My roommate from college is in Dubai! I went to see her last Saturday and we had a jolly time catching up and reminiscing over pizza at Vapiano in Dubai Mall. Nice decor, prompt service and good food at reasonable prices :)
She's been transferred here from the NYC Manhattan office thanks to the financial crisis and she's the only female in an office of twenty guys. In spite of having a valid US driver's licence, she can't drive here because you need a passport to go with the licence (no US passport, no licence) and so, she has to go back to her country of citizenship (Poland), renew her licence and fly back. Otherwise, you have to start a long course of driving lessons, take the road test and with the high probability of failure, take it again. I've heard they fail people in Dubai on purpose to discourage people from driving and reduce the number of cars contributing to traffic congestion.
And, if you (God forbid), get into an accident with a UAE national, it's your fault 99% of the time. Driving under influence earns you a shaved head and a term in prison unless your embassy intervenes. Tailgating women drivers is a fun pastime for bored young men and no one bothers to signal before changing lanes at 160 km/hr :P
The good news is that the Dubai Metro should be running by September 2009.
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Driving under influence earns you a shaved head and a term in prison unless your embassy intervenes.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean by driving under influence?
Does all this make life for working women difficult ?
Under influence of alcohol(drunk driving). They're generally nicer to women, I think they're tougher on men.
ReplyDelete