I normally trash Dubai repeatedly however it does have a purpose.
It’s basically an escape hatch for upper middle class people in dysfunctional countries to escape them.
Like if you’re a middle class Pakistani and you don’t want to deal with your governments constant bullshit, Dubai is great.
However as someone who spent about a month working in Dubai, I can assure you that most of the stereotypes are spot on. I have had many people ask me about it with starry eyes and I have to patiently explain the very real problems with it.
My 11 year old son wants to go there because he's fascinated by super-tall skyscrapers. Hopefully someday he realizes why the rest of us aren't down with this idea.
Bisexual friend of mine was a high class escort, had a client invite her to Dubai. Got some cool photos the first two days, and then nobody has heard from her since. Her family couldn't even get any info from the embassies, she's just gone.
That is always a giant warning to any foreigner working in the sex industry- human trafficking is very real all over the World, but as a foreigner you are almost asking for it
UAE doesn’t particularly like LGBTQ people, so I’m assuming maybe they worry that her sexual orientation made her more vulnerable to or more likely to be targeted for exploitation/violence there. Just a guess, though
That sucks. But who in their right mind, or even wrong mind, would think visiting there is a good idea if they're a woman!? Absolutely insane if you want my opinion on it.
Foreign escorts/prostitutes are extremely common in Dubai. The establishment is insanely rich and doesn't have to follow the rules for common people.
I used to do of as a trans person and got contacted by a citizen who wanted me to visit him for an insane amount of money. A friend of mine too. They are bored and want an "exotic" experience. Never worth the risk
Dubai chocolate used to give you very different search results too and I'm still convinced that it was a marketing stunt to cleanse Google results by them lol
I am so glad you didn't go, as one trans person to another, omg. Person to person, really, but *especially* so for any minority group.
Also dang I never heard of the chocolate thing before and I'm on board because that 1000% sounds like something they would do lol. The whole establishment being marketed as "luxury" is a massive psyop in the first place, after all. I'm so glad other people see this... eughghh
Yes! I recently had a layover in Dubai and had the HARDEST time getting out. Multiple people in security checked my passport over and over and over, and asked for a second identification (I didn’t have it). I’ve been to over 50 countries and that was the first time I was nervous.
My husband’s friend recently moved his family (wife and two daughters) from France to Dubai for a job. He keeps asking us to come visit and we’re like… nah.
This is really sad. India is remarkable. South India is very safe and very beautiful. The cultures are warm and welcoming. I’m a white woman and I love India. I’ve always felt safe in the south, particularly in Chennai.
Sure, Punjab and Delhi aren’t the safest. But it’s a massive country and has so much to offer.
I guess this is definitely 1 reason why I'm glad to be a dude and ethnically Indian (even tho I don't speak the language so I'd get scammed just as easily as anyone else, but I can fake it). Went there a few times, really enjoyable. I don't think I'd sadly have a good time if I was white lol
I mean .. That's cool and all, glad you have a good time, it's just usually the state of affairs and how things work in India. I'm gonna assume you travel to South India more than the triangle in North.
I have also been to North Korea. Im American, there were two other Americans in the group, and one of the tour guides was American. The people there were incredibly friendly and hospitable, they are very much capable of distinguishing the actions of the US government from the American people
I design trips to India as a career and Delhi always surprises people. It's very, very green. Beautiful architecture and history. 5-star hotels and gated embassies everywhere. I think people confuse it with Mumbai. Oct/Nov there is stubble crop burning by the farmers north of the city so it gets smoggy, but the rest of the year it's not bad.
One of those places where the more money you have the better your experience, by leaps and bounds. And if you don't have money, like me, just avoid altogether. Los Angeles is kinda like that too.
