there, this was as we were about to find out was a mistake. We arrived at the grocery store after a mile walk in about 100 degree heat and at least half a dozen failed attempts to hail a taxi. I was impressed with the price of food and there were a few American products that you could acquire if you so desired though they tended to be on the high side. The rest of that day was spent just organizing and settling in to our apartments. That evening a few of us did try the taxi thing again and again it took over two hours to arrive but at least it did arrive so that was something. When we got back we thought it would be smart to set the taxis up for the morning the night before and try to beat the curve. This only half worked, we ordered two cabs and only one showed up on time the other arrived two hours later not the best way to start your first day of work I know. We were not concerned because today we would receive our own vehicles and would not have to rely on the taxis anymore. So after work we each received our own vehicles and a google map, but what we were told and soon learned first hand was that no map of Dubai is accurate at ALL. It is understandable there is so much construction here as soon as the map is made it is wrong by that afternoon. Each of us only took about an hour to make the twenty minute drive back to our apartments which for our first experience driving id Dubai was not bad. It seems everyone we ask says that the best way to get around in Dubai is to look up at the building you wouldlike to head to and just go that direction as much as possible. The next day began the real work or so I thought I arrived at the shipyard with the other person I was going to work with and found that today we would be sitting in a office doing nothing for the entire day, with the exception of numerous safety meetings we had to attend. But the next day I actually got out on the rigs and into some tanks and if I thought it was hot outside it was not until I climbed into a tank that was still under water, and felt as if I was entering a sauna that smelled like a mix of rotten garbage and what I can only describe as that smell of rust or metal degrading. The rest of the week continued like this but as it went on I found myself adjusting to the temperatures. Come Thursday which is their Friday here because Friday is a Muslim holiday it was time to go out and enjoy myself. I went out to a bar which is located in a hotel as all the bars here are because alcohol is illegal in most places it was very nice but extremely expensive for 6 beers it was about 60 dollars, of course if the dollar was stronger I guess it wouldn’t be so bad. The next night I went with a couple of other co-workers to a more relaxed bar with more reasonable prices and we met some other ex-pats there. It is not hard to come acrossed other ex-pats as they make up almost 80 percent of the population here, in fact you may only see a few local emirates people in any one day. And now it is Sunday I am back at work and my week continues I can tell my time here will go quickly and am excited to see what will come next.