Dubai? Do not buy!

After an awesome going-away weekend (A highlight: A costumed women’s arm wrestling competition/burlesque show taking over the bar we were at), hectic life deconstruction & apartment clean-up, and long 31-hour, four-airport journey, I arrived at my hotel in Abu Dhabi. I’d been told by several people on the flights that there wasn’t much to see there, so I headed up to Dubai the next day.

I hated Dubai. Truly. Muslim/Arab places are always a little tough, but they usually have something redeeming about them. Not Dubai. Now, if you are well-off and on vacation there, I’m sure it’s a swell place, as long as you just hang out in one of the many swanky resorts & hotels there. But as a cheap backpacker, it’s quite sucky. Imagine combining Las Vegas + Los Angeles + Cairo + Phoenix + Houston and then take away all the fun, gambling, alcohol & girls, and then you have Dubai. It’s like the Disneyland version of a city – everything is fake, and if you peek around the corner you can see it’s a facade. Sure, it has impressive buildings and great infrastructure for a Middle East city, but it has no soul, and even the souqs seemed faked (probably because they’re really not that old in comparison to most Arab souqs). If the locals were friendly, it might change things, but they aren’t, so it doesn’t. You can accuse me of cultural intolerance (I’m OK with being religiously intolerant), but Emirates nationals really need to go to Charm school; or Friendly school; or even Smile school. Even the folks at the hostel were terrible, and they’re paid to be nice!

The one redeeming thing about the city was the amazing international hodgepodge of people there – Arab, Indian, Bengali, Malay, Indonesian, Thai, Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Brit, Aussie, French, German, Kiwi, Canadian, American. There were so many different looks, and faces and clothes and sounds and demeanors. Most people spoke English, but it was actually hard to talk to new people (or listen-in on a conversation next to you) because you couldn’t immediately figure out what accent they were speaking in, so you couldn’t really understand it as English unless you really concentrated.

Anyway, I considered just posting a picture of one of the cute street cats, but the pic above of the river (they call it the Creek) & souq, with the Burj al Khalifa (which apparently translates to: Burj al Khalifa) the current tallest building in the world, lurking in the background. I admit that the Creek and old Dubai are picturesque, but don’t be fooled, and save your time & money for a different place.

Admission: I’m sorta of happy that my first stop on my walkabout was less-than-ideal and somewhat hard. It made the transition to backpacker a little more exciting.