Many people want to go to Dubai, to experience the rich life, the extravagant gold, the skyscrapers and whatnot. While Dubai never amused me much, when I got an opportunity to go work in the UAE for 7 months, I decided to take it. Different lifestyles, and different cultures, should be worth it is what I thought when I packed my bags and left last September.
First things first, UAE is RICH. They have a lot of everything, excessive. Even their public toilets are better than the ones at my home! At least the ones in Fujairah were. Also, the first lesson - UAE is not just Dubai but has 7 emirates, including Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and the one I stayed in - Ras Al Khaimah. RAK is the mountain part of UAE and I lived in the middle of the hills there, accessed after 10 mins of offroading.
And it does have the best of everything. even the cheap dry fruits I would buy were better than the ones in India, the water we drank seemed unlimited (in a desert mind you) , there was farming in between big dunes and of course, the buildings were built to show that even the ocean can be reclaimed by them, in case they ran out of shoreline to build on.
Extravagant- not sustainable
In India, I had chosen a sustainable life, I would limit the consumption of things bought in plastic, use just one bucket of water for my bath, recycle, turn the fan off when I leave the room and so on. But there, even I turned useless. I have taken the longest baths I have ever taken in the desert country, I have eaten so much packaged food, my god - even the butter for the bread in the morning was in individual plastic packaging. Drank so many fruit juices with plastic straws throughout the day as I worked outdoors and it was hot and well, used AC everywhere. Sometimes I even left it on when I wasn't in the room. Why? I don't know, maybe the UAE is a rich country. And the worst part - I even gained 8 kgs by the end of it!
For a vegetarian
And I was a vegetarian in a major meat-eating country. They eat meat for all three meals of the day, and since my contract was such that we were provided food and stay - boy did I have fun. Bread, butter, jam and cornflakes for breakfast. Vegetarian burger, wraps, hot dogs for lunch- that was bread again with lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes, and of course, a packaged frozen patty or falafel heated up and served. For dinner at one camp I had daal chawal (blandly cooked) or else there was pasta, lasagna, spaghetti and Sundays nights were the biriyani nights. And so does that answer why I gained a little weight? - a shit load of Maida all 7 months with minimal vegetables. Whereas the meat eaters got chicken or beef every other day. Cooked in various forms, also in burgers and wraps for lunch but dinner felt better for them.
Caters to all budgets
But having said that, we could eat cheaply or spend a lot. It's a place which caters to every type of traveller. Travel was expensive when converted to INR especially as every other taxi would cost a minimum of 50 dirhams which was about 1000rps easily. Within Dubai, there is good metro connectivity and buses, but RAK not so much. They don't even have a metro line to Sharjah which is hardly 20 mins from Dubai. Each emirate behaves as an individual. Walking along their waterfronts, you could spend a lot of time without spending a lot. Eat their local snacks like luqaimat, drink sulaiman tea and just chill.
Camels instead of cows
While the rich emirates like Dubai and Abu Dhabi have their camels under control, the side lanes of RAK had camels roaming freely. And there I saw camels trying to eat out of dumpsters like cows do in India. Same same but different eh. They do have beautiful 6 to 8 landed highways cutting through the desert with wired fences on both sides to keep the camels away, but on the side roads leading to places like my camp or so, camels didn't have these fences to stop them from heading towards the road. Not that they willingly went to roads with traffic but there were chances of spotting a few here and there. I was told we could give them apples and make them our friends. It did work!
Reclaimed coastline
So we used to conduct activities like kayaking and canoeing with the kids for which we would go to the sea. Well, that's the thing, one can never tell which is a real coastline and which was made. Many places I went to - Al Hamra in RAK, Umm Al Quian Marine Club, the Jumeirah in Dubai - all these beaches were dead. Waves were the bare minimum, and sea life was also minimal. Apparently, with all the desalination they do for drinking water, they end up throwing some of the salt back into the ocean making it more salty and killing some of the marine life. I am not saying there are no real beaches, we did go to some with nice big waves with sunset vibes, but not all of them are real.
Shopping
Finally to the shopping part. The Dubai shopping festival is basically that - inviting everyone to shop. Yes, there are a lot of things you can buy, and some for cheaper rates too. Phones, gold, dates, spices. You name it, they got it. And usually for a decent rate as well. So yes, I also shopped for a phone, a little gold, a lot of dates, some spices, some good shoes and sandals. It's a city which makes you shop, the Dubai mall is designed in a manner that once you enter, you will not be able to figure out how to get out. It's a maze!! So, you can shop and eat till you are dead.
All in all, this rich country can be experienced once. But I preferred Oman for its raw true beauty. With all the man-made invasions in UAE, everything is fake. And for people who love the bling, the lights, the skyscrapers - yes this can be heaven. But for those who love nature, well this is just an average country in that. Its grand mosque, its Ferrari world, its sky diving, the burj khalifa - man-made attractions are aplenty, with of course a decent entry ticket. So, go ahead and visit it, enjoy the rich life.
I preferred the green and blue coastline of India.
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