“Reflections on 20 Years in Dubai: Was the Journey Worth It?” – Video

“Reflections on 20 Years in Dubai: Was the Journey Worth It?” – Video

“20 Years in Dubai | Was it WORTH it?” is a captivating and insightful video that takes viewers on a journey through the bustling and dynamic city of Dubai, UAE. Hosted by a local entrepreneur, Leo, who has lived in the city for 20 years, the video provides a unique and authentic perspective on what it’s really like to live and work in Dubai.

The video showcases various aspects of daily life in Dubai, from the vibrant business district of Al Quoz to the bustling streets of Deira. Viewers get to witness the behind-the-scenes of apartment and yacht renovation projects, as well as learn about the diverse culture and lifestyle of the city. With time codes highlighting key moments throughout the video, viewers are taken on a captivating journey that covers everything from Arabic cuisine to the stunning natural scenery of Hatta and Jebel Jais.

Through interviews and interactions with local residents and expats, the video sheds light on the international and cosmopolitan nature of Dubai, as well as the opportunities and challenges that come with living in this fast-paced city. The video also explores the impact of Dubai’s rapid development and growth on the local community, providing a thought-provoking and nuanced perspective on whether Dubai is truly a good place to live.

Overall, “20 Years in Dubai | Was it WORTH it?” offers a valuable and honest insight into the reality of life in Dubai, dispelling common misconceptions and providing a deeper understanding of the city’s unique charm and appeal. Whether you’re considering a move to Dubai or simply curious about life in this iconic city, this video is a must-watch for anyone interested in experiencing the true essence of Dubai.

Watch the video by CoolVision

Hey guys welcome to Dubai it’s a place that’s known for luxurious vacations fancy cars and upscale living but I always wanted to know what it’s like living here dayto day as the local guy so we’ll get to see what it’s like working and living in Dubai let’s do it

But yeah the plan is that we have to uh just get some material for U projects that I have to close today meet Leo a 29-year-old entrepreneur who’s lived in the UAE since he was 7even so how’s the traffic today uh usual oh well now it’s also

Time for schools cuz parents they pick up their kids that’s why I don’t have kids yet I don’t want to uh make I don’t want to make it wor traffic even more country it’s interesting seeing Dubai Through The Eyes of an expat you know a local who lives here you know because as

A tourist you know you go from one side to another but now we’re doing something different yeah so it’s just these small things you know for example Bush Khalifa I’ve never been on the top of bush Khalifa never ever never ever know and I

Don’t I don’t know if I want to to be honest where are where are we we are in aluz aluz is an industrial area so you get all your car services you get all your suppliers here you have many Contracting companies based here the difference between Abu Dhabi and Dubai

Is that Abu Dhabi are much better at Master planning Abu Dhabi they had a plan from the beginning so they have industrial area which is outside the city while Dubai does not have that and you have like three four areas of the same type you have alus we’re here we

Have alus we have Russell wh industrial dip and they’re all kind of scattered throughout the city you know and now we have to go get our material look at the parking wow crazy crazy I know and these guys are parking is not easy yeah these guys are Russians

Yeah heard they I think dagistan somewhere this is Shahed nice to meet you this is V we are just going to one of the projects that uh we are finishing today uh we are doing the uh uh renovation of doors there uh and some TV cabinets so now you

Got the material you got few rolls cuz this one of the things that we do we kind of change the surfaces and we change it with uh with a premium poly vanil chloride which is a PVC material so the market was not at this point only people with money were

Thinking about that but now with many properties with many options people are taking mortgages uh taking apartments on a payment plan they are starting to think about these things as well and we’re talking about not only uh let’s say ultra wealthy class we’re talking about middle class the first project

That we’re going to visit is an apartment in Business Bay that is Dubai’s Financial District packed with corporate highrises and fancy Apartments of course filming in Dubai is a pain it’s not allowed anywhere and it took 5 seconds for security guards to spot me and tell me I got to

