Those in UAE prior to 2002 do you prefer the old or new Dubai?

I don't see any change from 2002. Do you?

The new Dubai is better, in my humble opinion.

Love the old Dubai. Love the new Dubai. :)

...........and a friend of mine getting her UAE driving license -she never drove a car but gave the traffic police her British provisional driving license .They did not know the meaning of provisional. Shaks - do we know each other because I did this? I had almost clinched getting my Sharjah license from the Head of Traffic Police when he took a phone call and was about to take my provisional UK license out of the plastic holder so flicked a couple of buttons open on my shirt-dress to distract him and voila I had my Sharjah license!!!!! edited by Azaiba on 28/04/2011 edited by Azaiba on 28/04/2011 hmmmh another quote I remember lol

the red sand is on lulu island which they trucked over there at great expense it was going to be a wildlife resort etc but now they are going to build on it at some point. they do still black out the mags, but i remember when we first came that Princess D was wearing a mini skirt, but the black marker peg came out and made it below the knees instead. i remember when the beach at emirates palace was a public beach and when they built the hotel it was called the conference hotel for the big gcc conference so then they had it and renamed it the emirates palace instead. At one point they supposedly wanted Disneyland on Lulu, until the costs were discussed! hmmmmh! where did you get that information, as I do remember writing that word for word way back when lol

Does anyone else remember The Bunker?! :D Yes! I remember the bunker. We came here in 1998 and that was one handy place for us as we lived in Al Attar tower. Sausage n mash, the band playing on a Thursday...awwww We also used to go to City Centre to do our shopping and remember Barsha area, just empty space. After Defense Roundabout there wasn't anything else apart from the Metropolitan Hotel. Going to the beach beside Chicago Beach village used to be a fun day out, with BBQ and friend around. The beach used to be so clean and quiet. I appreciate the development Dubai has had throughout the years but there's so much true when people talk about 'the soul' of Dubai. It isn't what it was.

I miss the old days ..... not sure if anyone mentioned it already but do you remember the old weekend was actually Thursday / Friday it was only in more recent times they changed it to Fri/Sat so it was easier for business. Ohhh yes and didn't you used to get your windscreen washed at the lights and you were always wondering if they could do it before the lights changed lol

Sorry I only just saw this post. I have been here almost continuously since 1984 and remember camels eating out of the bins near Eat and Drink on the Al Wasl Road, a turtle laying eggs one night on the beach down in Jumeirah 1, a dhub on the SZR that a policeman rescued and took to safety in his car boot and owls in the trees near where the Metropolitan Hotel complex is, oh and gazelle just up the road on the way to Jebel Ali.

The year there was a falcon hanging from a crane on the Corniche for National Day - it had a flower in its beak too - we called it 'the budgie'! Standing on the Corniche watching fireworks going off from Lulu, can't remember which National Day it was though. In Dubai, going to the old Beach Road Spinneys (still prefer it to the new one). Taking an hour to find Lamcy, with a friend driving, we saw it from every angle but the roads were changing so frequently the routes changed almost daily. We were looking to move in 2001 and I remember meeting an agent at what I still refer to as new Choithram (the big one in Umm Suqeim) and thinking there was no way we could live as far down as the Police College as it was off the edge of the world - we were working in Qusais and Sharjah though.

the red sand is on lulu island which they trucked over there at great expense it was going to be a wildlife resort etc but now they are going to build on it at some point. they do still black out the mags, but i remember when we first came that Princess D was wearing a mini skirt, but the black marker peg came out and made it below the knees instead. i remember when the beach at emirates palace was a public beach and when they built the hotel it was called the conference hotel for the big gcc conference so then they had it and renamed it the emirates palace instead. At one point they supposedly wanted Disneyland on Lulu, until the costs were discussed!

...........and a friend of mine getting her UAE driving license -she never drove a car but gave the traffic police her British provisional driving license .They did not know the meaning of provisional. Shaks - do we know each other because I did this? I had almost clinched getting my Sharjah license from the Head of Traffic Police when he took a phone call and was about to take my provisional UK license out of the plastic holder so flicked a couple of buttons open on my shirt-dress to distract him and voila I had my Sharjah license!!!!! edited by Azaiba on 28/04/2011 <em>edited by Azaiba on 28/04/2011</em>

Wasn't it lovely then...? Yearning back to those simple times!

