randomly dubai...

have not been updating lately, coz contrary to what most people think, i don't just enjoy life here in dubai. i actually do work hard too! :P anyway, here's another installment of bits and pieces of dubai for your reading pleasure...

1. signal at the signal!

the first time i rode in a taxi, i get so puzzled when the driver asked me (in indian accent - about 90% of taxi drivers here are from india or pakistan), "turn right at the next signal?" i was like, "har, what signal??" then only i realized that their word for "traffic light" is "signal". so weird...

2. door step delivery

you can get almost anything delivered to your doorstep here. for bigger establishments like mcD or pizza hut etc, they impose a minimum order for delivery, as well as a delivery charge. but for smaller businesses, like sundry shops or smaller restaurants, they'll deliver for free. just call them up, order something over the phone and they'll deliver it right to your doorstep on a bicycle. heck, you can even have your laundry and dry cleaning delivered to you!

3. funny address

M was asking for my address in dubai and when i gave it to her, her first reaction was, "wah, your address sounds more like directions. really like that one ah?"

yes, all the addresses here are more like directions than address. "corner of A and B road", "behind C building", "next to D mall" etc. really beh-tahan! and we don't have a postal system here too, as in, no postman will come deliver your letters to your door step, unless it's by courier companies like dhl, fedex etc. it's funny, considering they deliver everything else! but i guess with the primitive address system, it's hard to have a proper postal system. when we call for delivery, the delivery man will be calling us up when they're near to ask for directions. so i guess it won't be viable for the postman to be calling up each and every resident in a particular area for directions. the only sure way of getting your letters is by renting a p.o. box at your nearest post office.

4. recharge

i don't know about you, but when i think of the word "recharge", i'll associate it with batteries, energy, spirit etc. but here, apparently it's also related to your phones. not your phone batteries, but your phone prepaid credit! back home, we call it "reload", but it's "recharge" here. not sure how that came about, but then maybe the people here will think we're the weird one for calling it "reload" :D

5. clean city

it's weird that when you're walking in the streets of dubai, it's really hard to find a rubbish bin in sight. this is really frustrating when you want to throw something. you'll need to hold on to your rubbish until you come to a rubbish bin (which most of the time is NEVER) or when you reach home. but even with the lack of rubbish bins spotting the streets, the city is still very clean. seldom do we see any rubbish on the streets. and even more rare is the sigh of street sweepers. as far as i can recall, i've never seen any street sweeper on the streets here. it's either they don't exist or they work the graveyard shift. maybe the penalty imposed on litterbugs are so severe that people here refrain on littering? but we don't see any police or municipality personnel on the street, issuing out summons to litterbugs. so how come the streets here are so clean??

ok, that's all for now. stay tuned for the next episode of "bits of dubai", brought to you by "bits and pieces of me"! :P