I admit it, I'm an Internet addict. Countless hours per day. It's just fascinating to have access to almost every piece of information you search for. Asking myself, what do I love most ... this must be it, surfing, working and communicating on the NET.
So, since I love this so much, how can I add value to others while doing it? This blog is about my contribution to this question.
I've just completed second week in KSA. Tomorrow one day off relaxing, get my stuff together and leaving Jeddah, back to the Eastern Province again, this time to Dharan.
It was the first time I've been in Jeddah, it's a bit difficult to describe. The traffic is plain crazy. Forget about Dubai, here it's even more busy on the streets and no signs of any safe-driving skills around.
I haven't seen much other than the Hotel and customer site, but appearently it's great for Scuba diving here, so I will at least get a taxi to the beach tomorrow and hopefully will be pleasently surprised.
I found people here very friendly. All day long I get a friendly "Salam Malaikum", on the street, in the elevators, everywhere, non-stop. This happens only occasionally to me in Riyadh or Dubai.
School vacation started here, subsequently to my shock I couldn't get a flight out of Jeddah. All Airlines were fully booked! Out of desperation, I've already booked the Hotel Limo to drive me up to Dharan to be on time for the next scheduled customer meeting. That would have been a crazy 14+ hours drive through the desert. This morning I checked one last time online with FlySama and couldn't believe my luck when I found one available seat to Riyadh for Friday. Wow, now I only have to get a driver from Riyadh to Dharan, which should take something around 4 hours. What a relieve!
So, this is half-time, I've got about another 12 days to go before take-off back to Dubai. I start to miss it:-)
I've created a profile on Hubpages.com. I must say, I'm becoming a big fan of these Web 2.0 applications. They are really cleverly put together.
Yesterday, I got my hands on a very popular, but un-ethical e-book, which led me to write this article.
Once I'm finished reading it in more detail, I will explain a couple of interesting practices some people are willing to carry out for some money. While I would think 5 times about things like cloaking a website, and possibly getting banned for life by Google, it's very interesting to see what others are up to.
I'm currently on a 3 weeks business trip in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. While there's nothing else to do than work and back to the Hotel, I somehow do enjoy these trips. Mainly because I can get a lot of work done, there are no interruptions. And I can spend a lot of time on the Internet and work on a couple of other projects I've got running. Currently I've got 2 great business opportunities I'm working on, one is building up a online shopping business and the other one offering Internet Domains. It takes a lot of time, but it's what I love to do, searching the Internet, absorbing new information, finding opportunities which add value to others and brainstorming about ways to share this with people around the globe. Keeps me busy and creative:-)
Past week I've been in Jubail in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom. It's about an hour and a half drive from Bahrain. It's a real Industry city, but also very beautiful around the cost-line. The limo driver brings me to customer site every morning along the beach road. Very nice.
Last week we experienced major phone & internet problems. A submarine cable in the Persian Gulf has been cut by most likely an anchor.
It's kind of a funny feeling not being able to use the Internet as we are taking it just for granted. But it makes me think in what a very vulnerable position we are.
Every day we are relying more and more on the Internet for professional and personal business, all it takes are a couple of cable cuts and we are all down.
It would be very interesting to research deeper into this issue and to learn what safeguards and backup systems are in place to prevent a complete shut-down of the Internet. Let's see how much time I'll find to take this project on :-)
As I mentioned in my first post, we had quite some heavy rain last week.
It all started when Mr. Bush was just about to visit Dubai. The night before the service roads of our famous Sheikh Zayed Road were closed. A lot of traffic jam and confusion. A day later it was announced that most major roads will be closed, too. Well, people were advised to better stay and work from home, if possible. A few hours later it was announced we better declare Bush's visit as public holiday. Maybe a wise decision. It started to rain anyway and the roads started to get flooded. It rained for 3-4 days & nights non-stop .....
...I took this picture with my mobile, hence the bad quality, sorry for that. Actually I really wanted to go out with my camera and take more pictures of that great water event, unfortunately got distracted by work. Well, guess I have to wait for another year.
Currently I'm counting 36 years on my passport. I've just moved to Dubai last year, June 2007, together with my wife. Before I've already travelled the Middle East for business a lot. When I got the offer from my employer for a position in Saudi, I felt honored, but thankfully declined. I do enjoy my trips to the Kingdom, would I still be single, I think I would have done it. Imagine, working hard for a year or 2, low expenses and no massive distractions. I would have done it I guess, but my wife wasn't really up for it.
So, instead I got the same position offered, but based in Dubai. The territory I have to cover is spread all over the Middle East and North Africa. Quite an interesting and challenging opportunity.
I've relocated through several countries for my employer, in short from Holland to Ireland to England. Looking back, moving around within the EU (that is if you see the UK as EU) really is a piece of cake. The relocation to Dubai on the other hand was, the least to say, quite painful.
Should you be interested to do the same, be prepared for a huge walk on the Red Tape, it ain't a Red Carpet. A lot of paperwork, main problems of cause around the Visa. While the companies are very helpful, you still have to do a lot on your part. In example, you will need a certificate of your education. Easy you would say ... but digging deeper into the requirements ... it must be of cause in English, so mine needed a official translation .... not enough, you need this document to be officially stamped by UAE officials. This has to be done by the UAE Embassy in the country where you received the education. Well, you get the idea, it all takes a lot of action and most of all, time.
Meanwhile I needed to rent a car. My European license got rejected by the car rental, only UK or International Licenses are valid to rent a car. These new laws were just introduced shortly before my arrival. So, a visit to the Road and Transport Department, applying for a UAE Temp license. Remember, I couldn't get a full license yet without residence Visa and I was still waiting for the other paperwork to arrive from my home country. Good news is, they turnaround a temp license within a couple of hours. Good, got the rental car, a brand new Toyota Camry. Poor car, I got a lot out of it the first month. Dubai is fun to drive. You very quickly adopt to a crazy style of driving.
In the middle of all this, my wifes Visa, which is only valid for a month, is running out. I have to sent her back home to her family in Thailand. Once my residence Visa was finally ready, in theory I was able to sponsor her Visa. But not without valid Marriage Certificate, and you guessed it, that one must be officially translated into English as well and stamped by the UAE Embassy in the country of marriage. Okay, quickly a flight booked to Bangkok and off we go on paperwork tour again. Not to bad at the end, I love Bangkok, that helps a lot:-)
I've got colleagues who had to go back all the way to South Africa to get their paperwork done.
Well, there are tons of other little things, I didn't even mention the medical tests which we had to carry out in order to get the Visas done. On top of that I got myself loaded up with more paperwork by buying a property instead of settling down for a rental first. Also quite an interesting journey to get the mortgage approved, how different estate agents operate and the hidden costs which suddenly pop up on your bill.
Good, we finally could move into our new home in September'07, mission accomplished. Buying furniture and a nice car was all about fun, it's really very cheap here compared to the UK. We didn't ship any items from the UK, it's not worth the costs. You can decorate a complete Villa for good value.
All by all, we're very happy here. I love the every day blue sky and guaranteed sunshine. Only just a week ago it was raining. Quite a lot actually. All roads were completely flooded and it was just plain chaotic. But also very much fun driving my 4x4 through the waters:-)
If you have plans to move to Dubai and you have any questions, just shoot me an email, I would be grateful to provide you with insights or advise if it's within my powers.
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