Moving here what to bring

Several comments here. Each number indicates a different person. Everyone has suggestions that seem to differ. You will have to judge for yourselves. From the comments you will see that it is obviously different for single people than if you come with a family. I've indicated whether the people commenting arrived by themselves, with a spouse or a with a spouse and family

There is also a web link to a staff member's personal page at the bottom relating to life In Dubai and the UAE.

There are quite a few things which we regret not having brought with us. I think that perhaps our mindset at the time had a bit to do with it. Although of course you decide to come to the UAE in the hope that it will all work really well, I think at the back of our minds was the idea that it might all be a total fiasco, so perhaps we should be prepared to be back again in 6 months time. (Obviously that hasn't happened!)

Anyway, having said that, I STILL wish we had brought quite a bit of our stuff from home. I'm not too sure what made me think we'd never need to use a good cutlery or crockery set, or that the good glasses would be happier in storage than being used. Kitchen stuff is certainly all available here, but it all costs money to set up, and it's all the bits and pieces you have at home that I tend to miss. (or in fact that I've now bought because I couldn't stand it any longer!)

I also think we had some poor advice before we came, being told that linen was very cheap here. In comparison to Australia, it's about the same or possibly more expensive and towels and sheets and tablecloths and all that sort of thing are just as useful here!

We did bring a number of photos and paintings/pictures, which I'm very glad we did. I wish we had brought a lot more of our decorative things, because they are obviously what helps to make the apartment/villa feel more homely, and the furniture allowance, while generous, doesn't really allow you to purchase lots of bits and pieces.

Obviously it also depends on the type of lifestyle you want to have here. We have two young girls, who were aged 2 and 4 when we first came, so we felt it was imperative to try to establish as normal a family home as possible. Not everybody seems to feel the same need, and many people settle for a very minimalist type of existence, so you have to work out what your feelings are about it all before you decide.

I do wish we had brought a few more specifically Australian things, again more for our children's sake. However, we have gradually added to that line of thing with our trips home.

Really, if I had my time over again, I'd bite the bullet and pay for the shipping of a lot of our household stuff. Not so much furniture, but vases, glasses, crockery, good cutlery, linen, paintings, bits and pieces, kitchen tools and accessories. Everything is available here, but good stuff certainly comes at a price.

You get used to it, but it was a bit of a shock when we first arrived in early August. For the first week or two it was all such a dream that it didn't seem too bad, but after that I can remember opening the door first thing in the morning and constantly being surprised because the air never felt fresh. You know how you're used to that brisk feeling in the mornings? (well, we certainly were, coming from Victoria). From July to October the most difficult thing really is the humidity. The heat is intense, not less than 40 and often closer to 50 during the day time, but everything is air conditioned. The thing I found most difficult was the fact that our children spent almost all that first summer inside. Since then we've joined a club which has a chilled swimming pool, and we've learnt how to deal with the temperature a little better, but it is restrictive.

Winters, on the other hand, are a dream. Between December and February we enjoyed days of about 25 or 26 and the nights cool down to about 15 - 18 or so. It probably won't get a great deal cooler than this, and it is sunny and clear and delightful, if that's the sort of weather you like.

2. Work

I have worked almost all the time since we came, about four and a half years ago. It has mostly been part-time work, which I've been lucky to find, as there are not the same sorts of part-time opportunities as you would expect to find in Australia. In terms of finding employment, you won't necessarily find that you're discriminated against because you're female. Advertising and employment laws here are quite different in any case, and if the company wants to employ a man, they just say so in their advertisements. By the same token, lots of places want to employ women who will be on their husband's sponsorship, as they don't have to pay sponsorship fees or provide a ticket home or a housing allowance.

Your really aren't restricted from doing any sort of job, and it will just be a matter of finding something which suits in terms of hours, pay scale (a tricky business) and your children.

3. Clothing and Muslim issues

You will see the whole gamut of clothing worn here, from local women covered from head to toe, to ladies who dress in the very skimpiest of clothes. Depending on where you will be going, you will be able to decide if it feels comfortable to wear sleeveless clothes or not. For instance, my work at the moment is where the vast majority of employees are either locals or other Arab Muslims. Therefore, I take care to wear long sleeves, almost always and only use skirts that are below the knee and generally very unrevealing clothes. I suspect I'm probably more careful than I need to be, but I'd rather not give offense where it's not necessary. Do not wear sleveless tops without having something to cover them over the top. Many Shopping malls here now have "Please dress decently/appropriately signs"

You do find that during Ramadan it is asked that non-Muslims be a bit more generally sensitive to Muslim attitudes and requirements. For instance, nobody is allowed to eat or drink in public during the fasting hours, but you do get used to it. Eventually. Most work places have a room which is for the exclusive use of non-Muslims who need to have a drink or something to eat.

