things not to do in dubai

[sir loin]

Fuck that place.

 

[Naramie]

Is there a rule against beating your slaves?

 

[Stargazer Rex]

I know what it looks like.

Fuck that place.

 

[Broken arrow]

I thought Arabs were one of the top consumers of porn

 

[lsa]

Just for giggles try and see what happens if you get caught with a bible or any other religious books (none islamic ones) on you.

 

[CombatCyborg]

My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, his son will drive a Land Rover, but his son will ride a camel,

Made me LOL

 

[CombatCyborg]

Not a place I would want to visit. Waaay too fake for me. Here is a giant list of rules to follow, but it is okay to break them all as long as you are blowing tons of cash and do it behind closed doors. Plus the slavery and what not. I would rather visit Jordan or Turkey or even Iran(although I would be on edge while there), where at least they aren't selling you Vegas while telling you to follow their strict lifestyles that they only follow in public.

I spent some quality in in Iraq and most of the people are pretty laid back when it comes to this stuff though. They show some pretty crazy stuff on TV (their version of Cops was 10 times crazier and more entertaining than ours, at least I think it was supposed to be like Cops) and even had MTV that we watched while staying in some Iraqis house for a few weeks.

My sentiments exactly. It's the definition of pharisaical.

 

[Vulcan]

Sounds tolerant.

 

[M3t4tr0n]

Looks beautiful but sounds like a shit way to spend a vacation.

 

[RedRocket44]

I know what it looks like.

Fuck that place.

I think the copious amounts of thick, toxic smog have been photoshopped out.

 

[RoryFan]

Sounds like a fun place to visit.

Strong this.

Don

 

[Jing]

I'd rather vacation to Delaware

[YT]TK_FiRm6ZK8[/YT]

 

[Loiosh]

Perhaps, but that doesn't invalidate their opinions. It's literally a city built on sand, but beyond that oh-so-fitting double entendre, at it's core a city built on hypocrisy, slavery, and the worst values of both east and west. It's a disgusting place, where derivative decadence masquerades as culture. I am pretty well traveled, have spent varying amounts of time in ~35 different countries on 6 continents, and other than connecting through their airport, have no desire to ever spend a second in that place.

I was going to say something to this but

you said it better than I could.

I have no love for Dubai; a good friend of mine had the misfortune of growing up there but being from Egypt. His father was an engineer but as they were Egyptian he spent his youth growing up as "more than an animal but less than a person". Their slavery is almost as reprehensible as the slavery that built America and Britain.

I was just reacting to comments like "glass it and move on", which don't feel valid to me.

I spent almost a decade working with a number of people from Lebanon, Afghanistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and Dubai, and the casual racist (and often violent) comments I hear each and every day really bother me.

Just out of curiosity, how much time have you spent in Dubai and what were you doing there?

 

[Ricky13]

Dubai isn't the greatest place, but articles like this really cause some ridiculous misconceptions.

It's both better and worse than that.

For background: I was born and brought up there before going abroad to study (have an Indian passport though and currently work in the UK). My parents and a brother still live there.

Ask questions if you'd like.

Don’t Do Drugs

Just say no to dabbling in drugs in Dubai. This should be common sense, but it’s worth stressing here. Dubai has a zero tolerance policy towards possession, use and selling of illicit substances. It goes beyond the standard list of illegal narcotics you’d expect like marijuana, ecstasy, heroine and cocaine. Even prescription pharmaceuticals and some over-the-counter medications may be considered contraband. Some travelers have been incarcerated for carrying codeine-based painkillers in their toiletry kit.

Pretty much bang on.

A bunch of kids from my high school were jailed for this. At sixteen/seventeen years of age. There's no understanding whatsoever from the justice system when it comes to drugs, nothing can mitigate your sentence if you're out there on your own. Ain't no settlements.

In Dubai, what usually works when you're in a tough spot is knowing locals in high places. And most expatriates work hard to cultivate those relationships. My father learned Arabic from scratch when he went there to find work. Spoke it fluently in a year. Has never had legal issues in over 30 years there. However, he is a Muslim. Makes the restrictions easier to live with.

If you're a Muslim who wants to have a good time, but still believes in the core tenets of the faith, like praying five times a day, and fasting during Ramadan, there's no better place to live. This isn't an endorsement of Islam. Just stating the facts from the perspective of a former Muslim. Fact is there are certain places more liberal followers of certain religions would find easiest to live.

