Dubai - the emirate of contrasts

Our first big trip outside of Europe took us to Dubai for various reasons. Kerstin will surely report on it.

We noticed the following contrasts on site, which we will examine in the individual sections:

Expensive - Cheap

Rich - Poor

Hot - Cold

Modern - Traditional

Big City - Deserted Area

Security - Surveillance

Clean - …

Dubai is often viewed disparagingly by our acquaintances as a synthetically constructed city with a glossy, high-gloss appearance.

We were there, albeit only for two weeks, and before, during, and of course after our stay, we explored the city, the village, the country, the emirate.

This already shows that most people don't know what to call this place of contrasts.

Let's take a look at these contrasting elements.

Expensive - Cheap

The most common prejudice we heard was: Expensive. True! It depends on what you buy and where you buy it. Designer clothes are just as expensive as they are here in Germany. A Lamborghini is the same. Even our beloved Starbucks coffee is just as overpriced there.

Just like in Germany, there are plenty of alternatives outside the numerous high-gloss malls. Yes, there are actually supermarkets comparable to Lidl & Co. On every corner lurks a mini-kiosk the size of a living room, crammed with all the necessary and unnecessary everyday items, from pineapples to toothpaste, and open 24/7.

The situation is similar with apartments. Of course, the rents, which are paid annually here, are somewhat higher than in Munich in our beloved marina with its gleaming yachts and oversized sunglasses. But we also drove through neighborhoods that had a slum-like character. After all, the masses of cheap labor from Pakistan and India have to live somewhere.

Rich - poor

Closely linked to the adjectives mentioned above are these two characteristics. Dubai – the land of the rich, as we've heard more than once. Of course, there are plenty of "rich" people here, but they can never truly consider themselves the "richest" because there's always someone a hundred times richer.

But the common folk – the butlers, the cleaning staff, hotel employees, security guards, delivery drivers, construction workers, taxi drivers, and so on – largely work for what we consider starvation wages. The vast majority of them come from poor neighboring countries like India and Pakistan.

Despite the low pay, the people we spoke to were incredibly grateful to be here so they could support their families back home. Especially since the pandemic, survival here would be impossible for many otherwise.

Kerstin will surely mention in one of her reports that we saw what are probably the cleanest public restrooms in the world. This isn't surprising when you see that it seems like there's a "cheap" cleaner for every single toilet.

Hot - Cold

Another adjective that's often used is the one mentioned first. We visited Dubai in November. It's certainly the perfect time of year. We enjoyed the winter like we enjoy a good summer back home in Germany—simply perfect. Just wonderful sunshine.

However, during our summer months, it's said to be unbearably hot for some visitors. For us, it was probably still just about tolerable.

But here's where the opposite extreme, cold, comes into play.

I sometimes found it too cold. Not because of the outside temperatures, but because of the ubiquitous air conditioning. No room, no bus, no metro, no pedestrian crossing is without air conditioning. Even the bus stops and metro stations are air-conditioned. Sometimes there are kilometer-long pedestrian walkways with moving walkways that are also air-conditioned. Even the cabins of the Ain, the world's largest Ferris wheel, are air-conditioned. Simply amazing. When I see here in Germany how we have to be encouraged to save every unnecessary cubic meter of gas…

Modernity - Tradition

The headline deliberately places modernity first. Most people are only familiar with the gleaming modern skyscrapers and luxury hotels like the Burj Al Arab and, of course, the actual skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa.

Few people know that Dubai's history stretches back to the fourth millennium BC and began as a small fishing village. Even today, you can visit "Old Dubai" with its numerous markets, such as the Gold Souk or the Spice Souk, or cross Dubai Creek in simple wooden boats. The many mosques with their slender minarets are also ubiquitous. However, you won't find a modern mosque like the Central Mosque in Cologne here.

Kerstin will surely report on the fake Old Dubai in one of her reports and describe the feelings we had in the numerous souks….

Big city - Wasteland

With an estimated population of nearly 3 million, Dubai can certainly be considered a major city. We noticed this immediately on our first journey after arriving at the airport. The Emirates taxi took over half an hour to drive along the 14-lane Sheikh Zayed Road to our hotel in the Marina.

Photos of Dubai almost always only show the gleaming skyscrapers or one of the two sand palms.

However, 90 percent of Dubai's total area of ​​4,000 square kilometers is desert. Impressive, isn't it? If you're alone, you can enjoy the peace and quiet for hours, or you can spend your free time in groups doing quad biking, camel riding, and other activities. Kerstin will surely report back.

Security - Monitoring

We've never felt so safe in our lives. There's no crime here. Big talk…

In fact, for us Germans, it was completely unusual to simply leave our handbags, cell phones, etc., on the beach or in a restaurant and walk away. An indescribably wonderful feeling.

Equally wonderful was the feeling of strolling at night in alleys we wouldn't even consider during the day in Cologne or Bonn, without any sense of unease. Simply an indescribable feeling…

Of course, there's a catch. During our two weeks, apart from the numerous security guards, we didn't see a single police officer and only two police cars on the streets.

It feels like you can't walk 10 meters, either on the street or in public buildings like hotels and bars, without spotting a camera and likely being spotted by one. We have no idea how many of these cameras are monitored around the clock, nor how many staff members, sitting in some kind of chilled-out control center, are needed to oversee this mass of cameras. The system certainly seems to work. Locals, for example, reported accidentally driving without their lights on at night and receiving a ticket via text message the next day.

As alarming as this surveillance initially seemed to us, by the end of our vacation we hardly noticed it anymore, let alone found it bothersome.

If we, as residents of any given state, could choose between tolerating crime or surveillance to prevent it, we would definitely choose the second option.

Clean - ...

We've never seen such a clean city! All public life takes place in an absolutely spotless environment. From the mall to the streets, the Marina Walk, and the train stations, including their restrooms. I still maintain that I would pick up and eat my favorite cookie that fell on the floor of a train station toilet. In Germany, I wouldn't even consider picking it up.

Here in Dubai, it feels like there's a cleaner on duty in every street, at every air-conditioned metro station, and in every restroom (separate sections for men and women, of course). It's very impressive, and we've often felt ashamed of our German streets and especially our public restrooms, which are practically unusable. And where else do you get a ticket for driving a dirty car?

Of course, the cheap labor from India and Pakistan described above is used here again, but they are very grateful that they can feed their families in poor countries from here.

The opposite of the aforementioned cleanliness isn't exactly the dirt, which, of course, can be found far from the gleaming malls in many backyards of old Dubai or its port. Rather, we noticed several things that we take for granted back home, but which are far from the norm in Dubai.

For example, we initially hoarded the numerous water bottles provided by the hotel in our room, believing someone would eventually collect them for the deposit. No, there are no deposit bottles here—not for water, not for cola, not for beer. Everything just goes in the trash. Yes, just trash, no recycling, no paper, no organic waste… Nothing is sorted here. It felt like the garbage truck drove through the streets every single day emptying the enormous dumpsters. Unimaginable for us.

On our relatively long journey back from our desert tour, we observed numerous convoys of tanker trucks leaving the city for the desert on the highway heading out of town. When we asked, our guide suggested they were carrying sewage. Apparently, the sewage system isn't very well developed yet. Even the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, didn't have a sewage connection for years. We don't know where the tankers unloaded.

We don't want to pass judgment based on our limited knowledge. I'm sure this issue is being investigated. I just want to remind everyone where we in Germany stood not so long ago, and where we still stand compared to some other countries.