The Difference in Dubai

Weather
Needless to say, most people know that Dubai is hot place to live in. When I first arrived, I found the weather quite similiar to sunny Singapore and tolerable. However, since last week, it got noticably hotter. I was out with my companions waiting for a cab. I felt as if my skin and feet were burning! Am I glad that we managed to hop into an aircon cab after a long wait! Unlike before when I would readily go out for groceries or shopping in the afternoon, now I think twice before venturing out. I have already tanned! With just twenty minutes of sun exposure out of 4 days in a week! The sun and UV here are indeed merciless! Have started applying sunblock on my arms, neck and even feet whenever I go out. Now, the next item I am gonna get is an umbrella. The last I checked at Carrefore, it was out of stock :( My housemates joked that perhaps we need to get a veil like the local ladies here...

Nowadays, even shower water gets close to boiling-point hot! And I have not even switched on the heater at all! *Sigh* The thought of going for showers feels punishing! Will need to prepare shower waters in advance to prevent my skin from getting cooked!

Don't believe the cold water indicator in washing machines here. Thanks to the weather, you get hot water when you opt for cold water to wash your clothing.

Despite my complaints, there are also good points about the weather. If I hang my wet jeans out in the sun, it dries completely within an hour. And this afternoon, I have just thawed my frozen chicken out in the sun :> I took it back after 20 minutes, just in case it gets cooked! :p

Taxi
For getting around, taxi is a more common mode of transport than buses. Some bus stops are actually airconditioned! Dubai is building the train line (they call it 'Metro') but it won't be ready until a few years more :( There are no sight of motorcycles here, probably due to the excruciating hot weather.

Here, it is a common thing that taxi drivers are new to Dubai. Thus, my hubby ended up guiding taxi drivers to our destinations most of the time. In terms of getting around, I have to say hubby is good ;) However, if you do not know how to get to your destination or have no idea of any nearby landmarks, all the best to you...

Another difference here is that the taxis driven by women serves primarily women passengers only. They will drive male passengers on condition that there are female companions.

Mosque Speakers
In neighbourhood and shopping malls, from time to time, you get to hear Muslim prayers or chanting. Though Singapore includes Muslim as one of its religions, I have not seen such an intensity in the Malay Kampong Glam area in Singapore.

Shopping Malls
Am sure that most have heard about the great shopping in Dubai :) Among the bigger malls, I've been to 2 thus far. 1 had been upstaged by the other. The other has less than a year to enjoy the honour of being the biggest shopping mall in Dubai, before it get upstaged by another bigger mall next year. The current biggest mall, Mall of Emirates, is so big that I can imagine it 4 times bigger than VivoCity... and I have not covered the entire place despite having been there for more than 3 times, thus it could be more than 4 times bigger than Singapore's VivoCity.

There is a strange mall here that really surprised me. This huge mall is situated in the midst of desert roads! You can be driving for an hour on roads where you see only sands and dried up shrubs and then suddenly, you see this shopping mall. Despite its obscure location, its huge carpark is almost full on off work days. Even on week nights, there are a good number of shoppers.

I have been on roads where the surroundings are true blue deserts. It reminded me so much of the scenes in the movie, No Country For Old Man. I have seen camels wondering in the desert too! :) Wonder who feeds them and how they survive. They looked so thin :s

That's about all for now. Very soon, there may be more developments and I will post again!