Dubai 2
I have never had inclination to visit Dubai. There were myriad of reasons why not to go there : there is nothing there except beaches, fancy hotels, sky rises and shopping ( then what about Miami, Caribbean which I visited more than once or Las Vegas ); no art, history or culture ( again Miami etc; plus Venice was once upon time sort of Dubai); what is the point in looking at bunch of sunburned expats during their Friday drunken brunches ( but what is the difference form Hong Kong, Singapore , Verbier, even Geneva or London ( same except sans sun) expat class), why visit “glonal” restaurants like Hakkasan or Zuma ( but why would their namesakes in London be better ) ; tacky show of Russian (not so ) nouveau riches ( but who has invented "rich lists" , who makes €900 H shaped flip flops , not Russians for sure ) and finally whole thing is based in cheap Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi labourers ( as we don't have zero hour contracts ). But eventually I surrendered, there was some business to do there ( or nearby ) still, took my other half ( who had same predisposition ) and ...we were pleasantly surprised, people are nice, food is good beaches are pristine , sea is clean ( when there are no oil spills ) ...Dubai is what west / east aspirational class ( Dubai is too naff for 0.1 pct they are on their private islands anyway ) dreams of : ideal society, safe, globalised, clean with dirty / nasty bits hidden beneath the carpet, one great luxurious compound. But do we have right to complain ? They simply project what we want and we vote with out feet …in their direction.
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