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Dubai – Alcohol License

bence8810 — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 08:13:28 +0000

Hi,

I have just received my alcohol license I was refering to in this post.

To get the license you need to be a non-muslim, you need to have a proper job with a salary that can be proven. If you meet all these requirements, its pretty easy actually. Here is what I did:

I went to the Alcohol store African and Eastern at the Dubai Marina Walk, got the application form and filled it out. I then made a copy of my passport, my drivers license and VISA page. With all this, I went to our finance department and asked for a Non Objection letter which states that my company does not mind me having an Alcohol license. Are you laughing yet? Then, I went to the Dubai Municipality and asked their non-objection statement for getting the license. Once I had the blessings of the Dubai Municipalities, I needed a salary certificate from the same office, and off I was to submit my application. It took 3 weeks, the Dubai Police signed off on it, and the Liquor store called me to have the license picked up.

The cost of the license is 160 Dirhams (~50 USD), and for the same value I got a voucer that can be used at African and Eastern. This actually makes the alcohol license free, and to have it is indeed very necessary in Dubai, should you be ever confronted for drinking.

This is how it looks like, cheers:

Japanese beer “Sapporo” in Dubai

bence8810 — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 05:41:41 +0000

Since the time we left Japan in 2005, I always missed Japanese beers. We used to go out a lot and not once did I miss to have a nice and cold “Asahi Super-dry” or “Kirin Ichiban” or “Sapporo” to go with the food. In Hungary I was able to find Asahi at some major stores like Kaiser’s and Auchan, but in Dubai so far I failed to locate any Japanese brands.

I went to most leagal and illeagal shops here already, and last week I finally found a store selling “Sapporo” beers. Its in Dubai Marina, on the Marina walk, called African and Eastern. You need to have a Dubai alcohol license to purchase. I got a case of 24 bottles, it set me back nicely 264 Dirhams with TAX, which is about $80 USD, more than twice the price of Heineken, Stella or other brands. However, as I missed it so much, I didn’t care for the price and got it.

Since then, every night I open a bottle and enjoy it on our balcony. What a treat………

View from the top of Burj Dubai – the 800 meter tower

bence8810 — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:26:30 +0000

I am sure mostly all of you have heard about the “ridiculous” tall tower, the Burj Dubai that is being built near Downtown Dubai. The tower has already reached its height and its being finished up these days. I recently got a photo that shows the views from the top of the Tower, I can already imagine the prices of the Top restaurants that will offer this view. Here is a peak shot for you, enjoy.

Cheers

P.S.: Those tiny towers you see at the foot of the Burj are “just” around 50 stories high, about twice the size of the largest building in Downtown Budapest. This gives you a sense of just how tall the Burj really is….

Found a good Chinese restaurant serving Cantonese food at JBR

bence8810 — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 06:18:52 +0000

Yuka and I are both big fans of Chinese cuisine, and we have finally found a decent restaurant serving Cantonese food very close to our place. Most good restaurants are located in the Downtown area close to Bur Dubai, Karama and Deira, but this one is really near, located at Jumeriah Beach Residence, which is about 10 minutes drive from us, and 2 minutes from my office.

For weekdays they are serving an all you can eat Lunch with an “a la carte” system, which means you still have to order from the waiter/ress but it you pay the flat fee. It costs 65 Dirhams, which is about 18USD, and the quality of the food is just superb.

The restaurant is called Da Shi Dai, and it seems they don’t currently have website. Anyways, have a look at the picutres below, and if interested, you will find the restaurant by driving from Media City towards JBR, and you stay on the street thats behind the buildings, where the parking places are. Its right next to The Noodle House. Enjoy

Click for more pictures

Chopping tree-tops in The Greens – Dubai

bence8810 — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 06:00:26 +0000

Since in Dubai, we found our home at The Greens, a community named after its surroundings. The Greens is supposed to be a very green, and nature friendly community, and for the most part it really is. Lots of people here have little kids and dogs, as the environment is very friendly towards them. We have been around Dubai mostly everywhere, and yet still not found a place compareable to The Greens. From a foreign country, it might look like “just an ordinary complex”, but in Dubai, it is a uniquely green area.

Last weekend while walking Momo, I was shocked to see that the gardeners started to chop the Tree-tops rather agressively, without taking the well-being of the trees into account. My dad has graduated from an Agricultural university in Hungary majoring in Gardening (that is gardening on a higher level), and growing up with him I learned plenty about how to cut branches off, etc. Even to the untrained eye, what happened in the Greens last weekend must seem very strange and wrong. I heard about a lady (German) who was even shouting at the gardener to immediately stop this butchering, but of course he has no intentions on stopping, as he would put his job at risk.

