Thank you so much for all your guesses, someone guessed it correctly so I didn’t have to drop hints. The guesses had been interesting so I’ll highlight some of them here:

Kym says: “Is it because the apartment is near a noisy busy road with lots of car fumes!”

Yeah, I wouldn’t want to live near a noisy busy road with lots of idiotic drivers screeching their car wheels and honking which happens a lot in Dubai roads.

She and another commenter, Dominique added, “The apartment doesn’t have air-condition, I know how hot it can be!”

Very good point but at this modern time, there are no apartments in Dubai that doesn’t have a/c or else we will all die in the summer.

JuliaS says, “one bathroom only, or more than one bathroom, but very small ones?”

There are only a few of us in the house so I don’t really mind one bathroom or very small ones. Once I complained about a small bathroom and my husband said, “why? Are you going to do waltz dancing while in the shower?”

Charlotte says, “the bedrooms are too small and no closet space?”

That is our bedroom in our current place! One of the reasons I wanted to move out.

This from Jacki made me chuckle: “Is it because they all have two bedrooms and you need three because you are pregnant?” and Desert Songbird echoed: “You need space for a new baby.” Lori almost screamed: “You are pregnant (oh please, oh please, oh please!!!!!)”

I wish it’s true – the pregnant and need space for a new baby part! But uhm no, I’m still not. I think.

Krista says: “there are a lot of a certain nationality of people in the building that make it smell like something you don’t like from cooking certain foods?”

She has a point! There are lots of certain nationalities from where I live now that cook something smelling really nasty – the worst part? some of our neighbors think it’s coming from my kitchen since we are Asians!!

Krista adds: “no window view – it only looks into an interior courtyard or something? I know you like to get those sunrise pictures!”

You wouldn’t believe we have seen apartments without windows in the bedroom (only one in the living room hall). I couldn’t ever live in that kind of secluded place – makes me claustrophobic! And yes, yes, yes, I’d love me a balcony so I can take sunrise pictures! Krista, you know me too well!

Sandy says: “Is it because there is no bathtub? A shower, but no tub?”

That’s the setup in my present apartment. There’s a tub where we stand to take shower so there’s no use of the tub (it’s also shallow). It’s so different from what we had in Japan. I wish we could have a tub to use but since it’s not that cold here in Dubai, we could live without it.

AND FINALLY:

Someone from Sri Lanka (as per the IP address info) with commenter name Peach Rainbow said: “Is it because it’s close to a mosque and you don’t want to be disturbed by the call for prayer 5 times a day?”

DING! DING! DING!

I live in the Middle East, in Dubai where the main religion is Islam. There are mosques scattered around the place, strategically built so that the faithfuls don’t have to walk for more than ten minutes, especially in the peak of summer where temperatures rise up to 45C.

These mosques have this thing called minarets, a tall tower from which the faithful are called to prayer five times each day by a muezzin, or crier. These minarets sound 5 times a day with the first call of prayer (varies each day) at around 5-5:30 am!

When we moved to our present apartment, three years ago, we did not check for these mosques but luckily, the nearest one is located a bit far away, about 500 meters away from us. But still we wake up to the sound at dawn every single day. What more if the mosque is located right behind the apartment building? It’s a good alarm clock if you put it in another way but not good news on weekends!

That said, we found an apartment building we really liked – good kitchen and all, with reasonable price. The 13th floor roof top has a well maintained pool for tenants and a great view:

The area is full of character, with different nationalities living there. There’s a lot of grocery stores, banks, a nearby bus stop, salons and different restaurants with different cuisines (Indian, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Filipino, etc). If that’s not your type, there’s a Subway food stop too. Sounds promising, right?

But a mosque is right behind it. I can see it from the balcony.

So we asked around for the prayer time and went there again so hear how loud it sounds. Here you go. Tadaaaa!

That, my friends, FIVE times a day.