Bahtatboy

Its one of my bug bears that (at least in AD) there are proper road names and addresses, its just that nobody except newbie or stubborn expats use them. (I was the former, I'm now the latter.)

kittycat1

when your toilet water lets off heat! welcome to the summer!

Meow

But often the roads have two different names and a number. It's confusing.

shiva

these are more along the lines of here too long when. (these are blatently stolen from the interwebs)

When you remember what it was like before it transformed into DO-BUY!

chicago beach hotel! if you have to ask.....

When HIGHWAYs were merely a lane on either side, and if you were lucky they'd be lit at night

When JEBAL ALI HOTEL was the only sign after DUBAI on your way to ABU DHABI

When CITY CENTRE was only one level with no Cinemas

When the DUBAI-ABU DHABI ROAD (Now SHK ZAYED ROAD) was a 2 lane road with roundabouts till you reached Abu Dhabi

When TRADE CENTRE was the biggest building in the gcc and you could see it miles away no matter where you were living

When MIRDIF, WARQA, BUSINESS BAY, BARSHA, THE GARDENS, MARINA, ARABIAN RANCHES and many more were deserts with camels and you needed a proper 4 wheel to drive to those areas

When DUBAI was so small you would recognize and randomly bump into family and friends at restaurants or even while you stopped at a red light

When the current RADISSON SAS DEIRA was the Intercon

When anything past TRADE CENTRE was considered too far

When you had your dad come home for lunch, as all offices used to work on SPLIT SHIFT (8am to 1pm and 4pm to 8pm

shiva

or if your like us your villa was built on a corner and thus doesnt actually have an address or it does but that matches two others close by. oh the fun weve had because of that little gem

Blue Cat

and when Lamcy was burnt down! remember that?

shiva

yup but how many now even remember oasis burning down

Blue Cat

I know, that was a sad day, the new one is nice but not as nice as the original one was

Bahtatboy

I remember Southend Pier burning down.

norsk

this is turning into an 'everything was better in the old days' thing...

was it really better though? or is just that people only remember the good things (and have mentally supressed the bad shit that used to happen)..

one thing is for sure and that is i will never look back on my time in khobar and say things like 'it was a great place' or 'i spent many happy hours on the causeway'..

shiva

4 posts does not a thread make.

That said was it better, yes in a way but no in others. There were less grumpy norwegians I remember that much

norsk

K8-notlate

Dubai in the old days
You knew it had been a good Thursday night by the number of cars littering the centre of Defence R/A ( Dubai Mall FO - for reference)
If you got lost in Dubai, you used the World Trade Centre to guide you home
Going to Deira was like driving to a different country, and for some it still is
Mirdiff was considered really out of the way, never mind being under the flight path
A trip to Jebel Ali required you to pack extra water in the car and make sure you had enough petrol.
You could jump of the CBV pier (now Pier Shit - Al Qasr)
Dubai Offshore Sailing Club and Dubai Country Club were the height of sophistication
The only two hotels with a beach view were Hyatt Regency and Chicago Beach

You know you're in the UAE when
A penguin means more to you than just being a flightless bird
You have to explain to some people, that 'no Filipinos don't adopt random children'
You can go weeks without seeing a cloud
Sonofabitch sand gets everywhere
Some peoples beach activity leaves a lot to be desired
Pregnant singleton celebrities can travel here with impugnity, while merely kissing someone on the cheek will get you banged up
Women expect you to be able to identify them by their eyes, and are really offended if you can't
Taxi drivers spend more time with their hands on the horn that actually steering the car
Most people who own a 4x4 have only driven on to the sand patch at the side of their house

Blue Cat

I preferred it, less traffic, less expats ....

Boomhauer

When there was a time that you had to negotiate taxi fare instead of going by the meter.
When the clocktower roundabout was a defining piece of Dubai .