It was 2002 when I saw Dubai magic-projects: “The World” manmade archipelago, date palm-like artificial islands: Palm Jumeirah, Palm Deira and Palm Jebel Ali. Today a part of these eighth Wonders of the World has already been built. At that time everything was only in black and white.

Something grandiose was going to be up to and it fell into my mind to participate in it: as a doer or a stander-by — it doesn’t matter. Well, I was wrapped up in emotions. ❤

As often happens: you are willing to get wish right here and right now but you are not allowed by the Universe. Only 8 years later since my first distance getting to know with Dubai I had found myself in this city. It was well after midnight when my plane landed. Coming off the plane I could feel wet and warm air. A sauna rang a bell.

At first my smelling was sensing a tang of sea very clearly. Nowadays my northern body has been used to both heat and humidity. I can sense sea notes more and more seldom only when opening my windows at night.

My first visit to Dubai was a through-96 hour one in one of the best hotels on the seashore. It was as if I were in a traditional eastern fairytale: a palace with a wonderful garden, birds singing, fountains, rose leaves and other fancies.

Safety and peace were felt both on the territory of the hotel and outside it as if you were in a cradle. Later I often asked people what they liked about Dubai and they answered it was safe there and calm. Well, I seemed to have got it right.

Actually I am glad that my first visit to the Emirates has been postponing for such a long time. In 2002 everything was in black and white. But the best part of it had been built by 2010.

The artificial Palm-looking island, a world map looking archipelago, the highest Burj Khalifa skyscraper, indoor ski-resort Ski Dubai, huge malls, aquariums and even the underground – everything had been completed and done.

My pilot long-term visit took place in the fall of 2012. I accommodated myself in a city hotel of Dubai on an upper floor providing a magnificent view of the Financial Center, local-rise of local citizens' buildings, the sea and the World artificial island.

First time I couldn't pry myself away from the great panorama of the shimmering city. My looking up at the next to even higher building was wired because I was staying on the thirty seventh floor.

I took my first walk along Sheikh Zayed Road. I was the only pedestrian walking along the eight-lane highway. The drivers might have found me very strange. The point is that Dubai had been drivers-minded for a long time: roads are perfect here. But pavements and other walkers' sweets of life appeared not so long ago.

Nowadays you are able to walk around the city. There are pavements almost everywhere, sometimes they are very narrow but anyway they are. Large road intersections are equipped with walking faze button traffic-lights. Drivers are mostly polite but anyway you should be careful while crossing.

And at last I made my mind to move to the city of me dream and for the long haul. Among all cozy and diverse emirates I had chosen and ambitious, modern, constantly changing, growing and amiable Dubai.

At the moment you seem to have experienced everything Dubai has something new to have you surprised. It has something to offer for every budget. If desired a job or a hobby can be found here or a start-up as well.

Dubai is changing surprisingly fast. The picture made at the beginning of a year has all changes to become historical at the end of a season. For example, a year and a half ago I had a wonderful sea view from my apartment.

And now two new skyscrapers have grown up shutting up a part of the view. Only the investors who have bought apartments in the houses under construction are on velvet. They can't help being happy about the construction speed.

I was surprised by Dubai Marina beach in JBR in particular: a couple of year ago it was plain and unequipped. A wide white-sand dene along the Arabian Gulf and a couple of sun loungers. Today it is an in place with well-equipped beach, stylish changing rooms, washrooms and lockers. There are rows of sun loungers at the water's edge. The Walk zone with coffee shops, restaurants and fashionable boutiques is near the beach.

Along the shore there are sport lanes with special cover on them, exercise machines, kids’ playgrounds, the outdoor cinema La Playa Lounge, open terraces. Plenty of people. Single, family, different. Someone comes here for having a rest, others to discuss business stuff.

*By the way, Kite beach is being changed greatly (it is another Dubai city beach).

From a private helicopter and luxurious car with a driver to well-developed public transport. Everything depends on possibilities and personal preferences. For tourists having an international driving license it makes sense to hire a car. Wide range of prices, wide variety of car models from an executive-class Rolls-Royce, sophisticated Maserati and Bugatti to reliable Toyota, Nissan, Chevrolet.

By the way, as soon as you become a resident you are to take a driving test to take out a local driving license. For the ones who are used to driving their own cars go to Dubai driver training centers immediately. And even those who are not fond of driving start thinking of having a car because it enables to get around more easily. *Dubai public transport helps a lot. But sometimes it is not enough.

In case you can afford it you can buy or rent a villa. In fact this option is suitable for family or companies accommodation. The price varies a lot depending on the location and other essential factors. Seaside is more expensive of cause.

A nice one or two-room apartment can be rented or bought in one of the new city area such as Downtown Dubai, Dubai Marina, Jumeirah Lakes Towers or Jumeirah Beach Residence. Likely it is going to be a skyscraper with a car park, a gym, a swimming pool, a sauna and 24/7 security guards.

There budget accommodation options: flats in houses without some facilities and consumer services. Mostly they are prefabricated houses in the old part of the city: Deira areas or Bar Dubai. Such buildings surrounding grounds are clean and sometimes greened up as everywhere in the city with children's playgrounds.

There are ads posted offering room sublease and even a bed in an apartment or a villa: it is essential to read original rental contract. Such kind of accommodation may be illegal. And finally: there are very humble dwellings of common workers: bunkhouses and portable cabins (a heroine of a famous show “Heads or Tails” stayed overnight in one such cabin).

