Life in Dubai 1

You will need an insurmountable amount of patience to live here. It is a definite MUST. I can go on and on but I shall kick off with an incident I witnessed today while it is still fresh in my mind.

I take the public bus home most days after work. While not the most pleasant of experiences, it still gets me home rather than wait hours for a cab. The interior of the buses are separated into two areas with seating for women in the front and a larger seating cum standing area from the mid section to rear for the men. Now if the female seating area is fully occupied, the driver will not let any more women board the bus.

The lady in front of me tried to get on. She didn't mind that there weren't any more seats in the ladies section. The bus driver tells her no. She pleads "Please, I've been waiting for an hour!" the driver says "No, if they catch me they will fine 300 Dirhams!" (They probably being the RTA*). The lady dejectively gets off the bus and I get in. Meanwhile everyone else on the bus must have been thinking "Hey I don't make the rules..." My heart goes out to that woman.

*Road & Transport Authority