The Side of Dubai They DON'T Want You To See

Dubai is known for its opulent lifestyle a city that does not sleep attracting the wealthiest people across the globe due to the ease of accessibility to luxury and a high standard of living but there is a side of Dubai that isn't discussed as much the Dubai frame is a prominent architectural landmark in Dubai which represents the Gateway between the old and new Dubai it highlights the city's transformation from a trading City to a modern Metropolis today I'll be exploring one of the historic neighborhoods in the soal old Dubai draa draa is one of the oldest and culturally rich neighborhoods in Dubai it was traditionally a trading hub for pearls spices textiles and commodities benefiting from its strategic location along the creek perfect for maritime trade but as a city transformed into the Dubai we now know newer more modern areas and infrastructure emerged pivoting the attention away from historic neighborhoods like draa which are still important to the trade and commerce economy of Dubai today however there is one part of draa that still attracts thousands of tourists every year the gold Suk I'll be heading to the Suk today from my apartment in Business Bay so I am in the taxi on my way um when I initially put it on Kareem it said it was going to be around like maybe 20ish 25 minutes but I think it's probably going to turn out to be around 30 minutes usually when I come to this side there is a lot of traffic but I had to just get out of the taxi and walk because the stopping and starting motion of the car cuz there's so much traffic was making me feel a little bit sick Suk is an Arabic term referring to a traditional Marketplace and the gold souk Dubai is one of the largest gold markets in the world renowned for its vast selection of gold jewelry as well as other diamonds and gemstones but don't be fooled by the Arabian music this is what it actually sounds like walking through the gold souk bags okay you like some bags now I'm guys I think this is how it's going to be like people just come up to you and want you to come into their store I might go check out maybe one or two so you guys can actually see and I did go to see one of the stores U one of the designer stores the guy actually told me to turn off uh my camera that camera is not allowed when these people who tell you they have their like designer stores and stuff it's never like on the Main Street they then take you into like you go Alleyway Alleyway Alleyway and then you kind of go like into a building and then upstairs F whilst I would not purchase a fake designer bag if anyone any one is interested these bags were going for around £50 to 250 a fraction of the price for which they currently sell at which is unsurprising giving draa is known for being one of the most affordable neighborhoods in Dubai this is one of the reasons why it attracts so many workers from Africa and South Asia and because of that I decided why not try some local African food the first restaurant I went to I decided not to eat there and I will explain why soon but once I got in I started searching for a new place to eat at so then I find another African restaurant that I said okay surely this one has to be it and this one says it's in a hotel so I think okay if it's in a hotel like it must be a lot cleaner first of all when I step into the hotel I realized that this is a like is this a hotel because like it's some parts of it aren't done I eventually go back on the road and I meet this um random African uncle and I ask him like Hey do you know where the African restaurant is and then he finally takes me to the restaurant [Music] the first restaurant that I went to look at I walked there and I literally walked past the shop so many times cuz I was like there's no restaurant here um and then I eventually ended up calling them and then the lady's like yeah we're open and everything so she's like oh can you see the supermarket I'm like yeah she's like okay I'll come out and I'll come get you so she comes out of somewhere and when she comes out like I also see two cats come out of the same building and and I was like oh there's no way there's no way then she like sees me doesn't come to collect me just sees me like waves and then goes back in so then I call her back cuz I'm like I'm not going into a building or into a restaurant that has like cats like walking around so then she comes back out she picks me up to take me into the store and when you immediately walk in it's like I don't know if it's like a plot it's not like a plaza but just kind of like imagine like the entrance to a plaza but it's filthy as in filthy there are people sitting on the floor the floors are dirty so you kind of walk in and then there's like doors like going to different shops or restaurants or whatever I walk in and then you turn right and then there's the restaurant but the restaurant is really like it's clean there's no cats in there there's nothing but just the fact that I had to walk through literal filth to get into the restaurant so much so that stray cats were walking I was like oh my god um and then I went in and then they didn't even like they they were low on stock basically they had no chicken no beef I was like oh hell no um and they had no Wi-fi as well let's just hope this food is [Music] good often people ask me whether I miss home when I'm in Dubai and like