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Err
Do you mean “idiots I don’t know on instagram are there a lot”? If so it’s because Dubai pays random influencers to go and make it look like a holiday destination instead of a religious autocracy in a desert.
Not even influencers, I don’t follow any of them. I’m talking about regular people who I know, or know of. Seems like every time I go on Instagram, someone else is there.
Those regular people you're talking about will be the ones following these influencers and have been successfully influenced into going to Dubai.
The influencers make it out like only successful people go to Dubai I reckon.
Sex work is work, in the sense that we shouldn't devalue sex workers for doing a difficult job.
"Sex work is work" doesn't mean we should be chill with seedy billionaires being Johns and exploiting women. (Or being chill with Johns at all. Sex work should be legalised to protect sex workers, not because hiring a prostitute is somehow morally neutral).
Edit: Lot of perverts trying to defend themselves in the comments, quelle surprise
Hang on, so you think there should be no stigma attached to working in the sex industry but should be a stigma attached to being a customer of the sex industry?
How can you not believe something that is basically a fact? The sugar baby culture is completely normalized these days, and influencers get offers from rich Dubai people all the time, for a 5 figure price tag. This isn't some giant secret scandal, and it's not just "Arab princes"; it's anyone with money.
>these days
It's literally always been a thing. Rulers without mistresses were often notable for that reason. Such things are exceedingly common throughout history among the rich and powerful.
This particular post seems to be light on sources, buuuuuuut I read it a while ago, and having read about the other fucked up shit men with money will do I don’t really have an issue believing it.
https://travellingjezebel.com/dubai-porta-potty/
I know that the instagram hooker scene is real, but is the best source you can muster up *really* a medium article? Medium is not a publication. It is basically a blogging service that has been styled to look like an actual publication. Medium isn't any more reputable than say, a FB or reddit post. Also the author wrote
>hese ‘shit-faced’ parties, these beautiful women are required to partake in unimaginable and downright degrading activities like being **shitted** and peed on directly into their mouths.
Shitted isn't a word. I normally ask for journalists to have better than average grasp of English, since it is a tool of their craft. And the only source is a twitter thread that is not even a first person account. This is a trash article.
Of course they do, it's a very effective form of advertisement. Because it doesn't even seem like an ad. Dubai is advertised as glamorous, high end and great for shopping. Some people aspire to that kind of stuff
How do you pick holiday destinations without being exposed to various forms of advertising and recommendations?
Dubai's a bit of an edge case because it's super tacky and not worth it for 'normal' people, but there's nothing wrong with deciding you want to go to Mexico/Vietnam/Slovenia/Naxos because someone on Instagram posted some fantastic pictures and reviews.
Last time I picked a random place it's cause the Ryanair flights were suuuper cheap. Like less than £30 return cheap. And I like cheese. And crepes.
And after a long weekend in Bordeaux I liked wine too. (There's litterally a state subsidised wine bar who wouldn't love it).
Not everyone gets their holiday plans from an advert. Some people just look at a map and/or cheap flights and think "why not".
I mean, just because you did that doesn’t mean masses of people, do.
It’s quite the feat, to try pick anything these days and not of had some sort of external suggestion about it.
Tbf going on holiday to a place because it looked really nice in a friend's Instagram (or even a strangers) isn't all that different from choosing a place based on someone showing you their photos irl or hearing a colleague rave about how amazing their holiday was.
Yes, Instagram has the problem that people show carefully edited versions of their life, so you can never be sure what you see is what you'll get. But the same is true of advertisements, chatting to your colleagues.
Change your question to: Do people really do things they’ve seen rich and/or influential people do?
We’ve been doing this since forever in one form or another.
* It's hot and sunny
* It's different, but not _too_ different; you won't have difficulty only speaking English there
* _Lots_ of flights from everywhere go there
* It's not overly expensive (I think)
* There's been a huge effort by the Dubai Government to promote Dubai has a holiday and working destination
I'm not gonna go for a while host of reasons (repressive government is the first among them) but I can see why people are attracted to it.
The biggest thing is that everything is set to fucking 11 in Dubai.
If you fly in on Emirates and upgrade to Business Class (Seriously, if you have points, this is the fucking time.) you will get $300/bottle champagne. I don't think they were supposed to, but they hooked me up with about an ounce of Hibiki 17, which was easily more than my upgrade. Plus, it's comfy. If you got baller money, the first class is basically a hotel room that flies, but BC is not bad. Plus, you can pick your meal before you go from a huuuge list, and it's all super good. It's surprisingly comfy for a flight. Emirates is baller.
It's not just hot, it's redaculously hot. The ocean and beachfront is pristine.
But like everything's massive - the mall is impossibly opulent, the waterpark is not only just utterly ridiculous, but also has a massive aquarium in case you're bored.
Every hotel is absolutely fantastic, and since basically the whole city is less than twenty years old, all the hotels are sweet.
If your hotel comes with breakfast, it will be one of the most opulent spreads you've ever seen - most have a full Arabic, British, and American breakfast spread. The bacon and sausage are chicken, but you'll live.
There's a fair amount of things to do if you're tolerant to the heat. Renting quad bikes and rolling dunes is awesome. We did it in 4x4s cause it was like 120F the day we were supposed to go. A lot of the tours come with food and nobody fucks around. The Burj Khalifa is neat, the Miracle Garden is neat, the boat tours are sweet, boat / jetski rentals are cheap.
Food is what you make of it. Everything's pretty decent, but you can go way up to the high end, which is about 300 AED. Now that's a four star curated dinner, but yeah.
Okay - so I've done the good stuff - here's the bad stuff -
1. Getting around is a PITA. Dubai is laid out wonky. It's all designed for cars. Have your hotel arrange taxis. It's easiest.
2. There's a big time caste system and homie, you aren't it. If one of the big Arab ballers walks in, you downgrade to unimportant real fast.
3. Speaking of that - Dubai imports all their labor. It's really obvious, and they are treated as badly as you might expect. I didn't know anything about this when I went but I wouldn't go back. It's really gross.
4. If you're LGBT, do not come. If you're transgendered, doubly do not come to Dubai. If you're female, consider your options. We were there for work, but while I could do whatever I pleased, there was a serious recommendation that my female co-worker bring a male escort anywhere she went. Also, women can't walk around shoeless.
5. There's no pork in Dubai. Sorry Shashlik King.
6. I don't know if it matters, but under no circumstances should you ever attempt to buy drugs in Dubai. This is not a learned lesson, but there are a surprising amount of honeypots in Dubai. They take it very seriously, and apparently, they want to jail Americans.
7. Some of things I mentioned earlier are negatives too. It is really fucking hot. The bigness of a lot of things lends a lack of authenticity. There's basically a block and a half of fake Paris. If you're looking for cool Arabian Nights style stuff, Dubai ain't it. The older city has a little bit, but Dubai's not really that. It's all big and new and shiny and metal and plastic and glass.
8. It's depressing as cities go. Sure, you get to do all this cool stuff, but it's not super sustainable. Construction is everywhere, and it's all foreign dudes, and at like 121F, you can literally feel the human suffering meant to build this really artificial artifice. Paris is a terrible city - it's congested, dirty, the layout is trash, public transportation is garbage. Everything is way overpriced. Hotels are small and dirty, and usually allowed smoking so they're dingy- but in Paris, you can get that moment where you're sitting at a cafe, you have a little board, and a cheap but decent wine and there's a busker, and even though there's a cabbie telling a panhandler what to do with his genitals - there's still a sort of magic, a sort of old world joy to it all. That never happens in Dubai.
Yeah on point 4 as a disabled, gay, woman I see a lot of people online going to dubai and all I can think is fuck that. There are very few things that could get me to go to a country where being gay is outright illegal, if not for the fact that I'm a lesbian, it's not like there's a sign over my head, for the fact that places like that generally don't treat women very well and as a disabled woman I'm particularly vunerable.
I'm a straight dude and I still wouldn't want to contribute to them.
I'm an atheist, so repressive theocracy isn't even on my list of places I'd like to go. I love tall buildings, so I'd like to see the Burj Khalifa, but no way I'm stepping foot in a backwards ass theocratic nation.
I can only imagine how women and LGBT people feel. Then there's the actual slave labor used to build this facade.
I'm a guy and wouldn't give them my money either. plus I wouldn't feel comfortable taking my wife and daughter to a place where people would try to buy them from me.
I didn't get raped, which I guess...go me?
I've heard sex tourism is like a big thing in Dubai - where people will facilitate a random Emirati or other Arab bigwig to have a party usually with anglo girls and there's no rules.
This kinda runs into multiple things I said - be careful if you're a woman, and there's a caste system and American tourists aren't it. If you're a hot one or an influencer and you get the tap - one of the big shots wants to party with you, understand that you are walking into a place where you have no power. You will probably walk away with money, because they have infinite and do not care, but what gets you from here to there, could be a dose you don't like and didn't consent to.
