The official language of the state of the United Arab Emirates, in which Dubai is located, is Arabic. But it is less common in everyday communication in this country than English. The reason is the indigenous population of the country is only 25 percent of the total inhabitants. The remaining 75 percent communicate with each other, regardless of where they came from, in the language of international communication - English.
In the UAE there is a state religion, which is Islam. It felt in everything that will surround the traveler in Dubai: in the lifestyle of people and their traditions in clothing and manner, in the rules of behavior in public places. At the same time, Dubai today is a completely democratic territory, where sufficiently tolerantly belongs to representatives of other beliefs. The main thing is not to attract attention to yourself and exclude all the manifestations of the Epatage from the behavior. For example, it concerns clothing. In Dubai today, there are no rigorous prohibitions regarding clothing. But respect for local religious and cultural traditions should be respected. If you bring your wardrobe to a minimum, referring to weather conditions, you must be prepared for an unfavorable relationship from the locals, sometimes unwanted.
The local Arab population, mostly women, also negatively belong to the photography that foreigners love to arrange without coordination with the object in the frame. Therefore, I recommend to avoid photographing persons dressed in national clothing. You will notice them and highlight them without difficulty.
In addition, there is a ban on photographing state and military facilities in the territory of the Emirate.
At the same time, Dubai, as, however, the rest of the country's emirates, can rightly be proud that there are practically no crime here. You can easily move around the city at any time of the day, even if you find yourself in the reparters of emigrants. The only thing that can somewhat lubricate the overall impression of this wonderful city is the persons who are offering to buy from under the floors, for example, telephone. But they dissolve in the surrounding space also unexpectedly, as they arise. Just in case, the telephone police in Dubai - 999 (the call is free, you only pay for roaming).
As for the working time of institutions in Dubai, then, as a rule, private companies organize work on the principle of "without a break" from 8 to 18 hours. Some work from 8 to 13 and from 16 to 20, which is associated with climatic conditions of terrain. State institutions and work at all only in the first half of the day - from 7 am to 13.30. Friday and Saturday are considered weekends on the territory of the UAE. Sunday is the usual working day for all enterprises and organizations. Shopping centers usually work without days off from 10 to 22 hours. On Friday and Saturday, as a rule, large stores continue to work until midnight.
Local currency in the UAE - Dirham. It is equal to 100 phils. But you rarely be able to meet coins with smaller 1 Dirhama, except that only when receiving surrender in large supermarkets. In appeal today there are banknotes in 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000 dirhams. The approximate exchange rate of Dirhama in relation to the US dollar is 3.65: 1. As for Russian rubles, we found the ability to exchange them only in the Dubai Mall shopping center and at an extremely disadvantageous course. For 1 dirham, it was necessary to give 15 rubles. It is worth noting that many hotels accept not only Dirhama, but also US dollars, but recalculating in their own, not very advantageous course to you. It is more profitable to check in the hotel to exchange currencies. At the airport, the course is not very profitable, but in the city there are a lot of exchange offices that work without days off throughout the day. Especially, as it seemed to us, the course was beneficial when exchanging in such a paragraph, located at a supermarket.
Public transport in Dubai is well developed. You can use the services of a taxi, metro, city buses and a newly opened tram line. Taxis work on the meter and can be found everywhere. Please note that when drove from Dubai International Airport to the city or when crossing the border of this Emirate with Chard, you will need to pay an additional markup. The subway is presented in Dubai with two lines: red and green, which continue to be built. The red line passes by the airport terminals, and if you wish, you can take advantage of it to get to the central part of the city, and there is already transferring to a taxi that will be economical. Travel on the metro in Dubai is calculated from how many zones you cross during the trip. Prices were raised in early November 2014 and very significant. The minimum trip cost is now 4 dirhams (about 56 rubles). At the same time, it needs to be "recorded" on the blank of the red card, which herself costs 2 more dirhams. The trip to two zones will cost 6 Dirhams, and the journey immediately through several zones - 8.5 dirhams. If you plan a lot to travel around the city, independently inspecting the sights, it will be advisable to buy ("write down") on the map of the travel day for 20 dirhams. It acts on all metro zones and all buses within the city.
There is one more option of payment for travel - NOL Card or the so-called "silver card". She now costs 25 dirhams, of which 19 will remain in your account. In the case of payment of travel on this map, the amount you spent on passing with a small discount will be written off (usually within 1-2 dirhams). Please note that the card must be applied to the turnstile not only when entering the subway or to the bus, but also when exiting. So the system determines how much you drove zones and removes money from your account. Please note that the map cannot be used to zero or hand back to compensate. According to the new rules, at least 7.5 dirhams should remain on the map on the map. Even if you go through only one zone, and the cost of the trip will be only 3 Dirhams. For the next trip, you will again have to replenish the card to 7.5 dirhams.