We also have to take the fact into account that the guys chopping the trees are the same ones painting the walls, and washing the cars around the lots. The sense of professionalism is missing by large, and I don’t see a chance to this changing in the future at all. The most important thing is cheap labour and keeping the community as neat as possible. Sure, these trees will look neat in a few months to come provided the excellent weather we have here, but still, it does not justify the agression towards them. Have a look at the pictures.

For more pics, read on…

This is alongways the process, you can see the chopped ones on the left, and the original ones on the right. I dont know what was wrong with them to be honest…..

However, if we put this chopping aside, the community seems rather clean and organized. There are surely 100′s of men working on the upkeep, I see them every day in herds cleaning the streets, gathering leaves and cutting grass.

This is a sign the put in the middle of a sand-pot indicating that there is a change to come. Hopefuly they will plant some flowers, so that it will look decent.

Short trip to Ras Al Khaimah

bence8810 — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 05:16:07 +0000

Hi,

We took a weekend drive to Ras Al Khaimah, another Emirate in the UAE. To get there, we had to cross through Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman and Umm Al Quwain. It sounds like a long distance, but it was only about 120-150km from our place. We went with Momo, our dog, and because of this, we didnt manage to spend much time out of the car, as she would get overheated very soon on the burning sun. We went down to the Beach to let her run a little, drove along some little roads between sand dunes, and of course went to buy Alcohol in Umm Al Quwain since we were nearby.

Here are a few pictures of the tip, enjoy.

Click here to read more

This is a left-behind airplane we found in the desert. It seems to be used for giving shade for parking cars and to advertise a nearby hotel. I heard stories that the plane was flown there once a long time ago, and it could never take off again, so they decided to just leave it behind. I dont know what the truth is, but the plane by itself just looked great in the middle of the desert.

This is Momo on the beach….

A place we stopped to drink a coke at…

And finally the desert temperature at 11:30 AM…..

Getting Alcohol in Dubai unlicensed – Barracuda in Umm Al Quwain

bence8810 — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 10:31:20 +0000

Getting Alcohol in Dubai unlicensed – Barracuda in Umm Al Quwain

So you heard all the “horror” stories about Dubai and the UAE in general, and you are worried that you might go dry when it comes to Alcohol consumption. You can safely put aside your fear, there are several ways to get Alcohol here and most of them don’t even cross the line of legality. Read on for more details….

Firstly and most obviously you can get alcohol at the Airport, when flying in to Dubai. You are entitled to 2 boxes of beer (24 cans each), or 2 liter of hard liquor, or 3 bottles of wine. This you can only do though when you are flying in, you cannot just go to the Airport and get booze. The price is quite reasonable, 103 AED for a box of 0,33 Heineken’s, which is about $28 USD.
Secondly, you can apply for a Liquor License and then get alcohol in Dubai Liquor shops, but they tend to apply a good 30% Tax on purchases, plus you have a quota on the amount you can buy.
Thirdly, you can drive to an Emirate where Alcohol is sold freely without licensing issues, but there is an issue of getting the booze back to Dubai. In the given Emirate (Ajman and Umm al Quwain for example) alcohol is sold freely, but getting it to your own emirate is your responsibility. In Dubai, you should be just fine if you have the Liquor license, so the main problem is getting through Sharjah which is a 0% tolerance toward alcohol Emirate.
This past weekend we opted for option 3 and went to Umm Al Quwain with a couple of my friends. The purchase was a success, we all got what we wanted and arrived back home safely to Dubai with a trunk full of booze. Read on for details……

And this is what the store looks like:

Road Toll in Dubai – How it works

bence8810 — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:19:51 +0000

With Dubai’s increasing traffic, the Municipalities introduced a new TOLL system called SALIK. There are gates called SALIK gates in a few places, and when you pass underneath, it deducts the sum from your account. There is no Unlimited sticker like we have it in Hungary and probably in all other countries, but you pay each time you pass through the gate. The good thing is that you dont have to even slow down, the system will auto-deduct the sum from your ballance.

So how does it work exactly?

Once you get your car, you need to go to a Fuel station close to the TOLL area, and you will subscribe for SALIK services. You pay 100AED (25USD) and this includes the sticker for your windshield with the microchip and 50AED in credit. As soon as you apply the sticker you are good to go. See the above diagram for understanding what is SALIK and how it works.

