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

i LOVE these stories, please keep them coming!

I used to travel a couple of times to Dubai at the end of the 90's (my brother lived there at that time) and I really enjoyed the holidays here, what a wonderful time ! I used to go at the Oasis Beach Club (which doesn't exist anylonger) and the only beach hotels were the Ritz and the Oasis Beach... I came back and settled down in Dubai with my husband and 2 kids 3 years ago and to be honest I am really happy what Dubai became...there are quite a lot of things to do now, I don't think I would have been able to live here 10 years ago, I would have got bored very quickly...even today Dubai has not so many entertainments to offer so imagine 10 years ago ! Viva new Dubai !

When Deria City Center opened it was "The Most" exciting thing, there were traffic que's across the bridges to get to it :)

definitely loved the "old Dubai". I remember: Al Ghurair centre was the only shopping mall. Our annual school picnics to Safa Park which was more sand and less grass in the 80s and 90s! Long drives to Khorfakkan beach - lovely place! Channel 33 was the only English channel... loved the cartoons back then and they had some great shows as well. On Thursday nights they'd show a Hindi (Indian) movie and we'd wait eagerly every weekend for it - although most of the times they'd show the worst possible movies! I remember loving the "back in Dubai" song everytime I'd land at Dubai airport on the way back from our holidays.... the song was regularly played at the airport (or the pland while landing, can't remember)! Dubai 92 was the only radio station back then... they had this jingle they used play everytime: [i'>[/i'>Seat belt time is here again, so please make sure you're wearing yours, I know this jingle doesn't rhyme, but it might save your life![i'>[/i'> This was when wearing seat belts wasn't mandatory. <em>edited by terrible_twos on 26/04/2011</em>

Pancho Villa's was in the Astoria hotel I think or was that the George and Dragon? Anyone go to Merlin's?

Thanks for all the ladies who have shared their memories on this thread. :) Sounds like "Old Dubai" tops "Old Town" any day! Desertprincess' question sparked an observation : Noticed that those who have been here the longest have the "smallest" number of posts. Guess length of stay and experiences don't tally with the number of posts... Pls just an observation. No offense intended.

@desertprincess: getting annoyed frequently! "Hardship" was part of the fun of being different and to be enjoyed, and deprivation - what was that? - after all, it gave us the chance to do a shopping blast whenever travelling. One of the greatest enjoyments was to create your own entertainment, games, fun, parties... you name it! That really bound the expat community together, and with this I do mean truly all nationalities. @ Kaydee: yes, Life in the Emirates was one of them - glad to have the entertainer's name now - thanks. <em>edited by crystalsindubai on 26/04/2011</em>

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/patrickbrady This gives a preview of Patrick Brady's song Life in the Emirates, but I cannot find any of the others I remember, such as Abu Dhabi Sunshine. I used to own a tape (yes, it was that long ago) which I think was called Sunshine Reggai and was all songs about the Emirates, does anyone recall it? I bought it from the Hamdan Shopping Centre in Abu Dhabi around about 1987 or 88 I think.

What a brilliant thread! Have really enjoyed reading about what Dubai was like back in the day. Wish I could have experienced it! Just wondering... do any of you old timers get annoyed with newer expats constantly moaning about this, that or the other?

Hi minimax17 - yes, lots of fun to be had in those early days... Pancho Villa was in the Astoria Hotel in the middle of Bur Dubai. Little doorman is still around...

Great link KKS, thanks for sharing this - it's a treasure! And no, this is not the songs I had in mind - will try and find them.

Wow! What a fabulous thread! Thank you so much for sharing so many amazing memories. To think I thought there had been a lot of change between early 2006 and late 2010!

This is great - I have only been here 4 years as an Expat but in my previous life as Cabin Crew with Britannia Airways we used to stop off in the UAE on the way to Oz. This is going back to early 1990's. We first used to stay at the Grand Hotel Sharjah - "dry" so you can imagine the shenanigans that went on getting in with alcohol! I remember vividly taxiing to Dubai to go to PANCHO VILLAS! Where was this in Dubai???? Then we changed much to the delight of the partying aircrew to Abu Dhabi and stayed at the Intercontinental. Much more suited us as you can imagine! I never thought when I was spending time here in the UAE that one day it would become our home and that our son would go to school here! How life changes?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmtLyWfgfU0 Someone sent me this link just yesterday, is this the song you are thinking of? Love this link. Made me smile a lot. Good times.

We moved to Dubai in 1993 & so miss the old times & how Dubai was back then. Sigh!! Me too I came here 96 :) still here ..... <em>edited by JShepherd on 08/12/2011</em>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmtLyWfgfU0 Someone sent me this link just yesterday, is this the song you are thinking of?

