I finally enjoyed Dubai

I’ve been to Dubai a handful of times, and no time has exceeded 3 days. Probably like a lot of people, courtesy of Emirates’ hub-and-spoke strategy, I’ve pretty much only transited through the place. I never truly…enjoyed Dubai. The reasons were that it’s a place built artificially, that there’s a strong and visible sense of a racial hierarchy (with South Asian workers at the bottom), and that it’s hard to get around without a car. On my way from London to Bangalore in February, though, my opinion on Dubai shifted.

I think a lot of it has to do with me just getting older, having more of an income to be able to spend on Dubai things, and perhaps the biggest reason: that I just leaned into what it presented, and the parts of it that I really did enjoy. I’m a lover of Khaleeji music, cuisines of countries across the Arab world, hot weather, and general multicultural environments. Dubai has all of that in spades. Plus just such an intoxicating intersection of different types of people — it’s like a little microcosm of the world (including some of the ugliness of the world, like social injustice among other things).

In the words of Emirati singer Mehad Hamad’s song, I came away with “دبي يا محلاها” in my mind. I actually don’t know the translation, but Google tells me it means “Dubai, what a place it is”.

Anyway, here are some pics

Everyone’s no 1 boo, the Burj Khalifa

Your boy’s day 1 Emirati breakfast. Bottom left is balaleet.

I had dinner here, Aroos Damascus in Al Muraqqabat. Syrian music, buzzing tables. Affordable. It was magnificent. No food pics cuz I was too excited to eat and it went in my belly.

Avgeek nerding over SyrianAir offices cuz…she doesn’t even go here (or anywhere) anymore. Except Dubai I guess.

A late night walk in Deira, which ended up with me discovering the sidewalk ends at a freeway, and then getting an Uber back to my hotel.

Sheikh Zayed Road

Old school, and arguably the more interesting, Dubai

I think this was Al Karama or somewhere in Deira. Everyone seemed to be Pakistani

Dubai’s a city of opportunity and money for people from so many countries. Lots of pretty normal South Asians live around Dubai creek, and close to the airport in apartments like this.

Me by the Al Fahidi Historical Neighborhood, after eating my own bodyweight in Iranian kebab at Al Ustad