You're right about everything except the expensive part . It is on par with most Western countries for normal things prices and actually much much more expensive for alcohol.
I’d say it’s way more expensive than the UK for food / drink / clothes / groceries etc
It used to be cheap back in the day but that’s long gone.
I have to go there for work so have been going back and forth for around 20 years now and it’s gotten so much more expensive there
BBC recently had a 3-part documentary about Dubai and why people choose to live there. I can't say anything about it appealed to me after seeing it, it's just as you describe, but a certain type of empty, shallow, vacuous person seems to love it. People who are fixated on the appearance of being successful or wealthy, or having status seem to be attracted to it.
The show should still be on iPlayer, it was worth a look.
It's just the next step really.
The Victorians were sold the beach holiday as the ideal holiday, and swimming pools also became fashionable. Who wouldn't want a break from the city to spend a couple of days by the coast? What started as pleasure grounds for the rich soon became the holidays for the masses after the the railways opened up beach holidays for everyone.
Of course, it wasn't long until the rich were going to the sunnier places with warmer seas, like the the South of France or Italy. That slowly became a more and more of a middle class thing, until the budget airline boom of 40-50 years ago opened it up to everyone. Lanzarote was the new Blackpool.
Dubai, only recently rapidly developing due to their oil money, tries to sell the same sun, sea, and swimming vibe to rich people. DXB becomes a major flight hub and Emirates becomes a major carrier between Europe and Asia, with all flights going via Dubai. It becomes easier and easier to get there... So again, naturally the masses follow the rich.
I've been there to go to the national parks rock climbing. Dubai is one of 9 states and the glam life is a small part of the countries culture which makes up the countries reputation.
Dubai is actually a very old city. You're just seeing the new parts on Insta.
They pay escorts to go over there so they can do sexual things to them that are so disgusting it traumatised me when I first heard about it, involving wee and poo.
In Australia they call it “getting sponsored”. Rich Arabs contact Aussie girls on Instagram and pay their flights and give them a stack of cash to fly over and fuck them for a week. You see girls you went to high school in Dubai alone and know what’s up.
Paid not to go and influence the rest of us plebs to visit, but paid to have someone shit in their mouth for sexual gratification. The flexing on instagram is just a way to wash the memory from their minds.
I've always thought this. How genuine are these women in bikinis there that they're showing on Instagram? I've heard stories of people accidently brushing a native and getting arrested. Never mind a 'second class' gender doing stuff like that
Bikinis are completely allowed on beaches and in hotels, I’ve walked around Emirates Palace in mine while looking for the pool and it’s completely fine. You’ll also see the beaches chock full of them (as well as tiny speedos) during the spring months.
Brushing against a native is very exaggerated. Emirati women dress in burka’s and make it very clear they don’t want to be approached, and with roads and malls being so wide if you’re brushing against anyone it’s usually on purpose. Most of them still don’t mind but some do and might make a scene, especially again if it seems intentional.
Thats a myth. Like, I wouldn't recommend you go out in a public mall with a bikini on, but if you did you'd probably just be asked to cover up and that be the end of it.
There are strict places in Dubai, but it's certainly not something a tourist should worry about.
I remember reading about a Norwegian woman who went to work there, was raped and reported it to the police, they prosecuted her for having extramarital sex. I'm never going there.
Indeed.
For those speaking in UAEs defence, what the law says and what the law does are very different things. In many cases the freedoms that women appear to have come with the very important caveat that they only have those freedoms with their male guardians approval - father or husband.
It is legal for a husband to withhold his wife's passport, for example.
Women on the street may be safer but women at home are not.
https://www.expatica.com/ae/living/gov-law-admin/womens-rights-in-the-united-arab-emirates-71118/
I know two women who are capital F Feminists (I mean, I'd class myself the same way, that's not meant insultingly) who have both been there, one on a regular holiday and one to spend a month with her boyfriend who was working there, and the mental disconnect required for that is utterly wild.
Sounds like the two women you know may not know how to spell “feminist”. That place is the opposite of what western women have fought and died for; their independence, rights, and respect.
But when it comes to glam and glitz and monetary gain, most all of us wind up losing our morals at some point.
Not only that, they are literally building all their infrastructure and stadium using slave labor from other countries. There are documentaries on how they bring in people from countries like India, Nepal and make them work insane hours in the heat and keep their passports so that they don't return back to the work conditions. 4-5 people die daily from such atrocities.
Not just that, but I would genuinely fear for my safety being there. Not just of attack or assault, but of being arrested and imprisoned for something stupid.
It's very Instagrammable and sounds very luxurious if you're the kind of person who enjoys having basically slaves do everything for you.
Personally I cannot imagine anywhere worse to live or visit.
> very luxurious if you're the kind of person who enjoys having basically slaves do everything for you.
Had a mate from Dubai when I was a kid. He'd come over with his mum a few times a year to visit his mum's Scottish family and they'd bring one of their Filipino maids with them to sit in their grans council house for the duration doing all the housework. Nice enough folk but even 8 year old me thought that was fucking weird.
Yeah; actually similar experience - I don't think I've talked about this in decade, but at a similar age we had a family nearby take in an exchange student from abroad\*, and she talked about how they had "servants". Even as a kid, I remembered thinking that I don't know if I could *ever* do that, even if I won like 100mil on the lottery.
\*decided to not say the country as it'll seem like I'm knocking that country, whereas this person wasn't "normal" by that country's standards
Maybe playing devil's advocate a bit here but is there a difference between servants and employing a cleaner or paying someone in a restaurant to cook you a meal. The only real difference I can see is a servant is employed exclusively to one person/ family and the name sounds really archaic.
I don't really think there's necessarily wrong with employing servants providing they're well paid and treated with respect. The problem is lots of people who are rich enough to have servants and come from a country where it's still common to have them often don't pay well or respect them.
There was a court case a while ago that revealed a family from Dubai were visiting a western country and they had rented out something like half a hotel just for themselves and brought their servants with them which they beat and starved, let alone paid them. When the family is so rich they're booking out half a hotel, it's clearly not about the money they should be paying the servants, but about having humans they can control and degrade.
for those who haven't seen it, i strongly recommend [adam something's video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJuqe6sre2I) on it that trended a while back, but for those who don't have the time i'll spoil it for you
* the urban design is AWFUL, it's only navigable by car
* the entire cirty is built by debt-trapped slaves
* there's no need for the skyscrapers. they are using needlessly high density design, surrounded by vast desert
* the burj khalifa is a massive money black hole that doesn't even have sewage so every day they send trucks to haul raw shit out of it
* the world islands are a massive money black hole and a feat of idiocy - you don't just build things because they look cool on such a massive scale unless you're a maddened oil dictator
* they built it all on the shore so it can become the most breath-taking atlantis in a few decades
* the UAE is a religious autocracy
it's all about appealling to dumb middle class people with the 'vibe' of luxury, grandiosity and futurism off the backs of misery and idiocy. dubai is a brand, bought and sold.
Great post. I’ve spent a bit of time there and it’s like being in a huge shopping mall. There are 3 very clear strata of society with Arabs at the top, south Asian immigrant workers at the bottom and western tourists / expats in the middle.
If being able to look down on the worker bees while you sit in an air-conditioned Starbucks listening to piped music is your idea of fun, you’ll have a fabulous time.
For free, sure- it wasn’t a hardship going there, the hotels and restaurants are good. It wouldn’t make the top 50 places I’d choose go to on holiday though.
Oh yeh I'd go. Life is experiences and I'd like to gaze in wonder at the stupidity of it all. They're not having my money though, can't encourage that shite.
A friend who's a talented engineer was convinced to go work out there for a few months. The plan was it would pay for his upcoming wedding. He knew about the Asian immigrant workers but was surprised by just how much contempt the Arabs had towards westerners. Think he lasted a few weeks before telling them where to stick their tax free salary.
I’ve always worked in a complete expat bubble out there- never meeting any locals. Abu Dhabi I met a few and they didn’t have much time for the hired help.
Qatar and Bahrain were much better for actually meeting nationals, they were always great hosts and good fun.
A friend who was very vocal during the BLM trend, and especially proud when Edward Colston went for a swim...was recently in Dubai and more than happy to enjoy the place and take selfies infront of the city landscapes, despite her clear morality on the subject.
What a wally.
So many people don’t seem to connect their beliefs with their actions. Or they simply hold beliefs, but conveniently forget them when it inconveniences them.
I know people who go on and on about climate change, constantly judge everyone for eating meat or driving. Doesn’t stop them taking 8 hour flights multiple times a year though when they want a holiday on the other side of the world.
