Good Bye Dubai

Finally, my time in Dubai is up...

The plane went up up and away, and flew passed almost the whole of Dubai. It felt as if someone was laughing at me... like "see what you are missing" kinda thing.. Here are some pictures I managed to snap from my camera

The World Islands...

Another one of the World Islands

Burj Dubai from the sky

Sheikh Zayed Road from the Sky

Emirates Towers and SZR!

Oud Metha

I think this is Business Bay & Parts of Sharjah??

Good Bye Dubai, and Hello Cambridge!!

iJustWannaBeGreen

A few days ago, I set up another blog called iJustWannaBeGreen

http://ijustwannabegreen.blogspot.com

It'll be random stuff on all the green issues I read on the news and thoughts about sustainability and the world....

Using the Singapore way on Dubai cheats.

Describe Singaporeans.
The first thing that comes to people who know them well is that they always complain.
You get complains about good and bad government, hot and cold weather, stupid and smart idiots etc. Anything under the sun, we all complain about it some way or other. Some good, some not so good.

I believe that is the skill I have picked up (only to use selectively) when I live in Dubai. Forget about complaining about the bad side of Dubai. It'll make you pissed off and drive you up the wall. Inefficiencies, annoyance, idiotics... blah blah - these, I still can deal with. No one is perfect.

Then comes the scam artist. I'm proud to say (maybe not so proud) that my Singapore way of complaining to the world worked.

4 months ago, I moved out of my apartment in Dubai, and was meant to get my cheque deposit back. At that time, I was told I'd get my rental deposit back in full within 2 weeks. Week after week, I chased for my money (this is not a small sum... AED4000 equiv to USD$1087).

One week i was given a brand new excuse... such as my final DEWA (electricity) bill, Gas Connection charge bill, scanned copy of the cheque etc... They needed a copy of these requested documents. FINE. I sent it to them (with absolute no acknowledgement of receipt of document).

The final straw came when I had a phone call that said "Madam, you have the wrong rental receipt, we cannot pay you your money back". What the... And there goes the click button.

Using my skill set learnt - ie. the Art of Complaining - I wrote to every body that I thought could assist me in getting my money back - such as... Dubai Police, Dubai Real Estate Regulatory Authority, the newspapers, the real estate agent, the company itself, their parent company, their local sponsors etc etc.

After 6 weeks, I got my money back. When I picked the cheque up, in my file, I saw my complaint email. I'm satisfied that Singapore has equipped us well.

Complaining is not a bad thing. It's a matter of when you complain, and what you complain about!

Very proud to be Singaporean

It's our policy - Citibank

Here's my little encounter with Citibank UAE - which in my personal opinion is probably one of the worst bank I've dealt with.

Me: You have doubled charge one of my transaction for AED154 (equiv to USD$42)

CB: Are you sure?

Me: You should have my statement, why not you check

CB: OK so what do you want to do?

Me: Lodge a complain?

CB: OK, that will cost you AED100 (USD$27)

Me: I've been double charged, and I have to pay for it?

CB: Sometimes it's not our fault

Me: So it's mine?

CB: I didn't say that

Me: Then why do I have to pay AED 100 for the double transaction.

CB: It's our policy

Me: OK (thinking i still could get back AED 54)

CB: Oh, and if we cannot find any fault with your complain, we will charge you another AED 100.

Me: You mean if you screw up your investigations?

CB: It's our policy

Me: Whatever, just put the complain through.

CB: Oh, and we also have to cancel your credit card, and re-issue you a new card. That will take about 7 working days.

Me: WHY? It's just a double charge

CB: It's our policy

Me: Great, I'll cancelling my credit card now.