# From a newbie to all newbies-dubai 101



## aysem (May 7, 2012)

I'll try to summarize a newbie's experiences since I see there are a lot of people joining the forum everyday with Dubai 101 questions.
And sorry for all kind of mistakes, I am not a native English speaker.

Before coming to Dubai, we did not know much about it. So naturally I joined the forum. And to all newbies, if you read carefully, you will see many useful tips in many threads.


After reading a lot of comments, we decided it is better if we live in Marina. (married with no kids, looking for an apartment, not a house with a garden in the middle of the desert in a fancy community)
And again by the help of this forum, we decided to stick with Emaar. First searched Dubizzle about the prices then got in touch with real estate agencies. Either they are earning too much money or do not want to deal with customers who knew what they want but honestly only one of them seemed to be interested in. So at the end of the day, we were stuck with only one agent but thanks god he was proper enough. We found the apartment in one day although exceeded the target budget.

Lesson 1: There seems to be too many real estate agencies/agents but I think some of them are virtual and don't live in the same world with us. 
Lesson 2: It is better to get in touch with bigger companies, at least our experience with the smaller ones were weird.
Lesson 3: Construction quality is not good in Dubai. (and please keep in mind that I am from Turkey and due to our infamous contractors, even in every small earthquake too many people die)
Lesson 4: Don't think all landlords are waiting for you with open arms to make you good discounts. If the rent is correct and the apartment is fine, usually they don't make any discount at all. 
Lesson 5: Don't ask if the apartments are expensive or not. It totally depends on what you are looking for. If you look for a good apartment with a good fancy location, be prepared. At least I can tell that in marina, for a 2 bedroom, the prices vary between 100 000 dirhams -200 000 dirhams per year. And yes, you need to give one cheque or two, number of cheques varies. And yes, cheques are commanly used here but in order to have one, you need to have a bank account.

Lesson 6: Don't ask about the best location. There is nothing as best location. (I asked it to several people just to have their frustrated answers and now I understand there is really nothing as best location) It just depends on your needs. Best location might be somewhere cheap, somewhere close to your work or with a garden for your kids and dogs. 

As a result now we are in Marina Promenade, I love the location and it is not very noisy at all although there is a construction on the road behind us. And have a fantastic view of the marina. 

The residency was not a problem for my husband since he already had a good job offer and his company prepared everything and his residency took only 3 days. But for me, since I still did not find a job, it took a little bit longer. But again we did not deal with anything.

Lesson1: If you already have a job before coming and if you work for a good company which has a good PRO ( personnel relations officer or something like that, I still don't know what it stands for), residency, bank account etc will not be a problem.

Again after reading the horror stories of the forum members about the banks, we understood we should not expect a proper customer service or correct answers in a timely manner. So with this rock bottom expectations, we decided to work with Emirates NBD. I think they have different customer schemes and somehow made us "priority customer" and assigned us a representative. So far so good.

Cars and driving...as told before I am coming from Turkey and since the government can not avoid tax evasions in the country, they apply incredible taxes on some unavoidable items like cigarette, alcohol, oil&gas and of course cars. So the car prices in Dubai seemed very good to us. And car salesmen are also much better than most of the real estate agents. Again due to the previous posts in this forum, we first checked second hand cars. Although we are both engineers, we are not mechanics and we don't know a good mechanic either. But we learnt that many companies have certified second hand cars usually with one year warranty. But as far as I see, good second hand cars are not plenty and if it is really good with low mileage, then the price is not good at all. And while we were trying to buy a Prado, we ended up with a honda coupe. 

Lesson 1: If you are going to buy a second hand car, it is better if you know someone who knows a very good mechanic. Or stick with certified second hand cars, yes, they are a little bit pricey than Dubizzle ads but I think much more secure.
Lesson 2: I don't know why but Japanese cars are really favorite here. If you consider about reselling the car in a while, Toyota, Nissan or Mitsubishi will help you.
Lesson 3: If you don't make up your mind before going car shopping, you can return home with a red coupe instead of a planned SUV.