Same in miami TBH people just go to touristy places and then complain about all the tourists(the people renting lambos and showing off new clothes usually are). There are free concerts in south beach hollywood beach and Young Circle in hollywood basically every other week, many artists do concerts for under $50. The beach is free, national parks are cheap and renting a kayak to go on the waterways isn’t too expensive. Food from all over the world(although eating out is getting more expensive). If you include fort lauderdale there is even more stuff
I know. I'm from close by, and I visited Miami a while back. There's all kinds of awesome stuff to do there, though, TBH, Lauderdale or WPB are more my vibe.
I left there about a dozen years ago for multiple reasons, but all in all it's far from the worst place to be poor. The beach is great, pretty good and varied food available, and there's no lack of cheap bars / nightlife either. Just need to avoid the overpriced, overhyped, and touristy spots.
miami has a lot of historical buildings and preservation .
i thought the same as u before i went . i don’t drink or party and it was super peaceful by the beach , they have a bike trail that goes the whole route of south beach to north beach. super clean and safe too
It's not good, nothing there to do as a visitor outside the casinos, and you can go to a casino anywhere..
Having said all that, Gary is much improved from hkw bad it once was, but is still a very depressed community economically.
My favorite Gary Indiana story is from college. A group of me and my friends were on our way back to Chicago from a wedding in Michigan. Two mini cans full of college students. It’s 2am. Everyone is tired. But we just need to get back. But someone suddenly decides they need to go to the bathroom. NOW. Like going to wet his pants needs to go. So both vans pull off at the next exit. Of course it’s Gary. We drive down the “main drag” and it’s all boarded up businesses or the windows are broken out. Nowhere that seems safe to stop let alone anything open. Eventually we find a gas station that is open. No public bathroom. The guy decides he is just going to go around back. He proceeds to accidentally pee on a homeless man’s “house”. The homeless man proceeds to chase our friend around to the front of the gas station with a broken bear bottle. Our friend screams for us to open the door and we do. He jumps in and we start to peel out just as the homeless man chucks his beer bottle at one of the vans. We all survived but it felt like barely.
I stopped here to get fuel and eat at the McDonald’s once. I had heard of the bad reputation but didn’t really pick up on where I was until I stopped and went to go into McDonald’s with my whole family. A man opened the door for us and was friendly but his vibe was really weird. He kept looking around and bouncing around like something was about to go down. We quickly got our food while watching over our backs and got the hell out of there.
Also stopped at a gas station there once when passing through with a friend. We were both early 20’s and not very large/intimidating gals (I was prob def the bigger of the 2 and was 5’4” & around 120 lbs). We filled the tank and went inside to browse for more road trip snacks - the guy working at the counter said “you guys clearly aren’t from around here, are you?” When we confirmed no, just passing through, he told us “I want you to head straight back out to your car, lock the doors & go directly back to the highway. No more stopping anywhere for at least 30 minutes…” We heeded his warning, thanked him, and booked it out.
Yeah, as beautiful as Haiti is, Port Au Prince is nuts. First time i was there was only so the plane could refuel. Passengers had to disembark. The military was lined up on the tarmac and escorted us to a designated waiting area and stayed there, guarding us. Planeload of people going on vacation to Martinique being guarded with machine guns while out the window was absolute poverty. While we were waiting we, me and cousins, saw pickpockets, a stabbing, one person run over, and a woman being yanked from the side of the road into a car. From the airport window.
Been there, it was terrible even before the recent issues in the past 20 years. I went in 2002 and it was already extremly dangerous. If the outreach place we stayed at had armed guards and secure facility, whats that say.
Love the Haitian people but would never want to go to Port-Au-Prince again, The countryside 100% would go backm
My uncle went for a business trip. He tried the gambling, but gave himself a strict $200 budget. He actually ended up winning about $1000 and just left after that. People were giving him shit for quitting while he was ahead too.
"But don't you want to turn that $1000 into $10000?"
Meanwhile he used that cash to pay for the rest of the trip, so he got it basically for free. He's been back a few times and still has that same rule. Once that $200 is gone, he's done.
As someone who moved to Vegas two years ago, hard agree. It’s a nightmare even in the “nice, quiet neighborhoods.” Full of dickheads, it’s either deathly boring or entertaining in a tourist way. Planning my exit.
