When Minu Mathews, 31, from Vellore, India, and her Nigerian husband, Emeka Okechukwu, 35, first arrived in Dubai from the United Kingdom in 2013, they stayed in a one-bedroom apartment in the relatively spacious and low-rent Discovery Gardens. A year later, when the couple decided to extend their family, they moved to a two-bedroom home in Jumeirah Lakes Towers’ Al Seef Tower in Cluster U, a choice, Mathews says, that stemmed mainly from JLT’s prime location.
“It really is a well-positioned area – we are right in front of Sheikh Zayed Road, and the Metro station is a two-minute walk,” Mathews, an assistant professor of psychology at Heriot-Watt University, says. “Sometimes, when you’re very central, you miss out on a sense of exclusivity, but that’s not the case in JLT. It feels like a gated community even though it’s not one, perhaps because the buildings are clustered around the lake and park. So when I go for a walk around the lake, I often pass familiar faces. And we have 24-hour security personnel and access-card entry points.”
Another advantage, Mathews says, is the number of restaurants in proximity. “We have JBR and the Marina right across the road, but the variety in JLT itself is amazing. In addition to popular chains, such as Little Bangkok, JLT has many restaurants I would not have discovered had I not been living here, such as StarFish, Flames and Cafe Funkie Town. Sometimes, on a Thursday, we’ll go down to the Mövenpick in Cluster A to listen to some jazz. There’s something for every price range and mood.”
As a new mother – her son, Caleb, is 14 months old – Mathews says she’s lucky to have the required amenities so close to hand. “I meet a lot of mums at the park in the evenings, so it’s easy to build social groups – for the parents and the children. The church we go to is 10 minutes away. Every major mall is on the Metro route, and Marina Mall is across the road. There is also a play area and a nursery in my building. Even my pharmacy guy is with me on WhatsApp.”
Multiculturalism is another big draw. “There are pockets in Dubai where one or another community is more dominant. But as a multicultural family ourselves, it’s nice to be surrounded by a mix of people from different parts of the world and from different walks of life. In a sense, JLT incorporates the best of the ‘Dubai dream’. It’s comfortable and convenient, affordable yet spacious and luxurious. And there’s also this sense of contrast. Just take the view from our apartment building, as an example. On one side is Sheikh Zayed Road with its wall of moving traffic – an urban sight if ever there was one – and on the other side, a view of either Emirates Hills golf course or the lake.”
She adds, though, that the two things JLT could do with are “a supersized grocery store – I need to do a big shop at the Ibn Battuta [Mall] Géant once a week – and a petrol pump. Throw in a few more ATMs while you’re at it.”
Her daily drive to Academic City, to Heriot-Watt University, isn’t ideal. While Okechukwu is a dentist at the nearby Ibn Battuta Mediclinic, her commute takes at least 40 minutes each way. “I think it depends on what’s important to you. I could live in Silicon Oasis, which is five minutes from the university, but then I would be so far removed from the rest of Dubai. I would rather stay in a place where I’m connected to everything and everybody. I actually don’t mind the drive – it helps me get into work mode in the mornings and wind down on the way back, so I’m in the right frame of mind for each destination.”
And since one of those destinations happens to be JLT, Mathews couldn’t be happier.
Coming up
Next month, we will be making our way to Khalifa City to see what the up-and-coming Abu Dhabi suburb has to offer.