Now one of the favorite questions...is life expensive? Again it depends. It depends on what you do, what you buy. If you want to continue your old habits, stick with the same brands, yes, it might be expensive. But if you are ready to change your consuming habits, I don't think it is expensive. Meat is cheap, cigarettes are cheap. Booze, I don't know, don't have the license yet. Fruit and vegetable, it depends where your home country is. But compared with Turkey, fruit and vegetable is not cheap and is not good. (I am not talking about the wonderful, delicious mangoes but talking about peaches, cherries, tomatoes, watermelons etc) 
We are not heavy drinkers, no, let me correct, we drink heavily at home, so I can not say anything about bars. Eating out might be expensive depending on where you go. But there are many restaurants that serve really delicious food with very reasonable even maybe dirty cheap prices if you are ready not to drink a glass of wine with it. (and don't question their kitchen hygiene either)
Lesson 1: Don't go to fancy restaurans everyday, it may really hurt at the end of the month.
Lesson 2: Not licensed restaurants are much cheaper but we are still looking for an off-licensed place with good prices.
Lesson 3: Dubai duty free is good for booze, if you are lucky enough to go abroad often, it is the best place to turn your home into a minibar. 

And of course I decided to study Arabic as well. (a while ago I started but then frustrated, now giving a second try) I got in touch with Arabic Learning Center and Eton. Now I am going to Eton, it has only been 2 days so can not comment on it. The course is around 1400 dhs per 30 hours. But I really don't know if I'll ever have a chance to practice it, noone seems speaking Arabic here. 

And finally as many others, I am scared of dentists. And it seems all my teeth were just waiting for me to land in Dubai to create new daily problems. Yes, the dental treatments here cost a lot, we are lucky to have a good insurance. My experience with the first dentist was not a very nice one, after they told me with a big smile on their face that I have wonderful dental coverage and that I need several root canals/crowns which each will cost around 6000-7000 dhs, without a proper check up and of course without seeing the cavity I have. With a paranoid attack, I immediately went to another one but it is early to report the results.


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## rsinner (Feb 3, 2009)

Great post.


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## jemmal1986 (Jul 20, 2012)

*Moving to Dubai*

I am a young single girl and I have been looking to work in Dubai one job is in Umm Suquiem/ Mirdif and the other is in Al Barsha.
I was wondering what area is best to live in and which is cheaper ? but also near to the beach?
I am coming from the UK and dont know if I will be able to afford on my own living in Dubai at all?


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## Guest (Jul 24, 2012)

jemmal1986 said:


> I am a young single girl and I have been looking to work in Dubai one job is in Umm Suquiem/ Mirdif and the other is in Al Barsha.
> I was wondering what area is best to live in and which is cheaper ? but also near to the beach?
> I am coming from the UK and dont know if I will be able to afford on my own living in Dubai at all?


It really depends on the salary your have been offered and what you want to do in your down time. If you want to be near bars, restaurants and loads of young people then JBR/Marina is the place for you but this might be out of your price range. It also depends on whether you are going to rely on taxis or buy/lease your own car. There are cheap places to live but these areas are sometimes cheap for a reason. If you are going to buy into the ex-pat lifestyle and be out drinking and socialising a lot, you need to take this into account when thinking about the level of salary you need/want.


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## XDoodlebugger (Jan 24, 2012)

aysem said:


> I'
> 
> But compared with Turkey, fruit and vegetable is not cheap and is not good. (I am not talking about the wonderful, delicious mangoes but talking about peaches, cherries, *tomatoes, watermelons* etc)
> 
> ...


Nice post.

I lived in Turkey and can vouch for the fruit and vegetables, especially the tomatoes, one of the few countries that had tomatoes like Indiana which are the best in the world 

As for booze the Ajman Hole in the Wall has better or just as good of prices for booze as the duty free and you don't need a plane ticket (or license) to buy!

GPS coordinates: 25.419323, 55.440542 unfortunately closed for Ramadan


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## aysem (May 7, 2012)

XDoodlebugger said:


> Nice post.
> 
> As for booze the Ajman Hole in the Wall has better or just as good of prices for booze as the duty free and you don't need a plane ticket (or license) to buy!
> 
> GPS coordinates: 25.419323, 55.440542 unfortunately closed for Ramadan


Thanks for the gps coordinates, entered to favorites already. I know it is a weird question but do they sell decent/original booze? (I know it sounds silly but there is a big market for knock off booze, normally I don't care but these idiots use methyl alcohol which kills people in some cases)


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## Tropicana (Apr 29, 2010)

Very good and helpful post 

I thought the norm was 3-4 cheques, so are most landlords asking for 1/2 chq, and then accepting more payments for 5-10k more ?