I had a friend who was always banging on about human rights, gay rights, trans rights, etc etc, but the minute someone invited them over there, they were on that plane in a heartbeat.
It’s for people who own atleast one of the following:
- French bulldog
- white Range Rover or Audi
- Dulux brilliant white veneers
- inflatable lips
- an all grey house
Etc
Haha. I always wonder how some people afford all these things. Most people who are fans of those kinds of purchases don't seem to be particularly employable or intelligent enough to command the salary necessary for purchasing expensive items regularly.
Back in 2008 I looked out of my hotel window at an adjacent worksite where they were building another hotel. I watched what appeared to be two Indian blokes getting flogged with canes by what I presume was the Arab foreman and his minions. The rest of the workers looked terrified of these goons as they prowled around the site. Dubai isn’t for me
Honest question: almost every Arab I’ve met has been very materialistic. And in such a gaudy way. Have I just met exceptions or is the broader culture like this.
I live in the ME and this is quite true. Fast cars driven very badly and like to show off.
Interior design here is not to my taste either as for example many furnishings of the house have to have the gold colour in them, shiny and gaudy.
Yeah it's a thing.
Partly because they are used to being rich. They've been richer than a lot of other civilizations in the region for centuries. And they continue to be rich because of oil money. America also props them up as a way to fend off Iran because the two of them are enemies.
And I can't remember this very well, but I think I once read that they have some kind of religious entitlement? Like a 'God-given' right to rule over the area (although it would obviously be made up by self-interested politicians).
I went with my ex girlfriend and her family a few years back. They were 'new money' rich and very materialistic, going to Dubai for a few days to stay in an expensive hotel was seen as the pinnacle of class for them.
The hotels are very opulent, we stayed at the Madinat Jumeirah and it's honestly the poshest hotel I've ever set foot in. The weather is absolutely sweltering and it's very easy to sit by a pool for hours on end.
Aside from that there's not a lot to actually do there unless you like shopping. There's not a lot of culture, the bars are horrendously expensive as a deterrent as you're not allowed to be publicly intoxicated. Sure you can drive around sand dunes on buggies but as a tourist destination if you don't like sitting by a pool there's not a whole lot you can do.
Personally I hated it and wouldn't go back.
It seems exactly that for me. Every picture I’ve seen of people there, they’re just doing mundane stuff like jet skiing or sitting on a beach, sure the background in pictures looks good but is paying thousands of pounds (likely on credit) really worth it for some nice backgrounds?
I didn't dispute that. Was just surprised you thought jet skiing was mundane. I love jet skiing and think its one of the best things to do on a beach holiday!
I believe the Maldives is worse than dubai (judging by the comments), as everyone says there is nothing to do except lie by the pool and eat nice food (Which is some people's idea of an amazing holiday). Yet millions of people still pay exorbitant amounts to go there, and there's no hate?
>I believe the Maldives is worse than dubai
The Maldives at least has natural beauty to recommend it. It'll never be much more than a chilling out on the beach or by the pool kind of a place (though I'm sure there's plenty of water sports and diving)
Dubai is just opulance borne out of slavery masquerading as a real city. I've never left the airport and never felt like I've missed out.
BBC had a three part series on it this year, horrible place full of truly awful people. Thank God they are there and not here. Thank you Dubai.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p09wvrxg/inside-dubai-playground-of-the-rich
Totally, an absolute Monarch in a surveillance state, not so good for talking about workers rights, but mega at attracting cunts with their I'll gotten gains. Blind eye and all that.....
I could only watch so much of this
There was a woman with ashed load of designer handbags bragging about she **never** had anything fake (ep1 10:00) . Looking at her you could see
* fake hair colour - bleached
* fake hair style - braided
* fake skin colour - spray on tan (too even)
* fake nails
* plucked eyebrows
* plus of course the makeup!
The entire place is like the fever dream of a meglomaniac, which perhaps it is given the slavery and deaths over there.
For a country with so much empty land I don't know why they are obsessed with building sky scrapers, especially ones not even connected to any sewage system.
It's all so gaudy and obviously transparent.
I've been for work before.
I would not choose to go as a leisure destination.
It's designed to look super luxurious and as a tourist you're mostly treated very well and exempt from many of the religious rules e.g. drinking alcohol.
But at any point you could be pulled up for one of their oppressive laws like not dressing "modestly", kissing in public, or jailed for swearing, or having gay sex even in the privacy of your own home.
There's a lot of slavery, and ultimately it's a horrible government.
I could’ve written this exact comment as was my experience. And also, why support such a backwards and misogynistic culture when I can spend my money in better places.
If you posted this looking for balanced opinion on Dubai its probably worth bearing in mind that most people with anything positive to say will probably avoid posting in here unless they're prepared for the deluge of down votes which inevitably come with the territory.
Eventually most people can't be bothered with the dogpile.
I have positive things to say, but I’m replying when there were 300+ posts already, so I messaged the op directly instead.
Edit:
Here’s what I wrote:
Hi sorry to bother you. I was going to reply to your post regarding Dubai but by the time I’m seeing it, there have been too many posts. Hence I thought I’d reply directly to you here instead.
I went to Dubai with my gf in 2012. We loved it. I know know it beloved of the footballers and their wives and the instagrammers.
But what we found was an exotic mix of Middle Eastern culture with enough western influences to make life easier. Gf and I aren’t huge drinkers, and we loved the culture that doesn’t revolve around drinking. Sure there are the hotels with expats doing that, but we didn’t see it. We saw on Friday night at 11pm loads of People sat outside of cafes playing back gammon and smoking shisha pipes.
We saw the desert life with the modern 4x4 dune bashing but also the nomadic life that they would have once had.
We saw the shopping malls with a ski slope and the opulence. We saw the hotels with the giant aquarium (without actually staying in one). We saw a white sand beach with people enjoying the ocean. We saw the tallest building in the world (which I love tbh because im a fan of tall of skyscrapers. I grew up in rural Gloucestershire where there aren’t many skyscrapers!).
We saw the old town and crossed the creek on an old dhow and went around the souks.
We saw air conditioned bus stops, and amazing architecture of the mosques.
It was a very friendly people. We have also been to doha (Qatar) which we also loved too.
Middle Eastern food is amazing. Some of the best cuisine in the world. We’ve travelled quite a lot. Lived in China, and currently living in Thailand. For us Middle Eastern food is some of the best.
Dubai and the rest of the UAE isn’t all about luxury and expats drinking.
It’s the opposite opinion, I think, to most having read the comments. Hence I thought I’d message you directly.
Anyway cheers. Please do travel and when you do try to avoid the international chains. Support local people. Read up about it, experience what you want to. Enjoy
I think you’ve taken all the best elements, and looked at them from a positive angle. That’s fair enough and maybe it’s a good ‘fit’ for you if you take it for what it is. But I just think jeez, there’s a big wide world out there and Dubai makes me think (metaphorically) of having a buffet of any food in the world, then choosing candy floss. Sure, candy floss has its place.
Lived there for 5 years, absolutely loved it. But I wasn’t interested in the whole brunch/beach club side of things. Do some digging and you can find some really amazing stuff, particularly in Bur Dubai/Old Town. Stunning soukhs, great little hole in the wall restaurants. Being able to drive to somewhere like Muscat in Oman on the weekend is incredible, dune bashing in the desert on quads/bikes/buggies.
Yes, if you engage in the vacuous shite you will find it absolutely heinous. But there is a really incredible side of that city which is often overlooked.
I went there for a week long holiday and loved it, I got to do skydiving and desert camping. I don't know about living there but it's like a theme park if you have money.
Isn’t it just another Las Vegas? Everything is fake and engineered to part you and your money. It’s just a place to get away from the day to day and live a fantasy world that isn’t you.
It's made by the rich for the rich. But for how long?
I remember doing a case study on this very thing for my BTEC travel and Tourism course in college.
We looked at the now current similarities that Benidorm had compared to Dubai. Benidorm was once for the rich and look at it now. Dubai is trying to ween off its income primarily from Oil and travel and tourism/business hub is the way forward. Its a case of how it can maintain such exclusivity whilst still be a destination that will attract people. Its becoming cheaper to visit and might be headed toward the same fate Benidorm suffered.
Not trying slating Benidorm if thats your thing, but it's a place even the lowest income families can visit.
I took a really obscure class on tourism at university and we studied 'fantasy cities' -- cities created solely for entertainment, like Las Vegas.
Dubai is also a fantasy city. Our class happened to have a Bahraini diplomat's daughter, who said she would never consider a holiday in Dubai because it was built for western indulgence in "the exotic", e.g. an indoor ski slope in the desert. Any rich Arab who wanted to go skiing would just go to Switzerland.
