Too hot to go outside for 4-5 months? Harden the f**k up princess - the heat here is easily manageable if you choose to be proactive. There are plenty of people on the golf courses all year round and swimming is fantastic once the heat of the day has passed. I was in Hong Kong last week and the humidity made the 32 degrees a damn sight more uncomfortable than the usually dry Dubai heat.
Pollution? Yes more now that Dubai is growing, but mostly sand in the summer - beats the crap out of the continuous toxic blanket of chemical joy that sits over Hong Kong for 350 days a year.
The job? Like anywhere there are positives and negatives and happy and unhappy campers. Varied route structure, shiny new aircraft and lots more to come, flight deck gradient very flat. Company will mess with your roster but if you learn how to bid effectively this can be minimized. Bottom line - you can't always get what you want.
Management here unlike CX, is infected with well connected and inexperienced locals - and always will be. CX on the other hand are masters of the divide and conquer management technique, EK although irritating and frustrating are rank amateurs compared to the evil masters at CX!
Training at EK is a walk in the park compared to Cathay. Their intention is to get you flying aircraft as soon as practicable - not to take sadistic pleasure in messing with you for your entire non-captain career.
Command times here are simply the quickest in the world for widebody jets, even at 5~7 years. Once you get there, you don't have the ridiculous obstacles CX likes to put in front of you - again, the intention is to get people flying their aircraft and making money.
This is not Kansas Dorothy. Your rights are not those enjoyed at home in the west - but if you keep your head down and bury that western outrage that things are not like home, you have a 99.9% chance of your time here being hassle free.
Have just re-read this post and am shocked to find it looks like I am a company man! Absolutely not the case, I rage at the stupidity of the company as much as the next person, but when the bigger picture is viewed all is not as bad as the usual suspects on PPRUNE make out.
Finally, each to his own - the sand is certainly not for everyone, but there are many here who enjoy the lifestyle and job - despite the best efforts of the feckless cretins who try to make the job more difficult than it should be.
Good luck.