Just back from a weekend in Dubai. Bit of an unusual choice for my first post on a blog about cheap travel breaks but some friends are working there and against my prior judgement I begrudgingly agreed to go and visit them.
So did I like Dubai? No. It's sunkissed, superficial and soulless. If glitz, glamour and gluttony are your only motivation for a break then go for it, you'll probably like it. Yes the aspiring western middle classes love Dubai and that's why they come in their droves, in search of the city's much-touted 'affordable luxury'.
Who cares if the Bangladeshi hotel porter is working his 19th hour of the day in his 50p an hour job. Who cares if he gets bussed in from his squalor-ridden labour camp on the outskirts of town where he shares a tiny bedroom with 9 other men in horrific conditions. Who cares if he can't go home because the people traffickers took his passport and won't give it back 'til he pays back his plane fare that got him there. Who cares! He calls me 'sir' and so he bloody well should! I've paid good money for this!
That's what we come here for you see.... affordable luxury.
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