Moving to Abu Dhabi

Trey9123 · October 19th, 2009, 01:29 PM

I just took a teaching job in Abu Dhabi. I kind of did it spur of the moment without doing much research into the place. I'm just trying to connect with anyone who lives there to find out what to expect in diving and just in general life there. Any info would be great.

Thanks, Trey

Desert_Diver · October 19th, 2009, 04:00 PM

Zendiver3D lives in Kuwait. She recently bought into a dive shop. She teaches high school too. She might be able to give you some pertinent info.

Art

SeaHound · October 20th, 2009, 02:05 PM

I have lived in Dubai which is close to Abu Dhabi. Never had the chance to dive but the water sure looked tempting. The most talked about dive site was the underwater car cemetary. This was a dumping ground for old cars and it had turned into a reef. I always wanted to dive but I was working seven days a week so couldnt do it.

After talking to a few divers there my understanding was that the marine life was not mind blowing like Egypt and the Red Sea area but the place did have very good weekend diving. there are nice wrecks there plus they should have a lot of areas that are virgin and unexplored.

As for life - Dubai was an anti-thesis of what most Western people believe Middle East to be. Mosques and pubs exist side by side. If you go to a shopping mall, you will see the totally veiled Arab women, and the totally uncovered ones in skimpy dresses shopping side by side.

Most women in pubs and clubs were prostitutes. Dubai had a very tolerant policy towards prostitutes and it seemed that the police was there not to arrest them but to protect them. They were coming from all over the world! Abu Dhabi was supposed to be much cleaner in this regard.

People are generally very friendly towards foreigners and they love sports like soccer, horse riding. martial arts etc.

Let me know how the diving is. I would love to hear from you.

Cheers -

S H

S-H

DCBC · October 20th, 2009, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeaHound

Most women in pubs and clubs were prostitutes. Dubai had a very tolerant policy towards prostitutes and it seemed that the police was there not to arrest them but to protect them. They were coming from all over the world!

I couldn't get over all the Russian ladies in Dubai (the Burj Al Arab was crawling with them). At $1,600 U.S. per night you'd think that the hotel would include one (good thing Mobil was paying) :-)