I grew up in Dubai. It was absolutely amazing in the 1990s. It had a small, casual, beach-town vibe - but with lots of diversity. There were many pockets of the city with authentic character and it had a wonderfully genuine sense of community. It's difficult to convey what it was like back then because I honestly haven't experienced another place like it since. Of course, it did have its issues back then too. But things rapidly began to change in the early 2000s and it lost much of what I described. It's really a pseudo-glamorous playground for the rich now. If you're a person who cares about climate change, human rights, or just walkability it will depress you. But if you love luxury shopping, sure, it will be fun.
Wow I relate to this so much. I also grew up there (I left in 2010) and watching the city transform was wild. I actually studied urban planning in university partly because of my experiences in Dubai. I want to help transform cities into being more walkable and sustainable and Dubai is a great example of the opposite lol. It's still a relatively young place though, perhaps it will change for the better in time.
I have a girlfriend that her family is from there, rest of her family livesi n UAE although her mother and her brothers back in UK. Although her family in UAE can be called upper class. Shes currently in Dubai and the amount of pervert there is unreal, she heard one of the bikers say "Wanna follow her home?" And creeps following in the shopping malls. Its Just a norm there since morals are all lost due to Dubai being built for the west
@@matejaradivojevic3473 I lived in Abu Dhabi and had the same experience with my daughters, but it has nothing to do with the West. It is most definitely a local misogynistic attitude, springing solely from the local entitled culture.
SAME!! I lived there for 15 years and moved out in 2016…. By then it was downhill tbh…. Ive been back a few times since and now its just prostitutes, instagram models, and people who wanna flex… its embarassingly tacky now and i hate that cause it use to be wonderful
As an American visiting Quebec City I was walking back to my hotel needing a haircut when I spied an ad for Afro hair extensions. I did not recall seeing any Blacks in Quebec City. Curiosity got the better of me and I found a hairdresser of literally African descent willing to cut my hair. She had escaped the French Congo, 17 and pregnant, because her village had been attacked by rebels, the women, men and chidren, raped and murdered. She ran on foot to a Catholic mission who gave her refuge with the rebels minutes behind. They were a mission of the diocese in Quebec who flew her to Quebec in February, middle of winter, feet of snow, and temps' well below freezing. She had never seen snow before. She was establishd now with her own business and her daughter of 13 had been raised French-Canadian and knew nothing else. This impacted me greatly. So I understand what you are saying. As a traveller you view things from a different perspective.
@@arianahoule7223 if you go far enough back, even native Americans came from Eurasia. Even further back, people came from the Middle East and eastern parts of the African continent. People have been here for a long time. I recommend you read the book “Sapiens”. Its a good read and you can get a picture of human emigration and evolution.
@@arianahoule7223 That's not exclusive to the USA... In fact, there are MANY countries who handle diversity far worse, mainly due to how homogenous their society has usually been. The USA is just so open & can be covered extensively in the press, private citizens & travelers. You have such a diverse community & country made of immigrants, all legally allowed to speak on it. Contrast that with a homogenous society like China, & you only hear about it after people leave the country.
I immigrated to the US from Russia when I was a kid and I'm so glad you made this video and especially your explanation at the end talking about Dubai, Israel, the US, Russia, Belarus, etc. It was the best explanation about Dubai that I've ever heard and it's refreshing you have such a realistic and empathetic view of the world.
@@linkly9272 Look at his TH-cam picture, he's a Russian warmongering anti-American idiot who wants to divide us, just ignore him. Not all Russians are like that, and we should appreciate each other no matter where we came from, only who we are really matters.
I really felt like that and then I went because a few friends moved there. I was genuinely staggered how much I loved it. I think it’s a fantastic city to visit. To live, might be a bit different; but it is somewhere I’d happily go back to time and time again. Even if it is £13 a pint 😂
Good, i've been there, and it just feels like it has no personality it's all fake glamour not created by any type of culture or people just money. It has the same eerie feeling as an abandoned town, alive but still empty. Best part about being in the emirates was like nfkrz said going to where the local people live in shopping malls not near the city core
All that money and they have built the most desolate anti-human """city""" I have seen in my life lmao - what a complete mess of urban planning. I will say the old district looked pleasant however, shame that Dubai's leaders seemingly have no interest in promoting or integrating their cultural heritage into the wider urban fabric. Just built more skyscrapers bro that'll make things better.
@@AL-lh2ht No I don't? The old quarter which Roman showed seemed very pleasant, clean, compact, walkable and filled with amenities and life. Precisely the kind of place you'd want more of. Maybe its the kind of ignorance which you display that drives Emiratis to build 200 metre tall steel and glass dildos and soulless shopping malls - desperately trying to prove their modernity at the expense of everything that actually has tangible value.
Hey Roman. I'm an Emirati citizen (In Abu Dhabi, not Dubai though) and I wanted to say great work on the video and I'm glad you at least enjoyed your trip in Dubai. I also appreciate your awareness to the many issues the city and I guess the country in general has with stuff like its human rights and treatment of expats (And from first hand experience, a handful amount of racism against them) while not letting it impact the good moments you had and the interactions you've made with the other locals and expats. Have a good day brother and I'm hoping you're doing much better in Europe.
I've worked out in the middle-east a few times - and weird thing about Dubai was that I don't think I met anybody who was a citizen. Everybody I was working was an immigrant from elsewhere in the ME. Outside of work it was ex-pats and immigrants from further flung muslim countries in service roles. Ex-pats (by that I mean white people living there), as a group didn't come across very well. Joined by all the tourists who just milled about in the giant malls. Dubai felt like Disneyland, with more serious security people lurking about shooing the staff away from the guests. Never felt there was a "real Dubai" (I'm sure there is, but it's well hidden) I can only contrast that with Kuwait or Israel. Very different countries, but both felt like "real places" - where normal residents were going about their normal lives. You could walk down a street, wander down a side-street, and find a business that's been there for decades.
@@jackbennett2269 countless massacres of innocent civilians all over the world imposing your western hegemony. Western people are so annoying when it comes to virtue signalling when y'all should be the last ones to talk.
Roman, i am so glad you went to dubai and showed it to us. i really like seeing the world through you. i'm a very old american lady. my mother always encouraged me to go see things for myself before forming an opinion. she said you can see things but don't have to become part of them. i've had a good life and made many interesting friends. let me encourage you to keep doing what you are doing.
this is what i like about roman that sets him apart from other lifestyle vloggers. he brings up the good and the bad, and he gives his unfiltered opinion about the places he travels to. plus, he actually tries to meet genuine and kind people living in these places. this video is a good insight on what's happening in dubai 'cause i have no clue what goes on there.
This was one of the most authentic Dubai videos I've seen. It felt like watching content with all the filters turned off. Even the Lambo life felt more real and less awesome. Great job as always!!
This is one of your best videos, a masterpiece. How you managed to turn a travel video into a social issues discussion is pure genius. Your honest assessments added to the international conversation about Dubai. Ignoring the class divisions in Dubai won't cure anything. You put a spotlight on it, and that can make a difference. Good work.
@@bitterballs356 Much could be said about that.>> I think, though, that it would change the very direction of Roman's channel. It would stir up sentiments of anger and hatred. I suspect that Roman wishes to keep his content more in a travel-centric vein, do you think so? He wants people to show up to have some laughs, to see things they never saw before, to discover places as he discovers them himself. I think the Dubai entry was unavoidable, but I don't believe it will become a habit to comment on political issues. Other channels do that well enough. This of course is my opinion, I'm not an "insider". I don't know what Roman thinks for sure.
He's a great TH-camr, but I guess "pure genius" means just about anything nowadays hey. Adding social commentary to a travel video is not exactly breaking new ground.
I live in Lisbon and we held the world expo in 1998 and we rebuild the whole thing and now it's one of the most noble areas of the city (filled with great museums and one of the largest aquariums in the world, and it's also the financial center of Lisbon). Maybe they're planning to do something similar in Dubai. I think Dubai is more similar to Las Vegas or Hong Kong than to Amsterdam or Prague. Great video! 😍
Sitting in 45 degree weather in the south of Spain right now where cities are designed for pedestrians *because* of the heat. Big wide open roads = frying pans. Narrow streets with taller buildings means more shade. Cadiz and Sevilla have been here for nearly 3000 years. The argument that Dubai is not built for walking in because it gets to 50 degrees in the summer is stupid. They should be using older methods, simple architecture, and combining it with modern technology to alleviate the extreme temperatures. Here they have machines that sprinkle small bits of water from the canopies of restaurants and shops every few minutes to help but in a place like the UAE where it's more necessary, if they took the time they could come up with better things. Also they could plan their day around it as they do here with the break from 2-5 and staying until 1 or 2am.
As someone who was born in Dubai I 100% agree. PLUS the weather in Dubai is quite pleasant for 5-6 months of the year, and it's a shame that you still need a car and can't walk anywhere (unless you live in old dubai or Marina/JBR) even when it's nice out.
Don’t stop being you! Don’t listen to negativity! Keep shining your light and love in this world and keep doing you! The majority of humanity loves and cares for each other! We spend time out of each day of our lives to watch content you create, people take for granted that type of power! We’re here to watch what you do on a daily/weekly by choice! You’re showing the world through your eyes to millions and millions of people around the world who will never ever have the opportunity to travel to these places to see them in person! Keep doing you, for the world is watching!
Well done Roman. You have really come into your own this year - especially the war has thrown you into a new level of thoughtfulness and maturity. Since you grew up in poor circumstances I can imagine how squeamish you were at the opulence and being bowed to. But that kind of hospitality is not uncommon in the world and perhaps someday you can even appreciate such things. I loved the Pakistani cab driver singing the Russian rap to you - priceless! Regards from an old, internationally-traveled lady in Florida!
They could have made a name for themselves by treating and paying the foreign workers well. It would have cost them almost nothing. That shows you something about them.
It's designed to attract decadent wealth, and the wealthy require impoverished people to feel empowered. Why would the rich want to visit if there's nobody around to spit on?
Hows that a point tho against DUBAI. My dad left from india to sharjah(aka where most immigrants live) and he has gotten. 10x better life here then india. O understand that how it’s upsetting knowing that immigrants are treated horrible and bad wages but isnt that a global issue? Alot of place immigrants are treated poorly
Great video Roman. I personally lived in Dubai for 2 years and finished highschool there. My father worked in oil & gas, which is why his company transferred him there. In my personal experience, Dubai feels like a “salad bowl”. America is a melting pot, Canada is a mosaic, and Dubai is a salad bowl. So many different cultures and nationalities mixed in together in one city, especially in the old part of town. Everybody is there because they want to make a living, they’re all driven people, they want to achieve stuff. That’s why they come to that city. And I think those two things are at least 2 reasons why Dubai is a great place to live, for at least 2 years out of anybody’s life.
It may be a playground for the ultra-rich, but I’m nowhere near ultra-rich, and I had a lot of fun there. Stayed by the Marina Walk, which was really nice to stroll around in the evenings. Checked out the old city, had some amazing Pakistani food, did some skiing, hung out in a sub-zero lounge on ice chairs, hung out for hours after dinner one night in a rooftop restaurant watching the boats go down the river, with hookah and tea and cognac. And yes, went up the Burj Khalifa and checked out Palm Jumeira. Though I maintain that the best tower for views remains one of the oldest, in Paris. Through it all, though, I was impressed with how far my dollars were going. I do like Abu Dhabi better, overall. The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the most amazing hotel stay for the price right down the street at the Armed Forces Officers Club & Hotel, the UAE’s own branch of the Louvre out by the water. The green spaces, the emphasis on culture over partying. As for any ethical dilemma, the main one I could understand is around the war in Yemen. Which I was less aware of when I visited, so I can’t really say whether it would have put me off. I’ve been to many other cities with social ills, with undocumented workers paid far below a livable wage, or with governments waging unjust wars. Many of them in Europe, or North America. I guess the only useful advice I might have to offer a visitor, you could find elsewhere. Don’t bother with the public transport in Dubai. It’s far too slow, IMO. Take cabs like everyone else, unless you have a rental. Stay off politics, don’t flip anyone off or curse anyone out, try to wait to take your photos until any ladies are out the shot, although everywhere but the beaches they’ll be dressed modestly or sometimes even in accordance with the Islamic laws of their home countries. And the advice I give anyone traveling overseas. Don’t engage, in any way whatsoever, with the drug scene or the sex trade. No matter what you get up to back at home.
