I remember being carved up by a moron in a freaky little vehicle in Doha , and when I finally caught up with the arse-head, he had a two digit number plate ( UH-oh!) and painted, in English was the legend "DOOM BUGGY".
Sometimes discretion is the better part of valour.....

Its really not worth getting into an altercation with ANYONE here: you're not going to benefit from it, and you never know what wasta they have, local or not.

Bad stuff can happen anywhere at any time, but there still is no need to have a 1-hour get-out plan. The Arab Spring isn't going to happen in Dubai. And UAE generally shies away from conflict, unless it's over commercial issues.

What are you people expecting? The Rapture?

My plan? Loot the empty houses and sell your stuff back at a reasonable cost when you return.

Me thinks you may have got the wrong end of the stick. Most people's get-out plans would probably relate to an unforeseen personal arrest or imminent deportation rather than to anything political affecting the UAE as a whole. I may be wrong though.

surely there is a chance Iran could react if the Yanks launched planes from here / Qatar / bahrain ?

not that I have a plan, I was more worried about an airshow tag team from kazakstan dropping on Mirdif than a scud from Iran

That sounds a bit complacent.

The middle east is a dangerous unstable place. Period. There were brits happily living in Kuwait in 1990, probably didn't think they needed a 1hr plan. And then Iraq invaded and they all ended up with forced smiles on TV while meeting Saddam Hussein.

You'd probably get a bit of warning if there was an Arab spring, but not if there was a coup or invasion. Or a major terror attack like Mumbai few years back targeting westerners.

But the most likely reason for having to get out quick is due to some personal circumstances.

I am sure we've all had friends who've ended up in jail or wanted for things that weren't their fault (I know one guy who just happened to be the highest ranking non-local in a company when a worker died in an industrial accident).

Probably more useful than a 1-hour get out plan is to think how you might get out in the event your passport was confiscated and you were effectively prevented from leaving the country.

Tehran has just thrown out the UK ambassador.

A guy who works with me (filipino) was really not comfortable with working in KSA after his dad got caught up the the scud missile attacks on Dhahran during gulf war 1. He's now thinking about leaving, and I don't blame him.

How long should I think about this before realising a) I'm not important enough for the British Embassy to smuggle me out, b) I'm not connected to the armed forces, so they couldn't smuggle me out either, c) I'm a fairly strong swimmer but its a fercucking long way to anywhere civilised. Or am I missing the obvious solution?

Time to make some friends in
a) the British Embassy
b) The armed forces
c) companies with evacuation plans (e.g. the oil sector)

Yes, I can vouch for that scenario. A very good friend of my boss faces court action and possible imprisonment because of an industrial accident at a location he rarely visited simply because the Police wanted to arrest a senior non-Emirati manager. His Xmas holiday plans have been completely ruined.

Seems an odd reaction bearing in mind what happens back home.http://gulfnews.com/news/world/phili...three-1.938886

Yeah I thought it a little odd too. Turn's out the lad's dad was traumatised by the Scud attacks, gets him all jittery when he hears a load noise. Must have rubbed of on him.