Tell me about Dubai.

Can you drink the water? Normally my indicator of whether I will get dodgy tummy.
Are there any fish in the sea, i love to snorkel.
Will my wife be ok to take thyroxine into the country? How about night nurse my long flight companion?

No, No and dont know.

Water is by bottled only. For some reason the public beach is very silty but if you are diving/snorkeling further out you may be okay.

Dubai? A hateful, plastic, fake, evil, awful place.

hth.

Not my first choice by a long shot but free is free.
However if I am going to spend a week cuddling a toilet with not even fish in the sea to look forward to.
I would rather go to Devon.

My wife is going for a few days in November with friends. I cannot see the appeal of the place and have no intention of ever going.

tree-magnet +1

But hope you have a lovely time.

Spent 5 days there during my honeymoon.

A soulless place full of monied up, arrogant pricks.

Wouldn’t go back if you paid me.

I’ve had a few long stop-overs and once had to spend 2 days stuck it that shithole of a country, no matter how much you paid me i’d rather get my scrotum nailed to a ceiling fan than ever return in my lifetime – I’ve paid hundreds of pounds extra for long haul flights that do not stop in the country. It’s a hateful, disgusting, fake, synthetic hell of a place to visit that should be wiped from the earth. Anyone who sings the praises of the place is either deluded or a fcukwit….or both.

My advice is get in the sea and just keep paddling till you reach somewhere else.

Ok, Devon it is!

I stayed there for 5 nights a few weeks ago at the Atlantis Palm resort I loved it and will go back.
Was probably a bit too hot in Late August and I’ll do late September next time. Can’t understand the animosity here.
Devon??? Seriously there’s no comparison!!

Tree-magnet +2 and I wrote a guidebook to the place.
But in answer to your questions: water is fine but you’ll be lucky to see anything living snorkeling. And I wouldn’t take drugs through the country no matter if i had a prescription. If you have to go there, I’d recommend getting heinously drunk while reading AA Gill’s Vanity Fair article about Dubai. Sorry to be negative it I can’t think of a single redeeming feature… I guess blatting about the desert in a Porsche Cayenne could be fun for 30 minutes.

Can’t understand the animosity here.

Off the top of my head:

Slave labour (or as close as you can get to it).
No culture.
Massive amount of energy per person to essentially turn the desert into disneyland.
Dickhead expats who are basically all the equivalent of bankers lording it up.

Good article in the independent that sums it up:

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html

I have to transit through on my way to work, and always spend the minimum amount of time there as possible. Spend on average 2 or 3 days there every 3 months as my head office is there. I’d rather get to work quicker, and I work in Basrah. Nuff sed.

Slave labour: I didn’t get that feeling of exploitation and desperation from the hospitality staff in Dubai that I’ve had in many other middle eastern and ALL Asian countries I’ve visited.
No culture: agree most of what they do in that city is copy other countries ideas and do them bigger, better. It’s not culture but it’s very entertaining.
Energy: yeh they do that as well as waste heaps of water but why do I as a tourist need to feel bad about that.
Expats: to be honest the majority of British Expats are dickheads everywhere I’ve travelled and where I live IMO. Theres a superiority complex and arrogance that they share only with Americans. There are exceptions of course. I didn’t encounter any in Dubai but I don’t doubt they’re there.

If you want a good time Dubai has copied most iconic worldwide structures and done it bigger and better. It’s not original or cultured but it’s the most outrageous city I’ve visited in a long time whereas Devon is well …. just Devon.

I think the ‘slave labour’ comment comes from the fact that the construction companies build their skyscrapers using immigrants with no work permits and no unions. When pay day comes, they just sack them and higher new ones to avoid labour costs. There is such a massive influx of people from surrounding countries desperate to work that they never have worry about labour. They’re very high and mighty about cultural traditions, but their working practices are third world; they’ve no moral high ground. I had a layover period on my way to Thailand with my girlfriend. We were warned in no uncertain terms not to kiss, conuddle, snuggle, hold hands or appear to have anything other a mild Superior + Minion relationship.
However, go to the Burj Kalifa, get an ice coffee, sit beneath it and stare at it’s vast height and imagine it crumbling back to Earth in a few hundred years time… It’s a spectacular vision! The Souks are over rated but worth a visit.

