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One quirky phenomenon here is the way roads or landmarks seem to take on informal English names if they are unnamed or if the Arabic ones are too long-winded. I live near Bank Street (real name Khalid Bin Whalid Road), which contains a lot of banks. It becomes Computer Street as soon as you see the computer shops!

Someone who knows this phenomenon well is Briton John Gregory, a fabled mountaineer and runner who has spent 30 years working in the northern emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, a 90-minute drive up the coast from Dubai. He has named mountain passes and peaks on his many climbing trips - and the names have stuck. For example, he tells me "Jungle Book Pass", was so named because of the volume of bananas he and friends ate on their first trip there.

John’s contribution to books and magazines has made Ras Al Khaimah well known among climbers, mountain bikers and runners. He has done so much for the area’s reputation as a weekend getaway that he has even been given his own tongue-in-cheek alternative name by the emirate’s ruling family - β€œLord Gregory of Ras Al Khaimah”!

Cheers, David

The city of Dubai has been good to me so far, I've enjoyed the experience since arriving in July 2003 from Portsmouth. Even this far down the line, I still feel like there's a lot I am yet to see and do. Sports, nightlife and the predominance of the English language make it a home from home for the western expatriate.

Few places have such a diverse population as Dubai, which is one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates. There are people from India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Iran and Lebanon - and the local UAE national population makes up just under a quarter of the country's four million people. Brits number about 100,000. Dubai is also famed for huge buildings, beautiful weather, its exploitation of Asian labour, sandy beaches and being the second most dangerous place in the world to drive after Saudi Arabia.

Cheers
David