I've lived and worked in Dubai for a few months, I'll be concise: slave labor, virtually no human rights for the poor, backwards medieval law system, most realestate is build with the goal of laundering dirty money for foreign criminals, racism is rampant and actually living in those temperatures for an extended period of time ( after living in Denmark) is like hell on earth. Need I say more? In my opinion there is literally no redeeming qualities about Dubai, saying it's good because it has a few shiny skyscrapers and fancy restaurants is like saying Ted Bundy was a nice guy because he was handsome. It's pure psychopathy that's running that place.
Wow, the sheer hatred you have my friend. I really don’t think you’ve actually stayed in Dubai. Please give me examples of what you’ve just said? Real specific ones, if you can’t come up with any then you’re either just making stuff up or generalizing. I lived here my whole life and have traversed throughout the whole country. It really does not appear to me that Dubai is nearly as bad as you described it.
It's good because it has first world living conditions and opportunities. How about that as a redeeming quality? Even the migrant worker who goes there to work on construction they're making 2-3 times what they made at home with accommodations and food paid.
that last rant was phenomenal roman, love your attitude and connection to people rather than this weird holier than thou attitude people have with respect to others. the normal (non skyscraper) dubai looks lovely and i would have never guessed it existed otherwise. respect and keep doing whet you do.
I spent my 18 years growing up in the UAE in Sharjah with parents, both of whom are overseas workers. And growing up from there, I can definitely say that Dubai, as a city, has no identity, apart from its persona. I mean, it's what you get from wanting to be as the most "culturally-looking-diverse" place anywhere in the world. Heck, it's the most politically progressive country in the Middle East, and this includes the educational system that's forced into all schools too. Growing up in a private school, that has a foreign curriculum than that from the UAE's, we were taught that the UAE is trying to move its economy from oil-based to markets, commerce, business, and most importantly, a tourist based economy. So it would make sense for Dubai, as a city, to live under a persona - that Dubai, is on purpose, soulless because it tries to appeal to any person that goes to the UAE with business, commerce, and/or tourist intentions. (Although it sounds like a dystopia that forgets about all its history in exchange for money, in the educational system of the UAE, even in private schools with different curriculums, we are taught about the history and its importance about the UAE from lifestyle of the old days to even Sheikh Zayed. We were when taught about the history of Sheikh Zayed, portrayed as someone who is very wise, kind, and a role model that pointed the course of UAE to where it is now. And in the book made my Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Flashes of Thought, there were these 6 visions of plans for the UAE that was being taught to us like Bible verses. In one of those 6 visions, there's the vision, "Cohesive society and Preserved Identity. And I bet that they're able to preserve their own identities on their own by giving high benefits to having an Emirati blood than compared to having none.) And in the residential areas, or places where people live in, you get the standard Islamic culture that follows Islam, these few between monuments that commemorate the history of that exact place, and still-standing relics of the old. Same goes to the whole country. For example, around the Al Majaz Waterfront of Sharjah, one that's near Sharjah Carrefour, you'd see these 2 monuments and that one of them is literally a boat, based on the past of the UAE that used to be mostly about fishing, sea commerce, pearl harvesting in the past. From what I can remember, they've been able to keep the spirit of the past alive because of these dates trees that you'd see almost everywhere in the cities of the UAE, with the mosques that are almost everywhere you go. There's a distinct taste in the UAE from all the 7 Emirates, just not in the city of Dubai TL;DR: Dubai is a city, that is also an emirate (or federal state, the closest analogy for an emirate), and the city is soulless on purpose in order to appeal to the masses. This coincides with their plans to shift their economy from an oil-based industry, to a mostly tourism-centric industry, and they're keeping their identities alive by giving local Emiratis benefits for having an Emirati blood, and barely any to overseas workers. And there's more to the UAE than just Dubai >:/
I've been in Sharja and Dubai a week ago, and it was very different, I honestly enjoyed Sharja way more, people were friendly, kinda shy but very nice. Big strong beautiful buildings. Fine streetfood, and overall very impressive. Except when I was trying to get to airport and I got stuck in a middle of desert (stop was called National Cable or smthg). That was very hot and unfortunate.
"Soulless on purpose", sounds like some bs to me. NYC has a lot of soul and appeals to many people, so do many other cities. To a large number of people Dubai does not appeal at all for that specific reason. Thanks for the explanation though!
@@Moe5Tavern Becaus NY was organically build through the centuries and has always been a cultural hub because since foreves it has been a place were immigrants of pretty much every country arrived in the US, and that's the reason that it appeal to everyone and it has soul, Dubai was planned to be like that, NY just end up being like that.
Giving Emiratis benefits for having Emirati blood is called racism and a caste system. It is also not the most progressive country in the middle east. Israel, Turkey, hell maybe even Lebanon are more progressive.
We really appreciate how articulate you are about a complex amazing/evil place like Dubai. We need more nuanced views on TH-cam such as the ones you provide here. Keep up the great work.
2,5 years ago I flew from Nairobi Kenya to Doha (and on to Finland from there). Next to me was a woman from Kenya that was going to work in Doha / Dubai with couple dozen of other alike in the plane. I told her to be careful, and we became Facebook friends, so we agreed she'll tell me how things are then. I never heard from her since. She never posted on Facebook since.
also i respect you for even knowing and ACKNOWLEDGING the issues. A LOT of people are incredibly, stupidly ignorant. you are NOT one of those people, so relax :)
@@lrn_news9171 I wouldn’t go that far. But I agree with the sentiment. The city has major issues, but even a bad place has shades of grey, and being aware of them is a good thing. Being able to look at things neutrally and objectively (or as much as you can, because we’re all human) is a good thing and it is something the world needs more of.
@@andreimircea2254 Dubai as a whole is a modern first world city and a lot of people make a good living there. It's not a bad city. Nowhere as bad as many other cities in the middle east like those of Pakistan for instance lol
Good work, Roman, you laid it out perfectly and I for one would not criticize you for taking advantage of such a life enriching experience. I'm a citizen of the USA but was born in Latin America, and brought to America as a very young child. I'm very cognizant of our own socio-political issues to write off any other country outright, even though their governments might not be the best. I've traveled all over the world and find that most people are decent and respectful of others.
Emiratis are historically nomadic, so it kind of makes sense that they haven't lived in the same neighborhood forever, but yes the urban planning of Dubai is very confusing.
Great point about wondering what would happen to the Expo site and buildings. They recently announced they're turning it into a residential area and some companies will be moving into and using the pavilions for business purposes. Obviously it's wasteful but at least the metro line and developed area will be put to use. Especially since there were quite a few people that liked Expo and the way it was laid out. Relatively walkable and pristine. Also it's a bit unfair to base all the UAE solely on the impression of Dubai. Other cities in the UAE like the capital, Abu Dhabi, have completely different layout and images on what they're trying to portray. Would be happy to answer any Q's.
Being from Tel Aviv, this is one of the first times Ive seen someone casually mention my city in a youtube video- let alone show my street! Thanks for keeping politics out of it, not being scared to speak your mind and talk about your experiences, Roman
Being an Arab from Basra I absolutely love Tel Aviv it’s such an amazing city. As an Iraqi I love the Israeli people!! The politicians don’t speak on our behalf’s. God Bless us all humanity and I’m extremely sorry for what happened to Tel Aviv because of my country.
I absolutely love Tel Aviv - one of my favourite places in the word. It’s such a special place, full of multicultural history, beautiful nature etc. Here’s hoping for eventual lasting peace for the region and all who live there too soon. Looking forward to visiting soon again hopefully 🤗
That's what we love about you Roman. You look at things with an open mind and heart. You weigh the pros and cons, and come to reasonable, honest conclusions.
I feel this was a great video for the current time, there’s really good people in every country all over the place, we should never let the few bad people define the good ones
As an Emirati Citizen, I enjoyed the hell outta of this Video, and I Appreciate the Fact that you Brought these issues to light, And I love the fact that you didn’t let the Negatives Cloud your Judgement of the People in Dubai, but I wish that you Visited the other Emirates, they are more Lively and Vibrant than Dubai, Best of luck with your Future Endeavors. Btw I’m from Sharjah
You hit the nail on the head, when you break it down, every single country has some screwed up past or current issues going on. That doesn't make you or the people there bad. And if people really want to boycott other people based on where they're from or where they visit it shows just how ignorant they are.
Exactly, either move on from the past entirely & enjoy life for what it is or lose everything. The sooner idiots stop holding on grudges, the better the world can be
But Dubai’s problems aren’t in the past, they are in the present and the future. They are still treating thousands of workers like human garbage, leading to people being worked to death, starving from having their salaries withheld, or committing suicide because of the horrible conditions and the fact that they can’t go back home. When people criticize Dubai or the Emirates they’re not criticizing the people who live there or who go on vacation there, at least not as such - they’re criticizing a system which oppresses people, mismanages money and resources for enormous prestige projects rather than a livable city for normal people, and creates huge environmental problems wherever they go. You can’t simply chalk it up to “every country/city has its problems” - Dubai sets itself aside with its horrendous leadership, which is reflected in the equally awful infrastructure, urban planning, environmental damage and human rights violations. It is an awful city built on awful principles, and the only redeeming feature is the people, the regular folks who don’t go around driving Lamborghini’s and spending every day in luxury malls and hotels, but living life like in any other city, and trying to make it a better place. But until those people control the city and stops the catering towards rich tourists and business men, Dubai will remain a terrible, terrible city.
Dowtown dubai is that the rest where residents actually live (bro its 4 dirhams for water in downtown dubai notthe usual 1) the rest is pretty cool deira is a great place to live its a nice place (used to be a resident deira)
One austrian or german hotel director said to a businesspartner of mine: "The arabs lived in tents. When the oil thing is over, they will live in tents again."
Love your video. I was there in February also because a relative was working at the Expo 2020 (I must have just missed you). Like you it was never on my list of places to go and I felt out of place in all the extravagance. But my relative showed me and my brother Deira City and we stayed in a hotel in an immigrant residential area, and I was glad to see the nuance beyond the hype and the disdain. It’s not a place I would choose to live but my relative wanted to live there if she could land a good job (she speaks Arabic). Your video was spot on. Recently I was nostalgic for my time here, and I found a video of the entire red line Metro trip and watched the whole thing, listening to the train announcements in Arabic and English and seeing the whole city from the amazing Metro. People hate on the Metro, but the plan is to extend it to all the neighborhoods, it’s a new system, it’s nice, it’s fast, and every Metro starts with one or two lines,
Thank you for putting together this interesting take on Dubai. You were able to show and tell different stories about Dubai that I have never heard before. I'm glad you chose more than just "OOOoooo, so many big shiny buildings!".
Just wanna say that this has been a really, really good video. One of your best lately. Thanks for the effort! And even though it's "outdated", it didn't matter in the slightest.
I love it when Roman goes deep (get your mind out of the gutter😂) This is one of your best videos. Btw, your question about the world festival is a question every host city has to answer, and has had to answer since it began in the 1800s. Sometimes, like the 1904 exhibition in St Louis, they built a couple of buildings as planned permanent buildings, which are today the art museum and a building for a private university, plus a huge birdcage on grounds that became the zoo. But most buildings are built as temporary structures and simply torn down. They use cheaper materials, but still it seems like such a huge waste. Back then it was financially beneficial for a city because it was a big deal and people would travel far just to go to the fair and the cities made money off of it. But I’m pretty sure that these days the host city doesn’t recoup the cost, just like the olympics.
It's a huge blessing when someone asks you to pray for them. Even if you forget, consider it done. You have a great heart, Roman, and I will pray for you ... love from the USA.
I lived in Kuwait and Abu Dhabi for a few years. Of the Gulf States, I only liked Oman enough to recommend it to someone to visit. Once I saw all the sights and frights of the Gulf States, I spent my long weekends in Turkey. That country is fantastic. UAE is good for golf. Learnt kitesurfing in Kuwait.
