Driving in the UAE

If you fancy a quick dash to Dubai Do Buy, then this news may be of some use to you.

It appears that the gentlemen over in the UAE have finally decided to start actively enforcing road fines on foreign-registered vehicles visiting their emirates. An email has been doing the rounds on the expat circuit for some time now, so it may be old news to some of you.

Some of the pictures in the email are clearly dated, I mean, just look at the cars in the pictures.

In fact, it may be worth wondering about where exactly these pictures were taken - any evidence that they were even taken in the UAE?!

Anyway, the next two pictures in the email did grab my attention:



It appears that the boy's in Dubai have figured out that they can turn a tidy profit catching people speeding in residential area's - and about time too! Now here's the key facts rumoured in the email:

1. The speed limit in residential area's (eg where all those villas are) is 40 KM/h.

2. Don't drive down the hard-shoulder on any high-ways - harsh penalties will be levied if you're caught.

3. Unless otherwise noted, speed camera's have been set to 10 KM/h over the posted limit.

4. The Jumeirah road is apparently pegged at 80, and the camera's are set at 81 KM/h.

5. A first offence nets a fine of Dhs 1,500, a second offence lands you in jail for 3 days.

Now it's most probably nonsense that has been emailed around, but there's usually some elements of truth to these rumours.

Rather amusingly, James from Oman Oman Oman recently went to renew his registration on his car, and was alarmed to have been informed that he had a fine levied on him from Dubai, and he had to pay it before he could renew his registration. Interested, he looked at the apparent speed he was fined for, and was rather shocked to see that the Dubai police reckoned he was going 3225 KM/h. And rather than handing him a medal for breaking the land-speed record, the ROP guy simply said, "you must pay the fine - RO 63". The fact that there was clearly an error on the ticket and that it's just simply not possible to get any car to go even remotely as fast as that, or that anyone driving that fast should be put in jail, that was just conveniently ignored by the ROP officer manning the desk.

It appears that there is no method to question these UAE-levied tickets, and that you must pay them in order to renew your registration. It would seem that they have us all over a barrel - and surely some sort of QA/QC process must be in place? I mean, come on, 3225 KM/h and that doesn't even raise the slightest of questions that perhaps, maybe, the recorded speed was wrong? Just maybe?

Have you been fined for speeding in Dubai lately? How about driving through SALIK gates without a valid account?

le fin.

Oman's got cash, and Dubai doesn't! Oh, and Oman's 40th year of peaceful rule.

Headlines has never really been my forté, but there we are.

Two interesting news stories over the last few days:

1/ Dubai World fails to reach a deal to refinance its $23.5 bn debt with the core group of 7 investors. And this does not even represent 25% of the debt crises that is facing the boy's up the road - the emirate of Dubai is estimated to have $109 bn debt by the International Monetary Fund. On the bright side, the hotel rates and the sales in the mall's are fabulous at the moment! I found it incredible, that with such debt's on the Emirate's books, that they then decided to place an order for $9.1 bn worth of planes recently at the Farnborough Airshow. Unresponsible much?


2/ Oman recently posted a budget surplus of RO 421.2 mn for Q1 2010, when it was expected that there would be a RO 800 mn deficit for this year. This is presumably because oil prices have rebounded a lot quicker than was anticipated... good news for Oman so far.


Also, you will have probably noticed that Oman saw it's 40th year of rule under His Majesty, Sultan Qaboos bin Said. This is the definitive example of benevolent dictatorship and when you look at his score-card you may well be amazed at what he's done for this country, one of only two remaining Sultanates in the world.

There are many fact-files on HM to be found dotted around the internet, so I'm not going to re-create that here, but I did want to share this potted history of his early life with you all:

He was born at al-Husn Palace in Salalah, Dhofar, on the 18th November 1940 and was the only son of H.H. Sultan al-Wasik Billah al-Majid Sayyid Sa’id bin Taimur, Sultan of the Saidi State of Muscat and Oman and dependencies. He went to school in the Saidiyyah School in Salalah, Dhofar, and then Feltsham House in Bury St Edmunds, UK. After this, he attended the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He was subsequently commissioned into the British Army as a 2nd Leftennant attached to the 1st Battalion of the Cameronians. He then went on to serve for 1 year in what was then West Germany in 1962-63, after completing this, he then served as a trainee in the Bury St. Edmunds Council (working in public administration and accounting) between 1963-64.

Now, thats a pretty good education I reckon, and it may help to explain the UK's special relationship with the Sultanate.

Thats all for today.

le fin.

Dubai Do Buy, and Bertha the 4x4

I recently took a trip up to Dubai, and wanted to share my experiences with you all.

Firstly, because Ikea is having a sale, I decided to drive up in my 4x4. Now to people that know me, and know the 4x4 in question, the first words out of their mouths upon hearing this news was, "Are you sure Bertha is going to make it"? Cheeky buggers.

Four and a half hours after setting off on Thursday, we arrived at our destination, the hotels at Festival City. Now Bertha is not a particularly pretty 4x4, I like to refer to her as mature. So pulling up to the concierge of a 5* hotel in Bertha was a touch embarrassing, but it's over and done with now! To further entertain you all, when waiting for the valet to return Bertha to me on Friday, after a longer than expected wait, Bertha finally emerged from where-ever it was that they had stashed her. The driver got out of the truck and said to me rather angrily "too much problems sir". Is there no end to the insults that dear old Bertha has to endure?

First piece of local news: Some clever spark at the Ministry of Roads & Transportation has clued-in to the fact that having turning lanes on high-ways where people drive at speeds over 120 KM/h is probably not the best way to go about things. I report with great pleasure that almost all (but not all) of the turning lanes that you encounter on the highway to the Hatta border are now, or currently, being closed off with guard rails.

This is excellent news for drivers going up and down the highway. I'm not sure how happy I would be if I lived in one of the towns or villages that straddles the highway with no round about to cross the highway (somewhat) safely. I guess that means that some fly-overs are in the pipe works then.

Back to Dubai. As I wrote above, I was visiting Dubai for a spot of Ikea shopping. The sale this year is particularly good, and as the Undercover Dragon would put it, I managed to secure a 4x4 load of treasures (albeit flat packed) for my return.

At the border leaving Oman, and entering into the UAE, I was expecting the ROP officer to ask me for my Orange insurance booklet, but that never happened. I guess that initiative fizzled out already then. The UAE security check point on both Oman borders at Abu Badi / Ar Rawdah is now a permanent thing, with little huts for the guards to stand in. The road works that were under way in Madam (and Sohar for that matter) are now complete. There also appears to be a new speed camera (or something) on the Hwy 44 between Madam and Lahbab. It's an Omani style, in the sense that it captures the rear of your vehicle, but perhaps it's not operational. I drove past it at 120 KM/h thinking that was the limit, only to find out subsequently that the limit was in fact 100 KM/h. Just a warning to anyone planing on making the drive. The camera's are on that stretch of road that goes through the desert dunes.

And that's it for today. Tomorrow, hopefully, something amusing for you all.

le fin.