Stop this is a new frame so we put our wrap let’s say it’s called it’s called wrapping basically not wrapping but wrapping wrapping yeah yes so you can feel that the texture is even there it really like represents the real wood oh wow yeah yeah and then if you see from

The other side you see the existing frame so there’s the existing frame okay so this side is not complete yet so they’re going to finish it now and then this is what it looks like now okay that’s what it used to be this is what

It is now yeah okay it’s quite fast it’s much better now these are my guys this is Lance this is Nelson hey guys yeah we say we say for like they’re from Philippines so you say cabayan for uh Philippines yeah so living in Dubai it’s like so International you learn so many

Different things from different cultures right yes yeah that’s a good thing about the bu it’s quite easy you just have to prepare the surface and then uh it’s self adhesive and it has like if you look here air channels inside I don’t know if the camera can show it see some

Grooves inside okay so when they’re working with the squeegee it’s called squeegee like the air will be able to go outside get a really like Smooth uh and and it sticks really well then yes yeah this is like so if you so this is the

Existing and this is the new one so you see the color is a bit different yeah you anyways everything is fine so we will be in touch all right Lance thank Youk hello thank you so 1 hour is free which is good yes what’s this part of town we are in

Route to daa daa the old part of Dubai yes well not that old anymore looks brand new to me yeah well this new development is called Jewel of the creek have a that’s a typical Dera neighborhood right yes this is Dera guys lot a busy part of town you know

When you imagine Dubai a lot of times you think it’s mostly driving but here people walk super amazing all the time hey man how are you good afternoon you always do that you know just make it just brings your mood up you know it’s so cool that’s right yeah

So that’s the French benefit of your job is you get to see all these fancy places right yeah yeah it take so much time this my first stop and the most favorite stuff all right hello the boat if you can see what we’ve done you can see the inside cabinets

Right okay but you see the outside is is different yes yes it is we changed the colors completely for the whole thing I like the texture yeah it’s a really good wooden texture finish huh yeah at last Almost 3 days you said 3 days now it’s 30 days

Brother this is my second vote but okay you did no Andreas is happy also yeah it’s a really cool view sure is you can see the old Dubai and then you can sort of see the the new Dubai have the frame you have the bush Khalifa isn’t that beautiful doing business in a

Location like this right well it’s this location yes it’s just not always this location we finished almost huh how this my friend V my name is Slava pet nice to meet you nice to meet you too how’s things good finally how you enjoy today finishing well now

Finally at almost 300 p.m. we can go to H speed up speed speed up speed smoking speed up the speed limit on the highways is a generous 140 km an hour So we’re like 15 minutes away from the border with the man right yeah more or less so Leo this place looks fantastic what is this this is hat Dam so it’s a getaway place it’s a water reservoir and people come here just to chill during the weekends and during national

Holidays to exhausted it’s been a long day can we go backy that’s how you turn yeah it’s a teamwork is that a type of place you like to go to yeah I’m sweating it’s actually hard huh hat is an exclave of Dubai high in the haar mountains around

130 km southeast of Dubai there’s actually so many activities you can do in hether like even ziplining and horse riding and we came to late though most of the attraction were closed now let’s find a place to eat the local way of course you ready to have some local food inall how are

You wow tan chicken tan chicken tan chicken tan oh wow lamb Tor this chicken is so soft and so is the lamb and I feel like they’ve been slowly cooking it for a long time it’s falling it’s falling apart in my hands so they say eating with your hands is

Taste here is that true yeah just take the rice it in the balls like they do it all the time okay oh look at you you’re an expert yeah I’m good at observing things and you have to make a bowl out of it some more tenure look at that wow for how

Many people is this four people four people okay so you got some T chicken and T lamb nice that’s a lot of food Okay ah yes maybe just smell so the current price is 3 Dirhams per liter yeah which is okay it’s not bad okay and we’re back to Dubai day number two today we’re going to go sailing but first let’s visit a modulus this is where locals get together for lunch they drink coffee and socialize actually modulus from Arabic means a sitting room so traditional food keep coming Baba when you’re around this area keep coming him