Me and the missus spent a few days there on our honeymoon. I didn’t like it at all. A city with absolutely no soul or vibe.

Imagine if the people who designed Milton Keynes had had 500 times the budget, built a city in the desert, populated it with the worst pricks in Clapham and then imposed the drinking regulations of upstate Utah.

Enjoy your trip!

I’ve had a few long stop-overs and once had to spend 2 days stuck it that shithole of a country, no matter how much you paid me i’d rather get my scrotum nailed to a ceiling fan than ever return in my lifetime – I’ve paid hundreds of pounds extra for long haul flights that do not stop in the country. It’s a hateful, disgusting, fake, synthetic hell of a place to visit that should be wiped from the earth. Anyone who sings the praises of the place is either deluded or a fcukwit….or both.

I don’t normally like to get into mud slinging on here, but this is one of the most childish, silly pieces i’ve ever read.

I work in the Middle East and often pass through the place. It’s not great…but generally the Emirati’s aren’t a bad bunch.

The airport is clean and efficient; why you would pay “hundreds of pounds” extra to avoid the best airport and regional hub in the area, which is serviced by Emirates which is one of the worlds best and most pleasant airlines is beyond me. You’re obviously ” deluded or a fcukwit….or both”

You’re right…everything is a bit gold coloured, over priced, a little naff…but they didn’t exactly have a lot going for them in the first place…it was just a desert.

The Emirati border security people are normally very thorough, but polite and fair. I wouldn’t worry about night nurse or your wifes medicine.

I wouldn’t take a holiday there myself; but each to their own. It is sometimes not an awful option to stay a couple of days after having been somewhere like Jeddah.

The old town is ok.

Not quite Dubai but Abu Dhabi’s just next door and I’ve had an absolutely brilliant time there each trip at the end of November the last two years.

Thursday night flight from Manc, arrive bleary eyed early Friday morning. Jump in the Jeep, drive for absolutely miles across the desert to Bandar Jissah, hire a fishing boat and head out to the cliffs, do a few climbs then get some zeds, up early the next day – back out to the cliffs, climb, fall through the air, land in the sea. Climb back in the boat, new dry shorts, chalk bag and rock boots. Try another climb. Repeat until either the tide goes out or all 5 pairs of rockboots are wet.
Drive back into the mountains, camp drink beer, eat beef, go for another climb by headtorch.
Get up the next day and do some amazing 35m pitches in glorious sun. Camp, etc etc.
Drive back to Abu on Monday evening just in time for the overnight flight back for work on Tuesday. 2 days holiday, 4 days climbing including some amazing deep water soling on the 2nd of December.

What’s not to like….

Having said which we never went any nearer to Dubai than the ring road and I also would rather stick pins in my eyes than spend any time in the actual city.

Dubai is a dump, if you like it the chances are you drive a white German car !

What’s not to like

Heights.

You know they don’t even like the flintstones there ?

😳

I have a white German car, and my wife has a 4×4 (or is that another topic?). I hate dubai with a passion, it is fake, over rated, over priced and boring… However the weather is warm in the winter and the hospitality good- only due to the migrant workers mainly from the Indian subcontinent, a job you rarely see a local doing as it is considered too demeaning…

Fair enough Joe but i still stand by everything i stated but then again i imagine others on here would turn their nose up at some of the country’s/places i prefer to visit but that’s why we can have a discussion rather than a verbal slanging match

If you like shopping malls, extravagant shows of wealth, state sponsored news coverage, fake islands, fake people, no culture/history, expensive restaurants, **** disgusting labour laws, not ok to show affection for your gf/wife/boyfriend in public but you want a prostitute? – no problem…..here’s one we shipped in earlier, you want a young boy?……etc…etc…etc

The country is the epitome of vulgarity imho.

It’s where John Terry holidays…..says it all

You have all reinforced my prejudices about the place. Someone I really dislike goes there a lot , so all in all I’m out.
We turned down a holiday in Vegas a few years back and went to Scotland instead.
We may not get the weather here but its still possible to have a great holiday.