whether I miss London and like just that sort of thing and I always just say that there are so many parts of Dubai where you can get that home feeling um and being in this restaurant was definitely one like they were playing music that my mom usually plays when they were they were super nice it was just like senior aunties you know they were they were super nice they was telling me how they love me and just saying like you know you're one of us and that they were just so happy to see me and I don't know it just really really felt like home what a day you guys one more Stu I have arrived on the floor and it doesn't smell great I have the keys oh does not smell does not smell great there's also loads of like bikes and stuff around this is the entrance and you come around at least it's painted white it's kind of Fairly bright um this is the living room area which is quite big then I guess Mo these TOS now I'm sure you guys have like are used to like the structure of how these not even just a buy even some of the Doha Apartments had this layout as well but this is the rest of the room let's go out on the balcony and [Music] see big balcony not the worst view bathroom is not bad it's not bad it's not great like the finishings and stuff here are just like not and then oh another toilet here as well so size wise it's actually pretty good and then the kitchen which is enclosed taxis were just taking forever to come and I think it might be to do with the fact that probably people in those areas aren't really taking taxis as much l of them were walking a lot and a lot of people were on bikes Etc which I guess is just like a cheaper form of transportation but anyways there just weren't that many taxis and so every time I had to take a taxi I was very conscious of the fact that I was literally standing on the side of the road waiting and if you know anything about the way sex workers are that is exactly what they do to get work they stand on the side of the road um and they just wait for work to come to them or someone to pick them up or whatever daa is home to Dubai's red light district where you can walk the streets and literally just see women standing on the corners waiting for a customer I stumbled across this a few weeks back when I was looking for a camera store and I was so confused as to why there were so many black women in particular just hanging around I didn't record anything obviously but there are many videos available on YouTube on Dubai's red light district and so every time I was doing that I was like oh my God I'm waiting here for like 5 minutes for a taxi to come and I don't want people to mistake me for that and whilst I was doing that I did get a few weird like hey sweetie like just weird things like that I did have one car also like slowed down I think it's quite easy to judge sex workers but I have spoken to someone who was actually trafficked to Dubai in her case she was in her home country and someone who was here um told her that you know they have a job for she had a particular skill let's just say she her skill was sewing they told her that you know hey we have like a shop here you can come and sew or whatever and then when she landed they actually took her to this house where there were loads of other um sex workers there and they also took her passport and obviously you're coming to a foreign land and you don't have your passport you don't know anyone here you don't have money and that is how aot of people actually get into those sort of things um and it wasn't for her it wasn't until she actually ran away and was able to get a job in what she actually was trained in that she was able to break out of being a sex worker so I don't judge them obviously cuz I don't know what the circumstances are um but I just don't want to be mistaken for one because people don't respect them and that's the truth you don't know what weird things people say to you or do to you if they think that's your line of work so I hope you guys actually enjoyed that and maybe give you a little bit more insight into a side of du buy that um I guess people like me even like don't really speak about don't really show and that's because we don't really go there because there's not that much there if you are looking for something that's super affordable an area that's super affordable then it is going to be a good area to go to however for example the apartment that I saw that one was like 55 dham right for a one bed but if you guys remember the apartment that I viewed in Town Square in the Uno Apartments which were absolutely gorgeous had so many amenities I'm pretty sure it was around the same price um so even if I was looking for something more affordable I personally wouldn't go to an area like de lastly I'll just say that though DEA felt very different from the areas I usually frequent in Dubai it still felt safe there was a police station close by to the suit and there were signs of CCTV recording whilst I was walking to my various different destinations that's it for this video don't forget to give it a thumbs up if you learn something new about Dubai

Channel: Lámidé Elizabeth

Views: 409,945

Keywords: #Moneymanagement, #dubailifestyle, #dubaicontentcreator, #propertyinvestor, #landlady, #personalfinance, #Moneycontent, #millionaire

Id: GSj32bkFhYY

Length: 11min 37sec (697 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 03 2024