I don’t like Dubai… I REALLY like it!

 I’m going to have to say it - I don’t like Dubai… I REALLY like Dubai!

You’ve changed man - you were never a ‘Dubai person’ what happened to you?

Of course I’ve changed! I’ve been away from the UK for three years - that’s going to have an effect! The first of which is - shock horror - horizons broadened, preconceptions blown apart!

Yeah, but Dubai - it’s… well, you know what it is!

Okay - we all have preconceptions about a place and in the case of Dubai every one of them is correct and at the same time incorrect. Dubai is exactly what you think and a whole bunch of things you didn’t think.

Yes, it can be overtly showy and have conspicuous displays of wealth. Yes, there are question marks over the way workers in key sectors of the economy are treated. But here’s the thing - Chelsea, anything to do with the Royal family, castles etc - all of these are reminders that exactly the same is true of the UK and as for treating migrant workers badly goes do try to remember that gangmasters are packing fruit pickers into houses twenty at a time in rural parts of the UK. The UAE actively protects workers just like we do and in the UAE rules get bent and flouted… just like at home.

In fact I’m going to go as far as suggesting that actually there is probably no country on earth where these issues are not present - the wealth gap and the exploitation of the working classes is part of the human condition - not a good one and not one to ignore, but definitely an issue. We lived for two years with a workers’ camp on the other side of a narrow metal fence from our estate - people from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Cambodia who lived in shipping containers and worked twelve hour shifts on building sites - that was in Malaysia! The issue is a global one and not one that is geolocated in one region or country exclusively. 

So now that’s out of the way let’s talk about the reality of being here for us - Dubai is great! 

It really is. 

No, there aren’t masses of historic buildings dating back to the Georgian period, but that’s because the UAE didn’t form until 1971 and most of the Emirates only began to move away from the agrarian and nomadic lifestyles after the discovery of oil and gas reserves in the 1950s. Most of the UAE is relatively new and even then most of the building has occurred over the last three decades so everything is very new. There are heritage sites - we’ve been - and they are interesting, but mostly it’s new.

What Dubai and the wider UAE offers is a fascinating landscape of desert and mountains peppered with wadis and oases, amazing cityscapes that look like they are straight out of a sci-fi film and fantastic entertainment and cultural activities at a price no different from anywhere in Europe and in many cases much more reasonable.

We have been to a free light art installation at Expo City, been to a digital art exhibit in the Dubai Mall, we have been to the Louvre in Abu Dhabi and seen, amongst many others, works by Kandinski and Picasso. We are even going to the Dubai Opera to see a film and concert combined - the music of Star Wars played by a full symphony orchestra during a screening of the film! Eeeeek! (I’m quite excited).

We have completed the Dubai canal run as a family and are going to do the same in Yas Island in April - me a half marathon and Nic and Thomas the 5km. We go to a karate class as a family and whilst Thomas does Parkour Nic and I run round a manicured park with a 750 metre running track. We go to the Polo club across the road from the apartment and swim and hang out at the pool. We go to beach clubs, gyms and other venues of a weekend and just enjoy the sun. We’ve watched polo, we’ve been to art exhibitions, theme parks, stayed out in the desert in a traditional Bedouin tent. 

We have spent more quality time together and done more things here than we even did in Malaysia.

Watching the Polo and still proudly POWIIS!

We have eaten some of the best Asian food we’ve encountered (and we lived in South East Asia for two years) and found Arabic food we’d never encountered before. We’ve stumbled upon a curry house that is a hair’s breadth as good as our favourite in Penang - and it is two hundred metres from the front door! 

The bread - the hummus - the moutabal - the olives - the dates - the foul mudammas - the tabouleh - oh man, Arabic food is amazing! I’d even go as far as suggesting that the food here is the equal of any in the world - and that’s a bold statement considering where we just moved from.

We have travelled to all of the other Emirates bar one and will be travelling over the border to Oman this Easter.

Ajman

Sharjah

Ras Al-Khaimah

Fujairah

Abu Dhabi

We have been to some of the most spectacular malls - not really malls, just indoor cities with all sorts of things to do. When people say mall and they say big, honestly - no, you don’t have a clue unless you’ve been. Seriously - I thought Suria at KLCC was big or even Queensbay in Penang or even the Jewel at Changi airport - wrong! 

And these are not just anodyne commercial hells pumping out the same Hanna Barbera style backdrop on an endless loop - they are often filled with art installations, museums, unique places to eat, activities and more. These are not just souped up versions of the Arndale centre, they are venues worth exploring in of themselves. 

And I don’t like shopping!

Here in Dubai there is a living standard unachievable on the same income level compared to the UK or even much of South East Asia - this is not to say we lived badly anywhere or live the highlife here. However, despite the popular myth of Dubai being and expensive money vacuum - it can be if you choose, but that’s true of anywhere - actual day-to-day expenses and activities are affordable. 

The key expenses for anyone will be housing, education and medical - really to enjoy Dubai you need to either find a package where these are included, a job paying so much that this is not an issue or be in a position where at least some of these factors are not as much of an issue. As a teacher all of these big ticket items are taken care of so we don’t really need to focus on this issue.

However, for us, the place has been more than affordable and offers a level of convenience and efficiency that we couldn’t get anywhere else in the world. The place has been designed as somewhere where the user experience, if you like, is at the heart of life here. I know there is a cost to this in environmental and human terms, but that’s true of developed world living standards everywhere.

What there is here in Dubai is safety, predictability, accessibility of a high living standard, amazing cultural and entertainment activities and a world that is wider and more diverse than I’d imagined. 

Yes, there is always a tension between the cost and benefit, that’s true of all life, but here in Dubai there is something truly more than I expected.

What I have learned is that preconceptions, even based on what you consider to be sound research and strong morals, don't tell the full story of any place. We learned that in Malaysia and we’ve learned that again here. I made judgments about the UAE - I assumed I wouldn’t like it, that it wouldn’t have the depth of culture that I loved about Malaysia.

And to an extent that might be true, the mixture of cultures and natural environment in Malaysia was something incredible and that blend of old and new just isn’t here. However, the lifestyle here is better, it’s easier to live here and there is just more to do. 

I loved Malaysia more, but I like Dubai better, if that makes sense? 

Anyway I hope this brings you all a bit more up to speed on where we’ve been and what we’ve been doing. Sadly we won’t be doing it for much longer as we are set to return to the UK this summer and have no current plans to leave again for a while.

But then again - who knows what the future might hold? One thing is for sure - I am not done with travel and certainly not done with the idea of living in another country, even if this may be a few years down the line now - Thomas and his needs for schooling, stability and a sense of place need to take priority and the disconnecting experience of not being ‘permanent’ is something we need to balance out against the opportunities that travel brings.

However I hope that his horizons have been broadened and that he knows now that the world extends beyond the edges of Northumberland. I know mine have.