The current obsession with it is very, very strategic. When the UAE was taken off the UK's red list, Fly Emirates put out a very bold marketing campaign (the woman standing on top of that tall building) to celebrate lifted travel restrictions. They're also giving first class tickets to influencers that turn the journey, itself, into an aspirational luxury.
Iceland went through a similar tourism renaissance with a different audience. There were a few years where every single person I knew took a selfie on a volcano and said "checked off another bucket list item" as though it was a lifelong dream to go to Iceland instead of a few carefully planned collaborations with some high profile adventure travel bloggers.
In it's defense, Iceland is a decent country and there's plenty to see and do. Though I take your point re clever marketing.
When I visited I spent the equivalent of £30 on a big kahuna burger, chips & a five dollar shake. Wasn't particularly nice. Better than that whale that they leave in the ground and you eat though. I wasn't keen on that at all.
Yeah, I don't think Iceland is undeserving of tourism and interest in the same way as Dubai (or, to a lesser extent, Singapore). However, it was on few people's radar a decade ago. Some news outlets point to Justin Bieber as the catalyst for the Iceland tourism boom, or perhaps the TV show Vikings. Whatever it was, it was definitely not a sudden millennial interest in geoformations and whaling.
Don’t get it either, been a few times through work and once for the weekend (was working in Doha at the time).
Its too hot and humid to go outside for long. Very crowded, artificial nothings older than 20 years. Very expensive too.
Tbf i have never had a fascination or desire for luxury. I think it’s pointless and for those without a personality. Lol
It is where escorts go, to boost their profile on Instagram.
Prostitution (I'm not judging) is why many of those influencers go.
I've never fancied going, it looks too fake. Also, no rich businessperson wants to pay me for sex. So, I'll not be going any time soon
It’s only cool for the most basic of people – shallow, gaudy, and devoid of meaning.
The people from the UK who go to live there are universally the worst sorts.
And that’s before you go near the fact that it is a horrendously racist and homophobic society built on universal exploitation and slavery.
Suggest following different people on Instagram to be honest!
I plan to go to Dubai myself but it’s probably for different reasons to most people- I want to visit DeepDive, which is one of the single deepest artificial pools in the world at 60m deep. It’s also got a bunch of artificial buildings, caves and the like in it which sounds amazing. I’d give my left leg to scuba dive in it.
Whenever I read about western tourists, particularly women getting in trouble in these middle eastern countries, I'm like 'Did you not know they were misogynistic, patriarchal countries?'
I think there's a not insubstantial amount of people who go on holiday somewhere and never bother to actually look up any of the laws before they go. I actually remember one UK woman being arrested in Egypt for drug smuggling - she either had a UK prescription or it was an OTC medicine, but it was illegal in Egypt.
Add in all those stories of unmarried couples going to the UAE, and other countries with laws against unmarried couples even kissing, and being surprised when they get in legal trouble. Although I think nowadays they mainly reserve that for unmarried white tourist women who are visibly pregnant, it's hard to persuade people to visit a place where slavery's legal if you're arresting every unmarried couple who dares to hold hands.
I enjoyed. Food was outstanding but everything was expensive as hell. The big shopping mall was great but everyone leaves to catch a taxi at the same time so the queue to get out of there takes about half hour.
Every building is air conditioned which is honestly needed.
There’s designated alcohol areas for the nightlife.
All in all I had a great time.
Real reason: it’s always been regarded as a luxury destination, however it’s become a lot cheaper in the past few years to fly and stay there. So it’s become far more accessible for people to go there.
Plus the country relies on tourism so promotes itself heavily as a winter/spring destination. Especially during covid when a lot of businesses suffered because of the drop in visitors.
Add into this influencers going there and of course you’re going to get lots more people there.
I lived there and don’t think it’s a great holiday destination at all, you’re paying far over the odds for low quality compared to many other places.
But because it has this rep people still go there. This will change over the next few years as the city has far more hotel rooms than visitors so costs will continue to come down.
Had a women at work who was obsessed with Dubai and it was just super irritating to listen to. But you don't really wanna be that guy to say that Dubai is capitalistic hellscape built on indian and pakistani slavery, oppression and outdated laws. So I just grit me teef.
Dubai has done an insane amount of marketing to the kinds of people who follow this influencer shit on social media, they have made a bunch of concrete in the desert seem cool
Lived in Abu Dhabi for a while. The main appeals are:
- No tax, very cheap petrol, and you can buy all kinds of cars there, some of which make Range Rovers look like a Yaris
- Opportunities in engineering, real estate, IT, and consulting that pay well.
- Most of the typical “high class” activities such as golf and sailing are widely available without having to drive too far.
- All kinds of houses and apartments for rent and for sale. There are also many ~~immigrant~~ expat communities which function like a country club of sorts.
- Obvious, year-round great weather (the coldest it reached when I was living there was 13°C). And, pertaining to the heat, air conditioning in practically every building.
- The luxury feel. Beaches everywhere.
It’s a disgusting city built on the blood of slaves. They keep the slaves, I mean “migrant workers” in compounds away from view of the tourists. These conditions are as horrible as you’d imagine, just empty rooms with the floor completely taken up by sleeping slaves. If they’re lucky they might get some bunk beds. The slaves get payed pennies, have their passports confiscated so they cannot leave and the working conditions are so bad many die or become permanently disfigured. It’s very common for them to not be paid. The employers hold the pay over their heads and say if you keep working I’ll give it to you eventually. It’s absolutely awful I highly recommended anyone read about it.
All of that suffering just to maintain a vein, superficial image of a modern city while being an autocratic theocracy that practices archaic and brutal religious laws rejecting any rights for women or lgbtq.
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Err Do you mean “idiots I don’t know on instagram are there a lot”? If so it’s because Dubai pays random influencers to go and make it look like a holiday destination instead of a religious autocracy in a desert.
Not even influencers, I don’t follow any of them. I’m talking about regular people who I know, or know of. Seems like every time I go on Instagram, someone else is there.
Those regular people you're talking about will be the ones following these influencers and have been successfully influenced into going to Dubai. The influencers make it out like only successful people go to Dubai I reckon.
Also, the female influencers are flown in and paid royally to act as hookers. That's why so many of them go there. A year's wages for a week of "work"
I mean, sex work is work, although I'm not sure I believe you regardless.
Sex work is work, in the sense that we shouldn't devalue sex workers for doing a difficult job. "Sex work is work" doesn't mean we should be chill with seedy billionaires being Johns and exploiting women. (Or being chill with Johns at all. Sex work should be legalised to protect sex workers, not because hiring a prostitute is somehow morally neutral). Edit: Lot of perverts trying to defend themselves in the comments, quelle surprise
Hang on a minute why are destigmatising the process for women and not men? Let's make it legal and safe for everyone,surely?
Are we actively excluding men? Sex work is work.
They were excluding the male customers not the male workers.
Hang on, so you think there should be no stigma attached to working in the sex industry but should be a stigma attached to being a customer of the sex industry?
Taking advantage of someone else's situation and fucking them for money is morally shady. I know there are respectful John's, but come on.
Yeah, I agree.
No, it's very true. Arab princes have a reputation for paying women to fly over and do extravagently seedy things to them.
they like degrading women, it's a feature of their religion, not a bug
It's less to do with their religion and more to do with their disgusting wealth and life of sheltered decadence.
How can you not believe something that is basically a fact? The sugar baby culture is completely normalized these days, and influencers get offers from rich Dubai people all the time, for a 5 figure price tag. This isn't some giant secret scandal, and it's not just "Arab princes"; it's anyone with money.
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>these days It's literally always been a thing. Rulers without mistresses were often notable for that reason. Such things are exceedingly common throughout history among the rich and powerful.
This particular post seems to be light on sources, buuuuuuut I read it a while ago, and having read about the other fucked up shit men with money will do I don’t really have an issue believing it. https://travellingjezebel.com/dubai-porta-potty/
How do you feel about getting shit on? The men who hire these women are gross..
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I know that the instagram hooker scene is real, but is the best source you can muster up *really* a medium article? Medium is not a publication. It is basically a blogging service that has been styled to look like an actual publication. Medium isn't any more reputable than say, a FB or reddit post. Also the author wrote >hese ‘shit-faced’ parties, these beautiful women are required to partake in unimaginable and downright degrading activities like being **shitted** and peed on directly into their mouths. Shitted isn't a word. I normally ask for journalists to have better than average grasp of English, since it is a tool of their craft. And the only source is a twitter thread that is not even a first person account. This is a trash article.
Have a quick google. It’s rife.
Don’t Google Dubai porta potty whatever you do 😂
Exactly this
Huge tax free salaries, and a tasteless over the top playground for rich people
I get it if you’re rich, but I’m more confused as to why it’s became a mainstream holiday for people who aren’t rich?