Welcome thank you to invite for the dinner and we are friend together and every day we have this eating together this is the Arabic culture very nice yeah so you like discuss the news and everything right yeah okay Ramadan time not uh only an evening 6:00 okay full every everybody

Food everywhere okay 25 people yes or more plus minus we don’t count open Buffet all night long open Buffet yeah food Fiesta yes all special dishes come out in Ramadan mostly [Applause] this is Arabic coffee Arabic coffee you try it unfortunately I brought some Starbucks Starbucks Starbucks Starbucks Arabic much better right yes

Oh maybe we will pass by the project also there is one project here nearby uh I just want to see what we’ve done it’s okay you seem to be running a very busy schedule man yeah how do you handle it I don’t I’m on the verge of uh break nerve

Break yeah I’m really amazed how you hang out with all kinds of people of all different backgrounds you know what’s your secret for making all kinds of friends uh I mean personality plays A Part yeah I’m I’m an extrovert so I like to be around people and I like to

Communicate with people in general uee by itself is like a place where you have a lot of nationalities ah warning I know I should be helping you instead but yeah we need some cont camera and help me with this we need some content man

Yeah uh well I started doing it in uh I think 2010 rough so I was I was not a big fan of sailing at that time and my dad was really like pushing me and forcing me to do it I hope he doesn’t watch this video but uh

So your dad got you into sailing yeah yeah he when he he started in Kev so uh he was uh he was occasionally sailing when he was like you know a college student they used to do that every weekend we try to go out every uh every

Saturday and the races are also once a month every Saturday so you’re not coming ton today right no I’ve worked I have I have some things to take care of unfortunately but uh it’s a good thing because we can go out in the evening and

We can see some to buy night life good stuff we’ll take care of things and I’ll see you later then yes all Right you got youred hello sir for Ma [Applause] for uh for For Can you buy alcohol in Dubai yes but you got to be at least 21 and have a license was day M day number three with Leo well guys now the day with Leo we’re going to corana and fuera so Coran is part of sha and fuera is a separate Emirate by

Itself but they’re both on the side of the Indian Ocean need some you need some coffee I’ll take a cappuccino cappuccino and I will take double oh seems like it’s ready thank you very much so coffee is 10 D going through the mountains lots of tunnels uh it’s the second one I think there is like three or four of

These on our way to fuera they invest a lot of money in this it’s all federal projects this is a third tunnel a fourth one Yeah with a PL pl9 so what you get just a burger oh yeah this is the WG Burger it’s quite small but it’s really tasty and since I got a British Coke I decided to get some fish and chips to make it a perfect combo cheers man

All how did you end up in Dubai tell me your life story my family moved here in the early 2000s and I was 7 years old at that time so you were seven when you came to Dubai yeah yeah I’m 29 now so I’ve been here for the last 22 years now

So at the age of seven you went to Local School yes uh well it’s a local school but it’s interesting cuz it actually was a Russian school so uh there is a whole you know big community of Russians here and they even opened the school at that time I think they opened in

1993 right so when you finished school did you think about coming going back to Russia or what were your thoughts yeah I was thinking of going to Moscow luckily my parents convinced me not to go there that was a bad idea um yeah and I ended up sting in uh

Dubai in American University in Dubai and I got a chance to get a scholarship as well which was really good as well okay and what was your major um civil engineering so construction buildings what got you into that did you feel passionate about it or was somebody’s

Advice I have no idea what got me into that I just there were there were four or five options but it ended up well you know it’s it’s quite fun to know about the mechanics of materials about the structures about U you know how materials work you have concrete steel

So you graduated from college what did you do then um I went to work as a site engineer for one year you know working from 6:00 to 5: every day wake up at five uh 6 days a week uh then I went into work for a company called Worth

