Anyone living in the UAE or Qatar?

Nanoman

Nanoman

Nanoman

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Hi,

I am currently out in Doha, Qatar with work. I've been to a few countries now but non have made me want to live there until I visited Qatar.

This place seems too good to be true.

From what I've gathered so far:


  • The country is clearly extremely wealthy!
  • You pay pretty much zero tax!!
  • Prices seem pretty much the same as the UK
  • The place is extremely westernised, I walked past Debenhams earlier lol
  • The place is amazingly clean (tbh I think everything is just new)
  • The buildings/skylines are immense. Doha City Centre is just jaw dropping, you are surrounded by absolutely mammoth skyscrapers
  • The weather is perfect at the moment
  • The place seems extremely safe, I've walked through a few areas site-seeing and no one bats an eyelid. Looking at crime-rates confirms this
  • Generally everyone seems really friendly. People actually flash you down and pull over to give you a lift if they see you walking
  • Most common cars seen on the street - BMW, Mercedes, GMC, Lexus, Honda, VW & Porsche
  • The guy here told me petrol was: "a quarter of an English pound per litre". 25p lol?
  • It is quite multicultural, which to be honest I do prefer when you are a minority. In a few places I've been, especially India, people constantly stare at you as white people look odd.
Yesterday I sat for hours staring out into the clear blue Gulf with an immense skyline in amazing weather just weighing up the above against the UK. I was finding it extremely hard to justify staying in the UK (currently no family attachments, etc.)

I understand the grass is not always greener. However, weighing up the cons:

  • The weather is probably too much in summer, today it was around 25-30 which was perfect for me but in summer it's 40+
  • The roads are quite dangerous, the cars travel a lot faster here. Roads which are 40MPH in the UK are 80KPH in Qatar (about 50MPH) but most drivers travel faster than this due to fairly relaxed law on speeding.
  • You can't drink in public, which may be a pain but tbh I don't drink much any more (but this is mainly due to the travelling I'm doing tbh).
  • Potential political concerns with some of the neighbouring countries?
Is anyone living in Qatar or other parts of the UAE such as Dubai? What is it really like?

Honestly if work sent me to Dubai (which I've heard is Qatar on Class-A) I doubt I will come back.
 
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You've mainly got to remember to respect their culture, such as not drinking in front of people when they are fasting, and that it's their country and not western laws, which is where most people fail when they go to places like Dubai.
 
My brothers work and live in Dubai. You mentioned the fact that it is extremely safe and extremely clean, then you mentioned "not allowed to drink in public" as a con. I'm sorry buddy, it would be a little difficult to maintain the safety and cleanliness if drinking became something of a norm in that country, especially with some people going way overboard.

I will agree with you in saying that it is simply too hot in the summer but Iv always seen the middle-east to have more of a night-life than anything.

My brothers are perfectly happy with life over there, dubai rated safest city in the world at one point?

So yes, enjoy the 0 tax, the safety, the cleanliness as well as the brilliant treatment that the British get over there.

Furthermore, Qatar is certainly the place to be, we're all expecting big things over there around 2016-2022 years. Big projects.
 
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KoubaDZ said:
I will agree with you in saying that it is simply too hot in the summer but Iv always seen the middle-east to have more of a night-life than anything.
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Yes that is another thing I've noticed (which I like) the streets are busier at night than during the day (obviously because of the heat).
 
I think DampCat might be living over in the UAE at the moment and there's a few more close such as inferno who is/was in Abu Dhabi.

I've never been to any of the Gulf States but in regard to the low crime rates, I'm not convinced that the trade off vs personal freedom is at the correct balance to make it attractive enough for me - that and the heat would drive me insane.

//edit and Hamish is in Dubai I believe.
 
Andr3w said:
It's also around £10 for a pint and you can only drink in hotels
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Abu Dhabi has off licenses, and the hotels sell crates of booze out the back. At night, the locals all turn up in their 4x4s and stock up to take home. Quite funny seeing it happen. You need to apply for an alcohol license though.

Some years since I was there, but I would recommend ACS over The British School if you have children. I went to ACS, my brother British School and my parents and I feel that ACS was better.
 
Doha is widely regarded as a VERY boring place, this is an opinion shared amongst most people who live in the middle east. I live in Abu Dhabi, from what I have heard, Qatar is the most restrictive of all the gulf countries and requires a visa to EXIT the country.

UAE on the other hand is pretty decent, forget all the expensive cars and glittery buildings though, they wear off pretty quickly. I work for an airline and I am out of the country a lot. I think having a 9-5 job would soon get very boring and you would go a little crazy, this is a view shared by most of my friends. Basically for someone who is in their 20's all there is to do is work, go to for food, go for drinks, go to the pool or go to a shopping centre ( the ones in Dubai are good, in Abu Dhabi pretty boring) I know that does not sound bad, but every day is very similar, you will only shop in a mall, forget the idea of ever walking down a 'highstreet', only shops you will see there are Indian ones and the only people you will see are Indian men!

