United Arab Emirates (UAE)

I definitely wish to visit again, because when I was there Dubai was still under construction and I want to see the finished product. I do not want to forget to mention that Dubai offers the greatest customer service from anywhere and everywhere. The service industry is dominated by the Philippines, the construction workers industry is dominated by the Indians and the marketing and architecture industry by the Europeans. At that time I felt Americans were not respected too much and to be on the safe side, I said I was Dominican, which I am and people automatically assumed I lived in DR, my closest friends knew I lived in the USA. UAE is a very expensive place, when you do visit, make sure your bank account has a minimum of $50,000 to be on the safe side. Again, without my friends hospitality, I would have had to stay in hotels, rent a car, pay for all my meals and then pay for all the attractions to have the full Dubai experience, and for 3 months, I would have been really hurting. By the way the food in Dubai, is delicious wether you visit an all Arabic restaurant of a local Asian fusion, the food is exotic and packed with delicious flavors.

THE SAD SIDE OF UAE that will break anybody’s heart is truly sad. Not everything that glitters is gold and I will try to keep this short. Dubai was built almost over night, it’s a fairly new overdeveloped territory, it host the largest and tallest structures on planet Earth, Dubai is all about going over the top, the best of the best and the oasis for all things luxury. It is built on sand and all their money came from petroleum (oil, gasoline), if I recall correctly, gas was cheap out there. But…… Back to my sad note. When I was there, Dubai was under construction and was still not a travel hot spot, it was under construction 24 hour a day and I am not being sarcastic, that was true and real. I observed all the constructions workers being from India and questioned my friends about it. And boy was I in for a very shocking surprise, Dubai was built by the Indians, who lived in the dirtiest and smelliest construction worker community designated just for them and the community was filthy, small, ugly, sad, and seemed very concentration camp like. I demanded my friend to drive me by and was instructed not to get caught filming or taking photos, so, I was very careful and hid those files so well before getting on my flight back home, I can’t even find them on my hard drives. At that time UAE was very protective and controlling over what was said about their country. Just so you know, Indians were being imported to work for the Kings and prince under contract, they were shipped in boats, paid super little and abnormally low. They were not allowed to live outside that poor living condition metal gated community. Those Indian men risked their lives, to get there, left their families behind to send them money and the worst part is that, while I was there, almost every week was an Indian suicide. This is truly very painful to say, but they would kill themselves due to depression. Keep in mind they were under contract, the money was being sent to their loved ones and thus, I did witness many Indian man walking around the city and even at night having fun, I understood what was going on and it was very sad and heartbreaking for me. On a side note, I will also mention that many Indian workers had gotten arrested and jailed for life for raping both local and non-local women. That is what happened back then, and I don’t know what 2021 is like in Dubai.