Yay I bought Dubai Explorer : Insider's City Guide . I'm not sure if the latest version is available in Singapore but I think its possible to get one. The guide book contains everything you need to know about Dubai itself from the history to culture to great places to hang out. Its gonna be my bible for now and I would be carrying it around in my bag just in case I need to run away from office fatigues.

Its quite interesting that I could find interesting novels/storybooks/magazines in Dubai despite it being a conservative nation population. There are latest Harry Porter book, romance, thriller etc; but albeit its wide range of genre, their books are a bit expensive which is about UAE 42 - 49 Dirhams which is about S$20+.
Talking about price. It's very interesting to discuss about their prices in Dubai. Yesterday night I went to Spinney's which is equivalent to Singapore's NTUC Supermarket. I wanted to buy vegetables to cook at the apartment but I was kinda shocked with ridiculous price they have. A packet of chilli cost about S$8, a cabbage cost about S$7. In Singapore I could get these vegetables at mere a price of less than S$5. So Andie, Joe and me decided to do our regular fried rice instead cos its cheaper and doesn't use much ingredients. Usually only Andhie and Joe cook at the apartment while the rest of us buy our dinner at the supermarket cos we don't really have the time to do groceries and cleaning up after cooking. There are also different types of breads even though they look exactly the same. In Singapore we have different types of breads usually its either Grain, Whole meal, Plain, Milk, Raisins and other sorts of flavors you can think of but in Dubai the bread are somewhat different in a sense of how they cut their bread. They have Thick, Medium or Thin Plain breads or Thick and Medium Grain Breads. Well I didn't really notice it when I bought my first loaf of bread. My first loaf of bread was kinda a bit tough to chew, so I usually end up cutting off the brown edges of the bread cos it's a bit hard to chew. Even right now when I eat the thin breads, the edges are still a tough to chew. They should learn how to make soft breads like we have in Singapore. They have other types of breads like French croissants, and Arabic/Indian breads like Pita, Kubbosse, Naan, Putheena, Aloo Parratta and Parotta (a similar version of Roti Prata but not oily still fattening though).

They do sell pork here in Dubai. In the supermarkets, there is a special area with a big sign saying 'PORK ITEMS - FOR NON MUSLIMS ONLY'. Despite being a Muslim myself I was a bit curious so I went inside to take a look. There is nothing wrong to look at it as long I don't have to purchase it. It's amazing that they have a wide selection of how you want to cook your pork. Even Singapore does not have wide range. They have pork kebabs, peppered pork, smoked pork, pork masala, Maharaja pork etc; so therefore our Singaporean Chinese pork lovers don' have to worry of not getting pork here in Dubai.

And there is something which I learn while in Dubai especially when ordering in Fast Food restaurant like Macdonald's. Here they don't have those easy to read menus, everything is set meals. If I were to buy just a drink or a sundae, I wouldn't know the price until I pay for it cos they don have a menu for individual items. When it comes to ordering extra value meals I have to be certain of what size I want. The regular size meal in Dubai is equivalent to medium size meal in Singapore, so the portion here is somewhat bigger. They have Regular, Medium, Large and Extra Large value meals. When paying for the items you must have exact denomination of coins or notes. They only have 20,50 and 1.00 coins. So if your meal is UAE 5.10, you have to pay them UAE 5.20 and you won't get the UAE 0.10 change, so therefore u lose 10 cents.

They have 2 Singapore restaurants in Dubai. One of them is being Singapore Deli and the other one I've yet to find out. Singapore Deli is own by this Malay family. Ironically they serve Indonesian menus like I've said in my previous entry. The price for their ala carte menu is considered standard price, even though to me it's a bit ridiculous. A plate of fried noodles is S$7.00, a cup of Teh-Tarik is s $3.00, in Singapore I could get a Teh-Tarik for only S$0.80. The food they serve is somewhat alright, not authentic as the one in Singapore but we've have to be understanding cos getting our local ingredients is a bit hard here in Dubai.

Taxi ride's is expensive too. The taxi meter doesn't goes increase by 10 cents per 200 metre. Instead it increase by 50 cents for every few hundred metres. Starting fare when you hire a cab is UAE 3.00 and it would increase to UAE 3.50 instead of UAE 3.10. Taxis are very easy to get here. As for the bus rides, well I haven't try them yet but as far as I know you can pay cash or e-cards which is similar to EZ-Link cards. There are no subway trains in Dubai as yet but they will have one by the year 2009. Dubai would be the first Arab nation to have a subway train system let alone the first train ever.

If you see any documentaries about Dubai showing it as a huge bustle city, that's a lie. Dubai city is actually just a row of skyscrapers along a stretch of highway. Most of these skyscrapers are actually hotels or residential apartments. Once upon a time 10 years ago the same stretch of highway is only surrounded by sand dunes and there is only ONE tall apartment but now its littered with tall apartments and hotels like Shangri-la, Dusit hotel, Le-Meridien and of cos in upcoming years there would more offices coming up as they are still under construction now. And once they are built they would feature the most fantastic designs ever. You can roughly see the contour of the building while it's still in construction stage. It's amazing to see the extreme curves; weird angles which they are able to construct. Most of the skyscrapers you would see in documentaries are actually taken Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi is bigger than Dubai. It's a 1hr 30min drive from Dubai. All those exotic scenes of camel riding, sand boarding, etc; is far away from Dubai but of cos I would make an effort to experience them while staying here for two years, all I need now is a car and group of friends who loves adventures. If only my 3 'brothers' are here. Scott is in NS, Fadhil still in NP, Weiliang going NS soon... damn...