Is Dubai just one more urban jungle? A desert with a bunch of buildings all over the place to make it look nice an cool?
This simplistic question was rounding my head before I visited Dubai in December 2022. Some friends and colleagues had told me how impressive the city was, and how it was increasingly welcoming expats to materialize their vision of being a global destination for tourism, work, and business. Yet, I was failing to imagine how it would be different from New York or Hong Kong beyond the geographical and cultural nuances. Wasn’t the entire UAE simply another rich Arab country building skyscrapers? I thought for myself.
From the moment I set foot in the UAE, I felt welcomed. I went there while the Soccer World Cup was taking place in Qatar, and Dubai wouldn’t miss to attract tourists along the way. Once I landed, the immigration official who stamped my passport at the airport gave a me a free personalized 2GB SIM card, and so every other official to every single person entering the country. Although I never ended up using the SIM, I just thought how cool this gesture was, and how this would have helped me in other countries I’d visited before.
I started touring the city with frenetic excitement. I checked all the bucket list places: the Burj Khalifa, the Burj Al Arab, the famous made-man beaches in The Palm Jumeirah, and the impressive museum of the future, just to mention a few. Luxury, innovation, and cleanliness were everywhere. At some point it even became hard to imagine why the had built so much, as the number of skyscrapers, housing complexes and shipping malls looked excessive for the population. Seriously, who really needs to host the tallest building in the world?, and why do they need so many malls? I thought.
Place by place, the answer became almost tangible. The UAE wants to show the rest of the world how what we considered the best in urban development is just normal there, and Dubai won’t settle for less than first class. The famous Chicago bean is embedded into the museum of the future, the Dubai Mall Fountain resembles the Bellagio Water show in Las Vegas, and the Burj Khalifa together with the Burj Al Arab just put the country on the global watch list with the tallest free-standing structure in the world and a self-proclaimed 7-star hotel. All this without mentioning their several water parks and the miracle gardens Dubai hosts in an effort to also bring greenness to the city.
The extravagance of emulating what the rest of the world did decades ago is partially why some people have accused Dubai of being characterless. However, how can a city that built and developed itself beyond the first-world in less than 40 years be called characterless? How is a city trying to progress and reinvent itself at every possible opportunity be called as such? Dubai is the most cosmopolitan city in the world, with +85% per cent of its population foreign-born. This place is home for everyone, built by everyone. Proof? I found myself having one the best Indian contemporary curries I’ve tasted so far in the famous TimeOut Market Dubai (yes, I’m saying so even when coming from Britain, where excellent curries can be found around the corner), and truly unforgettable authentic Italian Pistachio gelato. I’m still wondering how offering the best food from every city in the world would be characterless.
By the end of my trip, I concluded Dubai was a worth visiting place, and it was much more than a desert with buildings. The uniqueness of this place is fingerprinted everywhere and goes way beyond the impressive structures. Dubai’s urban development is almost yelling excellence, perfection, and a willingness to do things right to the extent possible. Sure, they got the money (and the oil) to do that, but it looks to me it also takes a strong sense of direction and commitment to be able to amaze the entire world at all times. Dubai’s character is showing the rest of us how the impossible can be otherwise. Who would have imagined a pretty much infertile desert could host the best of Paris, the Americas, Asia, and so many other great places? Dubai is real proof of where resilience, creativity and innovation can take humanity, and hope I’ll be around a few more decades to witness it.
Have you visited Dubai yet? If so, are you also wondering how Google Maps there will change in 3 years from now? If not, how do you feel about start planning your trip? You might get there just in time to visit the first moon-resembling resort to experience affordable space tourism on the ground. Happy travels!
If you enjoyed this post don’t forget to like, follow, share and comment! Happy to hear from you via email at: airamgabriela17@gmail.com
Random Lessons 
Excelent, good homework
LikeLike