The flashing at people walking down the street is probably to offer people a lift, but I think they have other intentions aswell, whether you are male or female!:eek:

I have perhaps painted a negative picture, but I still like it, if you think your personal freedoms will be curtailed, I would not be worried, I noticed no difference, but I have not had a brush with law thankfully.

Oh and you will have to get used to everyone coming to this country thinking they are a big deal because they can buy a decent car or a bottle of belvedere at the night club, the standard of women is also far far higher than back home, no question!
 
RomanNose said:
If you like getting your arm cut off for having a bit of a session on the beach with your wife then you will enjoy it.
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Useful.

My uncle has lived in Abu Dhabi and Dubai for the past 20 years. He's brought up a young family out there (now 9 and 14 years of age).
He enjoys the lifestyle, the expat lifestyle. He lets his kids roam fairly freely, something he would never consider in the UK.

Yes, the UAE has its Islamic laws, but they don't restrict he and his family all that much and on my visits the only time I'm reminded that it's an Islamic State is when the mosques pipe up.

They live extremely well and I envy them.
 
Jimmeh said:
He lets his kids roam fairly freely, something he would never consider in the UK.

they don't restrict he and his family all that much

They live extremely well and I envy them.
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Exactly, and those were the objectives of the previous (now deceased) Sheikh of UAE.
 
From what I heard Qatar is good fun if you're young. One of the guys I work with spent a year out there and really liked it - came back because of his family.

He never had problems with locals/police - as along as you're not being a drunken lout in the street they leave you alone.
 
inferno said:
Doha is widely regarded as a VERY boring place, this is an opinion shared amongst most people who live in the middle east. I live in Abu Dhabi, from what I have heard, Qatar is the most restrictive of all the gulf countries and requires a visa to EXIT the country.

UAE on the other hand is pretty decent, forget all the expensive cars and glittery buildings though, they wear off pretty quickly. I work for an airline and I am out of the country a lot. I think having a 9-5 job would soon get very boring and you would go a little crazy, this is a view shared by most of my friends. Basically for someone who is in their 20's all there is to do is work, go to for food, go for drinks, go to the pool or go to a shopping centre ( the ones in Dubai are good, in Abu Dhabi pretty boring) I know that does not sound bad, but every day is very similar, you will only shop in a mall, forget the idea of ever walking down a 'highstreet', only shops you will see there are Indian ones and the only people you will see are Indian men!

The flashing at people walking down the street is probably to offer people a lift, but I think they have other intentions aswell, whether you are male or female!:eek:

I have perhaps painted a negative picture, but I still like it, if you think your personal freedoms will be curtailed, I would not be worried, I noticed no difference, but I have not had a brush with law thankfully.

Oh and you will have to get used to everyone coming to this country thinking they are a big deal because they can buy a decent car or a bottle of belvedere at the night club, the standard of women is also far far higher than back home, no question!
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Really? That's not the impression I got from people who have worked there but then maybe they never had any issues which highlighted this.
 
A Visa was required for entry but they simply asked where I had come from and how long I was staying for, paid $16 iirc and then my passport got stamped. The guys I've spoken to so far here say it is not hard to get a permit to work/live at all.
 
Cons of the UAE? Perhaps the dark age like society where homosexuality is punished by imprisonment, along with many other mundane western practises? Even to contribute to such a countries economy is unethical.
 
inferno said:
Doha is widely regarded as a VERY boring place, this is an opinion shared amongst most people who live in the middle east. I live in Abu Dhabi, from what I have heard, Qatar is the most restrictive of all the gulf countries and requires a visa to EXIT the country.

UAE on the other hand is pretty decent, forget all the expensive cars and glittery buildings though, they wear off pretty quickly. I work for an airline and I am out of the country a lot. I think having a 9-5 job would soon get very boring and you would go a little crazy, this is a view shared by most of my friends. Basically for someone who is in their 20's all there is to do is work, go to for food, go for drinks, go to the pool or go to a shopping centre ( the ones in Dubai are good, in Abu Dhabi pretty boring) I know that does not sound bad, but every day is very similar, you will only shop in a mall, forget the idea of ever walking down a 'highstreet', only shops you will see there are Indian ones and the only people you will see are Indian men!

The flashing at people walking down the street is probably to offer people a lift, but I think they have other intentions aswell, whether you are male or female!:eek:

I have perhaps painted a negative picture, but I still like it, if you think your personal freedoms will be curtailed, I would not be worried, I noticed no difference, but I have not had a brush with law thankfully.

Oh and you will have to get used to everyone coming to this country thinking they are a big deal because they can buy a decent car or a bottle of belvedere at the night club, the standard of women is also far far higher than back home, no question!
Click to expand...

More or less agree with this. I have spent a fair bit of time in Abu Dhabi, and it is certainly less restrictive than Qatar. I agree you would probably go crazy living there for too long - the weather is very draining as well in the summer when it can hit 50 degrees.

The only place I could probably survive would be Dubai, but even then, meh.
 
Energize said:
Cons of the UAE? Perhaps the dark age like society where homosexuality is punished by imprisonment, along with many other mundane western practises? Even to contribute to such a countries economy is unethical.
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Daily Mail reader? lol
 
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