Dubai is a bubble, balanced on top of a house of cards, built on a foundation of sand (literally, when it comes to the latter.)
I don’t understand why anyone who isn’t an immoral opportunist at best would want to go there.
To me, someone actively wanting* to travel to Dubai is a huge red flag about their lack of positive core values.
*I’m not referring to anyone who has to travel there for work or other obligations.
This (and the disclaimer is appreciated - the two times I’ve had to go there have been for trade shows).
First trip was 2002. Trade show was in the centre of town, we were staying out near Jumeirah Beach. The road between the two was only about 10% lined with buildings.
Second was in 2017. At first I thought it odd that Costa showed up in multiple places in Dubai – I later found out that the UAE franchise for the London-based chain is actually operated by Emirates Leisure Retail, part of Emirates Group – who also own Emirates Air and who’s CEO is Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum (ruler of Dubai…)
Burj Khalifa was cool, I have to admit. But the road out to Jumeirah was now completely lined with buildings and developments.
Met for dinner with an old friend who had lived there for 10 years, many of the new buildings were breaking ground and constructing the foundation and first few floors, then moving on to start the next one – so there were a lot of bets being hedged. It was all about planning for an economy in the future once the oil has run out, and it seemed Dubai saw this future in it being a free trade zone which encouraged international investment. Good thing too as no-one was paying any tax…
The wiki entry on Dubai demographics sums it up:
Over 90% of the population non-Emirati. If things go bad, well…
De nada.
Aside from everything else just waiting to go wrong with Dubai, those demographic numbers (69% male, 59% age 25-44) are straight up nightmare fuel for a risk adverse woman such as myself, and for many other types of folks who don’t fit the requisite male heteronormative “ideal.”
“Charles had unfortunately been provided with some misinformation on the internet”
And that’d the issue right there. Like it or not, Dubai is a sovereign country and they have their laws and ways of doing things.
If you don’t get information from official sources, that’s on you.
Better yet, find out how a country enforces stuff at the border before you go. Last I checked, Dubai bans a very common anti-diarrhea drug many travelers carry, just as one example of how assumptions can bite you.
I had planned a trip there about the time the poor guy with the poppy seeds got busted and decided they could keep their country.
I wish this guy no ill will and their treatment if him is barbaric but this could have been avoided if he had really checked things out.
To be fair, Japan is also pretty fanatic against drugs, to the extent that wild poppies which spring up along roadsides are quickly cut down by the local government.
Japan is actually one of the few countries in Asia that doesn’t impose the death penalty for drug smuggling. Even Taiwan and South Korea have the death penalty for drug smuggling.
And in some countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, it’s an automatic death sentence.
Came here to say the same thing, no idea why any one goes there!
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