Dubai ramblings..

Pro: Many free unlimited drinking deals during the week, especially for the ladies. Free tuesday champagne, free thursday frozen margs, free wine....This weekend however, i did still find it necessary to add another shot of tequila to my free marg. silly girl.

Con: I can't buy liquor for my apartment because I dont have a residence visa and that is what you need to get a liquor license. Luckily, liquor is served in hotels and nightclubs and since there are many of those, it isnt really a problem. ***Tip: Buy liquor @ duty free when arriving at the airport *** That means you Brak. bring me my liquor...I believe 2 bottles is the max though so choose wisely.

Pro: There are lots of modes of transportation. It isn't difficult to get a ride as taxis are plentiful.

Con: There is no standard address system in Dubai. Seriously. This definitely causes some problems when initially trying to get around or when you are trying to mail something and understand where its going. Most establishments whether it is a home or a business mostly have P.O. boxes as their addresses and no street names as a reference point. Also, I have noticed that wherever there are numbered street names....they don't go in any kind of order. There will literally be a 11b street with a 4c right after and then a 7a street. There is no logic.

This also makes it really challenging to tell a taxi where to go, you end up becoming really good with landmarks here. For example, I got to the school i needed to visit the other day by saying " The school is on the street after the Arabian Center, but before the roundabout. Go past the mosque and make a U turn and it will be on the left." There are also TONS of roundabouts and U turns here. If you miss a turn, you'll end up adding another 20 minutes to your trip to get back on track again.

Apparently, in the past year they have re-vamped the system and there is a movement more towards road names versus P.O. boxes. Maps have been printed with areas divided up into sections like districts to help better identify certain parts of Dubai. Hurray! Hopefully this system catches on. I seriously saw a little map drawn on a piece of mail the other day next to the P.O. address. it had an arrow pointing to the street after the grocery store.

basically, dont take your address and how easy you can get mail for granted!