Friday 16 October 2015

South Africa or Dubai?

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.

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

1 comment:

  1. 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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