The first public park to visit was Zabeel park consisting of two territories. The smaller part of the park is surrounded by lawns and palm avenues. Cockerels and hens stroll in green grass. Surely tamed but they start zigzagging seeing strangers.

There is Emir’s palace near Zabeel Park. They say peafowls sitting along the road can be seen without driving up close to the palace. These birds are not allowed to be touched of cause.

Creek Park surrounded by trees with lush tree tops and soft lawns underfoot in Deira area made my day. It is visited with friends and families for sunbathing, playing or barbequing.

You can take a walk along Creek bay embankment, have a boat ride or an aerial lift. There is a dolphinarium and a children’s play center. And there is a huge golf & yaht club opposite the park across Creek bay.

There is a lot written about Al Mamzar Park but I haven’t got there so far. But I have discovered Al Safa Park so tender, vast and cherished. I remember visiting it in August – the hottest season (+40 and more). But I didn’t go far – just for one hour. I was there almost alone under spreading crowns trees listening to the birds singing and melting slowly.

There is green grass around, trees and bushes cut in a form of spheres, cones and other figures. Everything is clean and tidy and…. There is no one. Not a single person! As if I were the only one left on the Earth. One more wired feeling: eyes are catching shady South European landscapes while the body is dipped into a dry and overheated desert.

Arabic people’s traditions commitment both surprises and admires. Nowadays about 8 million of people abide in the Emirates (more or less). If what Wikipedia says is true, locals make just 11% of this number. In other words very little.

But they didn’t skip down in a motley crowd of tourists and expatriates. Just the opposite. Emirate citizens with all their tolerance to outsider customs, culture and beliefs keep on committing their own traditions and lifestyle.

The Arabs are still wearing their traditional dress proudly (by the by, perfectly adjusted to the local climate). Women wear a black, lightweight abaya atop their clothes. A head is covered with shayla – a black long silk scarf protecting skin from wind and sun. I have experienced it.

Men wear a long dishdasha shirt (jalabiya) mostly of white color, always clean, ironed and unwrinkled. Under jalabiya the Arabs put on a white t-shirt and harem trousers. A head is covered with a kufiya which is held by a double аgal of a black colour made of camel wool. An open agal makes a figure-of-eight.

And the kicker is men of each of the Arabia Gulf country prefer different jalabiya designs. And they bind kufiya differently either. These nuances allow the Arabs to identify each other’s rating.

By the way, non-Arabs-male (tourists or expatriates) are prohibited to wear local national clothes. But a woman of any nationality may wear abaia. Why men may not, but women may? Perhaps women are difficult to prohibit something.

The United Arab Emirates turned 43 in 2014 formally. But it’s just a date since the day of this independent country foundation. The United Arab Emirates include: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ras al-Khaimah, Fujairah, Ajman and Umm Al Quwain.

United Arab Emirates rulers emphasize the fact that local peoples are wealth of culture and history and it throws back. Arabic Gulf aristocratic families know their great-great-grandfather's fathers’ names down to the fortieth generations! And this is only the start.

Developing the city for everybody without any exceptions: rich, wealthy and poor, adults and young, health and with special needs, Dubai gains a lot. It is getting equal to the most advanced and civilized cities of the world.

You can plunge into dolce vita: enjoying luxury hotels and delicious restaurants of premium class, driving exclusive sport-cars making passers-by frightened with engine roar, burning the candle at both ends in nightclubs and bars.

Either you can lead a steady life, work, bring up children, give yourselves a treat by visiting in-places of the city, go barbequing to parks, carry out a sally to Ski Dubai, Sega-Republic, public aqua parks and aquariums.

You can conquer the sky with SkyDive Dubai, drive by Jeeps along deserted dunes, catch sea splashes under a sail, hover between two environments kiteboarding.

And everything can be happily combined!

It’s my personal paragraph because I am fond of every possible living thing. In the central Dubai you will see neither an Arab horse nor a camel. All this beauty is on the skirts of the town or outside it. The only couple of camels to be seen is on Marina Beach (JBR). They are the toasts of the town here.

Wilde birds and animals can be seen in Old Dubai Zoo which is getting ready for moving to a huge safari-park. Also the feathered tribe can be met in places with palms, bushes and lawns. For this purpose Al Safa Park is a perfect place for it: there are plenty of lovely and charming birds there. Giant turtles are there as well.

Stray cats can be run into sometimes in residential areas and near business centers. It is rather bad than good and expatriates are highly questionable. Mostly they buy pets upon coming to the country. And after work contract expiration they dishouse them.

I have never seen any stray dogs in the streets! Actually, the Arabs are lukewarm enough to dogs. They are considered to be dirty animals, not for a house. But there is an exception - Arabian Greyhound Saluki. The Arabs are fond of this dog very much. Saluki is incredibly delicate and graceful breed of dogs. Fragile by the look of it but hardy. And what is more important, it is scentless.

You should not get ill because the treatment will cost you a fortune and that particular doctor who can help you is hard to find immediately. The best city dentists, surgeons and other essential specializations doctors’ contacts are made rounds and treasured in note books.

You should follow the rules. They have to be familiarized with and learned.

And don’t let things get you down. It is indelicacy to get depressed in the country with all-year –round- shining sun and always royal blue sky.