[Columbine]

My eldest cousin spent a not-inconsiderable time working in Dubai. He really liked it, but I suspect it was the sort of city that really suited his personality. A bit 'loadsamonneh~'. From what I hear, it sounds a pretty interesting place even if it doesn't appeal to me personally. Also I do wonder if the kind of Dubai I hear about is really representative of the real UAE; I've travelled a fair bit and usually the capital city doesn't hold the full picture of a country. My cousin thought seemed to find the people there to be very nice, but inevitably, I think there were aspects of the culture that grated on him after a time.

I think possibly, UAE gets overlooked by a lot of people, especially women, as there's a lot of misinformation/assumptions about arab culture and what's expected of foreign visitors. Everything you hear about UAE is about giant new hotels and things as well, so it's not quite like other countries in that certain tourist attractions (historical features, sites of natural beauty, for example) are common knowledge. It's kind of seen as a place you go to for business or rich people go to swank in fancy hotels and blow wads of cash in the shopping malls, not an average holiday.