I'm from the Philippines and I have, IIRC, millions of compatriots there. Basically the same reason and job as Indians and Pakistanis. They in fact rub shoulders a lot. There are also Filipino citizens who were born and raised in the UAE but never had any citizenship. In fact, I know of someone who was born and raised in Dubai but she and her family eventually needed to repatriate back here after decades of living there. She also has to move here, as well as her brother who hasn't finished his schooling yet. As for human rights violations against immigrant workers, confiscating their passports is unfortunately a very typical story among those who end up as domestic employees (maids, drivers, etc.) There are also stories of domestic abuse, rape, and even murder of maids that I unfortunately have to hear in the news growing up. Don't get me started on what kind of life my compatriots have to suffer after losing their jobs due to COVID-19 and stuck because there are no flights to book.
It's great that you took the time to explore both the good and the bad of Dubai. I’ve been living here for a few years, and while the city has its challenges, there are also many opportunities and unique experiences. When I moved, I worked with Bolster Group to help me navigate the complexities of setting up my life and business here. It’s not all black and white, as you said, and having the right support makes a big difference in experiencing Dubai fully.
Hey Roman, your Russian fan here. I have traveled a lot and am living in Dubai now for 3 months. My experience is exactly the same, and honestly this place is just nice for cashing out and buying property in other places of the world. My boyfriend is from Pakistan, he has been building a business here for around 10 years. Here I came to respect Islam and understand people with a totally different culture more. All the issues are there, including women’s rights issues. But aren’t there any in the US, Russia and pretty much everywhere? The people here are very sweet if you try to be open and make connections. But yeah this city still feels like a fever dream rn, it’s 44 degrees today. Waiting for autumn to explore even more. Although, this city is a great example that money can’t buy taste or brains if you don’t have it. The planning is hideous. Going to Georgia soon to get some rest from the heat :)
Does your boyfriend exploit migrant slave labour from Pakistan? Plenty of Middle East migrants exploited and abused as slaves in your primitive new homeland. Still, not so different to Russia eh.
@@allenk6373 I personally know women who are not local, as well as those who have been married to local. and they are in a lot of trouble because in any law or any government system there are holes and mistakes unfortunately. I can’t share their stories openly. They can’t share their stories openly too. moreover, you never know what is happening behind closed doors even of those who are successful
Roman this video is you at your best. You do not need to defend yourself against any critic. Your work speaks for humanity with all our qualities and all our failings. Just be yourself and share your adventures and each of us will get what we need. The coincidences you so ably contend with are the essence of life that make your explorations so appreciated.
This video is a masterclass in PR. Your unique perspective and honesty immediately makes this video so much more worthwhile than any dubai video. I was expecting a dubai travel video and I got that and more. Your unique take on dubai turning into basically a video essay on influencers and publicized lifestyles was kinda genius. Managing to "explain yourself" while staying genuine. Preempting criticism at every turn without losing any of your personality. Evening managing to drop an ad and it just makes sense after giving the context. If you wanted a career in Public Relations this video is a perfect resume. But it all comes from you being yourself and being genuine. huge respect.
Great video Roman! I have to be honest, if you try hard enough, you can find dirt about any place in the world. It is easy to find reasons not to visit a place if you make a goal of it. It is easy to forget that people are really the same all over the world. So many kind and friendly people who are just trying to makes ends meat and that is the majority of everyone in a country. We get very distracted by governments and big businesses and what they do, every country has something nice about it especially when it comes down to the normal everyday people.
Wow great video, love the format 💯 You're spot on about visiting a place and judging it correctly. Mad respect for visiting the real people, the working class and service industry areas. I try to do that everywhere I go. Best Dubai travel vlog I've seen. Well done.
Great job checking out a new place with a discerning mind. I prefer learning about new places from someone like you with their feet on the ground or their “butt in a Ferrari passenger seat” than from a tourist ad. Thanks 🙏🏼
That was a very fair and intelligent observation of your experience. The older you get and more well traveled you are, the more you can debunk all the cliche prejudices internet trolls who've never been anywhere have.
Thank you for making this video. I'm not all about the lavishness of Dubai and didn't have any interest in visiting until I saw this video and your comments about Bur Dubai... That's what I would love to see.
Last I've been to The UAE (Dubai in particular) was in 2006, at ten years old. It's a nice place when you're a kid going there with family and playing at arcades and fun-parks. It looks like a depressing mess if you are there as an adult.
16:40 thank you for addressing this. People who have never been to Dubai and know nothing about it always paint the same picture. The issues with the immigrant workers does not lie within the Dubai/UAE government but rather the agencies and companies themselves. The government has a labor court in which people can go to and file cases. The government have instilled strict laws on human rights, for example: Years ago maids were brought into Dubai privately through private agencies and had alot of issues. So in one fell swoop all things regarding hiring maids fall under the Dubai government in order to end the problems with the private agencies. The same goes to laborers. The agencies back in India and Pakistan manipulate them into signing a contract where they will have to pay an absurdly large sum of money back. This is outside of the the government’s jurisdiction. I have witnessed this myself. A worker asked me to check some guy out. He was an Indian agent that promised him that if he paid him $5000 he would get him a guaranteed Canadian Passport. I told him immediately that it was a lie and to file it to the police. The UAE is cracking down on these issues but it requires time and effort and will be gradual.
Trust me most of the people know its down to private agencies owned by Indians but they want any excuse to hate the Arabs. Could be because they hate Muslims, or could be because they grew up watching tv and movies which show all Arabs as evil devils. For those who don't know how business agencies work, they just repeat the same thing like sheep. Words like "soulless" "dead" "bad planning" are all spread from Reddit and that hater Adam Something.
Great take and really nice commentary at the end there. No place is perfect, and if we're to seek the bad in everything, nobody would ever step foot out of their own houses. I hope this gets people to rethink their own biases and the sheer amount of opportunity they're missing out on in their lives.
I lived in the UAE (Abu Dhabi) for 5 years, 2010 to 2015. Whilst I found Dubai to be both a fantastic city of the future along with the more traditional city: Dubai Creek, the Gold Souk, etc.. I think that Abu Dhabi is a more livable city than Dubai. Whilst both cities require cars, it takes forever to get from one part of Dubai to another. That's not the case for Abu Dhabi.
I moved to Dubai a year ago for work. before that for me it was i place i would never come back to for my own money. visited it in 2015. but opportunity presented itself and i decided to try it out and after living for a year i am in love. and i lived without a car, i am lucky enough to be living in marina and in winter time i can cycle all the way to Burj Khalifa and a lot of other places. summer is hard, yes. but look at it as winter in eastern europe. i dont go out much in winter back home either and life is quite misarable. there is a lot of cool and creative people from all walks of life here, sick mountains to hike around, you can freedive with turtles, sharks and whatever other cool fishes just 1,5 hour drive, and it's super safe so i don't even have it in the back of my head that somebody can rob me and yes there are issues, but hey, what place doesn't have them? there is no perfect place. ough, and you pay no taxes on your salary, forgot about that :D
people already shit a lot on american cities when it comes to there planning. Dubai has them beat on car centric design, it looks like an oversized disneyworld
Name me one major American city that built its downtown along an Interstate Highway. Many cities are encircled by freeways, but it‘s very seldom that the core of a city gets cut through by one, let alone everything in that city revolves around that respective freeway.
This was probably the best video I've seen of yours (and I really love ALL your videos; I get excited every time a see a NFKRZ vid drop!) but this one was surprisingly deep, insightful, beautiful, and I would have felt the exact same way. I live in the USA but in a very down-to-Earth place, and Dubai looks and sounds like our Las Vegas.
It blows my mind how similar people around the world can be to each other. For example I see a lot of myself in Roman it’s quite incredible. Anyway thank you for the content my brother
Strange, when you mentioned the Ferrari video I don't remember it ever showing up in my feed so TH-cam might've not liked the thumbnail or something because I had been watching your videos almost every day during that time.
Before finishing the intro, I was writing a comment about slavery in Dubai. Glad you mentioned it. I still don't think anyone should go there, and benefit from slavery, but at least you are aware of it. I have seen the Adam Something video, but thats not where I "Learned" about it, a bit dismissive to say that. Major journalists and news organizations have stated it too. Of course, other countries have used slavery, including the US but no one is actively using it to the same extent. And its not like I'm completely oblivious, other countrys do it too, and thats ALSO bad.
@@AL-lh2ht Where did I claim that? I never did. You are putting words in my mouth? However, there is a well-documented practice, by the Guardian, NYT, Toronto Star, AlJezeera, etc, that specifically in Indonesia people are recruited to work in Dubai, once they move there, they steal their passports giving them no recourse. Depending on their family prominence and power they would not to this to people who have the proper recourse. Obviously, they do not do this to those from other countries that would have recourse. This does not happen to everyone, but again I NEVER said it did.
Most of the times, metro being constructed next to a highway is for price reasons (land is cheaper next to a 8x8 road lol). Weird how dubai cheaped out on public transport.
It’s because public transport is for regular, working/middle class people, whereas Dubai exclusively cares about the rich who are only want to drive around in expensive cars rather than share a bus or train carriage with the ‘poors’. They don’t give a shit about anyone who isn’t a wealthy tourist or businessman.
Honestly it's questionable whether Dubai did it for any legitimate reason like cost concerns. 90% of the urban infrastructure projects in Dubai have less thought put into it than most cities put into designing a dog park. It's just as believable that they did it so the lower class that uses public transit could watch the lamborghinis of the aristocrats on the highway as some sort of power move.
As someone who lives in Dubai I can say you’ve nailed it. The lack of basic infrastructure and fake nature makes it slightly off putting. I lived in spb before and still visit often and prefer the look of spb and the beautiful architecture. If it wasn’t for the political situation I’d move back in a heartbeat. Ps: nobody cares about the trams lmao they’re useless and most people just ride the scooters instead. One thing I don’t get is your remark on prostitution in JBR , I’ve walked through the area many times and never seen it.
There’s enough in the bars around the marina. Visit the underground bar for instance any night and there’s enough elderly gentleman talking to women of the night. Not that I’d recommend visiting that bar.
@@baderhabib6606 yes not much we can do about the nature, but the infrastructure is bad & very unwalkable and I’ve noticed it even more after I’ve moved to Berlin. We have 6 months of decent weather in Dubai but you still need a car to go anywhere (unless you live in specific areas like JBR which are expensive). What a waste.
@@Herebedragons991 it’s not a waste it’s designed like that for a reason🤦♂️ just because a city is built different to other western city’s doesn’t mean it’s bad lmfao
I've never been to a fancy Dubai hotel before, but I have experienced some similar "bow down" kind of costumer service. It was incredibly awkward. I've never felt more uncomfortable in my life.
Definitely one of your best ever videos, really well structured, especially liked your comments on the social fabric of the place. You could be a great travel vlogger, if your passport doesn't close your options down too much in the future. Your English turns of phrase are very impressive, better than many of my fellow Englishmen. Hope you can do more like this, it also proves that content can still be great without involving much swearing.
Roman, you are an incredibly intelligent and insightful young man, wise way beyond your years. I suspect your travels and interaction with your fan base has honed your social skills.