Paying in 1 chq is a risk IMO, particularly so with some tenants suffering because of landlords not paying service charges

I am sure petrol will feel cheap given that Turkey has the 2nd most expensive petrol in the world for some reason


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## Guest (Jul 24, 2012)

aysem said:


> Thanks for the gps coordinates, entered to favorites already. I know it is a weird question but do they sell decent/original booze? (I know it sounds silly but there is a big market for knock off booze, normally I don't care but these idiots use methyl alcohol which kills people in some cases)


We buy ours from Barracudas (Um Al Qwain) situated next to Barracuda Hotel, past the Aqua Park. Again, prices are the same if not less than Duty Free and it is all legitimate with a huge selection of beer, wine and spirits and there is a really nice deli/foodie shop across the car park which sells wonderful coffee, condiments, cheeses, etc. 

No Alcohol Licence required here either.

Barracudas is also closed during Ramadan. 

Be aware though that it is illegal to transport alcohol through dry emirates back to Dubai.


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## aysem (May 7, 2012)

Tropicana said:


> Very good and helpful post
> 
> I thought the norm was 3-4 cheques, so are most landlords asking for 1/2 chq, and then accepting more payments for 5-10k more ?
> 
> ...



I think number of cheques depends on the landlord's mercy/condition of the apartment. For all the apartments we liked, landlords refused to make discount nor increase the number of cheques. But if the apartment was just average/bad, they were much more flexible.

Regarding the petrol, yes, we loooove the prices here after paying almost 3 usd/liter in Turkey.


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## XDoodlebugger (Jan 24, 2012)

oxfordgirl said:


> We buy ours from Barracudas (Um Al Qwain) situated next to Barracuda Hotel, past the Aqua Park. Again, prices are the same if not less than Duty Free and it is all legitimate with a huge selection of beer, wine and spirits and there is a really nice deli/foodie shop across the car park which sells wonderful coffee, condiments, cheeses, etc.
> 
> No Alcohol Licence required here either.
> 
> ...


Barricuda Shop @25.587349,55.652618


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## XDoodlebugger (Jan 24, 2012)

aysem said:


> Thanks for the gps coordinates, entered to favorites already. I know it is a weird question but do they sell decent/original booze? (I know it sounds silly but there is a big market for knock off booze, normally I don't care but these idiots use methyl alcohol which kills people in some cases)


It is either the real deal or they are amazing moonshiners! 

Nice selection, bought a few bottles of Jack Daniels Black Label 1lt and they were real at 90AED, also a bottle of Silver .75lt to treat myself 140AED I think. 

A case of Carlsberg beer 24 x 500ml cans the first time I went was 120 AED, this last time was just before Ramadan and they wanted 132 AED for 24 regular bottles Heineken. 

Jim Beam was half the price of Jack and I used to drink that a lot but my pallet has changed to where I really prefer Jack so didn't try it. Cheaper stuff on the shelves as well but you get what you pay for.

Didn't notice any Raki if you are home sick!


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## aysem (May 7, 2012)

XDoodlebugger said:


> It is either the real deal or they are amazing moonshiners!
> 
> Nice selection, bought a few bottles of Jack Daniels Black Label 1lt and they were real at 90AED, also a bottle of Silver .75lt to treat myself 140AED I think.
> 
> ...


Not a raki drinker, not homesick either. 1 liter Jack for 90, Jim Beam half price of Jack?? and now I am more paranoid, knock off real knock off real.... better to make a test drive to decide. 

And thanks for barracuda coordinates as well.


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## XDoodlebugger (Jan 24, 2012)

aysem said:


> Not a raki drinker, not homesick either. 1 liter Jack for 90, Jim Beam half price of Jack?? and now I am more paranoid, knock off real knock off real.... better to make a test drive to decide.
> 
> And thanks for barracuda coordinates as well.


It's about the same in the US, 1.75 liter of Jack Daniels can be had for about $40, a 1.75 liter of Jim Beam about $22-24.

Some States can vary due to taxes.

My pleasure on the Barracuda coordinates, they are not confirmed but taken from another post here. I was saving that one for a drive to site see RAK.


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## Garth Vader (May 11, 2012)

Somebody should make this thread a stickie for the GPS co-ordinates alone 

I found HITW prices to be great for spirits, but overly pricey on the beer (plus choice of beer wasn't that great).

Barracuda seemed better all round, with a much better choice.

Bit pished off they're closed for Ramadan though, I'm up HITW way in a couple of weeks! Sigh.


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