Driving on the roads here is quite an adventure, possibly because there are drivers from so many different countries with such wildly varying standards. Nowadays it's possible to exchange an Australian driving licence for a UAE one, but make sure your Australian one has at least 6 months' validity from the time you will apply for your UAE licence. The driving tests are quite an exciting adventure (which I had to undergo) and I wouldn't recommend it if you can POSSIBLY avoid it. Cars are very cheap by Australian standards.

I would only repeat Leigh's advice about registering your children for school ASAP. Many people are unable to get their kids into school, and this tends to be one of the most unsettling factors for people when they first arrive. We are very pleased with Emirates International School, which has a truly international flavour in terms of the student population, and I know that lots of people seem very happy with Jumeira Primary School (expensive) DESS and JESS. I feel JESS and DESS are rather too British for my particular taste, and seem to give their students quite a bit of homework from the very beginning (4 years of age) which I find ludicrous. However, most parents that I have spoken to seem to be very happy with them. Not too sure what percentage of children are not British, but there are certainly some.

I'd bring far fewer text books particularly ones that will go out of date quickly ( eg Computing/IT books) but some of your old class materials (the old faithfuls) could be useful.

Bring music from home, popular international CDs are all here, but not your local artists.

Posters of home, "knick knacks", books from home with photos are all good to have.

3 Female...Married no children, but came originally without spouse (Canadian)

"What I should have brought to Dubai" .....sheets, towels, music tapes & CD's from home, International Licence ( very Important for the first couple of weeks )

What I brought and should not have" .......don't have anything to contribute here ...wish I had a humungous baggage allowance so I would not have had to re-buy kitchen stuff

When I came to Dubai from Bali, I was really torn about whether to bring my cat or not. I had very little time to organise my move and everyone had gone home on holiday. I did, after much deliberation, bring her. The process was relatively painless, however, I now regret my decision. She was severely distressed by the move, and, as she had been free to roam anywhere she liked in Bali, she now has a very reduced life.

In terms of what I wish I had brought, I can't think of anything. The reason for this is that apart from the fact that I can't immediately think of anything one cannot get here in Dubai, I also brought all of my furniture and household items with me. At the time this required an incredible amount of time and energy to organise, but I am very glad I did it.

I am really glad that I purchased a minimum of possessions in Dubai until I decided to ship my furniture from Australia. Having bought good quality items in Oz a couple of years before I left, I have saved on storage back home, and believe these to be of better value than what I would have bought here for similar money.

Don't know how helpful this is - I understand the issue of staff 'camping' and realise this to be a double edged sword.

I arrived in Dubai with a small suitcase and a sports bag thinking that I would be able to find anything I needed in the vast array of gleaming shopping centres the city boasts. For the most part, this has been the case although I do wish I'd brought more 'small things' from home, ornaments, posters and the like just to make the flat more homely. I wish I'd brought my guitar as well since I didn't fancy buying yet another one over here. Incidentally, I recently gave in and bought an electric one!

As regards things I brought and haven't needed, there aren't that many. An umbrella for one! It was pouring down in London when I left for Dubai in January and that's the last time I've seen any rain this year! I also brought quite a few short-sleeved shirts for work but found out we couldn't wear them for work when I arrived.

We did pretty well with our packing for Dubai mostly because we followed the suggestions given. I did bring some things that I was very happy about later like a container of binder clips and few packs of mechanical pencils. I have found really everything else here.

My children suggested bringing kool-aid (they requested some from their grandparents shortly after they arrived). But they too have found most everything. We are all very GLAD that we did not bring a lot of extra things.

We have just moved here and found it to be a really interesting experience. We have two children which meant we wanted to settle in fairly quickly and comfortably.

This was full of pressure. We were tired from the flight and had no idea what to do where to go and of course had no transport other than taxis. The HCT staff were very good with giving us the allowances, helping us set up bank accounts and organising medicals and visas. You just seem to go along with the flow as there are these others in the hotel doing the same thing (you end up bonding with them).