There is no way ur relying on false propaganda and criticism on the internet to determine ur views on a city u have never actually physically been there
I’m an immigrant and have been living in the UAE since I was a kid. It always baffled me that people outside UAE felt that Dubai was a soulless city and had the appearance of something out of a video game. Because that isn’t my experience with Dubai. I understand this is because the people who feel this way are tourists who see only the glamorous parts of the city. And I don’t feel this way about Dubai because my life here has been just going to school, getting groceries, meeting friends and other regular everyday activities people do in any other city- not so glamorous. So, kudos to you for visiting Bur Dubai and Deira and seeing more of the life us “normal” people live. I just want to clarify certain things: 1. The metro doesn’t just run along Sheikh Zayed Road, that’s just the longest part of the red line. The green line of the metro (which is connected to the red one at two stations) is more accessible to areas that aren’t posh. I used the metro everyday to go to school as a kid and it made life very easy for me. The metro is connected by a network of buses, so you don’t have to take a taxi to the metro stations. Most of us don’t have the money for that shit 2. The Expo site is going to be converted into District 2020 and will have both offices and residential buildings. So, the place isn’t a complete waste of money and resources (though it is a bit of a waste because the country pavilions will all be discarded). So the metro line extension is not a waste either. Because people will use that station and the other new stations before it. 3. The poorer locals don’t live in the old cities of Dubai, but they haven’t completely disappeared. A lot of them live in the other emirates- Sharjah, Ajman, Abu Dhabi etc. It is only the well off nationals who can afford to live in Dubai. I understand this is a feature of every country. The wealthier people move outside the city and live in larger houses that would be impossible to have in the crowded urban center. 4. The only critique of Dubai I actually share is the treatment of workers. There is a lot of abuse and terrible working and living conditions. My mom is a civil engineer and works directly with such workers. She knows that they have a really time and sees how they get exploited by their boss. She had had to cover for them many times for their simple human mistakes that would cost them a lot if their boss knew about it. The labor laws are lacking and heavily favor the employer. During the pandemic, they actually allowed companies to not pay their workers for a long stretch of time. Even my mom, an engineer, did not get paid fully in this period despite bringing in more than the usual amount of revenue. As you said about one of the workers, they have to live in small rooms shared with 3 other people. But, I don’t know if that’s too much different from my European student accommodation I pay hundreds of euros for to share the kitchen and bathroom with 17 other people. I see this not as a Dubai issue but as an issue of capitalism. Worker exploitation is not a feature exclusive to this country, but a problem that plagues the whole world although at different levels. Western capitalist countries laid the path, UAE is just using said path. This doesn’t absolve the country of anything of course. It still needs to improve working conditions for the poorest of workers. 5. Continuing with the immigrant worker issue, I can’t ignore that a lot of us actually have a better life here than we could have back in our home countries. I don’t remember much of my life back in India as I was just 6 years old when I left, but I know that we weren’t doing well financially. Coming here changed our lives for the better. Even as an engineer, my mom can’t get the same well paying job as a woman back in India. And the social exclusion there as a single mother makes life unlivable. In Dubai, nobody cares about that shit and she can make enough money to raise me and send me to Europe to get an education, something we couldn’t even have imagined if we were still in India. This holds true not just for the immigrant office workers like my mom, but also the “unskilled” labor. The people we know who work in construction have been able to make enough money to build themselves modest homes back in India, send their children to university to make them engineers, buy gold jewelry to pay dowry (I’m not even going to start on how exploitative this is) for their daughters to marry relatively well off men. Point is, moving here gives immigrants a lot of upward social mobility that would’ve been impossible if we stayed back in India. Note that back in India, it’s not just our economic background that’s holding us back, but also our position in the caste system. We have zero upward social mobility in India because of the caste system and because we got to came here, we can make enough money to break out of our position in the caste system at least by a little. There are entire villages full of Dalit people back in my state in India who have been able to get a life of dignity, a job with dignity, that our country doesn’t afford them. 6. I’m just nitpicking now, but the place outside Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall was empty when you visited because you went during the day. We don’t go there during the day, Roman. We’re in our air conditioned offices in that hour. Even during the weekends, we don’t venture out that early. We’re all sleeping in and go out only after 5 in the evening. Even when we do go out, we don’t always go to Dubai Mall (that’s more of a tourist spot) because we can’t really afford to shop there. We go to other malls like Deira City Center and Mirdif City Center. Go to the Burj Khalifa area at night the next time and it’ll be so crowded you won’t even have space to stand and watch the dancing fountains. - I really appreciate the nuance with which you approached this video. Unlike other outsiders who make videos about Dubai just shitting on it, you actually took a nuanced approach and discussed the problems with the city without making it out to be the center of all that is evil. Again, I love that you visited Bur Dubai and Deira. If you get to visit UAE again (and I really hope that you do), try visiting the other emirates. Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road is just what we project to the outside world. In the other Emirates, you can see the regular people like me and how we live our lives. You can see the mountains of Jebel Ali, the beach of Khor Fakkan, the markets of Al Awir, the Hatta dam and so many other beautiful places. It’s not just a concrete jungle, I promise. Good luck to you in Georgia and I hope everything gets better with the….. situation.
4:00 - I'm from rural Ontario (aka hillbilly country) here in Canada, so when I got my first taste of real world-class luxury on my honeymoon in Mexico that was more or less my first impression too. But after colliding awkwardly with one resort employee too many as I tried to do for myself something they had a servant for, I got an after-hours lesson from the concierge in how to be a "good guest" of the kind of establishment where hospitality isn't just an empty word, but the very core spirit of the place. He was joined by a cook a few minutes in to this talk who was waiting for her carpool home for the night, that saw us chatting and figured we could use some cigars, and she summed it up thusly for him; "Cancun is our home and you are our guest. How do you treat guests in your city?" Service isn't just a job to some people, it's a passion. A calling. Some serve the poor in shelters and soup kitchens. Some serve the rich in hotels that feel more like palaces. Some exceptional few do both, full-time at the hotel and then volunteer at the poor kitchen. If it ain't you that's cool, but don't be thinking it has to be some great hardship for them. Those who think of it as just a way to get by tend to not put in the effort needed to stay on at places like that.
On my trip to Dubai. I asked a worker at my Apartment where are all the people? There are all these tall buildings and there is no traffic on the freeway. Hardly anybody in the malls. I was very impressed with this shopping center which is sort of on the way to Abu Dhabi. There are 2 of them and they had everything you can think of except autos. If you could think of it, you could get it there. Idid not understand the Falcon thing. But I loved the fact that you are not over policed like here in the US and it is the safest place I have ever been. I have no plans to ever go back, but I have family that may move there, so I might go hang out with them for a few days.
When the local immigrants you talked to mentioned the fact that Dubai, or the UAE as a whole, is a land of opportunities, they were right. My parents were expats from Syria and they both had diplomas in Syrian universities. They came to Dubai in the early 90s for job opportunities with their degrees. After living there for a few years, they managed to gain and create a new successful life for themselves. One became a manager of an American company that was based there and the other became a known architect who helped design a few skyscrapers and suburban houses in and near downtown. Mind you, they were not privileged in Syria. They were considered as high-low class citizens at the time and the reason they moved to the UAE was to help their parents back home. Which is the case for the majority of the people who live in the UAE. It did not matter which country you came from, you will be able to find a good job in Dubai. Unlike in Western countries where my parents would not be able to find the same job opportunities they had in the UAE. (Although, I can't speak for the migrants from South Asia because I have not seen their perspective, but I have met a few and most of them said that they are living comfortably.) We moved to Canada in 2016 and honestly, my parents were struggling. Their degrees did not allow them to get good jobs, thus meaning they had to work for other jobs that included risks and low pay. They hated it. They wanted to move back after a year living there, but it wasn't possible. Now, we still live in Canada, but in a better state than before. However, our lives here only make up a small percentage if we compare it to our lives in the UAE economically speaking. Basically, yes, the UAE has made itself a land of opportunities that even expats or migrants from countries, to which Western countries would shun, have found ways to live a normal and comfortable life here regardless of how their situation was before. Business and commerce still thrive in the UAE and I highly doubt that the average person, who is skilled in those sectors, will be jobless.
15:20 yes, you are correct. Dubai does not have the weather of Amsterdam or Berlin. It gets very hot and humid during the summer months and is just not a good idea for the city to be mostly pedestrian-oriented. However, the city is planning on making it more pedestrian oriented in the future keeping the hot climate in mind. They are planning to reshape the city by 2040 I believe. People are very quick to judge Dubai but keep forgetting that 30 years ago the city was just a desert with a few buildings and a fishing town. All the other major cities around the world have had the chance to go through the Industrial Age and economic booms decades ago while we’re just going through it now.
15:44 I mean, old arabic towers and cities were walkable because they had basar's. And there are more planing solutions to make a walkable city in the desert. Also hot weather doesn't excuse the lack of a working public transit system.
Honestly never considered visiting the UAE, However after watching some of your recent vids it’s most definitely not worth a visit or a long vacation. I’ll just optimize for Oman instead.
I’ve heard awesome things about Oman. At present, though, I’m looking forward to more trips to Mexico. For me, it offers a nice combination of old and new, adventure travel and luxury, without the incredibly long flight.
Oman is def on a very short list of places I want to go but unfortunately it’s gonna be between that and Bhutan probably , because they are both equally insanely expensive to visit lol.
Your point at the end is a solid one I'm not sure if I'll change my mind about going to countries with on going controversies, but you have certainly given me something to think about; thank you.
As a woman resident who has been living here in Dubai for the past 14 years, I can tell Dubai is one of the safest places on earth for women.You can walk around at midnight but nobody will bother you.This is the thing I admire about Dxb the most.
I'm born in Dubai and after 2014 it became plastic and any music scene went with it. no real music scene just commercial crap, nothing authentic for that matter and it was all about getting drunk and trying to get girls nothing else (even though it's 5 guys to 1 girl). By that point I was sick of the racism and how people judge you by the skin colour and everyone I knew had already left and it just felt like the country was becoming more and more morally bankrupt. Not to mention one wrong move and the country will bankrupt you before chucking you out years later
Part of the reason it looks like a ghost town during the day is because it is so F'n hot. People come out at night...and during the day they stay inside and walk through a/c tunnels.
I grew up in Dubai. It was absolutely amazing in the 1990s. It had a small, casual, beach-town vibe - but with lots of diversity. There were many pockets of the city with authentic character and it had a wonderfully genuine sense of community. It's difficult to convey what it was like back then because I honestly haven't experienced another place like it since. Of course, it did have its issues back then too. But things rapidly began to change in the early 2000s and it lost much of what I described. It's really a pseudo-glamorous playground for the rich now. If you're a person who cares about climate change, human rights, or just walkability it will depress you. But if you love luxury shopping, sure, it will be fun.
Wow I relate to this so much. I also grew up there (I left in 2010) and watching the city transform was wild. I actually studied urban planning in university partly because of my experiences in Dubai. I want to help transform cities into being more walkable and sustainable and Dubai is a great example of the opposite lol.
It's still a relatively young place though, perhaps it will change for the better in time.
I have a girlfriend that her family is from there, rest of her family livesi n UAE although her mother and her brothers back in UK. Although her family in UAE can be called upper class. Shes currently in Dubai and the amount of pervert there is unreal, she heard one of the bikers say "Wanna follow her home?" And creeps following in the shopping malls. Its Just a norm there since morals are all lost due to Dubai being built for the west
"They do dumb things."
"What do you mean they do dumb things? They have the tallest building in the world."
"It's empty!"
@@matejaradivojevic3473 I lived in Abu Dhabi and had the same experience with my daughters, but it has nothing to do with the West. It is most definitely a local misogynistic attitude, springing solely from the local entitled culture.
SAME!! I lived there for 15 years and moved out in 2016…. By then it was downhill tbh…. Ive been back a few times since and now its just prostitutes, instagram models, and people who wanna flex… its embarassingly tacky now and i hate that cause it use to be wonderful
As an American visiting Quebec City I was walking back to my hotel needing a haircut when I spied an ad for Afro hair extensions. I did not recall seeing any Blacks in Quebec City. Curiosity got the better of me and I found a hairdresser of literally African descent willing to cut my hair. She had escaped the French Congo, 17 and pregnant, because her village had been attacked by rebels, the women, men and chidren, raped and murdered. She ran on foot to a Catholic mission who gave her refuge with the rebels minutes behind. They were a mission of the diocese in Quebec who flew her to Quebec in February, middle of winter, feet of snow, and temps' well below freezing. She had never seen snow before. She was establishd now with her own business and her daughter of 13 had been raised French-Canadian and knew nothing else. This impacted me greatly. So I understand what you are saying. As a traveller you view things from a different perspective.
Beautiful story and well written. The USA forgets that we are all immigrants...except for the American Indian.
@@arianahoule7223 if you go far enough back, even native Americans came from Eurasia. Even further back, people came from the Middle East and eastern parts of the African continent. People have been here for a long time. I recommend you read the book “Sapiens”. Its a good read and you can get a picture of human emigration and evolution.
@@Ghost-km5rw thanks for the recommendation!
i hope you come back to quebec man
@@arianahoule7223 That's not exclusive to the USA... In fact, there are MANY countries who handle diversity far worse, mainly due to how homogenous their society has usually been. The USA is just so open & can be covered extensively in the press, private citizens & travelers. You have such a diverse community & country made of immigrants, all legally allowed to speak on it.
Contrast that with a homogenous society like China, & you only hear about it after people leave the country.