This is a lovely thread and thank you for sharing your memories. I don't have any memories of old Dubai because I never experienced it. My dh is Emirati (born in early 80s) and he always tells me how Dubai was better in old days, for him old means 80s and early 90s. What I have heard and now read in this thread I think I would have liked old Dubai as well.

Oh yes, and then there were those songs "Back in Dubai" by a Kenyan singer.... became a smash hit in the late 70's/80's - and "Life in the Emirates"... great fun! edited by crystalsindubai on 26/04/2011 <em>edited by crystalsindubai on 26/04/2011</em>

Just seen this and what a lot of memories all your mails bring back. We arrived in the summer of 1979 and lived in Sharjah with my husband working in Ajman, for the old Yellow Pages. Can remember when Digdaga first appeared in supermarkets in a triangular plastic pack and we use to freeze it as only appeared once or twice a week. Perfectly fine when it thawed out. All shops shut between 1pm and 4pm and most on Friday too. and opened until 9pm only, none of this midnight and 24 hrs we now get. Petrol stations nearly all shut on a Friday and again at 9 at night. Someone mentioned buying newspapers at the roundabouts, had forgotten that one. Two lanes each way on the Dxb/Shj highway and if there was a jam the taxi driver would just take off into the desert. Liek another poster would stock up on shoes when went abroad - only the souq and Red Shoe which was expensive and not very trendy! Few clothes shops in Satwa High Street, one owned by a British lady, and one in Sharjah called Serendipity I think, again a British lady who I believe is still in the UAE. And had a book shop next door to it. TV was dreadful, music tapes were cheap in Shj Souq seem to remember 3 for Dhs 10! Not much traffic, lot of sand. Beach at Hamriya was beautiful, now an oil terminal. Driving to Fujeriah took forever and once we had to make our way over a rockfall on the road, towing boats! The Lodge and Panchos were the place to go and the Red Lion at the Metropolitan, which in those days was miles away. Sharjah had a humming nightlife in the early 80's, lots of lovely restaurants and loads of nightclubs - at lot of people drove from Dubai for a night out! And we say lots of comedians and groups at the Marbella Club in Shj and Dubai Marine Hotel, in Bank Street. Hard to believe now I know. Of course once the mosque was built in Shj the booze stopped. Chicago Beach was lovely at a weekend, and cheap to go and sit on their lovely beach. Great times, wonderful memories and photos and yes it was a million times better than now. Moving to Samui Thailand in a year or so to recreate the 'hard times'! Can't wait.

Think i would have loved the old Dubai if id been here, great thread.

I really miss the old times :( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtqerSEjkkA

We moved to Dubai in 1996 & so miss the old times & how Dubai was back then. Sigh!!

No, it was Dhs 120,000 a year. Abu Dhabi was a seriously expensive place to live back then but it was a nice apartment for the time. yeh ok it still is, i remember just before we came in 96 that people said it was more... but it went down as we were paying 25k for a 3 bed apartment on kaleej al arabi. its still a seriously expensive place to live and the prices have come down, still have a way to go yet to get back to the 120k for a villa which used to be the norm back when we first arrived.

@DubaiCat - I don't think it was a Vicar and Tart's party, but it got shut down at the same time as The Lodge for throwing a NYE party over Ramadan. I'm pretty sure it was December '97.

No, it was Dhs 120,000 a year. Abu Dhabi was a seriously expensive place to live back then but it was a nice apartment for the time.

Our apartment rent (in 1986) was Dhs 120,000 a year! have you added an extra 0, do you mean 12k?

I didn't come till early 2003, but even since then, the change is dramatic and I miss the old Dubai. In those days, you could go to new Spinneys in Um Suquim and if you stayed long enough you'd see everyone you knew. The only M & S was near the clock tower and Deira city Centre was the only decent mall. I had a friend who lived in Al Barsha where MoE now is and we all thought she was bonkers. I refused to live in the Lakes, which had just opened because it was too far from JESS. It took us 12 mins from Safa Park where we lived to the airport. When I think about all the shops we have now, I'm not sure we really have much more than we did in 2003, but what we do have - or did till the crash, is the greed and the speculation, the half built ugly towers going nowhere and the hotels full of chavs and footballers wives. I miss things like being able to camp on Jebel Ali beach or just drive or park on the sand wherever you liked. Even 8 yrs ago, nearly everybody I knew felt positive and privileged to be here - not sure that's the case now. Dubai also used to feel more like a community, where local people were everywhere, now it seems I can go for days without seeing any.