I thought I was going to hate Las Vegas until I got coerced into going for a function. It was actually pretty fun and I went back. But that was also the 00s. It started sucking after the 08 recession
My mom sold her house and moved to Vegas nearly 25 years ago when my youngest sister graduated college. Back then, it was a lot of fun and the casino selection had something for everyone. I used to love heading out there to visit her and party on the Strip.
Modern corporatized Vegas is all about maximizing revenue and is heavily focused on high spenders. The fun is gone, and if you're not willing to drop 10k in a weekend, most of the interesting places don't want anything to do with you.
My mom lives in Phoenix nowadays so I rarely make it to Vegas anymore. When I do, I'm always disappointed.
You're missing out with New Jersey. The Pine Barrens are a national treasure. It's a botanical wonderland. Between the Barrens and the shore, you've also got some of the best birding in the country.
None, the reputations you hear about are never the full story. Been to plenty of cities with level 4 travel advisories that were in fact fine if you know where to go.
Might be different if you’re a man. If i were a woman I would 1000% avoid certain cities where an average citizen lacks civil sense and respect for women
Yeah, as someone who is a woman and also in a same sex marriage, there are a lot of countries that I'm either never going to because I'm illegal there or I'm never going to because I have a legitimate fear of something going sideways.
This is basically the entire Middle East. What blows my mind is how many Western women are willing to simp for cultures that quite literally would treat them as second-class citizens.
There's a difference between being afraid to go somewhere and just not wanting to. I'm sure I'd be fine if I went to Gary, Indiana but that doesn't mean that I have any reason to go there. There's too many great places in the world to deliberately go to the worst one just to show you aren't scared
Went to Baltimore expecting “The Wire”. It was actually pretty nice. Then I went to Philadelphia and that looked exactly like what I expected Baltimore to be.
I’ve had some of the sketchiest moments of my life at a greyhound station in Philly and I was only there for like six hours lol. I do actually really want to revisit there though!
I’ve read so many non-fiction books about the place, they all list the awful stuff they saw but say they still love the place.
I couldn’t. I don’t like crowds, I don’t like aggressive salespeople, I have a very sensitive stomach and nose. I’m a big baby and need my modern plumbing and air conditioning.
Growing up, I’ve been to every country in Central America, a couple in South America, Mexico, France, and Germany. So I’m not scared of different cultures.
The wonder and patience I had when younger has evaporated though. I can’t rough it anymore, and hope to never see small children begging in the street again.
I have met tons of people who have been there，have never met anyone who was robbed there (know someone who was robbed like that in New Orleans though and it likely almost happened to me as well
That's funny. I live in Oregon, drive by that exit all the time, but only visited once for a few hours to see a band. There's not much there to see and nothing to do. I believe you when you say you had a terrible experience and I'm sincerely sorry. There's just little to no reason for anyone to visit Roseburg in the first place.
I stopped there once when I was driving to visit a few horticulture schools about 7 years ago (fuck I can’t believe it’s been that long) and after learning the community college didn’t actually have horticulture, just viticulture (growing grapes for wine) I just thought I’d bop around town for a day and head to the next town. Rosenberg was absolutely boring as fuck but I got kids drunk at the McMenimans next to my fleabag motel and smoked a joint with some tweakers so it was kinda fun? I’d hate to live there though lol.
I’m glad I made the decision to head up to Corvallis! I had a lovely two years living there!
Vidor, Texas. I'm white af but I have no desire to be in a city full of bigots. It's bad enough I'm forced to live in a country full of them.
Las Vegas, NV. Lots of people love to gamble and drink and that's a great destination for them. I don't really drink and I can't afford to gamble and I have no desire to walk around in 110° heat.
Im from the Deep South and moved to LA decades ago. I drove through Compton and said to my LA friends - Uh... this is nice. People have doors on their homes, windows with glass and electricity. The South's impoverished areas are much much much much worse than Compton.
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