I immigrated to the US from Russia when I was a kid and I'm so glad you made this video and especially your explanation at the end talking about Dubai, Israel, the US, Russia, Belarus, etc. It was the best explanation about Dubai that I've ever heard and it's refreshing you have such a realistic and empathetic view of the world.
Are you a traitor or you support your owners?
@@bitterballs356 wha?
@@linkly9272 Look at his TH-cam picture, he's a Russian warmongering anti-American idiot who wants to divide us, just ignore him. Not all Russians are like that, and we should appreciate each other no matter where we came from, only who we are really matters.
@@bitterballs356 why would they have owners?
I’m a avid lover of international travel and Dubai is like one of the few places in the world I have zero desire to visit.
I really felt like that and then I went because a few friends moved there. I was genuinely staggered how much I loved it. I think it’s a fantastic city to visit. To live, might be a bit different; but it is somewhere I’d happily go back to time and time again.
Even if it is £13 a pint 😂
It's only worth to be at the airport for a layover, not more
Looks pretty cool to me, people go to LA to see a bunch of homeless, shit and needles in the streets, if i had a chance id go to dubai.
Good, i've been there, and it just feels like it has no personality it's all fake glamour not created by any type of culture or people just money. It has the same eerie feeling as an abandoned town, alive but still empty.
Best part about being in the emirates was like nfkrz said going to where the local people live in shopping malls not near the city core
Maybe actually go there and stop taking smack
All that money and they have built the most desolate anti-human """city""" I have seen in my life lmao - what a complete mess of urban planning. I will say the old district looked pleasant however, shame that Dubai's leaders seemingly have no interest in promoting or integrating their cultural heritage into the wider urban fabric. Just built more skyscrapers bro that'll make things better.
They really took the planning from urban planning and threw it into the Persian Gulf
By cultural heritage you mean literal mud huts.
Lmao, Arabs have no culture bro
Not true it’s a really well thought out city
@@AL-lh2ht No I don't? The old quarter which Roman showed seemed very pleasant, clean, compact, walkable and filled with amenities and life. Precisely the kind of place you'd want more of. Maybe its the kind of ignorance which you display that drives Emiratis to build 200 metre tall steel and glass dildos and soulless shopping malls - desperately trying to prove their modernity at the expense of everything that actually has tangible value.
Hey Roman. I'm an Emirati citizen (In Abu Dhabi, not Dubai though) and I wanted to say great work on the video and I'm glad you at least enjoyed your trip in Dubai. I also appreciate your awareness to the many issues the city and I guess the country in general has with stuff like its human rights and treatment of expats (And from first hand experience, a handful amount of racism against them) while not letting it impact the good moments you had and the interactions you've made with the other locals and expats. Have a good day brother and I'm hoping you're doing much better in Europe.
bro ur emirati so ur networth is like what 100 million minimum? LOL
Countless severe human rights violations*
I've worked out in the middle-east a few times - and weird thing about Dubai was that I don't think I met anybody who was a citizen. Everybody I was working was an immigrant from elsewhere in the ME. Outside of work it was ex-pats and immigrants from further flung muslim countries in service roles. Ex-pats (by that I mean white people living there), as a group didn't come across very well. Joined by all the tourists who just milled about in the giant malls.
Dubai felt like Disneyland, with more serious security people lurking about shooing the staff away from the guests. Never felt there was a "real Dubai" (I'm sure there is, but it's well hidden)
I can only contrast that with Kuwait or Israel. Very different countries, but both felt like "real places" - where normal residents were going about their normal lives. You could walk down a street, wander down a side-street, and find a business that's been there for decades.
" I guess the country has with stuff like its human rights and treatment of expats." yeah, you guess.
@@jackbennett2269 countless massacres of innocent civilians all over the world imposing your western hegemony. Western people are so annoying when it comes to virtue signalling when y'all should be the last ones to talk.
Roman, i am so glad you went to dubai and showed it to us. i really like seeing the world through you. i'm a very old american lady. my mother always encouraged me to go see things for myself before forming an opinion. she said you can see things but don't have to become part of them. i've had a good life and made many interesting friends. let me encourage you to keep doing what you are doing.
That’s sweet
this is what i like about roman that sets him apart from other lifestyle vloggers. he brings up the good and the bad, and he gives his unfiltered opinion about the places he travels to. plus, he actually tries to meet genuine and kind people living in these places. this video is a good insight on what's happening in dubai 'cause i have no clue what goes on there.
This was one of the most authentic Dubai videos I've seen. It felt like watching content with all the filters turned off. Even the Lambo life felt more real and less awesome. Great job as always!!
This is one of your best videos, a masterpiece. How you managed to turn a travel video into a social issues discussion is pure genius. Your honest assessments added to the international conversation about Dubai. Ignoring the class divisions in Dubai won't cure anything. You put a spotlight on it, and that can make a difference. Good work.
How about he travels to Jerusalem to film the apartheid?
@@bitterballs356 Much could be said about that.>> I think, though, that it would change the very direction of Roman's channel. It would stir up sentiments of anger and hatred. I suspect that Roman wishes to keep his content more in a travel-centric vein, do you think so? He wants people to show up to have some laughs, to see things they never saw before, to discover places as he discovers them himself. I think the Dubai entry was unavoidable, but I don't believe it will become a habit to comment on political issues. Other channels do that well enough. This of course is my opinion, I'm not an "insider". I don't know what Roman thinks for sure.
@@bitterballs356 Are you still shilling for the CCP on other channels?
He's a great TH-camr, but I guess "pure genius" means just about anything nowadays hey. Adding social commentary to a travel video is not exactly breaking new ground.
More like young people can't even travel these days without being neurotic and pessimistic about everything.
I live in Lisbon and we held the world expo in 1998 and we rebuild the whole thing and now it's one of the most noble areas of the city (filled with great museums and one of the largest aquariums in the world, and it's also the financial center of Lisbon). Maybe they're planning to do something similar in Dubai.
I think Dubai is more similar to Las Vegas or Hong Kong than to Amsterdam or Prague.
Great video! 😍
Amsterdam and Prague are compleatly different from Dubai in every way
Amsterdam is the anti Dubai @@Rottengoal
Sitting in 45 degree weather in the south of Spain right now where cities are designed for pedestrians *because* of the heat. Big wide open roads = frying pans. Narrow streets with taller buildings means more shade. Cadiz and Sevilla have been here for nearly 3000 years. The argument that Dubai is not built for walking in because it gets to 50 degrees in the summer is stupid. They should be using older methods, simple architecture, and combining it with modern technology to alleviate the extreme temperatures. Here they have machines that sprinkle small bits of water from the canopies of restaurants and shops every few minutes to help but in a place like the UAE where it's more necessary, if they took the time they could come up with better things. Also they could plan their day around it as they do here with the break from 2-5 and staying until 1 or 2am.
As someone who was born in Dubai I 100% agree. PLUS the weather in Dubai is quite pleasant for 5-6 months of the year, and it's a shame that you still need a car and can't walk anywhere (unless you live in old dubai or Marina/JBR) even when it's nice out.
Don’t stop being you! Don’t listen to negativity! Keep shining your light and love in this world and keep doing you! The majority of humanity loves and cares for each other! We spend time out of each day of our lives to watch content you create, people take for granted that type of power! We’re here to watch what you do on a daily/weekly by choice! You’re showing the world through your eyes to millions and millions of people around the world who will never ever have the opportunity to travel to these places to see them in person! Keep doing you, for the world is watching!
Well done Roman. You have really come into your own this year - especially the war has thrown you into a new level of thoughtfulness and maturity. Since you grew up in poor circumstances I can imagine how squeamish you were at the opulence and being bowed to. But that kind of hospitality is not uncommon in the world and perhaps someday you can even appreciate such things. I loved the Pakistani cab driver singing the Russian rap to you - priceless! Regards from an old, internationally-traveled lady in Florida!
They could have made a name for themselves by treating and paying the foreign workers well. It would have cost them almost nothing. That shows you something about them.
It's designed to attract decadent wealth, and the wealthy require impoverished people to feel empowered. Why would the rich want to visit if there's nobody around to spit on?
Hows that a point tho against DUBAI. My dad left from india to sharjah(aka where most immigrants live) and he has gotten. 10x better life here then india. O understand that how it’s upsetting knowing that immigrants are treated horrible and bad wages but isnt that a global issue? Alot of place immigrants are treated poorly
@@itsmehadi5645 the fact that it's common doesn't make it acceptable. If anything, it enrages you to see how unreasonable most of the world is.
@@Jo-om2qz yeah but why is dubai the onky place criticized for this its a world wide issue
@@itsmehadi5645 exactly, everyone just likes picking on Dubai for its success
I love how you keep it humble! It's refreshing and beautiful!
I miss that outro
I know right???
Same.
Great video Roman.
I personally lived in Dubai for 2 years and finished highschool there. My father worked in oil & gas, which is why his company transferred him there.
In my personal experience, Dubai feels like a “salad bowl”. America is a melting pot, Canada is a mosaic, and Dubai is a salad bowl. So many different cultures and nationalities mixed in together in one city, especially in the old part of town. Everybody is there because they want to make a living, they’re all driven people, they want to achieve stuff. That’s why they come to that city. And I think those two things are at least 2 reasons why Dubai is a great place to live, for at least 2 years out of anybody’s life.
It may be a playground for the ultra-rich, but I’m nowhere near ultra-rich, and I had a lot of fun there. Stayed by the Marina Walk, which was really nice to stroll around in the evenings. Checked out the old city, had some amazing Pakistani food, did some skiing, hung out in a sub-zero lounge on ice chairs, hung out for hours after dinner one night in a rooftop restaurant watching the boats go down the river, with hookah and tea and cognac. And yes, went up the Burj Khalifa and checked out Palm Jumeira. Though I maintain that the best tower for views remains one of the oldest, in Paris. Through it all, though, I was impressed with how far my dollars were going.
I do like Abu Dhabi better, overall. The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the most amazing hotel stay for the price right down the street at the Armed Forces Officers Club & Hotel, the UAE’s own branch of the Louvre out by the water. The green spaces, the emphasis on culture over partying.
As for any ethical dilemma, the main one I could understand is around the war in Yemen. Which I was less aware of when I visited, so I can’t really say whether it would have put me off. I’ve been to many other cities with social ills, with undocumented workers paid far below a livable wage, or with governments waging unjust wars. Many of them in Europe, or North America.
I guess the only useful advice I might have to offer a visitor, you could find elsewhere. Don’t bother with the public transport in Dubai. It’s far too slow, IMO. Take cabs like everyone else, unless you have a rental. Stay off politics, don’t flip anyone off or curse anyone out, try to wait to take your photos until any ladies are out the shot, although everywhere but the beaches they’ll be dressed modestly or sometimes even in accordance with the Islamic laws of their home countries.
And the advice I give anyone traveling overseas. Don’t engage, in any way whatsoever, with the drug scene or the sex trade. No matter what you get up to back at home.
I've lived and worked in Dubai for a few months, I'll be concise: slave labor, virtually no human rights for the poor, backwards medieval law system, most realestate is build with the goal of laundering dirty money for foreign criminals, racism is rampant and actually living in those temperatures for an extended period of time ( after living in Denmark) is like hell on earth. Need I say more? In my opinion there is literally no redeeming qualities about Dubai, saying it's good because it has a few shiny skyscrapers and fancy restaurants is like saying Ted Bundy was a nice guy because he was handsome. It's pure psychopathy that's running that place.
Wow, the sheer hatred you have my friend. I really don’t think you’ve actually stayed in Dubai. Please give me examples of what you’ve just said? Real specific ones, if you can’t come up with any then you’re either just making stuff up or generalizing.
I lived here my whole life and have traversed throughout the whole country. It really does not appear to me that Dubai is nearly as bad as you described it.
@@ishouldbestudying251 lol
@@ishouldbestudying251 lol
Thank god you were able to put my feelings for this terrible place into words that can describe its awfulness.
It's good because it has first world living conditions and opportunities. How about that as a redeeming quality? Even the migrant worker who goes there to work on construction they're making 2-3 times what they made at home with accommodations and food paid.
Very good video dude. I love that you manage to both address the extreme issues, but also manage to find some good in it and defend it.
that last rant was phenomenal roman, love your attitude and connection to people rather than this weird holier than thou attitude people have with respect to others. the normal (non skyscraper) dubai looks lovely and i would have never guessed it existed otherwise. respect and keep doing whet you do.