Wholesale of uh different equipments and materials but I was in the Construction Division of that company and that’s where I really learned how to sell projects and how to sell products how to talk communicate with people it was a very good experience uh so you learned the sales you have the technical

Expertise at what point did you decide to go on your own uh I was in between the interviews uh and then just one idea came to me okay well let me try to do something with uh you know you know kitchens and bathrooms and uh that’s when I started with my first solution

And product which is facelift of uh kitchens and fun fact I was motivated by my girlfriend as well she was always saying I don’t like those dark windows in your apartment it’s so dark uh I don’t like those brown cabinets and I changed the kitchen and I sent her a

Photo and she was amazed and then I realized that this wow effect can be translated into other customers oh wow yeah and then I I did some calculations and I’m understand well we can work here you know uh and that’s how I open up uh this company in uh in

August and we’ve done around well now we’re in November we’ve done around 80 projects so far wow yeah really building that portfolio yes so how does it feel to be a company owner versus an employee it’s more interesting but at the same time it’s much more tougher you

Don’t get a lot of rest I have uh five full-time employees at this point then I have some Freelancers coming and going to manage some extra workload but uh yeah we’re I mean I’m planning to get maybe eight or 10 people by February or Mar oh unic okay so that that was the

Company I was talking this is the company of uh of a of a guy I used to study with so it’s his dad’s company actually so I get this impression that you you got a lot of uh very interesting connections from the University yeah I I

Got a few luckily I should have invested more my more time into that we are in carken charia and you know for a coastal town this is very impressive I would say the infrastructure is phenomenal and it’s so clean there’s even the port big ports yeah and all of these ports will be

Connected by the railway there there will be there’s a railway yeah that’s going to connect all the ports wow between all Emirates it took us 1 hour 40 minutes to get here and then Dubai enjoy such a nice location that you know within 1 hour you can be in Abu Dhabi within two

Hours you can be uh you know on the coastal line and or go to Oman if you want go to Oman even oh man the air feels so good ocean smell yeah is that’s a ocean so that’s the benefit of living in Dubai right 2 hours and you’re you’re at the

Ocean the ocean you’re on a beach with basically no people look but it’s uh it’s a working day so maybe we might get more people during the during the weekend right well this is fer guys we have come to fer which is not not far from carakan but to be

Honest I I enjoyed carakan a lot more I think it’s it has this super charm of a small town but for JRA I mean it’s also very nice there is this nice cores the beach and a lot of hotels but it’s just so spread Out you want coconut you want to drink coconut sure you have a YouTube channel no fresh coconut water doing a good job as a cameraman where are you from my from is Bangladesh and this my friend what is your name Slava nice to meet you yeah we oh let’s

Go to the shop yeah I got a camera man oh wow what pay we have to pay or he has to pay he comes with the coconut ah it comes with the coconut market so get some fruits you get some but you have to negotiate all the time really yeah it’s

Actually look at That now we’re on our way to jabble J which is a mountain and it’s part of the haar mountains it’s actually located in rasala fantastic Getaway on our way up there are so many View and Decks that come with a great View and different food options there’s also a lot of camping

Locations but our plan was to get to the very top you said this is the coldest you’ve experienced in 10 months most probably so the temperature’s dropping and we’re just guessing how much lower can it get f f we are in the clouds and right now outside it’s just

19 Celsius so it’s a it’s a big drop from 32 in Dubai and it’s much more enjoyable that’s why people come here look the mountain is just disappearing in the cloud you cannot see clearly and that’s why that’s because we are actually in in the middle of a cloud

Believe It or Not You Don’t See Clearly because of that yeah very popular spot people come here take pictures have a good time with their families do you see a home home is There now let’s visit the highest restaurant in the UAE 1484 m above sea level and we have come to the highest restaurant in UAE does that sound exciting I think so so we’ll go inside we’ll take a look all right get your Corona man cheers it’s been a beautiful day [Applause]