I arrived in Abu Dhabi in 1986 aged 21 with my new husband, landing at the 'new'airport which had just opened. We knew nothing about the place and arrived with 2 suitcases and an allowance of Dhs 10,000 to furnish our allocated apartment on Salam St, only problem was there was nothing to buy and all our furniture came from second hand shops. Our apartment rent (in 1986) was Dhs 120,000 a year! Salam St was one lane going either way, with a lot of sand on either side and in the middle; our apartment block, which is still there, was directly on the sand, with no pavements anywhere. In 1988 our first child was born in the Corniche Hospital, where I had a room overlooking the sea. We had to bring a pushchair from the UK, our carseat was bought second hand from a friend (and attached with custom made leather straps, as our car didn't have rear seat belts). I also had to drive to the Al Ghurair Centre in Dubai to buy a cot from the brand new Mothercare, it was quite an expedition. I soon realised why there were no pushchairs as dragging one through the sand was a great form of exercise. To join the British Club we had to attend a potential new members cocktail party and ensure that we introduced ourselves to all of the commitee members, if any of them didn't like us, we wouldn't have been allowed to join. I remember how excited we were a few years later when British Home Stores (BHS) opened on Hamdan Street, it was built with huge plate glass clear windows and they put dummies dressed in underwear as their first display; the street was packed with men just sitting and looking as it was quite a sight. I loved the UAE back then and still love it now. It feels like home to me.

I was at school in Dubai 1995-97 (DC). The day we arrived in Dubai we had lunch at Chicago Beach Hotel. Virtually empty! I made a number of friends who lived in CBV - loved it there. Happy memories of not-completely innocent teenage parties on the beach! As our parents had stashes of alcohol ...... We were lined up on the road in our dad's car, along with half the expat population, the day they knocked down CB Hotel to prepare the ground for The Burj and JBH. Trade Centre you could see for miles - amazing how big it seemed. There were a few tower blocks on SZR but nothing significant. We loved how everything was known by its initials: DC, EC, JESS, DESS for schools. We joined DIMC when it was brand new as our 'beach club' and it stood alone on it's bit of beach, and seemed really far out from Jumeirah. But not as far out as Jebel Ali Village! My little sister's best friend lived there, and we couldn't believe how far it was! They were at Horizon School when it was just 2 villas!! We got our school uniforms from Magrudys in Jumeira, and it was still the old Spinneys down there then. There was very little on the other side of Beach Road apart from older villas which mostly got knocked down over the next few years and more and more shopping plazas built. When we first arrived we lived in Golden Sands (think it was 5) and Bur Juman just a short way away was one of the few shopping malls. I think I remember that the shopping hours were just changing in the few malls to the idea of being open throughout the day, rather than the traditional souk hours (closed afternoons). I remember the original Lamcys burning down whilst it was being built .... talk of rivalries and vendettas!! Does anyone else remember when it was virtually impossible to get to Wafi?? My mum liked Wafi, but it drove her nuts that suddenly none of the roads actually went there!! Again there was talk of a feud between the sheik who owned it and a more powerful brother!! Who knows. We loved Hard Rock Cafe! We also went to the Country Club quite a lot, and my mum and dad went to Fibbers and most of the other places others have mentioned!! Someone mentioned the expat snobbery and that was very true. There was a girl in my little sister's class whose dad was a baker, and they 'only' lived in an apartment ... she really got looked down on by those other 7 year olds!!! That's something that has changed for the better. Also the expat community was so small that nastiness and rumours could take hold really quickly. We had that happen to us - something completely innocent turned into something really nasty. The work of a neurotic, bored and nasty-minded woman. A community where everyone knows everyone else might be nice in some ways but it can be horrible if it goes wrong!! We had a brand new villa in a small development - the Al Gurg Villas - still there. Not the ones by the side of Safa park, but between Beach Road and Al Wasl Rd, sort of back from Chothrams and Union Co-Op. Loved having the swimming pool :) My mum loved how you had to fax your location map to everyone for deliveries and visitors ... and how roads had more than one name. We called Al Wasl the Iranian Hospital Road more than Al Wasl. No roads apart from the main roads had names or numbers, so you used landmarks, like supermarkets, to get your bearings on the faxed maps. I came back in 2009 and can't say it was a good experience. Seems to me greed has taken grip. It's all about squeezing as much out of people as possible and making as much money as possible within thinking about people at all. Gave me a really nasty taste in my mouth. I'm glad to have left again - felt a real sense of relief to be home even though I'd been excited at the idea of returning to Dubai. I don't like 'new dubai'. I still got a sense of how it was back in the 90s when I managed to spend time in Jumeirah, remembering our life there, but sadly our budget as adults, not kids on daddy's wonderful expat package, only extended to JLT. Really NOT the same!!! All in all, I'd rather remember the Dubai of my teens than the over-glitzy and bling-ey 2010 version.