I'm in South Africa to spend 5 weeks back 'home' with my friends and if I'm really lucky hubby will join me for a week.
Last week I blogged about the reality of living in South Africa and how I couldn't even begin to compare it Dubai, but people did ask, where I prefer to live and its not a question I can answer easily.
Last week I blogged about the reality of living in South Africa and how I couldn't even begin to compare it Dubai, but people did ask, where I prefer to live and its not a question I can answer easily.
The reason being is that it is impossible
to compare two completely different countries.
Think of Dubai you think of wealth and of
South Africa you think poverty and violence.
Well the reality is we live the same
lifestyle in both countries, we live a better lifestyle as expats than we did in the UK, even before the children left home. There is as much obscene wealth as there is
poverty in both countries with the only really noticeable difference being it
is safer to live in Dubai than in South Africa, therefore making it easier to
get out and about from day 1, obtain a sim card, use public transport, meet up
with people from the online expat community.
We don’t have a pool and it’s way hotter in
Dubai, but then it’s too cold in South Africa in the winter.
It’s closer to the UK but still a 7 hour
flight away and still got a trek from the airport (whichever one we fly into)
still sleeping on pull out beds, sofas and floors when visiting family and
friends, still trawling the length of the UK to visit family and friends.
There’s a double the time difference
between the UK and Dubai than there was between the UK and SA, which although
only one flight is involved instesad of two by the time you’ve factored in the
time difference you may as well have done both flights.
Post works, interent is consistent and no
power cuts, the quality of work here is poor, but government departments work
effectively, driving is the same, erratic, despite on different sides of the
road, fuel is almost free in Dubai, but we thought it cheap in SA. Cost of
living in SA is the cheapest but the variety of services and shopping is
limited, whereas Dubai is more exciting in terms of what’s on offer. I can’t
compare, I won’t compare, that’s like asking me who my favourite child is?
Message me if you want to know….lol
I can't imagine fuel being cheap. It is crazy expensive here. You've done a great job of comparing apples with oranges and it's really interesting to read about.
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