The first thing you need to buy is beds. We bought very bad beds because of the pressure to buy and (me) not thinking straight about what I was doing. You need to buy beds so you can move into your home within 6 days from arrival. We consequently bought three new beds a few weeks later when we couldn't bear the rock hard mattresses any more. Many places give HCT employees a discount so you should also be aware of this. A list is now on the web site in the "shopping". The motto? Buy a good bed or bring it from home.

This decision slowed down our buying so we will be buying more second hand now instead. We recently bought a beautiful oak dining setting and cabinet for a very reasonable price, second hand. I'm told Persian rugs are cheaper in (and furniture too) Sharjah and also on the way to Fujairah is a good place for those beautiful rugs you see here everywhere. I can't wait.

We had sent the basics from home for the kitchen stuff and linen which saved a great deal of fuss but now I am sorry I didn’t bring more. (I really wish we had shipped our own beds at least!) Some people brought camping gear eg a blow up mattress so they could take their time to buy, which is a good idea.

We had our stuff air freighted in a Door to Door service from Australia, which was expensive but well worth it as it was there when we moved into our apartment and we didn’t have to go to customs ourselves like some people.

Advice about what to buy and where to go comes during the first few days, so it is best to get local knowledge from other teachers about what to do and where to go -- they have been in your position and know the "lurks and perks". My biggest piece of advice would be: Don’t rush into anything before you get advice or opinions from people who are experienced. Your fellow countrymen are usually good for advice because they also know what you are used to expecting from home and can give you advice in your own colloquialisms - "don’t be a mug mate, she wouldn’t get you to the footy in a pink fit!!"

We are hiring a car for a month and it gives us an opportunity to get used to the driving before committing to a car we are not sure will be suitable for us. One lady I met is leasing which reduces the level of responsibility for the car and also what to do with it if you leave.

No school here will prioritise Australian passport holding children. There are British and American schools as well as some other nationality schools (eg a French speaking school, Arabic or Indian etc). You just have to wait for a place and put names down at every possible place and when you get here visit them regularly. Leigh warned me to get in early but I had problems contacting schools due to the school holidays. We are still looking for a place and hope to finalise where the children will be after the first week has begun to see where the places are. You need to get advice about this, early.

Basically the college made it really easy for us from the moment I accepted the job.

If you take all the advice given your life will be much easier: hire a car within the first week and get used to driving on the roads (as they drive on the wrong side of the road here always remember that as the driver you should be in the middle of the road ... get it?), accept the offer of getting a mobile phone as soon as you get off the plane (it'll give you easy access to your new best friends and more importantly give you a contact number for furniture delivery people). You can prepay for the mobile phones and it's great to call home to Mum immediately and say you're safe -- far better than hotel bills!

Before you arrive -- think really carefully about what kind of people you are. Are you going to be happy campers if you don't have all the comforts of home? If not, ship some of your favourite things over. Yes electrical goods and cars are cheap compared to Australia, but setting up a home costs a fortune and you won't have time to search around for the best deals. Even if you have a non-working spouse it can quickly become a tiring job trying to find cutlery for less than Dh 300!

If you do have a spouse without a job (and if they're not a teacher) try to line something up before you arrive, even if it is studying. It's not fun trying to find a job with no contacts in a strange city with the money just slipping through your fingers. It's pretty rough on the spouses -- particularly if they are used to being independent people.

The best thing I brought (apart from my husband) was my family photos. I just wish I'd brought the frames because I can't find any cheap ones. The silliest thing I brought was bed linen because all beds here seem to be king or queen size and I only had a double at home. I also brought really bad work clothing because I was scared it was going to be as hot as home (and I forgot that this country actually uses air-conditioning!). If you're an Aussie ask another Aussie's advice on packing work clothes! (Think cotton and think layers for warmth -- you'll die in the cold of the college and then swelter as you walk to the car park).

Shipping Goods

We shipped half a container of household effects from New Zealand and found it well worth it. It cost us approx NZ$5000 for 14 cubic metres with Crown. They were extremely efficient and our goods arrived several days after moving into our villa.

(Several other people had pretty bad experiences with smaller shipping companies, finding the agents in Dubai hadn’t been paid and wanted to double-charge for delivery).

We simply borrowed a couple of camp beds until our belongings arrived and then took our time looking around and buying at leisure. You can’t under-estimate how busy, frustrating and fascinating your first few weeks will be especially with the extreme heat (In August and Sept) and a confusing lack of street addresses!

Those with young children will find it nigh-on impossible and very stressful to undertake serious shopping straight away. Many people feel pressured to buy furniture quickly and often wished they’d had more time to look around and buy items they really liked. There is a thriving second-hand market for cars and furniture from departing ex-pats – often good quality and at reasonable prices – see the notice boards at Spinney’s supermarkets.