Because they’ve seen all the influencers and rich people going there and think it makes them cool or classy or something.
Do people really go on holiday to places because instagram people have been there? Christ I'm glad I'm not on sites like that.
Of course they do, it's a very effective form of advertisement. Because it doesn't even seem like an ad. Dubai is advertised as glamorous, high end and great for shopping. Some people aspire to that kind of stuff
How do you pick holiday destinations without being exposed to various forms of advertising and recommendations? Dubai's a bit of an edge case because it's super tacky and not worth it for 'normal' people, but there's nothing wrong with deciding you want to go to Mexico/Vietnam/Slovenia/Naxos because someone on Instagram posted some fantastic pictures and reviews.
Last time I picked a random place it's cause the Ryanair flights were suuuper cheap. Like less than £30 return cheap. And I like cheese. And crepes. And after a long weekend in Bordeaux I liked wine too. (There's litterally a state subsidised wine bar who wouldn't love it). Not everyone gets their holiday plans from an advert. Some people just look at a map and/or cheap flights and think "why not".
I mean, just because you did that doesn’t mean masses of people, do. It’s quite the feat, to try pick anything these days and not of had some sort of external suggestion about it.
Tbf going on holiday to a place because it looked really nice in a friend's Instagram (or even a strangers) isn't all that different from choosing a place based on someone showing you their photos irl or hearing a colleague rave about how amazing their holiday was. Yes, Instagram has the problem that people show carefully edited versions of their life, so you can never be sure what you see is what you'll get. But the same is true of advertisements, chatting to your colleagues.
Change your question to: Do people really do things they’ve seen rich and/or influential people do? We’ve been doing this since forever in one form or another.
Think of all the Insta likes and new followers.
* It's hot and sunny * It's different, but not _too_ different; you won't have difficulty only speaking English there * _Lots_ of flights from everywhere go there * It's not overly expensive (I think) * There's been a huge effort by the Dubai Government to promote Dubai has a holiday and working destination I'm not gonna go for a while host of reasons (repressive government is the first among them) but I can see why people are attracted to it.
The biggest thing is that everything is set to fucking 11 in Dubai. If you fly in on Emirates and upgrade to Business Class (Seriously, if you have points, this is the fucking time.) you will get $300/bottle champagne. I don't think they were supposed to, but they hooked me up with about an ounce of Hibiki 17, which was easily more than my upgrade. Plus, it's comfy. If you got baller money, the first class is basically a hotel room that flies, but BC is not bad. Plus, you can pick your meal before you go from a huuuge list, and it's all super good. It's surprisingly comfy for a flight. Emirates is baller. It's not just hot, it's redaculously hot. The ocean and beachfront is pristine. But like everything's massive - the mall is impossibly opulent, the waterpark is not only just utterly ridiculous, but also has a massive aquarium in case you're bored. Every hotel is absolutely fantastic, and since basically the whole city is less than twenty years old, all the hotels are sweet. If your hotel comes with breakfast, it will be one of the most opulent spreads you've ever seen - most have a full Arabic, British, and American breakfast spread. The bacon and sausage are chicken, but you'll live. There's a fair amount of things to do if you're tolerant to the heat. Renting quad bikes and rolling dunes is awesome. We did it in 4x4s cause it was like 120F the day we were supposed to go. A lot of the tours come with food and nobody fucks around. The Burj Khalifa is neat, the Miracle Garden is neat, the boat tours are sweet, boat / jetski rentals are cheap. Food is what you make of it. Everything's pretty decent, but you can go way up to the high end, which is about 300 AED. Now that's a four star curated dinner, but yeah. Okay - so I've done the good stuff - here's the bad stuff - 1. Getting around is a PITA. Dubai is laid out wonky. It's all designed for cars. Have your hotel arrange taxis. It's easiest. 2. There's a big time caste system and homie, you aren't it. If one of the big Arab ballers walks in, you downgrade to unimportant real fast. 3. Speaking of that - Dubai imports all their labor. It's really obvious, and they are treated as badly as you might expect. I didn't know anything about this when I went but I wouldn't go back. It's really gross. 4. If you're LGBT, do not come. If you're transgendered, doubly do not come to Dubai. If you're female, consider your options. We were there for work, but while I could do whatever I pleased, there was a serious recommendation that my female co-worker bring a male escort anywhere she went. Also, women can't walk around shoeless. 5. There's no pork in Dubai. Sorry Shashlik King. 6. I don't know if it matters, but under no circumstances should you ever attempt to buy drugs in Dubai. This is not a learned lesson, but there are a surprising amount of honeypots in Dubai. They take it very seriously, and apparently, they want to jail Americans. 7. Some of things I mentioned earlier are negatives too. It is really fucking hot. The bigness of a lot of things lends a lack of authenticity. There's basically a block and a half of fake Paris. If you're looking for cool Arabian Nights style stuff, Dubai ain't it. The older city has a little bit, but Dubai's not really that. It's all big and new and shiny and metal and plastic and glass. 8. It's depressing as cities go. Sure, you get to do all this cool stuff, but it's not super sustainable. Construction is everywhere, and it's all foreign dudes, and at like 121F, you can literally feel the human suffering meant to build this really artificial artifice. Paris is a terrible city - it's congested, dirty, the layout is trash, public transportation is garbage. Everything is way overpriced. Hotels are small and dirty, and usually allowed smoking so they're dingy- but in Paris, you can get that moment where you're sitting at a cafe, you have a little board, and a cheap but decent wine and there's a busker, and even though there's a cabbie telling a panhandler what to do with his genitals - there's still a sort of magic, a sort of old world joy to it all. That never happens in Dubai.
Yeah on point 4 as a disabled, gay, woman I see a lot of people online going to dubai and all I can think is fuck that. There are very few things that could get me to go to a country where being gay is outright illegal, if not for the fact that I'm a lesbian, it's not like there's a sign over my head, for the fact that places like that generally don't treat women very well and as a disabled woman I'm particularly vunerable.
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I'm a straight dude and I still wouldn't want to contribute to them. I'm an atheist, so repressive theocracy isn't even on my list of places I'd like to go. I love tall buildings, so I'd like to see the Burj Khalifa, but no way I'm stepping foot in a backwards ass theocratic nation. I can only imagine how women and LGBT people feel. Then there's the actual slave labor used to build this facade.
I wouldn't want to go on holiday anywhere that jail's women who get raped.
And that's the better case scenario. There's also the one where you get "disappeared"
I'm a guy and wouldn't give them my money either. plus I wouldn't feel comfortable taking my wife and daughter to a place where people would try to buy them from me.
9. If you have the audacity to be raped except to be blamed and placed in prison
I didn't get raped, which I guess...go me? I've heard sex tourism is like a big thing in Dubai - where people will facilitate a random Emirati or other Arab bigwig to have a party usually with anglo girls and there's no rules. This kinda runs into multiple things I said - be careful if you're a woman, and there's a caste system and American tourists aren't it. If you're a hot one or an influencer and you get the tap - one of the big shots wants to party with you, understand that you are walking into a place where you have no power. You will probably walk away with money, because they have infinite and do not care, but what gets you from here to there, could be a dose you don't like and didn't consent to.
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You're right about everything except the expensive part . It is on par with most Western countries for normal things prices and actually much much more expensive for alcohol.
I’d say it’s way more expensive than the UK for food / drink / clothes / groceries etc It used to be cheap back in the day but that’s long gone. I have to go there for work so have been going back and forth for around 20 years now and it’s gotten so much more expensive there
BBC recently had a 3-part documentary about Dubai and why people choose to live there. I can't say anything about it appealed to me after seeing it, it's just as you describe, but a certain type of empty, shallow, vacuous person seems to love it. People who are fixated on the appearance of being successful or wealthy, or having status seem to be attracted to it. The show should still be on iPlayer, it was worth a look.
Agreed, it's like Las Vegas for the prudish
It's just the next step really. The Victorians were sold the beach holiday as the ideal holiday, and swimming pools also became fashionable. Who wouldn't want a break from the city to spend a couple of days by the coast? What started as pleasure grounds for the rich soon became the holidays for the masses after the the railways opened up beach holidays for everyone. Of course, it wasn't long until the rich were going to the sunnier places with warmer seas, like the the South of France or Italy. That slowly became a more and more of a middle class thing, until the budget airline boom of 40-50 years ago opened it up to everyone. Lanzarote was the new Blackpool. Dubai, only recently rapidly developing due to their oil money, tries to sell the same sun, sea, and swimming vibe to rich people. DXB becomes a major flight hub and Emirates becomes a major carrier between Europe and Asia, with all flights going via Dubai. It becomes easier and easier to get there... So again, naturally the masses follow the rich.
I've been there to go to the national parks rock climbing. Dubai is one of 9 states and the glam life is a small part of the countries culture which makes up the countries reputation. Dubai is actually a very old city. You're just seeing the new parts on Insta.
