I got a job in Dubai!

It was still dark in a very cold February morning in year 2000 when I disembarked from the plane at Dubai airport. It was my first time in UAE. It was winter. I never heard of Dubai before, and I couldn’t google it as Google wasn’t born yet during that time. I was accepted to work as Business Centre Coordinator in one of the big upcoming hotels to be opened at Sheikh Zayed Road. I never heard of the company who hired me before, but since the package was good I accepted it. I thought it would also be a welcome change for me after working in Manila for years.


There were three of us recruited from the Philippines. Eric was a pastry chef, and Marose would be the Front Desk Asst. Manager. A smiling kabayan with long hair, and a white short bald guy picked us up at the airport. The Filipina was the hotel’s General Manager’s secretary, and the white guy who happened to be French, was the new Executive Chef. I came to know that all new hotel staff there were recruited from all over the world.

I couldn’t make any impression of the place yet as it’s still dark when we’re brought to our accommodation. A white van with the company logo was waiting for us outside the airport’s arrival area. Our road trip was smooth, no traffic. After ten minutes, we reached downtown and were brought to an eleven-storey building which we nicknamed later the Pink Building or Al-Khayat because it’s colored rosepink. My room was a studio flat. It’s semi-furnished. It’s got a double bed, TV, fridge, oven, kitchen stuff and plenty of cabinets. My room looked like something you could find from Ikea or Home & Garden magazines. Nice and neat.

The next day was Valentine’s Day. It was also our first day to report to our HR Department. All new staff who arrived the same day with me had a brief orientation, and all documents signed, we were then asked to go home to make ourselves comfortable in our new place. I took the time to unpack my things and to explore my surrounding. My flat had a balcony overlooking the road. I lived in Bur Dubai. The streets were clean, except of course for the birds’ droppings. Dubai was a newly built city with full of promises to a newcomer like me.