Going to Dubai what is there to do?

[LibertyHarkness]

come to london chaos i will show you around my island

[TsJennifer]

fine advice- you also have to sign an escort in to your hotel with you and if its technicaly 'same sex' u will both get arrested.

thank god I'm 100% female.

[Prospero]

Post op Jennifer? I know that no one would mistake you for a male in any other way ever...

[gslang]

If the UAE border check see a female body with a male passport - you will NOT be allowed in.

Doesnt matter about same-sex (a hanging offence in one of the UAE states),

ANY sexual contact by non-married people is a crime in Dubai.

That includes what we in the west consider a harmless peck on the cheek.

I have been several times to UAE, and would never take any risks there.
Its a millionaires playground. Where great wealth buys great privilege, and great abuse.

[Prospero]

I think it is Sharjah where it is a hanging offence Gslang (if i remember aright). Sharjah is the MOST religiously devout of all the Emirates. Gets lots of funding from Saudi Arabia.

[gslang]

thats correct. and its right next door to dubai, with the spread of the development hard to tell you've travelled from one to the other.

UAE is such a mix of contrasts. incredible wealth, and incredible abuses. the foreign workforce treated appallingly.

[tvkim]

I went with my daughter last year. Make sure you pay a visit to the: http://www.burjkhalifa.ae/

But not if you are afraid of heights!

[Prospero]

The foreign workforce - primariiy workers from India and pakistan - are housed in work camps and bussed in every day. The camps do not even show up on maps of the city. No go areas to foreign tourists (who would want to go there anyway - unless you are a journalist exposing the ills of the place). Yep - Sharjah is part of the urban sprawl. And no alocholo allowed there at all. A good museum of islamic culture though.

[Bobzz]

I've traveled extensively all over the globe and, for what it's worth, Dubai was my absolutely least favorite. It's a cross between Vegas and Disneyland but it's for ARABS , particularly the devout ones who arrive at the airport with their entourages and in their thobes, shoras and smaghs, retreat quickly to their hotels and emerge in jeans, white button down shirts for a week of whoring, gambling and drinking (not that there's anything wrong with that!). If you're an unaccompanied western female, it's is considered permissible to be propositioned by Arab men, even if you've stepped out for a stroll or shopping. The Russian mafia runs the place and it's over run with Russian prostitutes, many of who are drop dead gorgeous but they're out for the big Arab bucks (free market economics I suppose). In my opinion, it's really not for westerners and certainly not for non-Muslims. I've never felt any real animosity towards westerners any where else on the planet but here. They even treat non-Arab fellow Muslims like shit. It's both subtle and overt but it's there all the time and I would never go back. For that matter, I ain't going to Pakistan anytime soon either. Plus the weather in Dubai is horrendous, blistering heat and the Arabia Sea makes 99.99% humidity seem like you just opened the door on a dishwasher in mid-cycle; but unlike the dishwasher where the steam and heat dissipate, the blast of steamy air goes on forever is quite unlike anywhere else I've been. Now, ask me how I really feel?

[bat1]

Forget Dubai. Think I will head to Thailand