Does anyone remember Uncle Bob on Radio 2 that did the childrens hour - it used to be like a community radio station then Also the coconut trees on Abu Dhabi Cornich near the Hiltonia before they started the beach/road widening - I have a lovely photo of my boys standing under the coconut trees holding coconuts and a sign saying 'Do not pick the coconuts' The boys found the coconuts on the ground ooh you have a lovely bunch of coconuts...... and J you mean the first set of widenings....! i remember the day the crane fell over when they were building the adgas buildings on corniche and luckily nobody got squashed by this huge thing falling down on top of your heads! elf and safety lol

Does anyone remember Uncle Bob on Radio 2 that did the childrens hour - it used to be like a community radio station then Also the coconut trees on Abu Dhabi Cornich near the Hiltonia before they started the beach/road widening - I have a lovely photo of my boys standing under the coconut trees holding coconuts and a sign saying 'Do not pick the coconuts' The boys found the coconuts on the ground

Capital Radio in AD, it fair took me back hearing Fadi on Radio 2! Another AD one, but watching the Breakwater being built and going to the beach were the Emirates Palace is now. Sheikh Zayed had wanted red sand on one of the beaches and it was brought from Al Ain. Before they could put it on the beach there was a storm and the dune of red sand disappeared, then next day there was a man in a bobcat driving round trying to scoop it all up! La Brioche, with the surliest staff you could imagine. Going to Lals at Wafi for exciting things like Walkers crisps and Sunblest bread because you couldn't get them in AD. I don't think they black over or rip out so much of the magazines now. I got so used to looking at the spines of mags to see how much had been ripped out and flicking through to find out how many pages were stuck together with black marker that I'd get odd looks when I did it in Smiths. edited by JHM on 27/04/2011 the red sand is on lulu island which they trucked over there at great expense it was going to be a wildlife resort etc but now they are going to build on it at some point. they do still black out the mags, but i remember when we first came that Princess D was wearing a mini skirt, but the black marker peg came out and made it below the knees instead. i remember when the beach at emirates palace was a public beach and when they built the hotel it was called the conference hotel for the big gcc conference so then they had it and renamed it the emirates palace instead.

Sergio and Sandra are also still / again running the Hatta Fort Hotel .... staff was smiling when he came back out of retirment! And I still go to Gerard's at the Magrudy Center in Jumeirah on Fridays... best croissants in town. Got lots of grey hair now, still long, still mercurial...

Crystalsindubai, Yes now I remember, her parents used to run Hatta Fort hotel. Gerard when he first arrived as a young pastry chef working at the flying saucer in Sharjah before opening in Al Ghurair center in Dubai.

@ shaks: Natalie Magnaldi .... still here - or rather here again....

So many of my childhood memories (edited to add: in the Middle East) involve long-life milk, ahhh the days when fresh milk wasn't a sure thing! <em>edited by Simone N on 27/04/2011</em>

Capital Radio in AD, it fair took me back hearing Fadi on Radio 2! Another AD one, but watching the Breakwater being built and going to the beach were the Emirates Palace is now. Sheikh Zayed had wanted red sand on one of the beaches and it was brought from Al Ain. Before they could put it on the beach there was a storm and the dune of red sand disappeared, then next day there was a man in a bobcat driving round trying to scoop it all up! La Brioche, with the surliest staff you could imagine. Going to Lals at Wafi for exciting things like Walkers crisps and Sunblest bread because you couldn't get them in AD. I don't think they black over or rip out so much of the magazines now. I got so used to looking at the spines of mags to see how much had been ripped out and flicking through to find out how many pages were stuck together with black marker that I'd get odd looks when I did it in Smiths. <em>edited by JHM on 27/04/2011</em>

Richard Coram and Nathalie ( Italian name cannot remember ) reading the news on Channel 33. A bit like Beckam and Posh spice at the time they used to be the darlings of the media.

