I had a great blast in Dubai

This entry will serve as the last post in this blog. I want to wrap up my entire Dubai experience in this final post and, after that, move on.

Do I regret taking up the Long Term Assignment to come to Dubai? Never ever. I enjoyed every single moment of it. If anyone is thinking of moving to another country, another continent or another planet and ask for my opinion, I would, without a hint of hesitation, tell them to go for it.

Listen to your gut. If you know in your heart you want to try something new, do something different and experience something fresh, pay zero attention to the negativities around you and ignore the inner fear that you might have and embrace the opportunity.

Were there rude comments about my move to Dubai 2 years ago? Absolutely. Was I bothered by them? A tiny bit. Did I reconsider my move to Dubai based on those comments? No way. Important decisions like these have to be made up by one's own. I just made up my mind when this chance was offered to me and didn't ask anyone for opinions. But free advices and comments came from all directions bombarded me left, right and centre. Of course there were people who gave their approval of my decision. Once again, I didn't really give a damn if anyone approve of my life altering decision or not.

Perhaps I sound aloof here. I do treasure some friendly advices and comments from people close to my heart. What I am trying to say here is, don't stop doing something you want to do because of someone's casual comments.

To sum it all up, I had a great blast in Dubai. I had the time of my life and I am very happy to be given the chance to experience the rise of the Gulf. But I am ready to move on with my life. Life is too short to do something that I don't truly love, or to be stuck in the same place when there are plenty of places for me to explore. On that note, I am ready to close this chapter and move forward to another.

So, thank you to you, my dear reader, for following my thoughts throughout this entire journey. I hope this ride with me has been enjoyable. Would there be another "my XXX experience" in the future? Perhaps. We just never know.

I wish all my readers the best of luck in all your future endeavours. And 'til we meet again, you take care.

A blur

My last day in Dubai (15th July 2009) felt like a blur. Everything happened so quickly and so fast that I could only vaguely remember it.

I returned the apartment keys to the housing agent at 9 in the morning. I said goodbye to this humble abode where I spent 2 fabulous and unforgettable years in the Middle East.

I apologised if this blog entry sounds self-indulgent but I would like to commiserate my departure with all these last few pictures I took in the flat.

The front door

The entire set of keys

The entrance

The power box

The air con control and the phone to the reception lobby

The shower room

The washing basin *please excuse me for the mess*

The switches

More switches

My closet *and nothing is hiding inside it*

My room

My room again

My living room

The kitchen

Cabinets in my kitchen

My fridge

Kitchen sink

Kitchen corner - catcat's favourite hang out place

Oven, where all the cakes were baked

Stove

Kitchen switches

More kitchen switches

My washing machine

The corridor

After leaving the flat, I went back to the office for my last day of work. At 5, I bided farewell to every single one at Arup and drove my way to Dewa office to pay for my final bill.

My work station in Dubai office


Despite an earlier visit I paid to the head office 1 week ago, I need to wait for one hour for my final bill to arrive. I paid it off and went back to Burjuman to spend all my cash. I bought a wallet because I could pay for it with all the cash I had with me, and it was small enough to fit into my cabin luggage.

After that, I drove to the Dubai International Airport and returned the hired car back to Hertz. And then, there's no turning back.

This was my final air ticket that brought me home.

再見了, Miu Miu.

Miu Miu (also known as Catcat to some of my readers) is leaving Dubai at 0245 tonight. She is taking Emirates Airline EK 432 and will reach Singapore at 1405 on the 15th.

I entrust Miu Miu with the same pet carriers again for both the Dubai and Singapore legs. I also get a new carrier for her. She develops anxiety every time I try to push her into her cage and I suspect she associates that cage with bad memories. Anyway, I can always pass the old one to Tiger (my sister's kitty).

Miu Miu in her new pet carrier

And the journey of bringing Miu Miu back to DKC in my Yaris was such a déjà vu. I remember I brought Miu Miu home in a rented Yaris 2 years ago when I first moved into my apartment. It felt like everything was coming into a full circle. It certainly felt that way to me but I think Miu Miu would disagree.

Miu Miu sitting in her old carrier on the front seat with a safety belt


If anyone would like to transport their pets to or from Dubai, or to find a boarding place for their pets during vacation, I would highly recommend Dubai Kennels and Cattery. I am extremely pleased with their services and Miu Miu seems to relax a tiny bit (which says a lot!) when she is in their hands.


I shall see her in Singapore after her 30 days quarantine. I hope her weight loss this time would not be as drastic as what she had 2 years ago.

Eighth item to go : The love of my life - Miu Miu
Time of Departure : 0245 15-Jul-09

auf wiedersehen, my furniture.