If you’re coming from NZ bring all those Rimu cabinets etc – a lot of furniture here is of the Freedom furniture variety – quite stylish but usually made of chip-board. The real wooden furniture you can buy tends to be made of dark wood and imported from India.

Coming from NZ we have found Dubai to be quite expensive especially in view of the weak dollar! Generally I’d say goods are approximately 25% (for Western stuff) more expensive. Eating out and especially drinking in hotels can be extremely costly but there is a great social life to be had! A coffee in a café will be around 10 dirhams (NZ$6-7). Petrol is half the price.

My husband and I found this particular website one of the most useful amongst all the expat info about UAE on the net. As a result, we made the decision to bring the contents of our three-bedroom house with us based on the information we read and we have NOT regretted having all our things with us. It makes the transisition a lot easier to have all our comfortable things around us. There were a couple of things we left with our parents (eg. delicate wedding crockery) however, bringing all our stuff meant we did not have to worry about hiring storage (which can be very costly over several years)

We did a huge cull of our stuff (nothing like a bit of spring-cleaning!) and gave a lot of used/redundant things to the Salvos. I know this may seem like common sense but please ensure you leave enough time to pack before you leave. We started packing (seriously) approximately 1 month before we came and this is not enough time if you consider all the invites you'll get from well-meaning friends and family who will miss you.

We packed our own things and had a 20 ft container all to ourselves. The company we went through were excellent and we only had a couple of things that broke (all the good stuff had been double wrapped in bubble wrap and newspaper which you can get from any removal company). We paid approximately AUD$4700 to move and when the container arrived in Dubai, we had to pay approximately DHS2600 for customs and transportation directly to our 3-bedroom apartment. While we were waiting for our container to arrive, we bought a couple of chairs, mattress to sleep on and some cheap pots and pans.

There are some specifically Australian things I wish we could have brought with us but this means that we do quite a big shop when we go home for holidays.

Traffic and Driving - (She lives in Sharjah as her husband works in Sharjah.) Being located in Sharjah means that you have to specifically choose your times to go out. The traffic has apparently been getting steadily worse over the years and a solid four-wheel drive is really a necessity rather than a luxury. They are really quite reasonable here, we purchase a second hand 2003 Jeep Cherokee. The asking price was approximately DHS72,000 and we have financed it over 4 years (The interest rates here are less crippling than they are back in Australia) so it is a manageable loan.

Taxis are quite easy to come by and are a cheap way of getting from place to place but please take note that if you are female (ladies) and out on your own, ensure you sit in the back seat of the taxi and not in the front as your action could be misconstrued for something else. (Coming to this country, other ex-pats will give you a lot of advice about what to wear, etc. but neglected this little bit of information, needless to say it was a very rude lesson learnt.)

Food and shopping - Staples and other household items can be found here without any problems. We have not had to change our diet in the least, meat from Australia and New Zealand can be found at Spinneys and Carrefours. We have found that the price of an average shopping cart of household goods is about the same if not, less than Australia (depending on what you buy, of course). The buffets at some of the 4 and 5 star hotels in Dubai are cheaper than Perth and the range is very impressive. Shopping in Dubai is pretty amazing, a visit to the Global Village during the Dubai Shopping Festival in January is a must!

11 Male...Came with Family (Australian)

We came from Australia and shipped everything over. However, that was probably not the best decision that we took. Our shipment arrived two weeks later than expected. We had to sleep on floor for two weeks and believe me those two weeks were the hardest ever as we have two young children. Unfortunately, it was simply not cost effective to duplicate the stuff so we tried to buy only the necessary stuff. First suggestion is not to bring household stuff from your home country as everything is available here.

People coming with children, please make sure to apply for admission in schools while you are there in your home country. There are huge waiting lists for good schools.

My personal opinion, if you have children…..bring there clothes from home country. I have not seen/explored any good shop that sells reasonable clothing for children. I think, Dubai is a very adult focused society as far as clothing is concerned. The quality of children clothing is far less compared to Australian/UK standards. So it’s your call….

As far as buying electrical appliances is concerned my advice is to pay a little extra and buy a durable product. We purchased a washing machine (Italian Made- but an unknown brand) on the second day of purchasing the machine, the knobs were in my hands…yes, literally they came out while I was trying to operate the machine. Stick to the brands that you trust.

Moving here/ Living here, what to bring/ what not to

Shipping Goods