Do a search in the forum, this topic has been done to death a million times. Lots of snide comments from people who have never been there, lots of vitriolic people who have changed planes there and think this makes them evangelists for human rights and high culture (I’d like to find out what their true cultural intake is because I don’t see many threads about ballet, galleries or poetry on here), and then a bunch of mixed comments from people who might actually have half a clue what they’re talking about. All this shit about Emiratis not having culture or history is just racist nonsense from people who don’t speak Arabic and haven’t made an effort to find out about it and haven’t spoken to any Emiratis; if you went to Shagaluf or Orlando and spent the entire time sitting on the beach and drinking gin and tonics, you’d be entirely ignorant of Spanish and American culture and history too.

Is it a wonderland? No. Are there huge problems with labour rights? Yes. Is there a disproportionately large number of arseholes and bullshitters? Certainly. Would I go there on holiday? No way.

hospitality good- only due to the migrant workers mainly from the Indian subcontinent, a job you rarely see a local doing as it is considered too demeaning…

Mate, there practically aren’t any Emiratis. It’s 87% foreigners. What’s more, the local pop isn’t all of working age, isn’t all in Dubai, Muslim and the younger generation is highly educated with big study subsidies. You wouldn’t expect to see many of them working in shoe shops or pouring liquor down the throats of orange-skinned harpies from Essex or Dusseldorf. You don’t see many Europeans or Canadians or Americans working customer service (perhaps a few Russians esp from Uzbekistan and provincial Russian cities) – is that because they see hospitality as demeaning?

Seafood Bar in the airport was quite nice, thats all I intend to see of the place

All this is very well – but should zippykona go there?

I say no!

Down with things like this – and – that damning article; on racism and exploitation: In the Independent the other year, or so.

..you know, the one about abandoned Cayenne at the airport..

Hmmm, I had a lovely 3 long weekends in Dubai and got engaged on one of them. I also bought diamonds for family members, including the engagement ring, which were valued at 2.5 times what I paid for them. I enjoyed spending time around the creek, taking abra’s (water taxis), old town and gold souk, plus eating in the quality restaurants, smoking shishas and going on a dune safari, bedouin belly dancing piss up and of course boozing in the westernised hotel bars. Can’t think why anyone wouldn’t enjoy that lot unless they’ve had a lobotomy. In Mumbai this week…. now this place is just mental and I love it

I stood in an airport shuttle bus next to that Andy Grey fella who used to be on Sky Sports, I reckon he loves it. Enough said.

Dubai– place for thunderbird puppets, two dimensional.

First went there in 1976, it was a desert town, we were delivering the materials to build the place, it was sort of ok then, went back in 1982, horrid — can only surmise from all available info that its got worse,there are rather a lot of places on this planet to visit,Dubai should not be on your list

there are rather a lot of places on this planet to visit,Dubai should not be on your list

Agreed. Unless it is the airport and you’re in transfer to somewhere.

Dubai is a hole.

T’would appear to be a firstworldproblem par excellence…

It’s where Gavin Henson holidays…..says it all 😉

It’s where Gavin Henson holidays…..says it all

my ticket is booked 😆

Does he really though you would have thought his ice cubes would melt too fast!

😆

which were valued at 2.5 times what I paid for them blood diamonds.

Diamonds are a natural product that has no specific intrinsic value apart from industrial use but unfortunately De Beers control or rather fix the price of the rough uncut stones through what is known as sightholders/buyers (think i’m right?) to control the worlds supply, and thus inflate the price and desire-ability so folk believe they’re buying something special when in actual fact the diamond houses are sitting on billions upon billions, upon billions of carats in vaults which if ever released to the markets would render all diamonds worthless.

Although saying that if you like or desire them then it’s up to you to spend your money however you see fit, just as it’s my perogative to waste my cash on stuff i don’t really need.

Personally if a gf of mine ever demanded i buy her a precious stone or gold/platinum etc i’d explain and show her the evidence of how the precious gem/metal market works and if she still desired it afterwards then she could buy it with her own money, not mine.