What is Dubai like?

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I've never been. DH has been for only 2/3 days for work trips. But what's it actually like to have an extended stay (1 week +) in Dubai? What's the city like?

I imagine it to be a rich, crime free metropolis. But that's just what I see from YouTube and social media.

I actually rather like it despite not wanting to. It’s spotlessly clean and a bit sterile and everything is built for purpose. It has shady walkways to go for walks, it has a tram which works to time, it has clear traffic systems.

The food in general is outstanding the traffic is terrible. The hotels and service are superb. Obviously there are lots of Instagrammers and people who think they are. There are also lots of normal people. If you go out a bit more into the business districts and away from the sea towards more residential areas it’s more normal. We had a wonderful dinner one night in an outstanding restaurant off the tourist trap and there were lots of normal people, emirati and not, meeting friends after work dressed in ordinary work clothes and very chilled.

I would like to go to old Dubai which is very interesting. There is obscene wealth, there are lots of people who pretend to have obscene wealth and there’s also lots and lots of all kinds of people just living their life there in a very clean and calm sunny environment

obviously there’s also the issues about exploitation and slave Labour which are very serious but if you’re asking about it on a day to day basis that’s likely what you will experience

You have summed up what I was going to say .

It’s like a city-sized airport owned and run by a superficially westernised tourist- tolerant family dictatorship which is increasingly intolerant towards even those of its own citizens who want democracy, and has a heavily self-censoring press and a draconian surveillance regime in terms of CCTV. Even leaving aside the issue of human rights abuses, and the fact that it’s an environmental disaster (a litre of desalinated water is more expensive to produce than a litre of oil, and the city uses a horrific amount of energy), there’s no ‘there’ there. Nine tenths of the population is transient with no particular stake in the place apart from making money. Even people who’ve lived there longterm generally have to retire elsewhere, which is difficult on children who grew up there. ‘Old Dubai’ is a small area of old buildings created for tourists. And the climate is awful. Practically impossible to grow anything, which is why the original inhabitants were small Pearl fishing communities on the coast or nomadic camel herders. And why all fresh produce is imported, often from halfway round the world. Despite taking good care of my health, I came home after my period living there with very low Vitamin D and general vitamin deficiencies because of the poor quality of produce.

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