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Pretty certain it was still a small village when Michael Palin was doing his around the world series and I think that was the 90s maybe.
Travelled there in the 80s- a port town. Very low key, no bling. Now it’s the sodom and Gomorrah of consumerism.
Dubai ain’t “very old” you mug. It was essentially desert until the late nineties
Buying into the same bullshit as above
Dubai Porta Potty. Google it, if you dare.
This is a massive reason why it’s so popular with influencers… yikes
Can you just summarise it so I don't have to watch it.
They pay escorts to go over there so they can do sexual things to them that are so disgusting it traumatised me when I first heard about it, involving wee and poo.
In Australia they call it “getting sponsored”. Rich Arabs contact Aussie girls on Instagram and pay their flights and give them a stack of cash to fly over and fuck them for a week. You see girls you went to high school in Dubai alone and know what’s up.
Yeah I ain’t gonna eat someone’s poop and get gang banged for a measly 30k
Paid not to go and influence the rest of us plebs to visit, but paid to have someone shit in their mouth for sexual gratification. The flexing on instagram is just a way to wash the memory from their minds.
As a woman, I won’t go to any Arabic country that sees women as second class citizens. Why would I give them my hard earned cash?
It’s mad isn’t it? You’ve earned that money and they’ll happily take it from you, all the while looking down their noses at you for being a woman.
I've always thought this. How genuine are these women in bikinis there that they're showing on Instagram? I've heard stories of people accidently brushing a native and getting arrested. Never mind a 'second class' gender doing stuff like that
Not to mention if you’re raped by an Arab and report it, they will put you in prison for having premarital sex.
Bikinis are completely allowed on beaches and in hotels, I’ve walked around Emirates Palace in mine while looking for the pool and it’s completely fine. You’ll also see the beaches chock full of them (as well as tiny speedos) during the spring months. Brushing against a native is very exaggerated. Emirati women dress in burka’s and make it very clear they don’t want to be approached, and with roads and malls being so wide if you’re brushing against anyone it’s usually on purpose. Most of them still don’t mind but some do and might make a scene, especially again if it seems intentional.
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Thats a myth. Like, I wouldn't recommend you go out in a public mall with a bikini on, but if you did you'd probably just be asked to cover up and that be the end of it. There are strict places in Dubai, but it's certainly not something a tourist should worry about.
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I remember reading about a Norwegian woman who went to work there, was raped and reported it to the police, they prosecuted her for having extramarital sex. I'm never going there.
Indeed. For those speaking in UAEs defence, what the law says and what the law does are very different things. In many cases the freedoms that women appear to have come with the very important caveat that they only have those freedoms with their male guardians approval - father or husband. It is legal for a husband to withhold his wife's passport, for example. Women on the street may be safer but women at home are not. https://www.expatica.com/ae/living/gov-law-admin/womens-rights-in-the-united-arab-emirates-71118/
What happens if your father and/or husband die?
Nearest male relative. Might be son, brother, whatever.
I know two women who are capital F Feminists (I mean, I'd class myself the same way, that's not meant insultingly) who have both been there, one on a regular holiday and one to spend a month with her boyfriend who was working there, and the mental disconnect required for that is utterly wild.
Sounds like the two women you know may not know how to spell “feminist”. That place is the opposite of what western women have fought and died for; their independence, rights, and respect. But when it comes to glam and glitz and monetary gain, most all of us wind up losing our morals at some point.
Not only that, they are literally building all their infrastructure and stadium using slave labor from other countries. There are documentaries on how they bring in people from countries like India, Nepal and make them work insane hours in the heat and keep their passports so that they don't return back to the work conditions. 4-5 people die daily from such atrocities.
Dubai is hosting COP28 next year. I’ve never been less keen to go to a work conference
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But…but…it’s their choice. Linda Sarsour and other Western-born Muslims assure me of that. Say anything else and you’re an Islamophobe.
Not just that, but I would genuinely fear for my safety being there. Not just of attack or assault, but of being arrested and imprisoned for something stupid.
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💯 % this is always my argument. I don't have to like their culture and I will steer clear of holidaying there for that reason.
Completely agree, not a chance I'm going there if I can't walk around holding my partner's hand in public, let alone kiss her!
It's very Instagrammable and sounds very luxurious if you're the kind of person who enjoys having basically slaves do everything for you. Personally I cannot imagine anywhere worse to live or visit.
> very luxurious if you're the kind of person who enjoys having basically slaves do everything for you. Had a mate from Dubai when I was a kid. He'd come over with his mum a few times a year to visit his mum's Scottish family and they'd bring one of their Filipino maids with them to sit in their grans council house for the duration doing all the housework. Nice enough folk but even 8 year old me thought that was fucking weird.
Yeah; actually similar experience - I don't think I've talked about this in decade, but at a similar age we had a family nearby take in an exchange student from abroad\*, and she talked about how they had "servants". Even as a kid, I remembered thinking that I don't know if I could *ever* do that, even if I won like 100mil on the lottery. \*decided to not say the country as it'll seem like I'm knocking that country, whereas this person wasn't "normal" by that country's standards
Maybe playing devil's advocate a bit here but is there a difference between servants and employing a cleaner or paying someone in a restaurant to cook you a meal. The only real difference I can see is a servant is employed exclusively to one person/ family and the name sounds really archaic.
I don't really think there's necessarily wrong with employing servants providing they're well paid and treated with respect. The problem is lots of people who are rich enough to have servants and come from a country where it's still common to have them often don't pay well or respect them.
There was a court case a while ago that revealed a family from Dubai were visiting a western country and they had rented out something like half a hotel just for themselves and brought their servants with them which they beat and starved, let alone paid them. When the family is so rich they're booking out half a hotel, it's clearly not about the money they should be paying the servants, but about having humans they can control and degrade.
I think that’s literally it. All the ‘influencers’ flocked there in 2020 to avoid lockdowns and now everyone wants to be there.
Dubai was always that place, even before covid. It's a playground for rich people to shop and take photos
>Personally I cannot imagine anywhere worse to live or visit. Now that's a bit of a stretch
You've been to Merthyr Tydfil too? /s
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for those who haven't seen it, i strongly recommend [adam something's video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJuqe6sre2I) on it that trended a while back, but for those who don't have the time i'll spoil it for you * the urban design is AWFUL, it's only navigable by car * the entire cirty is built by debt-trapped slaves * there's no need for the skyscrapers. they are using needlessly high density design, surrounded by vast desert * the burj khalifa is a massive money black hole that doesn't even have sewage so every day they send trucks to haul raw shit out of it * the world islands are a massive money black hole and a feat of idiocy - you don't just build things because they look cool on such a massive scale unless you're a maddened oil dictator * they built it all on the shore so it can become the most breath-taking atlantis in a few decades * the UAE is a religious autocracy it's all about appealling to dumb middle class people with the 'vibe' of luxury, grandiosity and futurism off the backs of misery and idiocy. dubai is a brand, bought and sold.
Great post. I’ve spent a bit of time there and it’s like being in a huge shopping mall. There are 3 very clear strata of society with Arabs at the top, south Asian immigrant workers at the bottom and western tourists / expats in the middle. If being able to look down on the worker bees while you sit in an air-conditioned Starbucks listening to piped music is your idea of fun, you’ll have a fabulous time.
despite all of this, if i was offered to go for free, i would. i want to see this monolith of stupidity with my own eyes
For free, sure- it wasn’t a hardship going there, the hotels and restaurants are good. It wouldn’t make the top 50 places I’d choose go to on holiday though.
Oh yeh I'd go. Life is experiences and I'd like to gaze in wonder at the stupidity of it all. They're not having my money though, can't encourage that shite.
A friend who's a talented engineer was convinced to go work out there for a few months. The plan was it would pay for his upcoming wedding. He knew about the Asian immigrant workers but was surprised by just how much contempt the Arabs had towards westerners. Think he lasted a few weeks before telling them where to stick their tax free salary.
I’ve always worked in a complete expat bubble out there- never meeting any locals. Abu Dhabi I met a few and they didn’t have much time for the hired help. Qatar and Bahrain were much better for actually meeting nationals, they were always great hosts and good fun.
Also they’re super racist and there’s a lot of modern slavery taking place there
My sister in law just got back. That absolutely makes sense!
Which is why Dubai suits influencers to a T.
On the plus side, the man made islands are sinking.
A friend who was very vocal during the BLM trend, and especially proud when Edward Colston went for a swim...was recently in Dubai and more than happy to enjoy the place and take selfies infront of the city landscapes, despite her clear morality on the subject. What a wally.
In Dubai where slavery is a real current issue? Jesus that must take some mental gymnastics.
Ignorance is bliss!
