In Dubai + Dubai Overview -April 19th, 2008
Reports From the Road
Worldwide Dispatches From Independent Travelers on The Road
I spent a few days in Dubai last month on my way to Kuwait, Dubai is by far the most liberal place in the entire Middle East - booze, night clubs, miniskirts and just about everything else. Women won’t experience the level of harassment that they sometimes receive in other more “locked down” areas of the Middle East – but nonetheless it still exists there in the form of “meyowww” and “hay, hay” calls from the local dudes. Every guy that I have ever met also loves living in Dubai, lots of cool beautiful people and a large expat community.
But don’t expect to get a “real” taste of Middle Eastern culture; Dubai is something like 90% expat (mostly lower paid workers form Asia and India). The one bad point about Dubai is its expensive, probably one of the most expensive places in the world to live in. So if you do take a job there make sure that housing is included.
The three things you should not miss if you go to Dubai are the gold sukh, the Mall of the Emirates, and the Burj al-Arab hotel with its sail-shaped structure that has become an international symbol of Dubai. At the sukh and the Mall, you can find remarkable prices on items that, elsewhere in the world, would be quite expensive; and you can also find the world’s largest indoor ski slope in the Mall of the Emirates.
Besides shopping, Dubai has the most exciting nightlife of any Middle Eastern City. Though the bars close by 3 am, there are hundreds of excellent bars and nightclubs catering to the rich and famous, the tens of thousands of expatriate workers, and other visitors to the city.
~James Grey
James Grey is a self proclaimed Professional Adventurer and Expat Bar Braggart. Raised in a small crappy town in Virginia USA, James decided to chuck it all in after watching Indiana Jones too many times and ventured out into the world to seek Fortune, Glory and Exotic Women. James has lived in Jakarta, Indonesia for 4 years.