Yeah you want some ketchup as well or no I Chang my mind s imagine getting cold in Dubai that you need a blanket to stay warm gosh we got some some cats got into the car cuz it didn’t close the windows what are you doing kitties where are you got to get them

Out now there’s another one there’s another kitty come on run away there’s so many just ridiculous cats in the car they’re cute though all right see you guys you left your car with the with the windows down so is safety ever a concern in the UAE definitely it’s a concern

Because some cats might go into your car so most of the time you can say you do not lock your car no I don’t wow recently recently well I used to lock it before but recently I stopped even my uh house I don’t lock my house or anything

Just keep so is that safe yes yes is Dubai a comfortable place to live for you yeah of course definitely what do you like about it um gives you an opportunity to work and earn money it’s safe it’s Dynamic it’s um Multicultural you got a you know you got nice

Season um well you know now it’s really it’s really nice and beautiful um yeah there’s four months where uh you have to suffer a little bit with the weather but other than that it’s a paradise we’re actually passing by a beautiful beach right now is that kite Beach yeah it’s

Part of it’s part of kite Beach yeah it’s like this whole thing is kind of kite Beach so let me ask you about your future future plans are you planning to stay in Dubai or are you considering some other locations no I think I would

Uh I think I would rather stay I mean I have many people who have lived here for more than 10 years and 20 years uh it’s always the case it’s always the case kind of sucks you know it sucks you in and it doesn’t let you doesn’t let you

Out yeah it’s like a it’s like a quick sand you know yeah Dubai has this reputation of being a very expensive place to live I think people who say that it’s expensive they they probably never lived in other countries like uh in Hong Kong China or in London or

Europe people are actually escaping from Europe to come to Dubai because it is much cheaper here how much you pay uh for your rent something like 12 to $15,000 per year I have Co prices So Co prices dropped I mean that the the rent dropped in Co and then they cannot

Increase the rent what about what about salaries say what working in the construction what would the average salary be uh there is a big competition in the market for uh Engineers you have Engineers coming from all over the places but on on average starting range I would say would be somewhere

Between 5 to 8,000 DS and then uh if you’re working in a multinational company as an engineer which is of course it’s hard to get there because there’s big competition and there’s many like you know like interviews um you can expect uh maybe something like 25 30% uh bigger as a

Start project managers would get something like $10,000 hire project managers who manage bigger projects they get maybe 50,000 per month the lambo broke in the middle of the road you’ve lived here for 20 years now right now now I know in UAE you cannot get a citizenship so how are you able to

Maintain a legal status well you can get a citizenship but then it has to be a very you know super exceptional case uh like you know pav D of the founder of telegram he was granted a citizenship CEO of Emirates group he got granted a citizenship one I heard about a doctor

From ababi you got a citizenship but it has to be like really you have to bring in significant value in the country Visa is something that you need to stay here full-time resident Visa or Investor’s Visa um you can get uh visa from 2 up to 10 years if you

Have property worth of 750,000 durhams you can get um 2year visa and then you can renew it every 2 years and then if you have 2 million dhams as an investment uh you can get a golden Visa so ah golden Visa I’ll mention about that so golden Visa uh grants you an

Opportunity to have a 10year Visa and then you can renew it again Dubai has this reputation of being a tax Haven have you ever looked at how much taxes are you paying it’s taxfree but then there are these certain things you know like um fees and stuff which which Tech

Technically is not a tax but it’s um still an expense it’s an expense yeah but it still would be considerably lower than in other places like in Europe yes yes yes definitely yes okay definitely much much lower okay lower than us Russia Europe and that’s why people are coming

Here so there you have it do you guys think Dubai is a nice place to live would you like to live here speed it speed It speed it up go speed it up speed it up speed it up speed it up speed it up speed it up speed it up go faster he go faster go FAS go faster I wake up go I’m pray to God like a n I’m put that on my

Put on my I’m put that on my

Video “20 Years In Dubai | Was it WORTH it?” was uploaded on 01/10/2024. Watch all the latest Videos by CoolVision on Gretopia