If you are a fan of Fast & Furious, I bet you notice that they mention about the greatness of Burj Khalifa, Dubai. Yeah, it is claimed as the tallest building in the world. Just to give you an overview, Dubai is one of the biggest Emirates in UAE (United Arab Emirates). Here you can find that the competitive spirit is really high where everyone and everything need to be the most of most of most (The biggest mall, the highest building, the most luxurious, etc.).
And here I am now! After finishing 2 terms of study in Switzerland, I am accepted for a year of internship in a 5-star hotel in Dubai. I took Emirates Airline to fly from Indonesia to Dubai with a direct flight for 5 mio rupiah. Quite a good deal.
This hotel that I work with already provided me a nice accommodation, meal and shuttle bus. So in this thing I can save up some money. However, I still can sense that everything here is very expensive, especially meal. For transportation, you can go and take a metro, which is convenient enough to commute. Here are some ways that I do to get settle in this city:
You need to have your original passport to get a mobile number. They won't accept a copy of your passport. There are only 2 providers in Dubai: Du & Etisalat. Etisalat is the oldest company and I think this is the official government's company. Whilst, Du is more casual and I think cheaper package. In this case I use Etisalat because on the day I need my mobile number, Du had a bit of problem in the activation. You can find those SIM card stores everywhere in the mall. To get Internet data on your mobile phone is very expensive compared to Indonesia. I got my basic package with 400MB of data for 84 AED or 25 USD. And here you CAN'T just depend on the Wi-Fi connection.
At home I got the internet because my housemates have been using internet since long time ago, so I only need to chip in. BUT.. if you get a new internet connection, you need to have a certain deposit, and again original passport. The speed of the internet also sucks. It is almost the same speed of internet in Indonesia. This point I don't understand why UAE has a bad internet. They should do something to beat Singapore or Korea if they want to be the first in everything. Lol.
It's basically easy to find. They have Carrefour, Spinneys, and many local markets. However if you are a pork eater, you will find it hard to buy pork.
This is also a troublesome if you don't have a minimum basic salary of 4000-6000 AED. I still remember when I was in The Hague, The Netherlands. The banking process there is sooo easy compared to here. You also need again.. your original passport. Oh, if I haven't mentioned why it's hard to provide original passport on everything, it is because the company will hold your passport to proceed your residence ID. I heard several years ago, company will even hold your passport until you are terminated from the contract.
To withdraw your money you can easily find an ATM with mastercard/ visa/ jcb logo thou.
Most of the foods you will find here are Indian foods, Arabic, and big franchised brands. It is easy to find foods however, it's hard to find the non halal foods, including alcohol. Alcohol consumption needs to be inside the hotel or you can buy if you have alcohol license. To have alcohol license you also need to have minimum salary and can't be a muslim.
So far life is good here. For me as Indonesian, I don't really feel an extreme culture shock. But if I start to compare with the experiences I had when I live in China, NL, & Switzerland, here is very different.
I haven't been around so much, but sure I will share it later when I do. :)
