Not going to make the news here when UAE builds a 100 unit 1 bed apartment building. But the tallest building in the world, or a ski resort in the desert? Sign us up
Right. There is of course plenty of low cost housing in the UAE, but it's not going to make the front page of HN when they open a new apartment complex.
Dubai is definitely a high-cost-of-living with extravagance abound, but it's also helped to turn them into an international destination. Just Spending time in the Dubai airport is a fascinating experience if you get the change. It's the most diverse (and by that I don't mean skin color, though of course that is reflected, but I mean all types of different people from all over the world) environment I think I've ever been in.
> Just Spending time in the Dubai airport is a fascinating experience if you get the change.
It depends on what you mean by fascinating. I was stuck in a limbo because on arrival they've lost my visa (which takes days to process). They didn't even wanted to talk to me because my visa wasn't in a pile of other visas and for those people that was the end of it. I wasn't let in into the country, and I couldn't board the plane to go back home. For what they were concerned, I could have died there in front of the counter and they wouldn't even bat an eye.
It took them close to 10 hours to relent to my ever increasing desparate pleadings and second or third shift person to have a look at the other pile of visas on the same desk. They've found it after less than a minute of search, and threw it at me like I'm a trash bin.
Needless to say I'm never going to Dubai ever again. I've travelled all over the world, but I've never seen or experienced complete disdan and disrespect for other people before and since then.
Was this recent? I think they have mostly moved to eVisas now. That being said, what you described is a typical experience in a foreign country immigration lane. I am not saying it is right or wrong ( of course it is wrong!) but overall the uae is still ahead of many other countries when it comes to accessibility.
It was about 5 to 7 years ago. Time does fly! Its not a typical experience in my view. I've definitely seen and experienced crazy stuff over the years in the airports. But what was perfectly clear to me is that they (native people working there) don't see you as an equal. Its maybe a bit hard to explain. I wouldn't go as far as to say that they don't really see you as a person at all, but I've never experienced this before and after. And this is not something I've seen on myself only, I've seen this happen on non-EU/US immigration lanes and it was disturbing and depressing. Maybe I'm just too sensitive to that.
> Just try to avoid kissing your same sex partner in public.
Well, I don't do that with my opposite-sex partner in public in the US either, so I don't think it would be that difficult regardless of my partner's sex or the country I am in.
Just to be clear, I am not a prude or a conservative/religious person, and I don't have an issue with others doing that. And neither am I afraid of something bad happening if I did that. I just tend to reserve activities that involve any amount of bodily fluids to non-public places.
On a more relevant note, I don't see how your reply negates what the grandparent comment said. There is more to diversity than just sexual orientation. It is a component of it, of course. But you would be crazy to deny that it is still possible to have a room full of people with extremely diverse backgrounds and ways of life, despite none of them being into same-sex relationships.
The parent comment refers to same-sex partners because gay foreigners have actually been arrested in the UAE for incredibly small offenses, like brushing against someone's hip at a bar [1]. And in Egypt for such crimes as waving a pride flag at a Mashrou' Leila concert [2]. It wasn't an attack against your heterosexuality - it's just a fact that gay people are especially persecuted in most of the Middle East.
The Middle East is not "a risky place to travel" - look at Israel. Plenty of gays, very little rape and when it does happen the rapist is charged, you can take selfies, you can drink wine.
If you want to say something about some culture then say it. But don't generalise to the point of slandering countries that don't have those issues.