When I was 16, I was staying at my best friend's overnight and we decided to sneak out the house to see our respective girlfriends on the other side of town, who were slumber partying it, essentially. When we got there, we were waiting outside the house for them to get out when two guys came up to us, asked us for ID, showed us theirs. They were plainclothes cops, CID. Calmly told us we looked suspicious at that time of the night all alone (it was 4 AM) in an upscale area. Put us in the back of a station wagon after cuffing us, and took us to the station. We would have been locked up for at least a day if it wasn't for the fact they let us call our parents. My dad sweet-talked them into letting us go (for doing fucking NOTHING). I was printed etc. anyway, and a lawyer my dad knew had to talk some judge out of a hearing a few days later.

That was the first time I told myself I would never live there long term.

Don’t Drink in Public
Dubai is one of the most liberal locations in the Muslim world when it comes to booze consumption. However you have to respect the rules, be discreet and not cross the line or you could be in big trouble. Foreign residents are allowed to drink alcohol at home if they obtain a license. Public inebriation is not tolerated here. Once you step out and appear even slightly tipsy you may be arrested.

True also. But it's not like if you look drunk outside a club with your friends you're going to get arrested. You might if you have a drink in your hand though.

Dubai police have an unsaid mandate: let foreigners have their fun as long as they're not obvious about it on the streets. This is not ideal, and in no way is freedom.

There is also a distinct racial hierarchy, in terms of how the cops respond to things. If you're white, they look the other way for a lot of things. White people are the liberal face of Dubai. Hence the insane nightlife.

Indians/Pakistanis have it bad. Filipinos slightly better than them.

No Song and Dance

Playing loud music and dancing in the open is not allowed in Dubai.

This is vague and kind of stupid, the way it's stated. If you're in an outdoor cafe, for instance, and you suddenly started singing or dancing with your girlfriend (as if this was normal behaviour anywhere), you're not going to get arrested for crying out loud. That's simply ludicrous. Or if you did it walking down the street. Unless you did it in people's faces or something. Common sense would apply.

And again, if you were white, or a UAE national, you'd be able to all this in an Indian's face and the cops wouldn't care.

No Kissing

Public displays of affection are considered indecent in Dubai, so keep your make-out sessions completely private. One twosome was arrested for locking lips in the back of a taxi.

True and then some. You won't get arrested right away for say, holding hands or a peck on the cheek, but you would likely be warned by a cop of another national if one was around. Full on making out, yeah, you'd get arrested methinks. But I haven't heard of that happening. If you can keep it in your pants until you get to a club or a friend's, your sex life in Dubai can be so good as to be unbelievable. Like something out of a gangster film, only non-trashy women who spend their lives staying fit and being working women at the same time. The girls my brother hooks up with on the regular are just, oooof.

Watch Your Tongue

No public cussing here, please. A tourist was charged with saying “what the fuck” to an undercover policeman a while back. Bite your tongue and keep the insults, profanity and vulgar language to yourself. And do not under any circumstances spout any blasphemous or disparaging remarks against Islam in Dubai. This is considered a serious, punishable offense and more than a handful of foreigners have been put in prison for making an off-the-cuff comment.

First half is bullshit. Yeah, I wouldn't tell a cop to fuck off, but you're fine swearing in public. I have no idea where this kind of notion originates. I suppose it starts with an incident like the cop thing and turns into a generalisation about swearing.

But yeah, if a local hears you say something about Islam, you're in trouble.

Watch Your Photography

In Dubai it is considered rude and intrusive to snap shots of people, especially women, without expressed permission.

I consider this rude and intrusive anyway.

I don't know enough about this. Then again, I don't know too many people taking random shots of others on the street. Just taking pictures of each other when you're out is the same as any other place.

No LGBT

While other places in the world are getting more accepting of LGBT lifestyles, the UAE is definitely not a place to flaunt it. Any sexual relations outside of a traditional heterosexual marriage is considered a crime in Dubai. Even cross-dressing is illegal here.

Nothing to say. 100% true.

Don’t Eat in Public During Ramadan

If you happen to be in Dubai during the holy month of Ramadan (the ninth month of the Islamic calendar), do not eat, or drink in public while Muslims are fasting from dawn til dusk.

Also true. Ramadan is a weird time. Everything, nearly all workplaces, shuts at 12:30 PM. Schools have to as well. Then through the night, you can hear the nationals having "food parties" late, until the morning hours, in these massive tents on their lawns. Just pigging out until the fast begins the next day. As a national, you barely have to work, make a good living in very average jobs, have free healthcare, free education, even higher education I believe.

