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One Year In Wonderland: A True Tale of Expat Life in Dubai
 
 

One Year In Wonderland: A True Tale of Expat Life in Dubai [Kindle Edition]

Christopher Combe
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Product Description

"His writing style will keep you glued, subtly funny at times, and direct at others. Even though his stay in Dubai was short (only a year or so), he did a good job of exploring UAE and documents the experiences in detail." - Umar in Dubai

"A fascinating, humorous and sometimes sad account of a year a long way from home." - KillerKindle

"..lively, chatty and extremely readable" - Reader's Favorite

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Christopher Combe is stuck in a rut. Maybe he’s just eaten too much chocolate cake, but the sad fact is that his life lacks purpose and direction. Then, almost out of the blue, comes the chance of a lifetime: he is offered a job in the shiny new city of Dubai.

Enticed by the prospect of a tax-free salary and year-round sunshine, Chris persuades his wife and two young children to join him for an adventure in the land of Burj, bling, belly-dancing and Bebsi-cola….

They encounter the good, the bad and the dusty. They are made to feel like VIPs in the palatial malls and hotels, but out on the hectic highways they see the white buses full of blue-overalled workers being ferried to the countless construction sites around Dubai and wonder what life is like for them.

The family work through swathes of red tape in order to obtain visas, bank accounts and permission to drink beer, and they discover how healthcare works when there isn’t a nice, free NHS to rely on.

As the realities of Dubai are gradually exposed, Chris wonders what the future holds, both for his family and for the city that seems to want to grow and grow forever…

Based on the popular blog "Beer And Bloating in Dubai", this is the story of one British family’s year in Dubai, presenting a forthright, funny and poignant outlook on their experiences. Written between the summers of 2006 and 2007, it offers a peek at what the city is like through the eyes of one mad fool who took the plunge…

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Christopher Combe
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
A Fantastic and wonderfully well written little gem of a book. A year long journey covering everything from the depressing night life to the corrupt politics of Dubai. It doesn't get better than this you absolutely must read this.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
First of all, I would like to say that the author is excellent. He has a really great way with words an a turn of phrase; informative and entertaining.

Unfortunately the subject matter was not quite as interesting as I thought it was going to be. The reason is that the writer has an ordinary job with an ordinary company along with an ordinary family which leads to his having an ordinary life, most of it spent either sat in terrible traffic going to and from work with weekends spent either wandering around the shopping malls or alone in hotel rooms. The result is that he didn't really have a great deal of interesting material to work with.

Maybe it's the fact that I've been an expat for 20 years, and maybe it's the fact that I spent a week in Dubai during the same time that the writer was writing about the book, but there really weren't any major surprises for me. I too struggled to entertain myself for the week that I was in Dubai on holiday. As I'm going to be heading back there in a couple of months for an extended stay, that was a bit depressing as I was hoping that there was a bit more to Dubai under the surface.

His world there did seem very insular - I guess having a family limits people's options. The book could have been a bit more interesting if he had interacted with more people, which could have resulted in there being some more interesting anecdotes.

The book is still a good read for anyone who has never lived outside the UK before and who is planning on visiting Dubai at some time in the future.

I sincerely hope that the author writes more in the future based on his writing talents as I would definitely read more from him. It would be great if he could 'do a Bryson' and hitchhike across the Andes or something to give himself some more interesting material for a second book.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
expat's tale of woe 27 Oct 2011
By DonnaB
Format:Kindle Edition
I really enjoyed this little blog style book, got through it in 2 sittings, many of the places and topics being very familiar to me, being a long term Dubaiophile myself.

It is accurate and straight talking, and very amusing in parts too, and it does paint a very realistic picture of the good and bad of expat life, or rather, what life is like for some expats in DXB.
As a book, it still reads very much like a blog and perhaps a bit more content and context could have been added to fill it out some to make a better book, but as it is, it makes for a succinct and funny report on Dubai life.

Shame the writer didn't stretch his horizons much more than the malls and beaches, Dubai does have a culture, a very complex one that is not really easily accessible to foreign visitors, and you need to have local Emirati friends to know and share some of it, being dismissive of Dubai for being superficial is too easy, yes, true, it can be, but there is also more beneath the glittery surface, just hard for expats to see it for all the hype and pretty lights in your eyes!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A gentle read but bordering on dull
I have been to Dubai for a week's holiday and did look into the possibility of purchasing investment property there so thought the book would be quite interesting and might give me... Read more
Published 1 month ago by macycat
Terrible !!!
This is so terribly written that I got as far as Chapter 3 and thought nope I just can't do it and promptly deleted it from my Kindle.
Published 4 months ago by J.B.
A pleasant read but not all that insightful
As you'll know from the blurb, this book is taken from a blog written by a man who worked for one year in Dubai. Read more
Published 4 months ago by dot dot dot
A real disappointment
I had high hopes for this book reading the great reviews. I'm guessing many are written by family and friends - one of the 5 star reviews admits he knows the author and a couple of... Read more
Published 4 months ago by J. Lock
If Bill Bryson went to Dubai .......
An excellent travelogue ; written in the style, humour and personal observation of Bill Bryson. An enoyable read for anybody who has lived in , visited or wishes to go to Dubai or... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Pad.A
rambling benign twaddle
One Year In Wonderland: A True Tale of Expat Life in Dubai only managed to read 30% of the book but it may have been set anywhere , little focus upon the area and the subject... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Teyte
Juvenile rambling
I know this is only 99p, but for the first time I feel moved to make a comment about a Kindle book. This is the worst book, bar none, that I have ever read. Read more
Published 5 months ago by SGR
Good Expat Preparation!
I found this whilst researching the UAE as I'm about to start work there myself and loved the frankness and the humour. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Debsteach
It really was like that
Firstly I must let it be known that I knew Chris in Dubai - and his wonderful family - however, as a total cynic about the place, I was there for around 6 years, Chris got there... Read more
Published 6 months ago by A Character
Not perfect!
Dubai is not perfect and this book tells it how it is quite openly and maybe a little too honestly. It is quite funny in places and also quite sad when you read about the author's... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Loiuse
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Popular Highlights

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&quote;
each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in the material sense, &quote;
Highlighted by 5 Kindle users
&quote;
"Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?" &quote;
Highlighted by 5 Kindle users

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