4 ms·

Any HN people in Dubai?

kalmar 16y ago
I've been there a few times, most recently in the summer of 2006 or 2007. I do not like it. If you do not like gaudy things and rampant superficiality, you probably would not like it either. I intended to visit once Burj Dubai reached full height, and also after the metro was launched, but in both cases decided seeing those things was not worth the trip.
shrikant 16y ago
I've been there off and on in the early-to-mid 90s, and kalmar's point above would've held even then - it was (and evidently still is) a tad too opulent for my taste.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
zalew 16y ago
I've been in 2008 as a tourist and totally loved it. I got interested in the subject and had a long-term plan to settle there down some day. The crisis changed a lot, yet I laugh how pre-crisis it was en vogue to write about the mindblowing progress, now you only get attention if you write like everything is going down the drain there.
- megablast 16y ago
  Peaks and troughs, this is the only thing people seem to write about these days. They love building people/companies/countries up (Dubai, China, Apple), and then tearing them down a little while later.
  - CamperBob 16y ago
    I think hearing about people getting arrested for possession of melatonin or flogged for kissing their wives has a larger negative impact on Dubai as a tourism/business destination than anything any financial columnists are saying. I know I wouldn't come within 2,000 miles of the place.
    - zalew 16y ago
      You've heared it long before, and it hasn't impacted tourism, it was still THE destination back in the day. Law is strict, but should one respect it when chooses to come there. The Gulf as a whole is not for everybody, for sure. Notice how most of the stories you read about people arrested for moral code offence, concern Britons. I'm not so surprised, as some of them forget it's not a UK colony. Once I've seen a British woman making fun of arabic incenses in a mall, made stupid facial expressions, laughed off, etc. A local approached, calmly showed her how to use it and then angrily said "it's our land, our culture. not yours". Hard to argue with that. Dubai has dozens of dark sides, but if you agree to live by the code, I still believe it can be lots of fun.
phugoid 16y ago
I've been here for over 6 years. These articles were amusing two years ago mostly due to the novelty of reading negative editorials about the city; you'd never get that from local papers here. That being said, there's nothing in the article that isn't common knowledge in this region.
ShellDragon 16y ago
Yes. I am.

I've been there a few times, most recently in the summer of 2006 or 2007. I do not like it. If you do not like gaudy things and rampant superficiality, you probably would not like it either. I intended to visit once Burj Dubai reached full height, and also after the metro was launched, but in both cases decided seeing those things was not worth the trip.

shrikant 16y ago

I've been there off and on in the early-to-mid 90s, and kalmar's point above would've held even then - it was (and evidently still is) a tad too opulent for my taste.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

zalew 16y ago

I've been in 2008 as a tourist and totally loved it. I got interested in the subject and had a long-term plan to settle there down some day. The crisis changed a lot, yet I laugh how pre-crisis it was en vogue to write about the mindblowing progress, now you only get attention if you write like everything is going down the drain there.

megablast 16y ago
Peaks and troughs, this is the only thing people seem to write about these days. They love building people/companies/countries up (Dubai, China, Apple), and then tearing them down a little while later.
- CamperBob 16y ago
  I think hearing about people getting arrested for possession of melatonin or flogged for kissing their wives has a larger negative impact on Dubai as a tourism/business destination than anything any financial columnists are saying. I know I wouldn't come within 2,000 miles of the place.
  - zalew 16y ago
    You've heared it long before, and it hasn't impacted tourism, it was still THE destination back in the day. Law is strict, but should one respect it when chooses to come there. The Gulf as a whole is not for everybody, for sure. Notice how most of the stories you read about people arrested for moral code offence, concern Britons. I'm not so surprised, as some of them forget it's not a UK colony. Once I've seen a British woman making fun of arabic incenses in a mall, made stupid facial expressions, laughed off, etc. A local approached, calmly showed her how to use it and then angrily said "it's our land, our culture. not yours". Hard to argue with that. Dubai has dozens of dark sides, but if you agree to live by the code, I still believe it can be lots of fun.

phugoid 16y ago

I've been here for over 6 years. These articles were amusing two years ago mostly due to the novelty of reading negative editorials about the city; you'd never get that from local papers here. That being said, there's nothing in the article that isn't common knowledge in this region.

ShellDragon 16y ago

Yes. I am.