Don’t Use Your Left Hand

The left hand is traditionally used for “body hygiene” in Muslim cultures, therefore be mindful to avoid using it in certain circumstances. Don’t greet anyone with a left handed shake. Don’t open doors with your left hand. Don’t hand somebody something with your left hand. Definitely don’t eat with your left hand.

Complete bollocks. Certain locals might prefer that you give them cash with your right hand, but that's it. This is not dissimilar to certain South-East Asian places. It's often a superstitious thing more than anything else.

Other possible points of interest:

Dubai HAS NO OIL. It hasn't since the early 90s. The ruler then, Sheikh Rashid, knew this, and worked hard to make it a business/trade centre/port. Once he died the focus was shifted by Sheikh Mohammed to sport/entertainment.

Dubai was one of the worst hit places in the world by the recession. And given the horrible nature of the justice system, thousands of Westerners literally dumped their cars at the airport and fled the country when they realised they were not going to be able to pay back debts. I've seen those parking lots myself.

Abu Dhabi is the one Emirate with oil now, I believe. Dubai is currently in debt to them in the billions. That tallest skyscraper in the world was initially called the Burj Dubai. the day before the opeing, they were forced to change the name to Burj Khalifa (Sheikh Khalifa rules Abu Dhabi).

 

[Ultrashogun]

What a shit place.

 

[ObsoleteSoul]

Strong this.



Is this actually a crime or just a courtesy?

Just a courtesy. They still have resturaunts for tourists, that are open during the day, all throughout Ramadan. It's just being polite to them. Imagine starving, and some people are standing there with a kebob, just having at it. Shit would piss me off

And this whole thread is taken verbatim from one of those click bait articles. I read it before

 

[RoryFan]

Just a courtesy. They still have resturaunts for tourists, that are open during the day, all throughout Ramadan. It's just being polite to them. Imagine starving, and some people are standing there with a kebob, just having at it. Shit would piss me off

And this whole thread is taken verbatim from one of those click bait articles. I read it before

I'm down for being courteous to other people's traditions in a foreign land but it's still a self imposed fast. It just seems inherently wrong that I should have to alter my behaviour, even over something as trivial as eating in public because you've made a choice to not eat during the day.

 

[ObsoleteSoul]

I'm down for being courteous to other people's traditions in a foreign land but it's still a self imposed fast. It just seems inherently wrong that I should have to alter my behaviour, even over something as trivial as eating in public because you've made a choice to not eat during the day.

I feel it's the same thing as taking your shoes of in other people's home, if you do not do it yourself. You still technically could eat at anytime, but most do not, or you just eat out of sight of the natives.

 

[Ricky13]

I'm down for being courteous to other people's traditions in a foreign land but it's still a self imposed fast. It just seems inherently wrong that I should have to alter my behaviour, even over something as trivial as eating in public because you've made a choice to not eat during the day.

You're right. It's a limiting of freedom.

If you were to ask me whether or not it affects people much in Dubai, I'd say no. For one, during the day, good luck even standing outside for most of the year. Humidity usually hovers between 90-99%, and it is so hot that any and every little indoor nook is air-conditioned.

Then when it cools off once the sun goes down (between 5 and 7 PM), you can eat out again until the next morning.

I lived there for 17 years, and it was never the fact that I couldn't eat outside that affected my life. Because I never was out on the street because of the heat. If you were, say, playing sport in school or at university, outdoors, like I did tennis and football, nobody would expect you not to drink water.

You can eat freely at work, at school, at college, including outdoors in all these places.

It was everything shutting down that was annoying, though that to me is as much of an imposition as when everything I like shuts down in the UK over the Christmas hols.

 

[SherdogGoat]

Dubai isn't the greatest place, but articles like this really cause some ridiculous misconceptions.

It's both better and worse than that.

For background: I was born and brought up there before going abroad to study (have an Indian passport though and currently work in the UK). My parents and a brother still live there.

Ask questions if you'd like.



Pretty much bang on.

A bunch of kids from my high school were jailed for this. At sixteen/seventeen years of age. There's no understanding whatsoever from the justice system when it comes to drugs, nothing can mitigate your sentence if you're out there on your own. Ain't no settlements.

In Dubai, what usually works when you're in a tough spot is knowing locals in high places. And most expatriates work hard to cultivate those relationships. My father learned Arabic from scratch when he went there to find work. Spoke it fluently in a year. Has never had legal issues in over 30 years there. However, he is a Muslim. Makes the restrictions easier to live with.