Global Relocations is the company that is recommended to me by the company's HR for, well, global relocations. They spent the whole day packing my stuff and I was very impressed with the care they took with my items.

I came to Dubai 2 years ago with 12 cardboard boxes, 2 luggage and a cat. I am leaving tomorrow with 49 boxes, 2 luggage and a cat.


Of course, they dismantled some of the tables and chairs into several boxes so the number of boxes was not a true representative of my belongings. But I am sure I have more stuff now than I had 2 years ago. This shows the power of the golden arrow. If you have no idea what the golden arrow means, watch this.

Seventh item to go : (accurately speaking, it should be 7th to 56th. But hey, you get the idea.) Furniture and stuff
Time of Departure : 1700 14-Jul-2009

Sayonara, HSBC cards

Went to the bank in Jebel Ali Free Zone to do some banking stuff and to terminate my account. The HSBC in Dubai is not connected to any other HSBC branches in the world so I have to do this while I am still in Dubai.

Believe it or not, this was the first time I drove to Jebel Ali free zone. Trucks and long vehicles were everywhere. It was very dusty on the road. I managed to find Gate 3 with ease and cashed in the cheque I collected from Peugeot Showroom (Yes, I sold the car back to the showroom where I got it from 2 years ago) at National Bank of Dubai and walked across the street to close my HSBC account.

Surprisingly, it all went smoothly and took less than an hour. For that, I am very grateful.

Sixth item to go : HSBC account + ATM card + credit cards
Time of departure : 1300 14-Jul-09

Biggest Scam Ever

DEWA is having a campaign to encourage the public to pay their bills online. The poster above claims that it is giving away a laptop every day, and a Camry every 3 months.

Big Fat LIARS.

In the past 2 months, I had this message coming up onto my screen every time I tried to pay any of my bills online.

Either they were trying to let only a selected few to pay their bills online so that the chosen ones would get their hands on the "valuable prizes" , or they had such overwhelming responses that the website crashed.

Either way, I can't pay any bills using epay now. What a successful campaign.

Request for DEWA final bill

After numerous futile attempts to pay the DEWA bills online for the past two months and hearing nothing from DEWA after my request for the final bill, I decided to call the DEWA office to sort it out.

Due to my circumstances (I am leaving the apartment and Dubai on the same day), I was advised to bring my air ticket to any DEWA offices to request an express final DEWA bill to be made on the last day.

I searched for the location of DEWA offices online and I could not for the life of me figure out what was written on this map.


Can you gather any information, or anything at all, from this map? It's incredible, don't you think?

In the end I had to pick the DEWA Head Office, which is located near Grand Hyatt which I know the exact location, and searched for it after a 15 minutes drive around the neighbourhood.

This is the only map on the DEWA website I can comprehend.


I went to the counter and waited for 10 minutes before being served. Then I was instructed to go to a room to talk to a supervisor regarding my special request. After that, I was asked to go back to the same counter to get some numbers. Consequently the lady at the counter had to leave her desk and talked to that supervisor.

Finally, I was told to go back to the DEWA office on my final day and pay the final bill. They will disconnect the electricity and water on my last day. I just hope I will get the chance to at least take a shower in the morning before they cut off everything. Let's just hope.

What's inside the Salik Tag?

I just sent an email to customerservice@salik.ae to terminate my Salik account. With an obsolete Salik tag, the only thing I can do is to cut it open.

There's nothing spectacular, just a little computer chip and some foils.

I still have 28 AED in my account but I was told that I would not be able to get back the balance. Too bad.

So keep the change, RTA.

Au revoir, Peugeot.

The next item to go is my trusty Peugeot. It has served me very well for the last 2 years despite the crazy engine noise, the stupid cassette player, the 80's manual side mirror adjustment system, the 60's window and door locking system, and the squeaky windscreen wiper which drives me nuts. So merci beaucoup, my little french car.

Obviously, all the other car accessories went with it left me at the same time. They were the salik tag, the car keys and the car registration card.

Second item to go: Car registration card
Time of departure: 1000 08-Jul-09

Third item to go: Salik Tag
Time of departure: 1020 08-Jul-09

Fourth item to go: Car keys
Time of departure: 1030 08-Jul-09

Fifth item to go: Peugeot 206
Time of departure: 1045 08-Jul-09

However on a bright note, I just hired a Toyota Yaris for my last 7 days in Dubai. Have I told you I hate taking cabs in the UAE yet? Anyway, standing in the street in the middle of nowhere waiting for a taxi during summer is the last thing I need. Furthermore, I would much prefer catcat's last leg to the vet and the catteries to be as comfortable as possible. So here it is, meet my white Yaris.