Blue Cat

I live in Al Barsha, in a compound and I love it, no issues with maintenance, we have on site and they come immediately. Google Casablanca Villas, Al Barsha, they are handled by Rocky Real Estate and I think there are a couple empty. They are very family orientated and the kids are always out in the street, very safe.

jackthehat

Mmmmm Al Berkshire! - Not exactly Wokingham is it?

and for those who have a phobia of caps and punctuation . . . .

mmmmm al berkshire not exactly wokingham is it

mikewot

What about the noise? Few of the guys I work with were driven out because of the 'strategic' placement of mosques, lots of locals there.

MrBAH

Thanks ever so much!

AppleMac

LOL - you are not supposed to call it a 'noise'

Yes the Mosques can be a bit loud, but you can get that anywhere (Jumeirah, Marina etc) - you just tune it out in the end.

OleJanx

Just wait until it's not there...that's even worse!

Patsy Stoned

Not an issue,you do get used to it. I live 3 doors from a mosque, I like the call to prayers early in the morning, I sit in the garden with my cup of tea and find it quite soothing

Kim67

I think we must be twins - if there's one thing I miss about Dubai, it would be sitting outside with a tea listening to the evening call to prayer.

mikewot

I guess you didn't experience the shouty ranting, in English, that some of them do

ukfb

That's usually in classier neighbourhoods like The Springs and Arabian Ranches

We miss the mosques and my daughter used to call the Iman, "the singing man" every time she heard a call to prayer.

All the locals we met in Al Barsha were either friendly or invisible.

Meow

Or the shouty ranting in Arabic every Friday lunchtime.

Anyway, if you don't want to be too close, then don't rent a villa next door to a mosque. Seems simple enough. You can't escape it in most areas, but you can choose your proximity.

Kim67

Occasionally on a Friday at lunchtime when we lived in Barsha we would hear the shouty ranty stuff, but don't recall hearing it an Al Safa at all. When we first moved to Dubai we spent a couple of months with friends in the Ranches and never heard a mosque, when we moved to Al Barsha it woke me every morning at 5.30am, I didn't have to set an alarm, but within a couple of weeks, I didn't even hear it any more.

MrBAH

Would you recommend AR then as a good "Yr1" area to live, rather than Al Barsha?

jam25mack

It all depends on budgets, work location, presence of kids etc.

MrBAH

I'd be working in DIFC and do have two kids (and potentially the family Labrador!) so we need somewhere that has good linkages into the financial district, near to good schools (assuming we can get into one which is proving a challenge) and also in close proximity to town centres, walking routes for the dog, leisure for kids, etc etc.