I spent my 18 years growing up in the UAE in Sharjah with parents, both of whom are overseas workers. And growing up from there, I can definitely say that Dubai, as a city, has no identity, apart from its persona.
I mean, it's what you get from wanting to be as the most "culturally-looking-diverse" place anywhere in the world. Heck, it's the most politically progressive country in the Middle East, and this includes the educational system that's forced into all schools too. Growing up in a private school, that has a foreign curriculum than that from the UAE's, we were taught that the UAE is trying to move its economy from oil-based to markets, commerce, business, and most importantly, a tourist based economy. So it would make sense for Dubai, as a city, to live under a persona - that Dubai, is on purpose, soulless because it tries to appeal to any person that goes to the UAE with business, commerce, and/or tourist intentions.
(Although it sounds like a dystopia that forgets about all its history in exchange for money, in the educational system of the UAE, even in private schools with different curriculums, we are taught about the history and its importance about the UAE from lifestyle of the old days to even Sheikh Zayed. We were when taught about the history of Sheikh Zayed, portrayed as someone who is very wise, kind, and a role model that pointed the course of UAE to where it is now. And in the book made my Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Flashes of Thought, there were these 6 visions of plans for the UAE that was being taught to us like Bible verses. In one of those 6 visions, there's the vision, "Cohesive society and Preserved Identity. And I bet that they're able to preserve their own identities on their own by giving high benefits to having an Emirati blood than compared to having none.)
And in the residential areas, or places where people live in, you get the standard Islamic culture that follows Islam, these few between monuments that commemorate the history of that exact place, and still-standing relics of the old. Same goes to the whole country. For example, around the Al Majaz Waterfront of Sharjah, one that's near Sharjah Carrefour, you'd see these 2 monuments and that one of them is literally a boat, based on the past of the UAE that used to be mostly about fishing, sea commerce, pearl harvesting in the past.
From what I can remember, they've been able to keep the spirit of the past alive because of these dates trees that you'd see almost everywhere in the cities of the UAE, with the mosques that are almost everywhere you go. There's a distinct taste in the UAE from all the 7 Emirates, just not in the city of Dubai
TL;DR: Dubai is a city, that is also an emirate (or federal state, the closest analogy for an emirate), and the city is soulless on purpose in order to appeal to the masses. This coincides with their plans to shift their economy from an oil-based industry, to a mostly tourism-centric industry, and they're keeping their identities alive by giving local Emiratis benefits for having an Emirati blood, and barely any to overseas workers. And there's more to the UAE than just Dubai >:/
I appreciate this.
I've been in Sharja and Dubai a week ago, and it was very different, I honestly enjoyed Sharja way more, people were friendly, kinda shy but very nice. Big strong beautiful buildings. Fine streetfood, and overall very impressive. Except when I was trying to get to airport and I got stuck in a middle of desert (stop was called National Cable or smthg). That was very hot and unfortunate.
"Soulless on purpose", sounds like some bs to me. NYC has a lot of soul and appeals to many people, so do many other cities. To a large number of people Dubai does not appeal at all for that specific reason. Thanks for the explanation though!
@@Moe5Tavern Becaus NY was organically build through the centuries and has always been a cultural hub because since foreves it has been a place were immigrants of pretty much every country arrived in the US, and that's the reason that it appeal to everyone and it has soul, Dubai was planned to be like that, NY just end up being like that.
Giving Emiratis benefits for having Emirati blood is called racism and a caste system.
It is also not the most progressive country in the middle east. Israel, Turkey, hell maybe even Lebanon are more progressive.
We really appreciate how articulate you are about a complex amazing/evil place like Dubai. We need more nuanced views on TH-cam such as the ones you provide here. Keep up the great work.
2,5 years ago I flew from Nairobi Kenya to Doha (and on to Finland from there). Next to me was a woman from Kenya that was going to work in Doha / Dubai with couple dozen of other alike in the plane. I told her to be careful, and we became Facebook friends, so we agreed she'll tell me how things are then. I never heard from her since. She never posted on Facebook since.
This is terrifying 😢
Oh shit😨
why are you all acting up it's common for strangers who exchange contacts to not reach out after, it's not like they are working for a mafia lol
Stop projecting your racism toward arabs in a weak, coy way.
also i respect you for even knowing and ACKNOWLEDGING the issues. A LOT of people are incredibly, stupidly ignorant. you are NOT one of those people, so relax :)
A lot of fools simp for UAE and Dubai on TH-cam too..some of them are even bought off..cough
How much did he get paid for the trip?
@@apjpisared There's no real
reason to shit on Dubai more then other cities around the world tbh lol
@@lrn_news9171
I wouldn’t go that far. But I agree with the sentiment. The city has major issues, but even a bad place has shades of grey, and being aware of them is a good thing. Being able to look at things neutrally and objectively (or as much as you can, because we’re all human) is a good thing and it is something the world needs more of.
@@andreimircea2254 Dubai as a whole is a modern first world city and a lot of people make a good living there. It's not a bad city. Nowhere as bad as many other cities in the middle east like those of Pakistan for instance lol
Good work, Roman, you laid it out perfectly and I for one would not criticize you for taking advantage of such a life enriching experience. I'm a citizen of the USA but was born in Latin America, and brought to America as a very young child. I'm very cognizant of our own socio-political issues to write off any other country outright, even though their governments might not be the best. I've traveled all over the world and find that most people are decent and respectful of others.
Emiratis are historically nomadic, so it kind of makes sense that they haven't lived in the same neighborhood forever, but yes the urban planning of Dubai is very confusing.
Also most actual Emiratis don’t live in Dubai. they live in literally any other city
Great point about wondering what would happen to the Expo site and buildings. They recently announced they're turning it into a residential area and some companies will be moving into and using the pavilions for business purposes. Obviously it's wasteful but at least the metro line and developed area will be put to use. Especially since there were quite a few people that liked Expo and the way it was laid out. Relatively walkable and pristine. Also it's a bit unfair to base all the UAE solely on the impression of Dubai. Other cities in the UAE like the capital, Abu Dhabi, have completely different layout and images on what they're trying to portray. Would be happy to answer any Q's.
Being from Tel Aviv, this is one of the first times Ive seen someone casually mention my city in a youtube video- let alone show my street! Thanks for keeping politics out of it, not being scared to speak your mind and talk about your experiences, Roman
Yeah just walking in the same streets I have walked most of my life is surreal
Being an Arab from Basra I absolutely love Tel Aviv it’s such an amazing city. As an Iraqi I love the Israeli people!! The politicians don’t speak on our behalf’s. God Bless us all humanity and I’m extremely sorry for what happened to Tel Aviv because of my country.
To me it'll always be linked to kids insane a hardcore punk band from there.
I absolutely love Tel Aviv - one of my favourite places in the word. It’s such a special place, full of multicultural history, beautiful nature etc. Here’s hoping for eventual lasting peace for the region and all who live there too soon. Looking forward to visiting soon again hopefully 🤗
@@amlxr99912Can you be anymore of a mossad zionist playing hide and seek?
That's what we love about you Roman. You look at things with an open mind and heart. You weigh the pros and cons, and come to reasonable, honest conclusions.
I feel this was a great video for the current time, there’s really good people in every country all over the place, we should never let the few bad people define the good ones
As an Emirati Citizen, I enjoyed the hell outta of this Video, and I Appreciate the Fact that you Brought these issues to light, And I love the fact that you didn’t let the Negatives Cloud your Judgement of the People in Dubai, but I wish that you Visited the other Emirates, they are more Lively and Vibrant than Dubai, Best of luck with your Future Endeavors.
Btw I’m from Sharjah
You hit the nail on the head, when you break it down, every single country has some screwed up past or current issues going on. That doesn't make you or the people there bad. And if people really want to boycott other people based on where they're from or where they visit it shows just how ignorant they are.
Word
Exactly, either move on from the past entirely & enjoy life for what it is or lose everything. The sooner idiots stop holding on grudges, the better the world can be
But Dubai’s problems aren’t in the past, they are in the present and the future. They are still treating thousands of workers like human garbage, leading to people being worked to death, starving from having their salaries withheld, or committing suicide because of the horrible conditions and the fact that they can’t go back home.
When people criticize Dubai or the Emirates they’re not criticizing the people who live there or who go on vacation there, at least not as such - they’re criticizing a system which oppresses people, mismanages money and resources for enormous prestige projects rather than a livable city for normal people, and creates huge environmental problems wherever they go.
You can’t simply chalk it up to “every country/city has its problems” - Dubai sets itself aside with its horrendous leadership, which is reflected in the equally awful infrastructure, urban planning, environmental damage and human rights violations. It is an awful city built on awful principles, and the only redeeming feature is the people, the regular folks who don’t go around driving Lamborghini’s and spending every day in luxury malls and hotels, but living life like in any other city, and trying to make it a better place. But until those people control the city and stops the catering towards rich tourists and business men, Dubai will remain a terrible, terrible city.
@Dank Waifu you think other countries aren’t involved in bad things to this day?
@dankwaifuit doesn’t if its European! Either they ignore it or they treat those european human rights abuses as somehow a human right.
Dubai is like a city in where everyone tries to out flex each other.
GTA Online lobby indeed
Dowtown dubai is that the rest where residents actually live (bro its 4 dirhams for water in downtown dubai notthe usual 1) the rest is pretty cool deira is a great place to live its a nice place (used to be a resident deira)
One austrian or german hotel director said to a businesspartner of mine: "The arabs lived in tents. When the oil thing is over, they will live in tents again."
That´s unfortunetaly a correct statement.
Very ignorant statement. By this logic, Europeans will be living in caves again, by the time they start running out of resources.
Incorrect
@@altavelmcnamara that’s wrong lmao
@@baderhabib6606Why ? They don’t have capacity for anything
All the creativity came from the western, Europe and Japão and now South Korea
Love your video. I was there in February also because a relative was working at the Expo 2020 (I must have just missed you). Like you it was never on my list of places to go and I felt out of place in all the extravagance. But my relative showed me and my brother Deira City and we stayed in a hotel in an immigrant residential area, and I was glad to see the nuance beyond the hype and the disdain. It’s not a place I would choose to live but my relative wanted to live there if she could land a good job (she speaks Arabic). Your video was spot on. Recently I was nostalgic for my time here, and I found a video of the entire red line Metro trip and watched the whole thing, listening to the train announcements in Arabic and English and seeing the whole city from the amazing Metro. People hate on the Metro, but the plan is to extend it to all the neighborhoods, it’s a new system, it’s nice, it’s fast, and every Metro starts with one or two lines,
Thank you for putting together this interesting take on Dubai. You were able to show and tell different stories about Dubai that I have never heard before. I'm glad you chose more than just "OOOoooo, so many big shiny buildings!".
Just wanna say that this has been a really, really good video. One of your best lately. Thanks for the effort! And even though it's "outdated", it didn't matter in the slightest.
I love it when Roman goes deep (get your mind out of the gutter😂) This is one of your best videos.
Btw, your question about the world festival is a question every host city has to answer, and has had to answer since it began in the 1800s. Sometimes, like the 1904 exhibition in St Louis, they built a couple of buildings as planned permanent buildings, which are today the art museum and a building for a private university, plus a huge birdcage on grounds that became the zoo. But most buildings are built as temporary structures and simply torn down. They use cheaper materials, but still it seems like such a huge waste. Back then it was financially beneficial for a city because it was a big deal and people would travel far just to go to the fair and the cities made money off of it. But I’m pretty sure that these days the host city doesn’t recoup the cost, just like the olympics.
The Paris world expo also another one, Eiffel Tower from the expo was kept and became icon.
It's a huge blessing when someone asks you to pray for them. Even if you forget, consider it done. You have a great heart, Roman, and I will pray for you ... love from the USA.
I lived in Kuwait and Abu Dhabi for a few years. Of the Gulf States, I only liked Oman enough to recommend it to someone to visit. Once I saw all the sights and frights of the Gulf States, I spent my long weekends in Turkey. That country is fantastic.
UAE is good for golf. Learnt kitesurfing in Kuwait.
