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March 29, 2024, 01:38:54 AM

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What's The Appeal Of Dubai?

Started by Dr Rock, August 14, 2022, 11:07:42 AM

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Icehaven

I might be wrong but in my head it's just a giant shopping centre in the boiling heat and booze is banned. I'd sooner go on holiday to a large Asda.

The Crumb

You can do a hajwalah in your rented suv. Looks like a right laugh.

shiftwork2

There was a program on the telly about expatriates living in Dubai.  It was very heartening as they were exactly the type of people you'd want to get rid of. 

imitationleather

Quote from: shiftwork2 on August 14, 2022, 01:41:59 PMThere was a program on the telly about expatriates living in Dubai.  It was very heartening as they were exactly the type of people you'd want to get rid of.

Case in point: Peter Ebdon is one of them.

shiftwork2

Just remembered Michael Owen's helicopter flight.  Can Dubai get any better?

Fambo Number Mive

Never been to Dubai and doubt I ever will, but I suppose one appeal of going there on holiday is being able to say "Dubai bye" when you leave.

I suppose for people who dont drink or dont drink much and dont care about human rights it's probably nicer to live in than parts of the UK. Violent crime is very low apparently.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Icehaven on August 14, 2022, 01:25:47 PMI might be wrong but in my head it's just a giant shopping centre in the boiling heat and booze is banned. I'd sooner go on holiday to a large Asda.

I think it's kind of worse than that. Hotels can serve you booze if you're not a native and you can get drunk there but it's illegal to be drunk in public. Like a lot of this stuff a blind eye is turned most of the time but you could easily straggle over an invisible line that upsets someone and then you're looking at doing hard time.

Grooverider got 4 years for having some weed in his record bag, then they found some porn on his laptop. But other people have been done for being swabbed (much like you get swabbed at an airport for explosives sometime) and have been arrested for having trace amounts of gear that's not visible with the naked eye.

BritishHobo

It feels like the mega-rich equivalent to going to Spain to sit in English bars and watch the footy. They go a lot on those Real Housewives shows, and all they do is go to the same designer shops they go to at home. Now it's hot as fuck here, doesn't seem much point.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: BritishHobo on August 14, 2022, 02:35:02 PMIt feels like the mega-rich equivalent to going to Spain to sit in English bars and watch the footy. They go a lot on those Real Housewives shows, and all they do is go to the same designer shops they go to at home. Now it's hot as fuck here, doesn't seem much point.

I think the thing about influencers is they don't even have to enjoy the stuff they're doing, they're just paid to pretend to so their followers will follow suit. It doesn't have to make sense, if someone's feeding them money to sell it.

Des Wigwam

Quote from: Icehaven on August 14, 2022, 01:25:47 PMI might be wrong but in my head it's just a giant shopping centre in the boiling heat and booze is banned. I'd sooner go on holiday to a large Asda.

Same - even down to going to an Asda as i quite like the 5 mini samosa and bhaji for a quid deal. All of the people whose  taste I explicitly don't share said at some point "you should see the shops there". Vicky Centre in Notts early to mid 80s is where it peaked for me I'm afraid. Everywhere else is wasting its time.

Dr Rock

As alluded to earlier, apparently a lot of female influencers, instagram models or Only Fans types get paid a lot of money to go there to be shat on by the local millionaires.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/dubai-porta-potty-influencers


Elderly Sumo Prophecy

It looks like somebody gave Liberace loads of money and told him to design a city.

dissolute ocelot

They paid Tom Cruise a lot of money to portray it as a hellscape of sandstorms and nuclear terrorists shooting each other. This thread is just a scam to get everyone who posts here a free holiday from the Dubai Tourist Board.


Alberon

Went there a few years ago. Spent a few days first at a desert resort

https://www.marriott.co.uk/hotels/travel/dxbam-al-maha-a-luxury-collection-desert-resort-and-spa-dubai/

Which was eye-wateringly expensive but really good.

Then it was on to Dubai itself and while it was okay it is like a generic CGI sci-fi film city in the desert. You can go skiing in one of the larger malls and there are the ridiculous skyscrapers, but the place has absolutely no soul.