I first came to Dubai for the day in June 1980, en route from Europe to Hong Kong. I was very young but remember seeing the sun rise over the plane and walking from the airport to the, under construction, International Hotel. We went by taxi to the Gold Souk and I'm sure I remember barasti houses by the road and we definitely passed a couple of Salukis standing on the sand by the road. 96 must have been a big year in Abu Dhabi, I moved there too! I'd been visiting since 93 and things were already changing. Everyone still assumed it was part of Saudi though. There were really only a couple of places that people went out, Finnegans and the American bar (don't think I ever knew its real name) at the Forte Grand were always packed, after sundowners at Waka Taua (sp?). The road from AD to Dubai had the trees in the fast lane and enormous pot holes in the slow lane, and it flooded in the rain. I used to love the signs by the road, 'Reduce your speed and don't be a source of grief to others'. Etisalat bills started having messages on them, 'Breastfeeding is a community responsibility' raised a smile. When you drove from AD to Dubai you passed Jebel Ali village, then counted off the beach hotels before getting to Desert Springs which stood on its own with the garden centre next to it. Then it was Ace, Defence Roundabout and the Trade Centre but you didn't really feel like you were in Dubai until you got to Sana. We moved to Dubai in 2000 and lived in Qusais and then Mirdif (there were 2 mosque shops, both a bit iffy so Garhoud Choithrams was the nearest shop). We spent New Year's Eve 2000 on the beach by Burj Al Arab (where the Madinat is now), a great night. We often went to Sharjah and from Mirdif to Magrudy's took 20 minutes. My oldest was born at the end of 2002 and I had a buggy shipped over that could handle sand, now there's hardly anywhere left without pavements. I drove down to the Marina today trying to remember what it was like before Beach road was widened and the Marina happened. My stepfather was first here in the mid 80s, working on Jebel Ali power station and then put roads in between Beach Road and the sea, and then in AD in the 90s. He used to like to come back to see what had changed but hasn't joined my mother for her last 2 visits I think because it is all too different. As the place has changed, we've adapted with it but Dubai doesn't seem as friendly as it did.

Sharjah Ladies Club which used to meet for lunch once a month at the Marbella club with wine. lethal if you had to shopping at Spinney's on the way home! This too. We used to take it in turns to choose the menu. I still remember what I chose!

Loving this! Does anyone remember the round restaurant in sharjah on the beach, it was chinese and when you asked for special tea they brought it in a china teapot and you had wine out of a china teacup!! Also remember cows wandering around sharjah eating cardboard boxes! I so remember that place. We used to get so drunk there! Arrived in 1992, lived in Sharjah then Dubai. Remember a Scots friend getting arrested for wearing a skirt (kilt) on NYE on his way home from Sharjah Wanderers. And the chicken shop near SES where you bought a live chicken which they then killed and plucked for you.

Sharjah Ladies Club which used to meet for lunch once a month at the Marbella club with wine. lethal if you had to shopping at Spinney's on the way home!

Yes I do remember this chinese restaurant serving alcohol in a teapot, a friend bringing gin in a pedialite bottle at the Marbella club in Ramadan and a great new year party at the grand hotel in al Khan where everyone was drunk while Sharjah was dry and no booze in hotels: everyone brought their own and kept it under the tables.....

You could also order tea = whisky in a cup at the Federal Hotel in Sharjah during Ramadhan... I remember: - the HSBC in the old Sharjah souq, located in a triangle building with padlocks during the night! - a tiny ramshackle building on the Kalba Corniche calling itself "Taj Mahal Hotel" - sent a picture of it to the Taj Mahal some years ago, but have not had a response... - a well-patronized ramshackle restaurant called "Delicious Meals Restaurant" in the Naif area... <em>edited by crystalsindubai on 27/04/2011</em>

Oh yes Red tea, white tea, frothy tea (heineken) special lemonade (gin & tonic) and pork ribs The best thing about Sharjah in the early days were all the different little booze shops down by the power house all trying to get you to buy so great deals could be had :)

This thread is great, so many memories....Green house supermarket on Al Wahda Street in Sharjah selling cider from Normandy they thought it was apple juice ( this is when Sharjah was dry) and a friend of mine getting her UAE driving license -she never drove a car but gave the traffic police her British provisional driving license .They did not know the meaning of provisional. Etisalat was Emirtel.

small birds in cages sold at traffic lights. The volcano fountain on Abu Dhabi Corniche that changed colour. The fishermen with nets throwing them into the sea by the floating restaurant in Bateen that had a turtle that swam to one side of it.