Bur Dubai
 

What is Bur Dubai like as place to live? Anyone know what the area is like in general?

I used to live there when I first arrived. I moved there on a bit of a whim actually. Nice flat, top floor of a 12 storey building looking out to sea. It also looked over a taxi stand/bus stop which wasn't much of a big deal. the big deal was being woken on our first morning at sunrise with the call to prayer. I almost shat myself! Our real estate guy showed us the flat when the mosques were quiet! Saying that, it was a new 2-bedroom with huge balconies, cooker, A/C etc for Dhs2,200p/m.
It is a lively place and good for real, cheap curries etc. If you don't like being stared at or the sound of people clearing their throats and gobbing on the floor you'll like it. After a year we moved out and went and lived in the net.com building near Lamcy which was great. Management were a bunch of tossers though- I forget the name of the company, one of the biggies. Deal with them very carefully.
In short, it's not a bad place but there are better.

Thats great - thank you soo much for that info, cleared alot of things ;). Are there any dodgy places in Dubai generally that one should be aware of?

I will be working in the Jabel Ali Free Zone, is that far from Bur Dubai and what is the public transport like in general?

You will be very, very far away from JAFZ. There are a lot of new housing developments in southern Dubai - near JAFZ - one of these is The Gardens.

You do NOT want to spend 2-4 hours a day spent in shitty Sheikh Zayed road commuter traffic.

I know it is bad on Sheikh Zayed Road but never knew it as that bad in the morning. So would you say Sheikh Zayed or Ittihad Road is worse istara?

Well uk1raver, istara is right if the traffic is that bad, you dont want to be spending that much time in traffic which would definately screw up any time for enjoyment, which would leave you with 3 things in life: sleeping, driving, and working. Dont think about public transport as that will not do for you, you will definately need a car, so if you dont have a driver's license, I would advise you to get one before you come.

There are a number of real estate popping up closer to JAFZ, which you should consider, but if I am not mistaken, most of them are property for sale and not for rent.

Ittihad is Satan incarnate in tarmac.

But unless you are commuting from Sharjah, it won't be an issue. Generally, the aim it to avoid commuting southwards. So if you do have to get to south of Dubai each morning, try to live closer: Jumeirah, Umm Seqeim, Jebel Ali Village/Gardens - or one of the new developments such as Emirates Lakes or The Greens.

It is not always Sheikh Zayed road itself that is the issue in the mornings - it is getting on to Sheikh Zayed road from the crowded and ill planned side streets and minor roads of Bur Dubai.

Like you said istara, they really need to improve the roads in order to deal with the high volume of traffic at rush hours, or else improve the public bus system so much that people would give up driving their cars. I really loved riding the buses and trains in Canada, and is definately one thing that makes me homesick.