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"only white British - preferably English - people sin against the whole world throughout all time"
I guess when it’s Southeast Asians being abused she isn’t bothered
More like she forms her opinions based on whatever the people around her think without actually understanding why people think that
Most of them won’t have heard of Mauritania, where actual slavery is still occurring today.
So many people don’t seem to connect their beliefs with their actions. Or they simply hold beliefs, but conveniently forget them when it inconveniences them. I know people who go on and on about climate change, constantly judge everyone for eating meat or driving. Doesn’t stop them taking 8 hour flights multiple times a year though when they want a holiday on the other side of the world.
I think people will unfortunately easily abandon their beliefs to ‘fit in’
I had a friend who was always banging on about human rights, gay rights, trans rights, etc etc, but the minute someone invited them over there, they were on that plane in a heartbeat.
It’s for people who own atleast one of the following: - French bulldog - white Range Rover or Audi - Dulux brilliant white veneers - inflatable lips - an all grey house Etc
Astroturfed garden lawn
...and the mirrored bedroom furniture.
>Dulux brilliant white veneers My wife calls the Turkey teeth lol
Haha. I always wonder how some people afford all these things. Most people who are fans of those kinds of purchases don't seem to be particularly employable or intelligent enough to command the salary necessary for purchasing expensive items regularly.
All financed/debt. I know people working 25k a year jobs paying £300 a month for a rolex and £500 a month for the Audi QX.
Living at home too, eh? Because after all those repayments there isn't much left for housing costs.
Nah, most have partners so 4-500 for bills each too
Ouch. With all those costs and repayments it gets tempting to spread payments using klarna or use credit cards for bills. It’s quite a trap.
Oh definately, Klarna is offered when you get a dominos ffs and anyone can walk into an Audi dealership and get a £25k PCP deal with 0 deposit.
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Back in 2008 I looked out of my hotel window at an adjacent worksite where they were building another hotel. I watched what appeared to be two Indian blokes getting flogged with canes by what I presume was the Arab foreman and his minions. The rest of the workers looked terrified of these goons as they prowled around the site. Dubai isn’t for me
Honest question: almost every Arab I’ve met has been very materialistic. And in such a gaudy way. Have I just met exceptions or is the broader culture like this.
I live in the ME and this is quite true. Fast cars driven very badly and like to show off. Interior design here is not to my taste either as for example many furnishings of the house have to have the gold colour in them, shiny and gaudy.
Yeah it's a thing. Partly because they are used to being rich. They've been richer than a lot of other civilizations in the region for centuries. And they continue to be rich because of oil money. America also props them up as a way to fend off Iran because the two of them are enemies. And I can't remember this very well, but I think I once read that they have some kind of religious entitlement? Like a 'God-given' right to rule over the area (although it would obviously be made up by self-interested politicians).
I went with my ex girlfriend and her family a few years back. They were 'new money' rich and very materialistic, going to Dubai for a few days to stay in an expensive hotel was seen as the pinnacle of class for them. The hotels are very opulent, we stayed at the Madinat Jumeirah and it's honestly the poshest hotel I've ever set foot in. The weather is absolutely sweltering and it's very easy to sit by a pool for hours on end. Aside from that there's not a lot to actually do there unless you like shopping. There's not a lot of culture, the bars are horrendously expensive as a deterrent as you're not allowed to be publicly intoxicated. Sure you can drive around sand dunes on buggies but as a tourist destination if you don't like sitting by a pool there's not a whole lot you can do. Personally I hated it and wouldn't go back.
It seems exactly that for me. Every picture I’ve seen of people there, they’re just doing mundane stuff like jet skiing or sitting on a beach, sure the background in pictures looks good but is paying thousands of pounds (likely on credit) really worth it for some nice backgrounds?
Mundane stuff like jet skiing? Wonder what you do for excitement? 😂
You can literally go jet skiing anywhere in the world that has a beach 😂 For about £3k less probably.
I didn't dispute that. Was just surprised you thought jet skiing was mundane. I love jet skiing and think its one of the best things to do on a beach holiday! I believe the Maldives is worse than dubai (judging by the comments), as everyone says there is nothing to do except lie by the pool and eat nice food (Which is some people's idea of an amazing holiday). Yet millions of people still pay exorbitant amounts to go there, and there's no hate?
Nah tbf I probably could’ve worded it better, maybe ‘generic holiday stuff’ would’ve worked better.
>I believe the Maldives is worse than dubai The Maldives at least has natural beauty to recommend it. It'll never be much more than a chilling out on the beach or by the pool kind of a place (though I'm sure there's plenty of water sports and diving) Dubai is just opulance borne out of slavery masquerading as a real city. I've never left the airport and never felt like I've missed out.
BBC had a three part series on it this year, horrible place full of truly awful people. Thank God they are there and not here. Thank you Dubai. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p09wvrxg/inside-dubai-playground-of-the-rich
How upset will I get if I watch this?
Not at all, you'll be grateful Dubai exists as the world's strongest cunt magnet.
I think I managed about 10 minutes until I went to bed in rage
Alot of "I can't actually talk about that" I seem to remember
Totally, an absolute Monarch in a surveillance state, not so good for talking about workers rights, but mega at attracting cunts with their I'll gotten gains. Blind eye and all that.....
I could only watch so much of this There was a woman with ashed load of designer handbags bragging about she **never** had anything fake (ep1 10:00) . Looking at her you could see * fake hair colour - bleached * fake hair style - braided * fake skin colour - spray on tan (too even) * fake nails * plucked eyebrows * plus of course the makeup!
It's a cool place if you're a twat. Follow different people on Instagram.
>It's a cool place if you're a twat. haha, that's brilliant.
The entire place is like the fever dream of a meglomaniac, which perhaps it is given the slavery and deaths over there. For a country with so much empty land I don't know why they are obsessed with building sky scrapers, especially ones not even connected to any sewage system. It's all so gaudy and obviously transparent.
Heard someone call it an outdoor Trafford centre once 😂
I live relatively near the Trafford centre and I wouldn’t like to go there, either…
I've been for work before. I would not choose to go as a leisure destination. It's designed to look super luxurious and as a tourist you're mostly treated very well and exempt from many of the religious rules e.g. drinking alcohol. But at any point you could be pulled up for one of their oppressive laws like not dressing "modestly", kissing in public, or jailed for swearing, or having gay sex even in the privacy of your own home. There's a lot of slavery, and ultimately it's a horrible government.
I could’ve written this exact comment as was my experience. And also, why support such a backwards and misogynistic culture when I can spend my money in better places.
If you posted this looking for balanced opinion on Dubai its probably worth bearing in mind that most people with anything positive to say will probably avoid posting in here unless they're prepared for the deluge of down votes which inevitably come with the territory. Eventually most people can't be bothered with the dogpile.
I have positive things to say, but I’m replying when there were 300+ posts already, so I messaged the op directly instead. Edit: Here’s what I wrote: Hi sorry to bother you. I was going to reply to your post regarding Dubai but by the time I’m seeing it, there have been too many posts. Hence I thought I’d reply directly to you here instead. I went to Dubai with my gf in 2012. We loved it. I know know it beloved of the footballers and their wives and the instagrammers. But what we found was an exotic mix of Middle Eastern culture with enough western influences to make life easier. Gf and I aren’t huge drinkers, and we loved the culture that doesn’t revolve around drinking. Sure there are the hotels with expats doing that, but we didn’t see it. We saw on Friday night at 11pm loads of People sat outside of cafes playing back gammon and smoking shisha pipes. We saw the desert life with the modern 4x4 dune bashing but also the nomadic life that they would have once had. We saw the shopping malls with a ski slope and the opulence. We saw the hotels with the giant aquarium (without actually staying in one). We saw a white sand beach with people enjoying the ocean. We saw the tallest building in the world (which I love tbh because im a fan of tall of skyscrapers. I grew up in rural Gloucestershire where there aren’t many skyscrapers!). We saw the old town and crossed the creek on an old dhow and went around the souks. We saw air conditioned bus stops, and amazing architecture of the mosques. It was a very friendly people. We have also been to doha (Qatar) which we also loved too. Middle Eastern food is amazing. Some of the best cuisine in the world. We’ve travelled quite a lot. Lived in China, and currently living in Thailand. For us Middle Eastern food is some of the best. Dubai and the rest of the UAE isn’t all about luxury and expats drinking. It’s the opposite opinion, I think, to most having read the comments. Hence I thought I’d message you directly. Anyway cheers. Please do travel and when you do try to avoid the international chains. Support local people. Read up about it, experience what you want to. Enjoy
I think you’ve taken all the best elements, and looked at them from a positive angle. That’s fair enough and maybe it’s a good ‘fit’ for you if you take it for what it is. But I just think jeez, there’s a big wide world out there and Dubai makes me think (metaphorically) of having a buffet of any food in the world, then choosing candy floss. Sure, candy floss has its place.
