DUBAI: THE LAS vegas OF THE middle EAST?

Updated: 7/17/20 | July 17th, 2020

Dubai. It’s a city that conjures up pictures of Vegas-like glitz minus the gambling as well as drinking.

Before visiting, my good friends who have visited painted a photo of a city hot, full of shopping centers as well as costly stores, overpriced restaurants, great deals of expats, as well as that was a bit soulless. “It’s artificial as well as fake like vegas as well as doesn’t demand more than a day or two,” they told me.

But when people tell me to zig, I always like to zag. I decided to spend five days there, determined to discover something redeeming about the city — as well as something affordable too. I chosen an excellent time to see too: an English good friend of mine had just transferred to the city, so I had a location to stay as well as a tour guide.

Since the workweek in the Arab world runs from Sunday to Thursday, I decided to split my trip into two: the very first three days would be with my good friend seeing the new, worldwide Dubai, complied with by two days checking out old Dubai while zij werkte.

Given that Dubai is a middle Eastern city with strict legislations about vice, I didn’t envision there’d be as well much “craziness” there. My trip would be mellow, spent by the pool, as well as in low key hotel bars as well as worldwide restaurants.

I was extremely wrong.

“New” Dubai shocked me by exactly how lubricated with alcohol it was. From the ritual of Friday brunch to the fall-down drunks in bars, the 2-for-1 specials, as well as endless happy hours, I was surprised at exactly how much partying there was in a city that only enabled alcohol in extremely restricted forms.1

Everywhere you went, drinking — as well as drinking to excess — was common.2

In a way, Dubai reminded me of most expat-heavy locations in the world. It seems whenever cities draw in a great deal of foreigners from nations around the world, they in big part tend to online in a bit alcohol-fueled bubble — going to a little choice of restaurants, bars, as well as neighborhoods, commonly with scant interaction with locals. They online a pseudo-Western lifestyle.

I saw it Bangkok, Taipei, as well as Hong Kong.

I believe this has a great deal to do with the truth that you’re in a culture you will always have outsider condition in, that most of your new good friends are satisfied via work as well as will most likely leave in a few years, as well as since there’s a sense that it is all temporary as well as fake. It’s not genuine life. It’s this bit world we online in right now — a bubble — so why not have fun?

Take brunch, for example. In most of the world, it’s a late breakfast with some mimosas or Bloody Marys. Sure, it’s a possibility to cut a bit loose on the weekend however it’s still a relatively managed event.

In Dubai, it’s an all-day, all-you-can-eat-and-drink bender. more than that, it is a ritual. Een traditie. “Have you experienced brunch?” people would ask. “You can’t come to Dubai as well as not brunch. It’s part of the city’s culture!” (By that, I believe they meant expat culture.)

It’s not cheap, usually costing upwards of $100-200 USD, so people make the most out of it. I’ve seldom seen people drink so much in so few hours. By the time we shown up at the bars later in the evening, I saw grown adults barely keeping themselves from falling down in a method that would make even the most ardent spring breakers cringe.

“New” Dubai was like an alternate truth that existed inside the hotels as well as bars. The regional conventional culture didn’t apply there. Seemingly no rules applied.

So, when Sunday rolled around as well as my good friend went off to work, I was excited to check out “old” Dubai as well as get a peek at regional life. In this part of town, there weren’t any type of skyscrapers, expats, or Western stores — just mosques, markets, little restaurants, as well as shops.

The glitz as well as hotel bars as well as shopping centers seemed a world away. I might take a dhow across the river, eat affordable food, mix with the locals, as well as get a sense of the daily speed of the city.

Exploring the Dubai Museum, the gold markets, as well as the Jumeirah Mosque; haggling at regional stalls, as well as marveling at the somewhat monolithically brown architecture, I like I was in the middle East. After three days in the city, it was the very first time I felt like I was someplace foreign.

And there’s still more of Dubai to see as well as explore. I didn’t make it into the desert, missed a number of attractions, as well as the oppressive August warm made it difficult to roam the city’s streets as well as alleys.

Dubai is still a secret to me. I can’t wrap my head around it as well as am determined to return, turn over more stones, as well as get under this city’s skin.

But, one thing is for specific — this city is more than a one to two day stopover destination.

1 – Alcohol can only be served in locatioNS verbonden met hotels, dus je zult meestal lange loopbruggen ontdekken van hotels naar dichtbij entertainmentcomplexen om deze regel te omzeilen. Anders kan alcohol alleen worden gekocht op belastingvrij of door bewoners met een speciale drankvergunning.
2 – Dit waren ook niet alleen de expats. Ik zag Emiratis en andere Midden -Oosters op exact dezelfde manier drinken.

Boek je reis naar Dubai: logistieke tips en trucs
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