Dubai - Sand, Sea and Snow

Well, I would like to relate to your here a tale of the wonders of Dubai. Unfortunately, I would either have to say only a very little or outright lie to you. I have not really had a fantastic time here and my overall impression is that Dubai is not a very nice place at all, I'm afraid. Now, my opinion is somewhat bias by the fact that I lost my wallet here so the whole experience has been rather trying. But basically I found Dubai to be very difficult to manage which is probably in a large part due to the cultural difference. I think it's easy to see why westerners and arabs clash as we have very different cultures. So, bearing that in mind, I found that Dubai was brutally hot, often smelly, very few people are polite (by western standards) and very few people are helpful. Whilst there are many construction wonders to behold such as the Burj Al Arab (photo 1) and Ski Dubai - the indoor ski slope (photo 2) - the traffic and public transport is worse than Auckland (I kid you not), and most of the streets are very dirty. If you stay purely on the tourist route you may well get a different impression and I am truly sorry if I have offended anyone with this review - it is just an account of the impression Dubai made on me.

Enjoy the photos.