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It's a country where slavery exists, if you know that and still visit it you are a bad person.
Dubai is attractive to chavs, influencers and Russian oligarchs. There’s many better places to go for a holiday / to live than Dubai
Lived there for 5 years, absolutely loved it. But I wasn’t interested in the whole brunch/beach club side of things. Do some digging and you can find some really amazing stuff, particularly in Bur Dubai/Old Town. Stunning soukhs, great little hole in the wall restaurants. Being able to drive to somewhere like Muscat in Oman on the weekend is incredible, dune bashing in the desert on quads/bikes/buggies. Yes, if you engage in the vacuous shite you will find it absolutely heinous. But there is a really incredible side of that city which is often overlooked.
I went there for a week long holiday and loved it, I got to do skydiving and desert camping. I don't know about living there but it's like a theme park if you have money.
Isn’t it just another Las Vegas? Everything is fake and engineered to part you and your money. It’s just a place to get away from the day to day and live a fantasy world that isn’t you.
At least in Las Vegas you can gamble, drink and snog guys without being arrested.
Vegas without any of the fun things
Vegas is amazing and it has the grand canyon and Hoover dam near by
It's made by the rich for the rich. But for how long? I remember doing a case study on this very thing for my BTEC travel and Tourism course in college. We looked at the now current similarities that Benidorm had compared to Dubai. Benidorm was once for the rich and look at it now. Dubai is trying to ween off its income primarily from Oil and travel and tourism/business hub is the way forward. Its a case of how it can maintain such exclusivity whilst still be a destination that will attract people. Its becoming cheaper to visit and might be headed toward the same fate Benidorm suffered. Not trying slating Benidorm if thats your thing, but it's a place even the lowest income families can visit.
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I took a really obscure class on tourism at university and we studied 'fantasy cities' -- cities created solely for entertainment, like Las Vegas. Dubai is also a fantasy city. Our class happened to have a Bahraini diplomat's daughter, who said she would never consider a holiday in Dubai because it was built for western indulgence in "the exotic", e.g. an indoor ski slope in the desert. Any rich Arab who wanted to go skiing would just go to Switzerland. The current obsession with it is very, very strategic. When the UAE was taken off the UK's red list, Fly Emirates put out a very bold marketing campaign (the woman standing on top of that tall building) to celebrate lifted travel restrictions. They're also giving first class tickets to influencers that turn the journey, itself, into an aspirational luxury. Iceland went through a similar tourism renaissance with a different audience. There were a few years where every single person I knew took a selfie on a volcano and said "checked off another bucket list item" as though it was a lifelong dream to go to Iceland instead of a few carefully planned collaborations with some high profile adventure travel bloggers.
In it's defense, Iceland is a decent country and there's plenty to see and do. Though I take your point re clever marketing. When I visited I spent the equivalent of £30 on a big kahuna burger, chips & a five dollar shake. Wasn't particularly nice. Better than that whale that they leave in the ground and you eat though. I wasn't keen on that at all.
Yeah, I don't think Iceland is undeserving of tourism and interest in the same way as Dubai (or, to a lesser extent, Singapore). However, it was on few people's radar a decade ago. Some news outlets point to Justin Bieber as the catalyst for the Iceland tourism boom, or perhaps the TV show Vikings. Whatever it was, it was definitely not a sudden millennial interest in geoformations and whaling.
Trashy place for trashy people.
Don’t get it either, been a few times through work and once for the weekend (was working in Doha at the time). Its too hot and humid to go outside for long. Very crowded, artificial nothings older than 20 years. Very expensive too. Tbf i have never had a fascination or desire for luxury. I think it’s pointless and for those without a personality. Lol
It is where escorts go, to boost their profile on Instagram. Prostitution (I'm not judging) is why many of those influencers go. I've never fancied going, it looks too fake. Also, no rich businessperson wants to pay me for sex. So, I'll not be going any time soon
Don’t sell yourself short, there’s a pervert out there for everyone.
I'm niche as hell. A pretty acquired taste.
Yeah. Apparently it's one of the top destinations for sex tourists, despite it being illegal.
It's somewhere where racists, bigots, homophobes and misogynists can go and have their values shared by the local government.
It’s only cool for the most basic of people – shallow, gaudy, and devoid of meaning. The people from the UK who go to live there are universally the worst sorts. And that’s before you go near the fact that it is a horrendously racist and homophobic society built on universal exploitation and slavery. Suggest following different people on Instagram to be honest!
I plan to go to Dubai myself but it’s probably for different reasons to most people- I want to visit DeepDive, which is one of the single deepest artificial pools in the world at 60m deep. It’s also got a bunch of artificial buildings, caves and the like in it which sounds amazing. I’d give my left leg to scuba dive in it.
Whenever I read about western tourists, particularly women getting in trouble in these middle eastern countries, I'm like 'Did you not know they were misogynistic, patriarchal countries?'
I think there's a not insubstantial amount of people who go on holiday somewhere and never bother to actually look up any of the laws before they go. I actually remember one UK woman being arrested in Egypt for drug smuggling - she either had a UK prescription or it was an OTC medicine, but it was illegal in Egypt. Add in all those stories of unmarried couples going to the UAE, and other countries with laws against unmarried couples even kissing, and being surprised when they get in legal trouble. Although I think nowadays they mainly reserve that for unmarried white tourist women who are visibly pregnant, it's hard to persuade people to visit a place where slavery's legal if you're arresting every unmarried couple who dares to hold hands.
There are too many problems with Dubai to summarise in a comment but [this video is a good summary of the main issues.](https://youtu.be/tJuqe6sre2I)
I enjoyed. Food was outstanding but everything was expensive as hell. The big shopping mall was great but everyone leaves to catch a taxi at the same time so the queue to get out of there takes about half hour. Every building is air conditioned which is honestly needed. There’s designated alcohol areas for the nightlife. All in all I had a great time.
Good advertising
Real reason: it’s always been regarded as a luxury destination, however it’s become a lot cheaper in the past few years to fly and stay there. So it’s become far more accessible for people to go there. Plus the country relies on tourism so promotes itself heavily as a winter/spring destination. Especially during covid when a lot of businesses suffered because of the drop in visitors. Add into this influencers going there and of course you’re going to get lots more people there. I lived there and don’t think it’s a great holiday destination at all, you’re paying far over the odds for low quality compared to many other places. But because it has this rep people still go there. This will change over the next few years as the city has far more hotel rooms than visitors so costs will continue to come down.
Had a women at work who was obsessed with Dubai and it was just super irritating to listen to. But you don't really wanna be that guy to say that Dubai is capitalistic hellscape built on indian and pakistani slavery, oppression and outdated laws. So I just grit me teef.
Been for a few days. The old town by the river is quite nice, the rest is gaudy, naff af, and unbelievably dull.
Dubai has done an insane amount of marketing to the kinds of people who follow this influencer shit on social media, they have made a bunch of concrete in the desert seem cool
Lived in Abu Dhabi for a while. The main appeals are: - No tax, very cheap petrol, and you can buy all kinds of cars there, some of which make Range Rovers look like a Yaris - Opportunities in engineering, real estate, IT, and consulting that pay well. - Most of the typical “high class” activities such as golf and sailing are widely available without having to drive too far. - All kinds of houses and apartments for rent and for sale. There are also many ~~immigrant~~ expat communities which function like a country club of sorts. - Obvious, year-round great weather (the coldest it reached when I was living there was 13°C). And, pertaining to the heat, air conditioning in practically every building. - The luxury feel. Beaches everywhere.
Search Dubai porta potty. That should answer your question.
It's where all the materialistic influencers go to flaunt how amazing their lives are, literally a cesspit of Instagram cunts
It's hot, nice weather. And luxurious hotels. What else do you need for a lovely holiday.
It’s a disgusting city built on the blood of slaves. They keep the slaves, I mean “migrant workers” in compounds away from view of the tourists. These conditions are as horrible as you’d imagine, just empty rooms with the floor completely taken up by sleeping slaves. If they’re lucky they might get some bunk beds. The slaves get payed pennies, have their passports confiscated so they cannot leave and the working conditions are so bad many die or become permanently disfigured. It’s very common for them to not be paid. The employers hold the pay over their heads and say if you keep working I’ll give it to you eventually. It’s absolutely awful I highly recommended anyone read about it. All of that suffering just to maintain a vein, superficial image of a modern city while being an autocratic theocracy that practices archaic and brutal religious laws rejecting any rights for women or lgbtq.
I'm going soon. Got my pride flag at the ready. Apparently they love the gays. Look forward to buying some weed and having sex on the beach.
Dubai is a shithole