Dr Rock

I think the people who want to go there are the same people who chose Miami as the only place in the US they want to visit.

QDRPHNC


Mister Six

Quote from: Dr Rock on August 14, 2022, 11:07:42 AMYouTube influencers, other yanks, all off to Dubai in ever increasing numbers? Have they done Europe already? Are they just copying each other?

To go shopping. ffs. Anyone been?

I lived there for two and a half years in the late 2000s. It was fun for the first year or so, since I'd barely been abroad before, and I was surrounded by people about the same age. But there was fundamentally not much to do within Dubai beyond go shopping, go to a fancy spa, dance to techno/house or pay £15 for a pint of Guinness. This is assuming you're a Western expat and not an Indian labourer up a scaffolding with no safety gear in a 47°C heat, or a Filipina shopgirl being treated like shit by customers or a Pakistani taxi driver who's been awake for 12 hours etc etc etc.

(Yes, the menial jobs are surprisingly divided along racial lines.)

Major DJ acts would come through on the reg, as would Western acts that were big "back in the day" (Status Quo, Arrested Development, Sting, and on the higher scale Kylie and Queen). But there was very little in the way of proper culture, and it was frustrating to know a lot of talented musicians who grew up in Dubai and hit the glass ceiling the moment they released their first self-published album.

So fun for a bit, but not for long. Christ knows how lifetime expats maange to be out there for decades.

As for the influencers, I'm guessing the tourist board has been in touch with them to promote the place. Dubai's economy is basically half tourism (hence the mad buildings and shit) and half foreign investment. And during recessions both of those take a hit - investment for obvious reasons, and tourism because it's more of a second holiday destination than a primary one. And unlike Abu Dhabi, Dubai doesn't have massive oil reserves (AD got the lion's share). So pushing the tourism ahead of the next recession makes sense, as does targeting young influencers who didn't visit and get bored of the place back in the 2000s, during the last soft power push.

Quite a nice place for visiting other parts of the region, though. Although some of those places are less fun now than they were when I was there.


Fambo Number Mive

What are the beaches like in Dubai?

My aunt lives there, she says its nice

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

Quote from: Fambo Number Mive on August 14, 2022, 04:31:36 PMWhat are the beaches like in Dubai?

Apparently they air condition the sand so it's not too hot to walk on barefoot.

Zetetic

Quote from: Fambo Number Mive on August 14, 2022, 04:31:36 PMWhat are the beaches like in Dubai?
No homosexuals, if that's what you're asking.

Sebastian Cobb

Big on horse racing as well innit, despite ostensibly not doing it for gambling reasons, over here the bookies run the thing.

Blue Jam

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on August 14, 2022, 02:17:54 PMI think it's kind of worse than that. Hotels can serve you booze if you're not a native and you can get drunk there but it's illegal to be drunk in public. Like a lot of this stuff a blind eye is turned most of the time but you could easily straggle over an invisible line that upsets someone and then you're looking at doing hard time.

Yes, the UAE allow the consumption of alcohol in some circumstances because they want the tourist and expat $$$. The greed and hypocrisy alone is annoying, but the way it makes the whole "when in Rome" thing harder to follow is really off-putting.

Also fuck this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7234786.stm

The poppy seed story is possibly untrue but as a goody-goody and a wuss who avoids naughty drugs even I'd be scared of being arrested.

Fambo Number Mive

Sounds like visiting Mega City One, but with beaches.

shiftwork2


Fr.Bigley

They don't show the flintstones in Dubai....but Abu Dhabi do.


















I'll get me coat....







shiftwork2

Come on, it's old but we need this.  Old charisma trousers knocks it out of the park.

Date Line....Dubai er what


El Unicornio, mang

I watched this 3 part series on iPlayer about it, some mind bogglingly awful people on there. It's not for me (partly because I can't afford it anyway) but I understand the appeal of it to certain people: rich cunts (and people who want to be rich cunts) living their lifestyles without the kind of judgment they'd get from people in the UK or wherever else because they spend £4 million on handbags like one of the women featured.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p09wvs3h/inside-dubai-playground-of-the-rich-series-1-episode-1