Honest Dubai Travel Blog - Overrated or Overhated?

Even the name Dubai says AI. 

Or, DUB-AI - so it’s not only artificial intelligence, but also fully dubbed into English from Arabic (and well, 92% of Dubai population is expats).

This is definitely not my typical destination of choice, but I ended up here, because the Visa to stay in Oman for over 14 days would have cost the same as flying here to United Arab Emirates for a few days. 

So this is my slightly embarrassed travel blog from Dubai, as it’s not exactly the most mindful travel destination.

However, things are not that black and white, so this is not a “you shouldn’t go to Dubai” post.

Rather, Dubai is a very interesting destination to write and read about.

It's easy to hate Dubai before visiting there. I did the same, having my high prejudice and judging the place strongly even before stepping my foot in it. 

And I am not saying my opinion completely changed during my week in Dubai, but I gotta say many things were much classier than I assumed. 

Even though I had my prejudices, and Dubai is not my vibe, you can't really fully hate it. 

When we arrived in Dubai, everything felt proper. I have never seen streets so clean that I could fry an omelette on the street and be fine after eating it. 

The high buildings, fountain shows, decorated palm trees used as street lights, super good restaurants and ice rinks and aquariums inside malls.

It’s kind of ambitious and cool. 

When entering the Dubai Mall, aka the world's largest mall, some parts of it looked exactly like AI.

There were so many delicious smoothie bars and cutely branded stores with ideal brand colours and vibes, that after all the dirty streets of Spain and doing everything “good enough” attitude, this kind of ”doing it over-the-top crazy and then some” is awesome at the beginning. 

Many things are done so well, everywhere the cleanliness and hygiene is sterile, service is perfect and restaurants are better than in Europe. 

So I can't really say everything was bad, fake and ego-centric. 

To be honest, I assumed much more filled lips, tacky furs and meat-head lads with revving engines. 

So, to my surprise, there were a lot of "normal people" (whatever that means). 

But I mean, like, people who dressed up normally. I also I saw some good doggos, like golden retrievers, instead of only pink-dyed chi-huahuas in a basket. 

I mean, don't get me wrong, I also saw people making "influencer content" by the hotel rooftop pool with a selfie stick, promoting a free trip to Dubai via some random-*ss crypto currency brand. 

I saw fancy cars, that were driven by people for whom it's more important to look good than feel good, and I saw Filipino nannies taking care of the children of the ultra-rich. 

I saw super classy and stylish women stepping into a cream-leathered Ferrari by the marina.

My point is, the place is very interesting to experience and impossible to completely hate, because with money comes also style and the high standards of lifestyle we all secretly dream about.

Don't act like you would never prefer a business class with a blanket and pillow, instead of knees-on-your-shoulders Ryanair seat. 

Or, complementary tea and coffee served by a pleasant person, instead of a grumpy Spanish waitress making you very aware what an inconvenience you are when asking for something during siesta. 

So yes, as an example, all the food has been amazing, service top-level, and pricing, to be honest, mostly really reasonable. 

Of course the high restaurants up the skyscrapers and rooftops cost more, but you can eat at very reasonable prices as well in Dubai.

What does make this place hard for a we can walk there person like me, is that you need to take a taxi everywhere. 

And I mean everywhere. 

The fact that you can't walk to places, but instead take a taxi on a 6-lane highway everywhere, made it hard for me to really ground here and feel like home. 

It’s so interesting how different the energy of a place can be compared to its Southern neighbour, Oman, where we just came from. 

We stayed in a relatively similar hotel in Oman’s capital Muscat as in here in Dubai. 

But in Oman I instantly felt like home, whereas here I actually started the experience with nausea and 2-day migraine. 

I feel like the energy is so ungrounding that I am constantly feeling slightly dizzy here. 

I don’t know what it is, but my body-mind-soul just can't seem to be able to find balance here.

The best and most interesting part of Dubai for a traveller is the mix of cultures, languages, and continents.

You can see so many influences from Asia, but also from Western world, as well as of course, from Arabic culture.

It’s a super interesting mix of international people, cuisines, cultures and languages from everywhere.

Now that we are here, it is actually Ramadan.

This means muslims do not eat when the sun is up, but they have a meal in the morning before sunrise (Suhoor) and right after sunset (Iftar).

In Oman, this meant that all the restaurants and cafeterias were closed during the day, and even hotel breakfast happened behind closed windows so that nobody could see. 

Here in Dubai, it does mean that locals/muslims here are fasting during the day, but all the cafes and restaurants are normally open. 

If anything, they have rather made Iftar just another capitalist activity to advertise to Western people.

I mean, can’t fault them for that, right?

Another interesting thing is the role of females in society and how it is shaped in muslim culture. 

I feel like that is not really my place to comment, though, even if I prefer different ways in my culture and where I am from.

As a tourist though, you are allowed to dress and go very freely in Dubai. 

Generally, the city is super safe, like much safer than what I am used to at home in Spain. 

It’s handy to be surrounded by rich people because nobody’s going to steal anything from you for sure. 😀

I also felt comfortable strolling around alone in the evenings and was surprised how I really didn’t need to cover shoulders or knees. 

And well, many women covered much less, let me just say it that way. 

