“Oh you live in Dubai?” Is a phrase most expats will be used to hearing on journeys back to their home country. It’s usually a warning siren before a conversational projectile of ill-informed stereotyping is mortar shelled directly into your ear canal. Something like “how many Ferraris have you got then?” or “is it true you’re not allowed to wear flip-flops in the supermarket?” These are opinions formed from a collage of half-remembered tabloid headlines and reality TV shows, that deliberately laser-focus on a microscopically small segment of Dubai society. It’s not without its faults, nowhere is, but there are few states so transparently and aggressively seeking to work on them. And whilst it’s tempting to keep the truth of Dubai’s many treasures as our little secret, of far more import is the duty to honour the integrity of this city we call home.
These are just some of the things people living outside Dubai get wrong about Dubai
It never rains
It does rain, it absolutely demonstrably does rain in Dubai, especially in the coastal areas (as is the case for the city of Dubai). Not only does it rain here – in other neighbouring parts of the UAE, it actually snows. And whilst we’re on the subject of rain, it’s probably worth noting that in order to deliver-iver-iver on that anticipation for precipitation, the UAE often flexes its meteorological muscles by actually MAKING IT RAIN. Not in a hip-hop video, hand gesture for flagrantly parting with disposable income kind of way, in an actual, cloud seeding, previously the preserve of demi-deities and superheroes, controlling the weather, way. In fact according to an article in Gulf News, reporting on the International Rain Enhancement Forum — “the UAE performs about 1,000 hours of cloud seeding on average each year”. Of course, you need clouds in which to seed, but the silver lining is — the research conducted alongside all of this is a huge boost to the global bank of climate data.
Dubai is a country
We might be living in a more interconnected world now, and indeed one where almost the full accumulated sphere of human wisdom can be accessed via a few taps of a smartphone, but for some at least, it really doesn’t seem to have translated in an increased likelihood of picking up that blue pie in Trivial Pursuit. If you’re one of these self-declared nonchalant atlas-dodgers, please be aware that Dubai is an emirate within the country of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). And we appreciate this may be confusing, but it is also a city within the UAE. It is, one, it is the other, it is both, but it is not a country.
Dubai can be expensive. So can Paris, Mumbai, Sydney or pretty much any modern cosmopolitan city you care to think of. It’s not necessarily expensive though. You can spend a day on one of the many, immaculate public beaches for absolutely free, you can pick up a Dhs6 shawarma for lunch, or any number of Dhs15 biriyanis; catch the spectacular fountain shows at the Burj Khalifa – gratis; you can get big change back from Dhs50 for entrance to Global Village, Miracle Gardens, or Dubai Garden Glow; you can rent Careem bikes and meander the miles of picturesque cycle pathways; hike the highlands; live it up at the ladies’ nights; trawl the souks; meditate in the museums; take abra rides; chat over chaat in Karama; there’s diversity in the rental market; public transport; there’s an abundance of happy hours and voucher apps for soiree-ing on a shoestring; and petrol, compared to almost everywhere else in the world, is scandalously cheap.
Ok, this is correct. You’ve got us. Apart from the miles of palm tree-lined boulevards, the acres of open public park space throughout the city, the irrigated gardens, Green Planet — the rainforest in a giant glass box, island idylls, the mangroves, the wetlands of Ras Al Khor, the Safari Park, Expo City, alfresco markets, the Al Qudra lakes district, verdant pub gardens, tournament-tier golf courses, pond parks, dog parks, community compounds and the ghaf forests of Mushrif, you’re absolutely right, there’s no greenery in Dubai.
