Wulan was born in Jakarta, Indonesia. She works as the Associate Vice President of Business Marketing at Mashreq Bank. Before ended up working in the banking sector, she initially wanted a creative career in architecture or design. She started off working at a marketing agency, which exposed her to a lot of different sectors. She said she feels lucky that she’s happy in her job and loves what she is doing.
The 34-year-old has been living in Dubai for 11 years. She moved here with her mother, who used to work for the Ministry of Trade of Indonesia and represented their office in Dubai.
She lives in the Downtown area, her favorite part of the city. She also loves the fact that it is close to Jumeirah – a neighbourhood bustling with interesting coffee shops and homegrown concepts. She prefers to have breakfast at home but if she goes out, she likes to have Arabic breakfast at Mama’eesh in DIFC. For lunch, Wulan loves Betawi, an Indonesian gem with two branches – one in Karama and one in JLT. Whenever she visits she always orders Nasi Padang and Gado Gado (a type of salad with peanut paste). She also likes Mamak for Malaysian food and usually orders Nasi Lemak – a dish with rice cooked in coconut milk, chicken, peanuts, and sambal.
In her free time, Wulan loves to discover new gems and places in Dubai. She and her Emirati friend Hala run a social media platform called Table Number 34 documenting their discoveries. When she wants a dose of culture she visits “Dubai Creek – where it all started” and tells us that she loves living in Dubai because “Compared to Jakarta where I previously lived, it’s a lot easier to get around and plan your day because the traffic doesn’t get as busy here.”
Adding: “I also like the diversity and the ability to meet new people from all walks of life. Generally when people move to a new place they tend to mingle and stay within a specific circle of what they deem familiar (in my case the Indonesian community in Dubai) but this city allows you to break that pattern and meet new people, people that you connect with on a personal level. That is how I met my husband who is Lebanese.”