I really like this format and you using "Arab Money" song is so based, cuz I know you like GTA IV, like myself lol
I'm from the Philippines and I have, IIRC, millions of compatriots there. Basically the same reason and job as Indians and Pakistanis. They in fact rub shoulders a lot. There are also Filipino citizens who were born and raised in the UAE but never had any citizenship. In fact, I know of someone who was born and raised in Dubai but she and her family eventually needed to repatriate back here after decades of living there. She also has to move here, as well as her brother who hasn't finished his schooling yet.
As for human rights violations against immigrant workers, confiscating their passports is unfortunately a very typical story among those who end up as domestic employees (maids, drivers, etc.) There are also stories of domestic abuse, rape, and even murder of maids that I unfortunately have to hear in the news growing up. Don't get me started on what kind of life my compatriots have to suffer after losing their jobs due to COVID-19 and stuck because there are no flights to book.
It's great that you took the time to explore both the good and the bad of Dubai. I’ve been living here for a few years, and while the city has its challenges, there are also many opportunities and unique experiences. When I moved, I worked with Bolster Group to help me navigate the complexities of setting up my life and business here. It’s not all black and white, as you said, and having the right support makes a big difference in experiencing Dubai fully.
Hey Roman, your Russian fan here. I have traveled a lot and am living in Dubai now for 3 months. My experience is exactly the same, and honestly this place is just nice for cashing out and buying property in other places of the world.
My boyfriend is from Pakistan, he has been building a business here for around 10 years. Here I came to respect Islam and understand people with a totally different culture more.
All the issues are there, including women’s rights issues. But aren’t there any in the US, Russia and pretty much everywhere? The people here are very sweet if you try to be open and make connections.
But yeah this city still feels like a fever dream rn, it’s 44 degrees today. Waiting for autumn to explore even more. Although, this city is a great example that money can’t buy taste or brains if you don’t have it. The planning is hideous.
Going to Georgia soon to get some rest from the heat :)
Does your boyfriend exploit migrant slave labour from Pakistan? Plenty of Middle East migrants exploited and abused as slaves in your primitive new homeland. Still, not so different to Russia eh.
What women rights issues are you talking bout ?
Like come on
The half of the government are women
The assistant of emir if Abu Dhabi are women
@@allenk6373 I personally know women who are not local, as well as those who have been married to local. and they are in a lot of trouble because in any law or any government system there are holes and mistakes unfortunately. I can’t share their stories openly. They can’t share their stories openly too.
moreover, you never know what is happening behind closed doors even of those who are successful
Roman this video is you at your best. You do not need to defend yourself against any critic. Your work speaks for humanity with all our qualities and all our failings. Just be yourself and share your adventures and each of us will get what we need. The coincidences you so ably contend with are the essence of life that make your explorations so appreciated.
This video is a masterclass in PR. Your unique perspective and honesty immediately makes this video so much more worthwhile than any dubai video. I was expecting a dubai travel video and I got that and more. Your unique take on dubai turning into basically a video essay on influencers and publicized lifestyles was kinda genius. Managing to "explain yourself" while staying genuine. Preempting criticism at every turn without losing any of your personality. Evening managing to drop an ad and it just makes sense after giving the context. If you wanted a career in Public Relations this video is a perfect resume. But it all comes from you being yourself and being genuine. huge respect.
your positive growth continues to be reflected in the videos you create as the years go by. keep it up roman!
Great video Roman! I have to be honest, if you try hard enough, you can find dirt about any place in the world. It is easy to find reasons not to visit a place if you make a goal of it. It is easy to forget that people are really the same all over the world. So many kind and friendly people who are just trying to makes ends meat and that is the majority of everyone in a country. We get very distracted by governments and big businesses and what they do, every country has something nice about it especially when it comes down to the normal everyday people.
Wow great video, love the format 💯
You're spot on about visiting a place and judging it correctly. Mad respect for visiting the real people, the working class and service industry areas. I try to do that everywhere I go.
Best Dubai travel vlog I've seen. Well done.
Great job checking out a new place with a discerning mind. I prefer learning about new places from someone like you with their feet on the ground or their “butt in a Ferrari passenger seat” than from a tourist ad. Thanks 🙏🏼
Straight away I instantly liked the editing and the way, you made this video it feels unique for you and is a good change
What's the difference between Dubai and Abu Dhabi? The people of Dubai don't like the Flintstones, but the people of Abu Dhabi doooooo
Interesting content, as always. Thanks Roman!!
That was a very fair and intelligent observation of your experience. The older you get and more well traveled you are, the more you can debunk all the cliche prejudices internet trolls who've never been anywhere have.
Thank you for making this video. I'm not all about the lavishness of Dubai and didn't have any interest in visiting until I saw this video and your comments about Bur Dubai... That's what I would love to see.
Really like this content Roman! Let's get more like this!
Last I've been to The UAE (Dubai in particular) was in 2006, at ten years old. It's a nice place when you're a kid going there with family and playing at arcades and fun-parks. It looks like a depressing mess if you are there as an adult.
but u havent been as an adult
16:40 thank you for addressing this. People who have never been to Dubai and know nothing about it always paint the same picture. The issues with the immigrant workers does not lie within the Dubai/UAE government but rather the agencies and companies themselves. The government has a labor court in which people can go to and file cases. The government have instilled strict laws on human rights, for example:
Years ago maids were brought into Dubai privately through private agencies and had alot of issues. So in one fell swoop all things regarding hiring maids fall under the Dubai government in order to end the problems with the private agencies.
The same goes to laborers. The agencies back in India and Pakistan manipulate them into signing a contract where they will have to pay an absurdly large sum of money back. This is outside of the the government’s jurisdiction. I have witnessed this myself. A worker asked me to check some guy out. He was an Indian agent that promised him that if he paid him $5000 he would get him a guaranteed Canadian Passport. I told him immediately that it was a lie and to file it to the police.
The UAE is cracking down on these issues but it requires time and effort and will be gradual.
Trust me most of the people know its down to private agencies owned by Indians but they want any excuse to hate the Arabs. Could be because they hate Muslims, or could be because they grew up watching tv and movies which show all Arabs as evil devils.
For those who don't know how business agencies work, they just repeat the same thing like sheep.
Words like "soulless" "dead" "bad planning" are all spread from Reddit and that hater Adam Something.
Glad you decided to put the video out
And seeing that outro feels more nostalgic than ever now
I like how Roman has to justify everything he does before a video because some idiots think he's flexing or bad
Great take and really nice commentary at the end there. No place is perfect, and if we're to seek the bad in everything, nobody would ever step foot out of their own houses. I hope this gets people to rethink their own biases and the sheer amount of opportunity they're missing out on in their lives.
I lived in the UAE (Abu Dhabi) for 5 years, 2010 to 2015. Whilst I found Dubai to be both a fantastic city of the future along with the more traditional city: Dubai Creek, the Gold Souk, etc.. I think that Abu Dhabi is a more livable city than Dubai. Whilst both cities require cars, it takes forever to get from one part of Dubai to another. That's not the case for Abu Dhabi.
I moved to Dubai a year ago for work. before that for me it was i place i would never come back to for my own money. visited it in 2015. but opportunity presented itself and i decided to try it out and after living for a year i am in love. and i lived without a car, i am lucky enough to be living in marina and in winter time i can cycle all the way to Burj Khalifa and a lot of other places. summer is hard, yes. but look at it as winter in eastern europe. i dont go out much in winter back home either and life is quite misarable. there is a lot of cool and creative people from all walks of life here, sick mountains to hike around, you can freedive with turtles, sharks and whatever other cool fishes just 1,5 hour drive, and it's super safe so i don't even have it in the back of my head that somebody can rob me and yes there are issues, but hey, what place doesn't have them? there is no perfect place. ough, and you pay no taxes on your salary, forgot about that :D
I love how your criticism of Dubai's highway-centric planning and layout can be said of of any US major city lol
people already shit a lot on american cities when it comes to there planning. Dubai has them beat on car centric design, it looks like an oversized disneyworld
Chicago can be similar tbh
@@ben_marlor3510 no it isn’t maybe LA or some Floridian cities lol
Name me one major American city that built its downtown along an Interstate Highway. Many cities are encircled by freeways, but it‘s very seldom that the core of a city gets cut through by one, let alone everything in that city revolves around that respective freeway.
This is definitely the case for Houston. That place SUUUUUUUUUUCKS.
This was probably the best video I've seen of yours (and I really love ALL your videos; I get excited every time a see a NFKRZ vid drop!) but this one was surprisingly deep, insightful, beautiful, and I would have felt the exact same way. I live in the USA but in a very down-to-Earth place, and Dubai looks and sounds like our Las Vegas.
It’s better than los Vegas way better lol
Roman, you have such a cool approach to sharing this video! I enjoy your thoughts and experiences in Dubai!
We out here bro, glad you're doing good and feel good enough to upload this. Cheers, sorry for the sickness you felt, hope Turkiye was fun!
It blows my mind how similar people around the world can be to each other. For example I see a lot of myself in Roman it’s quite incredible. Anyway thank you for the content my brother
Strange, when you mentioned the Ferrari video I don't remember it ever showing up in my feed so TH-cam might've not liked the thumbnail or something because I had been watching your videos almost every day during that time.
Before finishing the intro, I was writing a comment about slavery in Dubai. Glad you mentioned it. I still don't think anyone should go there, and benefit from slavery, but at least you are aware of it. I have seen the Adam Something video, but thats not where I "Learned" about it, a bit dismissive to say that. Major journalists and news organizations have stated it too. Of course, other countries have used slavery, including the US but no one is actively using it to the same extent. And its not like I'm completely oblivious, other countrys do it too, and thats ALSO bad.
Claiming every 8 million expat to be a slave is both stupid and wrong.
@@AL-lh2ht Where did I claim that? I never did. You are putting words in my mouth? However, there is a well-documented practice, by the Guardian, NYT, Toronto Star, AlJezeera, etc, that specifically in Indonesia people are recruited to work in Dubai, once they move there, they steal their passports giving them no recourse. Depending on their family prominence and power they would not to this to people who have the proper recourse. Obviously, they do not do this to those from other countries that would have recourse. This does not happen to everyone, but again I NEVER said it did.
YES YES YES YES YES NEW ROMAN NFKRZ VIDEO MY LIFE HAS A PURPOSE AGAIN
real
@@oni8337 Mamaiymacridminal
Roman, you are wise beyond your years. Keep doing your thing. Awesome work!
Most of the times, metro being constructed next to a highway is for price reasons (land is cheaper next to a 8x8 road lol). Weird how dubai cheaped out on public transport.
It’s because public transport is for regular, working/middle class people, whereas Dubai exclusively cares about the rich who are only want to drive around in expensive cars rather than share a bus or train carriage with the ‘poors’. They don’t give a shit about anyone who isn’t a wealthy tourist or businessman.
Honestly it's questionable whether Dubai did it for any legitimate reason like cost concerns. 90% of the urban infrastructure projects in Dubai have less thought put into it than most cities put into designing a dog park.
It's just as believable that they did it so the lower class that uses public transit could watch the lamborghinis of the aristocrats on the highway as some sort of power move.
You don't need public transport when everyone has 20 cars and a chaffeur
As someone who lives in Dubai I can say you’ve nailed it. The lack of basic infrastructure and fake nature makes it slightly off putting. I lived in spb before and still visit often and prefer the look of spb and the beautiful architecture. If it wasn’t for the political situation I’d move back in a heartbeat. Ps: nobody cares about the trams lmao they’re useless and most people just ride the scooters instead.
One thing I don’t get is your remark on prostitution in JBR , I’ve walked through the area many times and never seen it.
There’s enough in the bars around the marina. Visit the underground bar for instance any night and there’s enough elderly gentleman talking to women of the night. Not that I’d recommend visiting that bar.
go near BlaBla in JBR and you will see them
It’s a desert what u want then to do💀
@@baderhabib6606 yes not much we can do about the nature, but the infrastructure is bad & very unwalkable and I’ve noticed it even more after I’ve moved to Berlin. We have 6 months of decent weather in Dubai but you still need a car to go anywhere (unless you live in specific areas like JBR which are expensive). What a waste.
@@Herebedragons991 it’s not a waste it’s designed like that for a reason🤦♂️ just because a city is built different to other western city’s doesn’t mean it’s bad lmfao
16:01 Really proud about the fact you mentioned my country's capital Prague. Thanks!
