Dubai Middle East Quotes U.A.E.

15 Things I Didn’t Know About Dubai Before Traveling There

dubai

Everyone kept telling me how jealous they were of me. “You’re going to Dubai? That’s amazing! I want to go there so bad.

It almost made me feel guilty, because Dubai is a place that had never really been on my radar. I had always imagined it to be terribly artificial, with man-made islands or the world’s tallest and world’s first and world’s best of everything. It seemed like a city that was its own biggest competitor.

Yet an opportunity came up that I just couldn’t turn down. An editor I work with emailed me,  “Alexandra, are you free to go to Dubai next week?”

And just like that, I was headed to the Middle East for the first time.

I didn’t know much about Dubai before I jetted off there. I knew that it was hot, I knew that it was going to be a canvas of colors and bright lights and tall buildings, and I knew that it was going to be rich, but there was a lot more I learned about this city, the crowned jewel of the Middle East, during my time there.

Dubai is only 44-years-old.

dubai

Though its history reaches far back to the 5th and 7th centuries AD (even before then, really) with Dubai acting as a gateway to a major trade route in the Gulf, Dubai as a proper city is really only 44 years old. The United Arab Emirates, comprised of seven different emirates, became an official country in 1971. From there, the growth, specifically in Dubai, has been exponential.

Long before the discovery of black gold, there were pearls.

During the late 19th century, Dubai became the key port on the Gulf coast, and pearling was the mainstay of the city’s wealth. Many nomadic desert families re-located to coastal settlements so that men could head out to sea for weeks to dive and search for pearls; some permanently settled along the coast while others moved there just for the pearling season, from May through September. Pearls, then, became a hot trading commodity well until the 1920s and 1930s when the Japanese introduced cultured pearls to the market.

Dubai is not the capital of the UAE.

You hear so much talk about “Dubai this” or “Dubai that,” it’s no wonder you might be led to think it’s the capital city. (In fact, I learned prior to my trip that there are a tremendous amount of people out there who think Dubai is its own country.) I’m not ashamed to admit that I thought it was the country’s capital; however, I soon learned that though it wears the crown as the country’s biggest and most coveted city, it’s not the head hancho. Nearby Abu Dhabi, population of 2.2 million and just a two hour drive from Dubai, is the capital and the most populated city, though it certainly doesn’t come with the same fanfare or glory.

The city is very, very big.

IMG_0683

Dubai almost instantly reminded me of LA and of Beijing. The city is vast and incredibly spread out, and though it does have a metro and decent public transportation, it still falls short of being well-connected or really commuter friendly. The metro takes you only so far to certain places, and in most cases you will end up needing a taxi to your final destination. It is not a very pedestrian-friendly city, but I guess when it gets to 50 some-odd degrees in summer (so well over 115) with 85 percent humidity, you wouldn’t really want to be walking around outside, anyway.

The metro stop for the Dubai Mall, the largest mall in the world, is a legitimate 10 minute walk to the actual entrance.

IMG_9408

Case in point. You walk through some sort of overpass for about 10 to 12 minutes before you actually reach the entrance to the mall. It’s so not convenient.

The weekend starts on Thursday.

IMG_0529

That’s right, and this isn’t just true of Dubai but for the region. The weekend here officially starts on Thursday, with Friday and Saturday acting as our Saturday and Sunday. The Middle East makes Monday look good.

And there is no other way to do Friday in Dubai than brunch.

New Yorkers brunch so hard, they turned brunch into a verb. The same can be said expats living in Dubai. Friday brunch in Dubai is an all-day affair that starts from about midday and is held at restaurants in world-class hotels all around town, and it lasts until the very late, where the party then continues to a night out at different clubs, bars, and lounges around town.

The Emirati operate on the Insha’Allah time.