If you're a Muslim who wants to have a good time, but still believes in the core tenets of the faith, like praying five times a day, and fasting during Ramadan, there's no better place to live. This isn't an endorsement of Islam. Just stating the facts from the perspective of a former Muslim. Fact is there are certain places more liberal followers of certain religions would find easiest to live.

When I was 16, I was staying at my best friend's overnight and we decided to sneak out the house to see our respective girlfriends on the other side of town, who were slumber partying it, essentially. When we got there, we were waiting outside the house for them to get out when two guys came up to us, asked us for ID, showed us theirs. They were plainclothes cops, CID. Calmly told us we looked suspicious at that time of the night all alone (it was 4 AM) in an upscale area. Put us in the back of a station wagon after cuffing us, and took us to the station. We would have been locked up for at least a day if it wasn't for the fact they let us call our parents. My dad sweet-talked them into letting us go (for doing fucking NOTHING). I was printed etc. anyway, and a lawyer my dad knew had to talk some judge out of a hearing a few days later.

That was the first time I told myself I would never live there long term.



True also. But it's not like if you look drunk outside a club with your friends you're going to get arrested. You might if you have a drink in your hand though.

Dubai police have an unsaid mandate: let foreigners have their fun as long as they're not obvious about it on the streets. This is not ideal, and in no way is freedom.

There is also a distinct racial hierarchy, in terms of how the cops respond to things. If you're white, they look the other way for a lot of things. White people are the liberal face of Dubai. Hence the insane nightlife.

Indians/Pakistanis have it bad. Filipinos slightly better than them.



This is vague and kind of stupid, the way it's stated. If you're in an outdoor cafe, for instance, and you suddenly started singing or dancing with your girlfriend (as if this was normal behaviour anywhere), you're not going to get arrested for crying out loud. That's simply ludicrous. Or if you did it walking down the street. Unless you did it in people's faces or something. Common sense would apply.

And again, if you were white, or a UAE national, you'd be able to all this in an Indian's face and the cops wouldn't care.



True and then some. You won't get arrested right away for say, holding hands or a peck on the cheek, but you would likely be warned by a cop of another national if one was around. Full on making out, yeah, you'd get arrested methinks. But I haven't heard of that happening. If you can keep it in your pants until you get to a club or a friend's, your sex life in Dubai can be so good as to be unbelievable. Like something out of a gangster film, only non-trashy women who spend their lives staying fit and being working women at the same time. The girls my brother hooks up with on the regular are just, oooof.



First half is bullshit. Yeah, I wouldn't tell a cop to fuck off, but you're fine swearing in public. I have no idea where this kind of notion originates. I suppose it starts with an incident like the cop thing and turns into a generalisation about swearing.

But yeah, if a local hears you say something about Islam, you're in trouble.



I consider this rude and intrusive anyway.

I don't know enough about this. Then again, I don't know too many people taking random shots of others on the street. Just taking pictures of each other when you're out is the same as any other place.



Nothing to say. 100% true.



Also true. Ramadan is a weird time. Everything, nearly all workplaces, shuts at 12:30 PM. Schools have to as well. Then through the night, you can hear the nationals having "food parties" late, until the morning hours, in these massive tents on their lawns. Just pigging out until the fast begins the next day. As a national, you barely have to work, make a good living in very average jobs, have free healthcare, free education, even higher education I believe.



Complete bollocks. Certain locals might prefer that you give them cash with your right hand, but that's it. This is not dissimilar to certain South-East Asian places. It's often a superstitious thing more than anything else.

Other possible points of interest:

Dubai HAS NO OIL. It hasn't since the early 90s. The ruler then, Sheikh Rashid, knew this, and worked hard to make it a business/trade centre/port. Once he died the focus was shifted by Sheikh Mohammed to sport/entertainment.

Dubai was one of the worst hit places in the world by the recession. And given the horrible nature of the justice system, thousands of Westerners literally dumped their cars at the airport and fled the country when they realised they were not going to be able to pay back debts. I've seen those parking lots myself.

Abu Dhabi is the one Emirate with oil now, I believe. Dubai is currently in debt to them in the billions. That tallest skyscraper in the world was initially called the Burj Dubai. the day before the opeing, they were forced to change the name to Burj Khalifa (Sheikh Khalifa rules Abu Dhabi).

Thank you. The ignorance on this forum is astounding sometimes.