For more info, read on……

This is what it looks like when passing under the SALIK gate with your car. Note the tag on the windshield….

If you pass under the salik gate with no sticker on your car, a picture will be taken by the gate itself, and you will end up paying a fat penalty.
When you register for the tag, the Gas Station will take all your information, and most importantly as always in Dubai, your mobile number. Ofter time you find yourself being only a mobile number in databases, and no name at all. Your mobile number is your identity here in Dubai.

Soon after registering, you will get an SMS with your account number and pin code. When you refill the SALIK account, you need to have your Account number and PIN code handy. With this you can also sign up online, and check your account ballance, and see where you passed through SALIK gates.

This is what the web interface looks like.

And these are the SMS messages I get from SALIK. There are messages that warn you for low account ballance, and there are messages you get confirming your ballance update if you pay online or at a Gas Station

One trip costs 4AED, rougly $1 USD. There are currently 2 gates in Dubai, but at the end of the month they will introduce 2 additional gates. So far the Sheikh Zayed road is the one that Dubai made TOLL-ed, but you never know what will happen in the future.

The effects of the SALIK are felt mostly by people who live in Sharjah (neighbouring Emirate) where rent is 1/3 of what we pay in Dubai, and they commute every day. From now on, each day they will go through at least 4 gates, but maybe some even 6, which adds up quickly. If you could 4 passes a day, that makes it $4/day and $80/month. This of course opens up another source of issues, for example people taking roads other than the TOLL road, making Dubai’s minor roads even more packed.

Cheers

Ben

Dubai – Traffic fine enquiry online

bence8810 — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:44:35 +0000

Dubai is loaded with confortable services which enable one not to get out of the house/office for most of the time. You can pay all your bills online or at gas stations, so you wont lose time at Post offices or in lines. The newest thing (to me at least) is the Traffic fine enquiry online. There is a website you go to:

Dubai Police

and on the top right you click “Traffic Fines Inquiry” and it takes you to a form. Here you enter your License plate number and get the results in an instance. Look at the picture below.

What happens is for instance you speed and a camera catches you. In two days time, the pictures are downloaded from the cameras and the website is updated. When you query the site you see that you have a ticket, you give your Credit Card number, and settle the fine. Also there are no black points for speeding tickets, so its basically a money making way for the Dubai municipalities. The traffic fines are not sent to your address at all, so the only way to know is to check online. If you fail to do so, you will be asked to pay all outstanding fines upon registering your car, which takes place every year.

There are harsher punishments also, like vehicle inpounding for crossing a red light etc, and again here you can decide when to give up your car to the Police. People mostly do it while travelling, so its not as painful as otherwise.

Gas price in Dubai and Infiniti fuel consumption

bence8810 — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 11:50:37 +0000

So I have done my first full tank, and ran it down until the level hit the needle at the very bottom, and I thought I would post my results.

Attached you see the bill the Gas station gave me, which is required for my measures.

At Gas stations, receipts are not usual, so if you really need one, its hand written. The way Gas stations work is you pop your fuel tank open with a button from within your car, and lower your window. The gas station guy comes to ask you what you need, and then does it for you. I asked for Premium fuel (98 octaine) and a full tank. He fills it up, comes back with a number, and you pay him. He gives your change back, and off you drive. So yes, you could say the service is very efficient and convinient. Your tank is full, costs you peanuts, and the guy doesnt even sigh if you dont pay a tip.

The bill is for AED 103, which is $28.2 USD, and this is for a full tank Gentlemen.

One gallon’s price is AED 6,75 ($1,8), which is 4,54 Liters. Here in the UAE the measure is Imperial gallons and opposed to the 3,78 Liters US gallons.
This makes 1 Liter of premium petrol cost $0,4 USD, not bad right? And its still very expensive compare to Saudi Arabia believe it or not.

So we have how much it costs for a Liter of petrol, so lets see the fuel consumption on the Infiniti G35 Coupe I have. Its a 3,5Liter 280 HP engine.

I filled up the car to the maximum, drove it until the meter touched the MIN needle on the gauge and refilled it to full. The Odometer at this stage showed 520 KMs and it took AED 103 for the full tank. One gallong is 6.75, so the 103 got me 15.26 imperial gallons, or in other words 69.3 Liters.

If you divide 69.3 with 5,20 you get the 100km/liter figure, which in my case is 13,3 Liter/100km. Not too bad for a beast like this car is. Of course since I am using 98 octaine petrol, the car runs more efficient, but still I am very impressed with it.

More later, cheers