So, I’ve been here for 3 weeks now. Time for some reflection.
For now, I’m staying at a hotel. That means I am confined to a small room, with very little to do. In exchange for that I get breakfast every morning, and my room is cleaned daily.
It’s the small things that make it fun. In the morning, during breakfast, there is cook who is frying eggs and making omelets at the so-called ‘egg station’ (every hotel here serves freshly fried eggs at breakfast). By now, I don’t have to ask any more, I just have to show up and he will know how I want my eggs and prepares them. With a sincere ‘good morning’ and a smile it easy to make friends here.
Without a Residence ID (an ID card with all your bio-metric information included), you’re a nobody. You need this card for literally everything, from getting your driving license to getting a SIM card. However, you don’t get this card right away. There are steps to be taken and stamps to be gotten. First, my company applied for the visa. Then, I got sent away to a medical check: a blood sample was taken, and X-rays were shot. All seemed okay, and I got my first stamp. Right after that, it was time to apply for the ID card, which boiled down to providing photo’s and all my fingerprints to the government. This time no stamp, but a simple “take care”, signaled that I was done.
These two things put some process in motion, and a few days later I had to hand over my passport to my company. Another few days later, I got it back with my residence visa in it.
Next in line was getting a bank account. For this, someone from the bank actually comes to the office. In my case, a nice lady from the bank drove about an hour to our office, spent some 15 minutes with me, and presumably drove an hour back. A few days later I received an account number, and my welcome package will arrive early next week.
The ID card took another week. And now I’ve got it, I am someone.
The hotel is close by the Dubai World Trade Centre, its metro station, and close to one of the main roads here: Sheikh Zayed Road. This gives a lot of options: take the metro to the Dubai Mall, go for some coffee at the World Trade Centre, or take a walk down Sheikh Zayed Road. Every day, I try to get out of the hotel by one of those options. And doing so, I slowly but surely get to know the city.
It’s a city that never sleeps, and always with something to see, be it luxury cars (Lamborghini, Maybach, Maserati. You name it, it’s here), outstanding architecture (Emirates Towers, Burj Khalifa, and many more), or people from all over the world (seemingly no one here has the exact same colour).
It’s also a city where you can spend as little or as much money as you want to. You can have a full diner for 20 dirhams, 200 dirhams, or 2000 dirhams. It’s completely up to you (it’s about 4 dirhams per euro).
Finally, it’s a city with rules. Stick to ‘em and your fine, no worries. Some background research is in order though, because, for example, the rules concerning my hobby photography are a little different than in Holland. In Holland I can pretty much take photo’s of everything and anyone and share my efforts on social media. Here, however, not so. Buildings and tourist attractions: no problem. Government buildings and palaces: no way, not even by accident. People: permission is always required. Women: don’t, especially if they are local and dressed in traditional clothing. Coming to photography, privacy is highly regarded here, so no sharing on social media unless you’re sure that you’re playing by the rules. Luckily, that leaves room enough for great shots, such as the above view of Sheikh Zayed Road.
