Dubai: TO DO and Not TO DO

Dubai: A dream comes true. A fabulous city with magnificent buildings, beautiful beaches, largest malls, luxurious hotels, five star restaurants and fancy nightclubs. Dubai is vibrant, luxurious cosmopolitan welcoming different cultures to its precious land and live happily ever after.

Lately and unfortunately this picture suffers from public indecency.

Couple of weeks back a British couple has been arrested as they were spotted kissing in a restaurant at Jumeirah Beach Residence and yesterday it was announced that they were found guilty and charged a month in jail and deportation. Not that they were spotted kissing but they also consumed alcohol.

Two years back another British couple was jailed due to having sex at the beach. That to them that there is a new word now in literature, s’expats!

So what is acceptable and what is not in Dubai? What are the rules for TO DO and not TO DO?

There are no by-the-book guidelines for living in Dubai. Its okay to wear bikinis by the beach and consume alcohol but kissing is no go. UAE law does not specify certain acceptable clothes, but in general specifies that clothes should not be sexually provocative, which could affect the harmony between the country's various nationalities. Law also says that sexual behavior is not allowed, there is a no distinguish between married and unmarried couples when it comes to intimacy in public. Gulfnews had a very good Q&A including all these which can be found here.

People also tend to forget that alcohol is not permitted in UAE. You can have alcohol only at the hotels and restaurants, bars inside the hotel premises but that’s all! And when you have alcohol, it’s better you straight go home and not to hand out. To purchase and consume alcohol, you need to have an ‘alcoholic license’.

So there is no black or white but it’s the common sense. Maybe little conservative but still we have it all. As long as you do not disturb or occupy the others freedom, you’re free. Dubai is one amazing place where 200 different Nationalities and cultures live together with peace and harmony, we respect each others holidays, relagions, customs. I hope this will remain forever.

Beach life!

I always envied to people who lived in Bodrum, popular summer town of Southern Turkey. I thought that they can enjoy beach life everyday whereas `we` people from Istanbul had that chance only couple of times a year and only in summer.

That’s why, when I moved to Dubai, I thought that my life will be all about beach! I’ll enjoy beach life every day, every weekend as long as the weather is warm, which is most of the year in Dubai. That’s why we decided to live in Jumeirah Beach Residence so that beach would be just few meters away from us. Well, guess how many times I have been there during the last year?

I must admit that I have been there last spring couple of times. I got my beach chair, jump on my beach bike, packed gossip magazines, fruits and water. And voi’la! But since maybe last June I haven’t been there at all. Busy city life.

Until today! Today I spent a very stressful day, so I needed something to distract my mind and take myself somewhere else. So I just jumped my bike and went to beach. Around 6pm, sun was going down like a red apple; sea water was warm and nice. So that was the best decision ever. I got over all the stress and here I am happily writing these. And again promising myself that I’ll go to beach more often.

Sandy Weekend

Today is the first day that the guests had left and our beautiful sunny days are back. Yes, they were very lucky to see the rainy and sandy Dubai and only one sunny day during the five days trip. It has been extremely windy and sandy last couple of days that we have a handful of sand even at our balcony on 17th floor. Funnily enough clothes dry much quickly outside; I call ‘the hair-drier effect’ of the warm wind.

Still you can find lots of things to do in Dubai when the weather is really bad. Shopping is the option one. Not a bad one especially the Shopping Festival is in town! At the end our guests had to spend lots of time –and money- at Dubai Mall, Mall of the Emirates and Gold Diamond Park. We have been to Frankie’s one night. This is our ‘round the corner’ Italian with very good risottos, especially asparagus risotto with sautéed goose liver, wood-oven pizzas and alcohol. Well if you know Dubai, you know that we do not get alcohol served everywhere so one more reason to love Frankie’s and despite the bad weather Jazz Festival continued at JBR.

On Friday, I have prepared a Turkish Breakfast. This is a separate article, ‘How to Prepare a Turkish Breakfast in Dubai’. We spent Friday afternoon this time as Dubai Desert Classics at Emirates Golf Club. That was very nice and relaxing afternoon, following Mikko Ilonen as usual. We could not make it to Atlantis Aqua Park but we have been to Nobu at Atlantis - Again! Well, Nobu is a a must-do in Dubai for me anyway. Black cod was fantastic as usual.

I wanted to book a day at Burj Khalifa to visit the Observation Deck together with the guys. Apparently it’s so busy that I had to book an appointment. First I called their hot-line on Wednesday and they had time slot available for Friday at 8pm but it turned out that they do not make any reservations and I had to go to Dubai Mall and get the tickets. Tickets are 100 dirhem but if you just go and want to visit you have to pay 400 dirhem. So guys went to pick up the tickets on Thursday and Friday was no longer available! So, they are busy! In fact only available time was Sunday late evening, which was already too late. So they didn’t have a chance to visit the tower. I think it was good that they didn’t have a chance to visit the Burj Khalifa because it’s now temporarily closed for visitors due to maintenance for a month! It’s been open less then a month and unfortunately due to the heavy traffic, some maintenance required. I am afraid I’ll not visit the place any time soon!

Sound of Jazz

I think that every country has its own unique sound. Different sounds remind me of the places I had a chance to visit. Like Italy, it’s the opera! Imagine you’re in Milan, having a glass of wine at Galleria in the Piazza Duomo and opera in the background. Or Lisbon, Fado reminds me of Lisbon, very dramatic and sad. Spain, agh Spanish guitar, remember Vicky Christina Barcelona. Istanbul is so mix and for me it’s definitely Jazz-Fusion. No orchestra needed, just walk on Beyoglu Street, different type of music blend in together and compose the Fusion. UAE is definitely oriental music in Arabic, live, laud and rich with percussions, immediately cheers you up but you can not listen all the time.

So Dubai having this oriental sound of the city, it was a nice surprise to have some live jazz band at JBR last evening. As an extension of the Skywards Dubai International Jazz Festival, this year ‘World of Jazz’ is taking place at The Walk JBR in front of Paul, and with live performances every evening until Feb 9th.

Yesterday, Daniel Gassin Trio had a really nice gig and it turned out to be that they travelled all the way from Melbourne, Australia for one gig only. I really enjoyed their performance.

So this week, grab your coffee and get to The Walk at JBR to clean your ears and fill your soul with some Jazz tunes, free of charge!

Performances will continue at Media City, between Feb 10 and 19 with admission fee.

Walking Dubai

Dubai is a city that we never walk! At the beginning this was a biggest downside for me because I like to walk and use public transportation and so on. In Istanbul where I used to live, I lived at the heart of the city and walked everywere.

One reason why you can not walk in Dubai is because it gets really hot during summer months (40+c, Yeah!) and other reason is that the things you need in daily life are just spread all over the city. Like we do not have a super market in walking distance.

Well not anymore! Since the JBR walk is now up and running we have everything in walking distance! So I love this! In the evenings, people are just out at streets, cafe's and restaurants are full of people and shops are open till late in the eveining. And now people actualy walk in Dubai. That's fantastic.

Jumeirah Beach Residence -AKA JBR- is one of the newly developped residential area in Dubai where I live. JBR is located at the heart of new Dubai, overlooking the Arabian Gulf and offering plenty of facilities including an access to open beach and the lovely Walk where you can find restaurants, play areas for children, retail stores and hotels etc.

2 years ago when I first moved in, there was simply nothing! It was like a ghost town. But now it's lovely and really enjoyable to spend time outdoors.