DH thinks we're going to get arrested in Dubai

[willyougobacktobed]

Going to Dubai next week for Easter on a mini break with DH. As a tactile couple who enjoys a couple of drinks with dinner he's getting really anxious that we're going to get arrested if we a) unthinkingly give each other a peck on the cheek or b) share a bottle of wine and have a giggle.

He has googled their strict laws and legal systems LOTS.

I think he's BU, his worries and mithering are making me not look as forward to a holiday I've saved hard for as much as I otherwise would.

Are we going to get arrested?!

Oh, actually - I did get turned away from the zoo because my shoulders were on show! But there is a mall 5 minutes along the road so i just went there and bought a shirt so I could get in.

It’s about 20p to get into Dubai zoo lol! It’s shit tho, the one in Oman is wayyy better.

I would limit your drinking (even being tipsy is frowned upon) and touching in public is a no no.

I'm never going to that godforsaken place... not risking it with my job. You can't just go to a strict Muslim county and expect it will be like Majorca... your British identity will not protect you, their rules apply.

WTAF are people going on about on this thread 🤦🏽‍♀️😂

Dubai is an amazing holiday destination and nothing like some of you are trying to make out!! I even wore a bikini on a public beach and made it out alive 🙄

OP DH was there for work last week and he said drinks are really expensive - he ordered a couple of glasses of wine with dinner at his hotel and they cost him about £50. We are both going just after Easter but probably won’t drink!

I went to the zoo! God it was awful. Has it improved? Penguins were boiling and had very dirty water
Lions were lying in filth in a small pen

Please keep on telling me how I don’t have any freedom when you have never been here - every time I have friends and family over they are amazed at life here and how it’s nothing like the press report it in the U.K.!

This is such bollocks. I lived and worked in Dubai for 7 years. How you can say this I really don't know, unless you are one of the Princesses (as we called them) who spend their lives living in an ex pat community while your husband earns megabucks to buy you a load of gaudy handbags. Gilded cages are still cages.

Of course you can wear a bikini in a public beach in a tourist area.
Generally in strict Muslim countries, you can get away with things in areas with lots of tourists that you can not get away with in other areas of the country.

Go and have a look at a construction site when the sun goes down! Is that still happening? Do all the men still sleep on the ground?

The problem with Dubai is that rich westerners live the life of luxury so they conveniently ignore the horrific abuses of those less fortunate.

Crime and daily atrocities are well hidden but every now and then the ‘ugly’ rears its head for Westerners. Like a colleague who was seriously sexually assaulted - when she tried to report it she was aggressively told by the police it didn’t happen. When she tried to push it she was warned to leave the country immediately or face arrest. Great place.

PookieDo That sounds heartbreaking.

You cannot buy alcohol in any restaurants that aren't part of hotels or beach clubs

That’s rubbish! There’s an Indian restaurant in the marina that sells alcohol 🤦🏽‍♀️ How would you know you can only buy it in hotels and beach clubs unless you had been in every establishment in Dubai 🙄

Not a fan of Dubai, beats me why people are crazy about the place.

Cannot believe what I am reading on this thread. I first visited Dubai in 1979 when it was merely a fishing village and have travelled there on business alone and on holiday with my husband maybe 100 times since then. If you have respect for their customs and religion you will have no problem. I have always found the locals to be extemely gracious and polite. Respect yourself and they will respect you. I have been there many times on business

and had cocktails/wine with my meals in the hotel restaurants and have never been questioned. Go and enjoy your holiday with an open mind.

Genuinely don't get the appeal of Dubai. Why would you want to support such a draconian regime?

Clothing wise, you'll be fine. It isn't really all that strict, especially not for tourists. You can't really go out and about that much, walking isn't really a thing. You'll be absolutely fine in your hotel, just make sure you're reasonably covered (shoulders to knees) in the malls.

You'll only be able to get wine/alcohol in your hotel or in other hotels, Western-friendly tourist places, etc. It isn't widely available, so I wouldn't worry too much about this.

I would avoid hand holding/kissing of any kind in public places. It draws attention to you and you don't know who may be close by to offend. Most often, you'd be excused as a visitor or a tourist, but not always.

I remember years ago now on a flight out of Saudia Arabia the native Saudis couldnt wait till we cleared their airspace before they started on the Pop;!.

Generally in strict Muslim countries, you can get away with things in areas with lots of tourists that you can not get away with in other areas of the country

See, how is that any better? I mean, "strict country" unless you're a tourist and we want your cash
It's so hypocritical! If it's their law and custom, fair enough, but I can't get my head around anyone going to a strict Muslim country with their own values and culture and either wearing a bikini or getting pissed/messing about.
It'd be so disrespectful.

'If you have respect for their customs and religion you will have no problem.'

Fingers crossed.

In terms of being tipsy or drunk in public as a tourist, generally tourists are arrested for this when they have come to the attention of the police for other issues, sometimes very minor issues such as someone complaining they are making too much noise.

LimekIwi I am not defending it, but it is true. So the woman wearing a bikini on a beach in Dubai in a tourist area can get away with that. If she was well away from tourist areas it would be a different manner.
I have never been to Dubai but have been to other strict Muslim countries and seen in tourist areas women and men wearing shorts and crop tops. Nobody looked twice. If they had worn the same just 5 miles away it would have elicited a negative reaction.
It is about money at the end of the day.

DH and I have just returned from Dubai. We spent most of our time in the resort and there were a lot of people wearing revealing clothes, that I considered not appropriate for a Muslim country, but seemingly are ok within the hotels and resorts.

We also visited the Burj Khalifa and Dubai Marina, and we hold hands all the time and were fine. I would imagine a peck on the cheek/lips of your spouse would be fine, but I wouldn't go further than that while out and about - just to show respect to the local faith.

I am also quite large of chest and didn't feel hugely comfortable wearing tops/dresses that showed off cleavage (things I'd be happy wearing at home or in Europe) so I tended to wear slightly more covering outfits. But, again, we were mainly within our resort

Yabu for supporting an economy that has an appalling human rights record.

I would never go to Dubai for this reason alone.

It is possible to be arrested for spurious reasons certainly. Another reason to avoid.

Have been once, would never go back. Fake hotels built in a desert with slave labour. Horrible, misogynistic dump with no real history.