I learned the word Insha’Allah very quickly after landing in this desert oasis, as it seems that all the Emirati in this city (and again, the entire region really) operate on this term. Insha’Allah is the Arabic term for God willing, so I was told that it is used to talk about things happening in the future. For example, if a meeting was meant to happen at 2 p.m., and it was 3 p.m., people would say, “He will be here insha’Allah.” If someone wanted to go to visit the States next year? “I will make it there, Insha’Allah.”

You can’t actually go to the top of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest man-made building in the world.

IMG_0685

You can go to the observation decks on the 124th and 125th floors with a normal tourist pass, and you can also go up just a teeny bit higher to SKY Lounge, located on the 148th floor. Reservations are necessary, and there is a minimum spend.

Emirati also LOVE dates.

I am not talking about the romantic kind; I’m talking about the kind you eat. Dates are everywhere in the Middle East, and they are a staple when you’re taking some coffee and tea with Emirati, Omani, or the like. I feel bad for the expat who doesn’t like dates.

More than 90 percent of the population in Dubai is ex-pat.

I mean, I knew that Dubai was home to a large and varied international population living within its limits, but 90 percent is a lot (the biggest population of expats here comes from India). And at times, you can totally feel the representation of it all. It doesn’t even seem like there are local Emirati living in your midst, but you only have to go to the malls at night fall, wander through the souks in Old Dubai, or head to Jumeirah Beach Walk at dusk.

Mercedes and Lexus are seriously your Average Joe cars in Dubai.

IMG_0686

Ok, so I sort of knew this before coming here, but I was really surprised at the multitude of fancy cars that parade down the streets (especially when the Emirati are behind the wheel). Walk through a car park, for example, and all you’ll see is a fleet of Porsche, Maserati, Lamborghini, Bentley, Rolls Royce, and Ferrari cars, one parked next to another parked next to another. They make Mercedes and Lexus look like a Honda Civic.

And the people drive on the more insane side.

Really, people in Dubai are crazy drivers who know how to do only one thing: Tailgate. (I would later learn this is the overall driving style of the region.) These people ride just a hair away from one another, traffic or no traffic. If people even attempted to drive like that in New York, they’d most certainly get met with extreme, extreme road rage and probably get their tires slashed.

There are two faces to this city.

IMG_9295

Beyond all the fast cars, the glitz, and the glamor, there is the Old Deira, located along the Dubai Creek where you can find all the traditional souks, or markets, that the Middle East and Northern African countries are famous for. It is like you’re in another world here, with old fashioned boats called dhows and traditional water taxis called abras cutting their ways across the creek, or the multitude of cargo ships coming in and out of the port. Get lost in the aromas of the spice souk or the perfume souk, feel the fabrics lining the textile souk, then feast your eyes on the endless golden storefronts lining the gold souk. You’ll almost forget that just outside of this is nothing but towering skyscrapers and promises of the future.

Dubai is home to one of the only Women’s Museums in the world.

Located in the Gold souq is the Women’s Museum, one of the only of its kind in the world (I believe there are just four total) and a progressive museum for the region. The museum aims to break the stereotypes that exist of Arabic women in today’s world, especially in the Middle East. This place is definitely worth a visit while you’re winding your way through the markets.

Food trucks roll their way around Dubai.

IMG_8392

It doesn’t exactly have the cult following you’re going to find in a city like New York, but for the Middle East, Dubai’s food truck scene is definitely on the more groundbreaking side of things. The most popular of the trucks is SALT, though there are a handful of others worth a visit, including MELT, Ghaf Kitchen, and Vida Food Truck.

Okay, and one more, for good measure (so really 17 things I learned about Dubai, but who is counting anymore?).

Dubai is a love it or hate it city, but either way, it definitely demands our attention.

IMG_9445

You’ve gotta take Dubai for what it is. There were times I loved it, and times I imagined myself reverting back to my expat ways and trying to carve out a life for myself (however temporary that may be) in Dubai, and then there were other days where I couldn’t wait to get away from it.

But love it or hate it, Dubai is an experience to be had.