Drivers beware! RTA Dubai has launched new traffic radars on Dubai highways.

The new radars as the one shown in picture above include a high speed camera, which captures the picture of a vehicle cruising at speed over the limit. These new radars are different from the old ones as the camera doesn’t flash when the picture is taken so the driver will never know if he has been detected while speeding. He will only find out when the violation will show up in his record.

What’s worse is that the cameras are placed every couple of kilometers on Emirates road. So it’s impossible to speed now. You can’t just drive fast and slow down when approaching the radar because you will come across one every minute (if you are cruising over 120 KM/H).

I have already started noticing the effect of this. The traffic on Emirates road is much saner now.

Finally something is working to keep Emaratis drive like human beings.

I am on way to Qatar again for another day trip.

While I love business traveling but these day trips are not a lot of fun. It’s 6:15 AM right now and after spending the day in Qatar I shall be back in Dubai by 10 at night.

If this was a longer trip with a couple of nights stay, things would have been different. But as they say, there are no if’s and but’s in job. You gotta do what you gotta do.

So, Qatar, here I come!

After spending 5 long days at GITEX, I am finally able to blog about it now. It sure was tiring. And as expected, it was overall a slow event and left me wondering why it was a 5-day event when three days would have been more than enough.

This year, GITEX was divided into two main sections, the IT section, where “real” IT companies got a chance to exhibit their products, and consumer electronics section, where the likes of Samsung and Panasonic exhibited their big-ass TVs and miniature gadgets. You can very well guess which section was deserted and which was crowded most of the time.

I was in the “boring” section. Like I said in the previous post about GITEX, most companies participate in the GITEX because it has become a status symbol in the region. All good organizations participate in GITEX so if you want your company to be considered among such organizations then you must participate as well. The actual number of leads and opportunities generated through GITEX are not enough to cover the cost of participating. Of course, this may vary for different companies but I found this true for my company and many other companies where I have contacts.

There was also a sub-event called GITEX Shopper. This was like a shopping festival for consumer electronics. The general public was of course attracted to this. I didn’t get a chance to visit it but I heard you could get some real deals on digital cameras and laptop computers.

So the only good thing about GITEX this year was that they had separated the consumer electronics section which made clear what percentage of visitors were genuinely interested in IT.

It’s that time of the year again in Dubai.

During GITEX, it’s hard to find a room available in a Dubai hotel. That’s how much crowd the event attracts. It’s happening again in Dubai from October 19 to October 23.

Fortunately or unfortunately, this is the first time I will be attending GITEX. When I was in Karachi I tried to attend it every year for last three years but missed it every single time for some stupid reason. This year I will be there for all 5 days as my company is one of the exhibitors. Let’s see how it goes since visiting an exhibition is one thing and participating in it is a totally different experience. Plus I will also be doing my normal office work from there all week long. So it’s going to be fun.

In the early days, GITEX was a real technology trade show in which genuine IT companies used to participate, and it was visited by people genuinely interested in IT. These days it has merely become a fun fair overshadowed by consumer electronic companies and visitors only interested in freebies.

So companies (at least IT companies) participate in GITEX only for the sake of presence but the return of investment is minimum. I personally know a few companies who don’t participate in GITEX anymore because they think it’s a total waste of time.

Nevertheless, I will be there at GITEX and will cover the event on twitter. Feel free to follow me. And of course, you are most welcome to come and meet me at my stand. How to find me is left as an exercise for the reader.

Here is another round of questions and answers. Feel free to ask me any question related to Dubai. The questions should be interesting and well defined. I will answer all the selected question in a few days.

Somewhere in Hague there is a Bad Hotel. Now that’s an interesting name for a hotel, if you think about it.

If the receptionist is not polite, you already knew, it’s Bad Hotel.

If the room service sucks, it was expected, because it’s Bad Hotel.

If the house keeping is not up to the standards, well, you can’t really complain, cuz it’s Bad Hotel.

If the food tastes funny, you still have to eat, you are in Bad Hotel.

If none of that is true, then they really exceeded all the expectations, because it’s Bad Hotel

So, I instantly liked Honda CR-V in Part 1 and after taking the test drive the deal was sealed.

Now I had to go through the actual process of buying the car.

Since I got the car financed through the bank, there was lot of paper work involved. Here is all what was required by the bank (as far as I remember)-

1. Passport Copy
2. UAE Resident Visa Copy
3. Driver’s License Copy
4. Labor Card Copy
5. Bank Statement
6. Salary Certificate from Employer
7. Last three salary slips

The above documents are always required for any major thing you do in Dubai.

In addition to that you have to keep the checks ready for monthly payments as you have to write all the checks in advance and give to bank which they will withdraw from your bank every month. So it’s not easy to change your bank for the duration of the lease.

I decided to go with Dubai Islamic Bank as they had lowest profit rate. But their service was very slow as they did not finish their formalities even after I deposited the down payment and checks for monthly payments.

I got the car after a delay of 2-3 days. I was almost pretty pissed off in the end due to the delay, but all is well that ends well.

So that’s how you buy a new car in Dubai through bank financing. Of course if you have cash then you don’t need to go through all this and just drive home with a car.

If you want to buy a used car and get it financed through a bank then first of all the interest rate would be higher and secondly it is a bit harder to find a reliable used car in Dubai because of extreme weather conditions and reckless driving habits of emaratis.