But in general, these few days here are starting to shift from

“hmmh, embarrassing but let’s go see what Dubai is”, into

“oh wow this is the coolest place ever" into

“who is this for”,

“why was all of this made” and

“why can’t I still land here because the energy feels rather ego and money-focused”.

Nothing wrong with money, but something here starts to already give me an ick. 

Everything kind of functions well, and we have seen only a tiny fraction of it, but I somehow don’t even care to find out more. 

It’s all cool and entertaining, but it’s a little bit hard to completely close eyes for employee exploitation in the construction here and climate effects on all these crazy things done in scale (the UAE is one of the highest energy consumers per capita).

To answer my own ponderings, I found these YouTube videos about Dubai’s history very interesting.

This first, shorter one gives you a quick overview of why Dubai was built and developed.

If you got interested in understanding a bit deeper about Dubai and even the formation of the United Arab Emirates, I recommend watching this video:

Okay, all of this high life and excellent services and places come with a question: where is the catch?

I can’t help but wonder is this just modern-day slavery camouflaged as free choice.

I mean it’s no secret anymore many of there skyscpaers are built by Indian, Pakistani and Nepalese labour under contracts that in practice means slavery. 

We all know the notorious human exploitation reputation of UAE, as well as many other oil countries in the Middle East. 

To be fair, at some point I definitely felt like the whole Dubai is run (and overrun) by Indian, Nepalese and Pakistani people. 

You do not see a single local doing these jobs at hotels, bars or travel experiences. 

For example, the room service has been really good, but our room cleaner was quick to mention his name, in case we can recommend him. 

I mean cool, sure we can, but seems like he is not really getting enough out of it, if he needs to ask recommendation from a task that I assume is included in this level hotel service.

So of course it raises questions.

Kafala system simply defined by AI overview:

The Kafala system is a legal, sponsorship-based framework in many Middle Eastern countries that binds a migrant worker’s immigration and employment status directly to a specific employer (the kafeel).

It restricts worker mobility, often requiring employer consent to change jobs or leave the country, frequently resulting in exploitation, passport confiscation, and poor working conditions.

If you want more detailed info, check: Kafala system.

These people may live in a shared house with 20 other Indians, earn 400€/month in a quite expensive city and work very long hours. 

This data article gave some (uncomfortable) answers about slavery.

Yes, this is sad, but is this really not happening everywhere else as well? 

We just choose to close our eyes for these things in many destinations, including many European countries. 

There would not be this many Indian workers in Dubai if it was that horrible;

The fact that they are here, means that it is still worse in their home country, compared to Dubai, right?

I am not saying they have it good, but is it the fault of Dubai, or their own countries not providing the life they deserve?

Even from the 400€/month, they may still be able to send 50€/month home, and provide for the family with that. 

Once again, I feel like this is not really up to me to decide who deserves what and whose fault it is. 

Not that my opinion would make much of a difference anyway. 

All I'm saying that this Western "carrying the weight of the world and moral responsibilities on our shoulders by judging others" doesn't really help anybody. 

I'll ditch these philosophical questions about

being a human on this earth,

inequality, and

how do you define who deserves what for another time, and

go back to contemplating on how Dubai felt to be in.

As mentioned, the views are amazing. 

Unfortunately though, there weren't many places you can walk, because, well, there's no crossing the 6-lane highways. 

But you can walk nicely around Dubai Marina and be in awe with all the man-made skyscraper views.

I got to enjoy a walk with a Finnish girl who had recently moved to Dubai. 

It was a nice long walk, watching all the crazy views.

But of course, afterwards I did not get the nice, rested feeling and ease of nervous system you'd normally get after a walk in nature.

It's obvious how many scientifically proven health benefits nature has for humans, and in Dubai, you simply don't have any of that. 

So all this awesomeness, is it really good for a human in the long run? 

I know I’m a complete hilly-billy and tree-hugger, but

it’s hard for me to believe this is the ultimate answer on

what to build to make human life awesome,

if you have all the money in the world. 

They do have all the money, and they built the most artificial sights I can imagine. 

Random fact: 80% of all the cranes of the world are in Dubai. 

I mean it is super cool to visit, but that’s about it. 

But then again, I could say the same thing about London, New York, Singapore, Shanghai. 

I’m just not a city person, and that does not make a big city a bad place, per se.

I got my final answer to this when leaving Dubai back to Oman. 

Although during the last few days I managed to ground a bit more in Dubai, and realised "how to Dubai",

I can't believe what a difference my whole nervous system had when we landed back in Oman. 

I am writing these last parts now from Muscat, Oman, and I feel so relieved to be here. 

I feel like I can finally relax, my whole body is not that tense, feeling like I need to look and be a certain way, and my head is not dizzy.

Now that I am away from there, I can feel how all that time in Dubai, my nervous system was in sensory overdrive. 

There is so much stimuli for all the senses, that for me it was too much, too artificial.

I did not see even a fraction of it all, but I doubt I will ever return.

I needed to experience this first myself before I have the right to judge. 

Even though we enjoyed perfect hotel breakfasts in a beautiful outdoor terrace that I would die to have in Spain, I could not even hear my thoughts due to the traffic noise. 

I think a perfect conclusion for my trip to Dubai was a T-shirt I bought from Dubai Mall that says: Too sensitive for modern times.