I've never been to a fancy Dubai hotel before, but I have experienced some similar "bow down" kind of costumer service. It was incredibly awkward. I've never felt more uncomfortable in my life.
Agree 👍🏻 🇸🇪 Sweden ✨
Definitely one of your best ever videos, really well structured, especially liked your comments on the social fabric of the place. You could be a great travel vlogger, if your passport doesn't close your options down too much in the future. Your English turns of phrase are very impressive, better than many of my fellow Englishmen. Hope you can do more like this, it also proves that content can still be great without involving much swearing.
Roman, you are an incredibly intelligent and insightful young man, wise way beyond your years. I suspect your travels and interaction with your fan base has honed your social skills.
Love this video, your analysis was great, you looked at many aspects and tried to reconcile all points view! Great job!
you changed but also confirmed my perspective on dubai
There is no way ur relying on false propaganda and criticism on the internet to determine ur views on a city u have never actually physically been there
@@baderhabib6606 🤓
@@virginiansupremacy proved my point
I really think you nailed it here with a balance of problems vs empathy. You usually do, actually. Enjoyed this vid.
I’m an immigrant and have been living in the UAE since I was a kid. It always baffled me that people outside UAE felt that Dubai was a soulless city and had the appearance of something out of a video game. Because that isn’t my experience with Dubai. I understand this is because the people who feel this way are tourists who see only the glamorous parts of the city. And I don’t feel this way about Dubai because my life here has been just going to school, getting groceries, meeting friends and other regular everyday activities people do in any other city- not so glamorous. So, kudos to you for visiting Bur Dubai and Deira and seeing more of the life us “normal” people live. I just want to clarify certain things:
1. The metro doesn’t just run along Sheikh Zayed Road, that’s just the longest part of the red line. The green line of the metro (which is connected to the red one at two stations) is more accessible to areas that aren’t posh. I used the metro everyday to go to school as a kid and it made life very easy for me. The metro is connected by a network of buses, so you don’t have to take a taxi to the metro stations. Most of us don’t have the money for that shit
2. The Expo site is going to be converted into District 2020 and will have both offices and residential buildings. So, the place isn’t a complete waste of money and resources (though it is a bit of a waste because the country pavilions will all be discarded). So the metro line extension is not a waste either. Because people will use that station and the other new stations before it.
3. The poorer locals don’t live in the old cities of Dubai, but they haven’t completely disappeared. A lot of them live in the other emirates- Sharjah, Ajman, Abu Dhabi etc. It is only the well off nationals who can afford to live in Dubai. I understand this is a feature of every country. The wealthier people move outside the city and live in larger houses that would be impossible to have in the crowded urban center.
4. The only critique of Dubai I actually share is the treatment of workers. There is a lot of abuse and terrible working and living conditions. My mom is a civil engineer and works directly with such workers. She knows that they have a really time and sees how they get exploited by their boss. She had had to cover for them many times for their simple human mistakes that would cost them a lot if their boss knew about it. The labor laws are lacking and heavily favor the employer. During the pandemic, they actually allowed companies to not pay their workers for a long stretch of time. Even my mom, an engineer, did not get paid fully in this period despite bringing in more than the usual amount of revenue.
As you said about one of the workers, they have to live in small rooms shared with 3 other people. But, I don’t know if that’s too much different from my European student accommodation I pay hundreds of euros for to share the kitchen and bathroom with 17 other people.
I see this not as a Dubai issue but as an issue of capitalism. Worker exploitation is not a feature exclusive to this country, but a problem that plagues the whole world although at different levels. Western capitalist countries laid the path, UAE is just using said path. This doesn’t absolve the country of anything of course. It still needs to improve working conditions for the poorest of workers.
5. Continuing with the immigrant worker issue, I can’t ignore that a lot of us actually have a better life here than we could have back in our home countries. I don’t remember much of my life back in India as I was just 6 years old when I left, but I know that we weren’t doing well financially. Coming here changed our lives for the better. Even as an engineer, my mom can’t get the same well paying job as a woman back in India. And the social exclusion there as a single mother makes life unlivable. In Dubai, nobody cares about that shit and she can make enough money to raise me and send me to Europe to get an education, something we couldn’t even have imagined if we were still in India.
This holds true not just for the immigrant office workers like my mom, but also the “unskilled” labor. The people we know who work in construction have been able to make enough money to build themselves modest homes back in India, send their children to university to make them engineers, buy gold jewelry to pay dowry (I’m not even going to start on how exploitative this is) for their daughters to marry relatively well off men. Point is, moving here gives immigrants a lot of upward social mobility that would’ve been impossible if we stayed back in India. Note that back in India, it’s not just our economic background that’s holding us back, but also our position in the caste system. We have zero upward social mobility in India because of the caste system and because we got to came here, we can make enough money to break out of our position in the caste system at least by a little. There are entire villages full of Dalit people back in my state in India who have been able to get a life of dignity, a job with dignity, that our country doesn’t afford them.
6. I’m just nitpicking now, but the place outside Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall was empty when you visited because you went during the day. We don’t go there during the day, Roman. We’re in our air conditioned offices in that hour. Even during the weekends, we don’t venture out that early. We’re all sleeping in and go out only after 5 in the evening. Even when we do go out, we don’t always go to Dubai Mall (that’s more of a tourist spot) because we can’t really afford to shop there. We go to other malls like Deira City Center and Mirdif City Center. Go to the Burj Khalifa area at night the next time and it’ll be so crowded you won’t even have space to stand and watch the dancing fountains.
- I really appreciate the nuance with which you approached this video. Unlike other outsiders who make videos about Dubai just shitting on it, you actually took a nuanced approach and discussed the problems with the city without making it out to be the center of all that is evil. Again, I love that you visited Bur Dubai and Deira.
If you get to visit UAE again (and I really hope that you do), try visiting the other emirates. Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road is just what we project to the outside world. In the other Emirates, you can see the regular people like me and how we live our lives. You can see the mountains of Jebel Ali, the beach of Khor Fakkan, the markets of Al Awir, the Hatta dam and so many other beautiful places. It’s not just a concrete jungle, I promise.
Good luck to you in Georgia and I hope everything gets better with the….. situation.
4:00 - I'm from rural Ontario (aka hillbilly country) here in Canada, so when I got my first taste of real world-class luxury on my honeymoon in Mexico that was more or less my first impression too. But after colliding awkwardly with one resort employee too many as I tried to do for myself something they had a servant for, I got an after-hours lesson from the concierge in how to be a "good guest" of the kind of establishment where hospitality isn't just an empty word, but the very core spirit of the place. He was joined by a cook a few minutes in to this talk who was waiting for her carpool home for the night, that saw us chatting and figured we could use some cigars, and she summed it up thusly for him; "Cancun is our home and you are our guest. How do you treat guests in your city?"
Service isn't just a job to some people, it's a passion. A calling. Some serve the poor in shelters and soup kitchens. Some serve the rich in hotels that feel more like palaces. Some exceptional few do both, full-time at the hotel and then volunteer at the poor kitchen. If it ain't you that's cool, but don't be thinking it has to be some great hardship for them. Those who think of it as just a way to get by tend to not put in the effort needed to stay on at places like that.
Well put together video and a lot of good points. Really enjoyed this one.
On my trip to Dubai. I asked a worker at my Apartment where are all the people? There are all these tall buildings and there is no traffic on the freeway. Hardly anybody in the malls. I was very impressed with this shopping center which is sort of on the way to Abu Dhabi. There are 2 of them and they had everything you can think of except autos. If you could think of it, you could get it there. Idid not understand the Falcon thing. But I loved the fact that you are not over policed like here in the US and it is the safest place I have ever been. I have no plans to ever go back, but I have family that may move there, so I might go hang out with them for a few days.
When the local immigrants you talked to mentioned the fact that Dubai, or the UAE as a whole, is a land of opportunities, they were right.
My parents were expats from Syria and they both had diplomas in Syrian universities. They came to Dubai in the early 90s for job opportunities with their degrees. After living there for a few years, they managed to gain and create a new successful life for themselves. One became a manager of an American company that was based there and the other became a known architect who helped design a few skyscrapers and suburban houses in and near downtown.
Mind you, they were not privileged in Syria. They were considered as high-low class citizens at the time and the reason they moved to the UAE was to help their parents back home. Which is the case for the majority of the people who live in the UAE.
It did not matter which country you came from, you will be able to find a good job in Dubai. Unlike in Western countries where my parents would not be able to find the same job opportunities they had in the UAE.
(Although, I can't speak for the migrants from South Asia because I have not seen their perspective, but I have met a few and most of them said that they are living comfortably.)
We moved to Canada in 2016 and honestly, my parents were struggling. Their degrees did not allow them to get good jobs, thus meaning they had to work for other jobs that included risks and low pay. They hated it. They wanted to move back after a year living there, but it wasn't possible.
Now, we still live in Canada, but in a better state than before. However, our lives here only make up a small percentage if we compare it to our lives in the UAE economically speaking.
Basically, yes, the UAE has made itself a land of opportunities that even expats or migrants from countries, to which Western countries would shun, have found ways to live a normal and comfortable life here regardless of how their situation was before. Business and commerce still thrive in the UAE and I highly doubt that the average person, who is skilled in those sectors, will be jobless.
15:20 yes, you are correct. Dubai does not have the weather of Amsterdam or Berlin. It gets very hot and humid during the summer months and is just not a good idea for the city to be mostly pedestrian-oriented.
However, the city is planning on making it more pedestrian oriented in the future keeping the hot climate in mind. They are planning to reshape the city by 2040 I believe.
People are very quick to judge Dubai but keep forgetting that 30 years ago the city was just a desert with a few buildings and a fishing town. All the other major cities around the world have had the chance to go through the Industrial Age and economic booms decades ago while we’re just going through it now.
agreed!! these complainers are crying about Dubai from cold and wet countries expecting Dubai layout to be the same as a cold city.
15:44 I mean, old arabic towers and cities were walkable because they had basar's.
And there are more planing solutions to make a walkable city in the desert.
Also hot weather doesn't excuse the lack of a working public transit system.
underground rail systems are a great solution to avoid hot weather
I’ve always bowed down to your videos right before I watch them. It just seems proper !!!!! 🙏🏻
Honestly never considered visiting the UAE, However after watching some of your recent vids it’s most definitely not worth a visit or a long vacation. I’ll just optimize for Oman instead.
I’ve heard awesome things about Oman. At present, though, I’m looking forward to more trips to Mexico. For me, it offers a nice combination of old and new, adventure travel and luxury, without the incredibly long flight.
Oman is def on a very short list of places I want to go but unfortunately it’s gonna be between that and Bhutan probably , because they are both equally insanely expensive to visit lol.
no, its really worth visiting Dubai, seeing it for yourself is so much different, if u wanna visit Oman for nature, i recommend u to visit Salalah.
Still listening to people criticising Dubai and spreading their jealousy, maybe actually go visit it than talk lmfao
@@baderhabib6606 yeah
I love your journalistic style , Roman - it's staight forward , frank and informative - keep it up !
It wasn't your idea to go there and that changes everything. Excellent speech
Your point at the end is a solid one I'm not sure if I'll change my mind about going to countries with on going controversies, but you have certainly given me something to think about; thank you.
As a woman resident who has been living here in Dubai for the past 14 years, I can tell Dubai is one of the safest places on earth for women.You can walk around at midnight but nobody will bother you.This is the thing I admire about Dxb the most.
yeah, this is the 14th year of me living in Dubai and yes thats so true.
For middle east yeah
That's a great format, Roman. I'd love to see more videos like this one, keep up the good work.
I'm born in Dubai and after 2014 it became plastic and any music scene went with it. no real music scene just commercial crap, nothing authentic for that matter and it was all about getting drunk and trying to get girls nothing else (even though it's 5 guys to 1 girl).
By that point I was sick of the racism and how people judge you by the skin colour and everyone I knew had already left and it just felt like the country was becoming more and more morally bankrupt. Not to mention one wrong move and the country will bankrupt you before chucking you out years later
it was very smart of you to save this video for a later time for several reasons.
Part of the reason it looks like a ghost town during the day is because it is so F'n hot. People come out at night...and during the day they stay inside and walk through a/c tunnels.
The fact you actually went here is good enough for me to never need too. So cool!