Entering my final week in Dubai, it’s a good time to reflect on my experiences here. What I find when I think about the very best times and the things which will bring a warm glow long after I leave is that they never had anything to do with possessions or having significant amounts of money. And yet, on a daily basis in Dubai you’re told just the opposite – lots of money buys the most luxury and the most satisfying experiences. Deep down we kind of know this is a lie, and so advertisers cleverly seek to associate the expensive luxury thing with the feelings of satisfaction that come from things that are normally free. It’s a point I tried to make a few months back here.
Dubai has some very very rich people. My wife has made friends with a few through her English classes – when you scratch the surface there’s a hotch potch of unhappy wives, unsatisfied husbands, split families. Some are happy, some are sad – but whether the homes have ten bedrooms and gold taps or not has little to do with it.
When were the best times? Jogging through the streets for three hours, playing football with friends in the cooler months, eating a simple meal at 4am, watching the sun go down while camping in the mountains, enjoying a cheap curry with my mum and dad in Deira, lying on the grass on a June evening in JLT with my wife and the girls. A marketeer could take any one of those moments and make it into an advert (with more attractive actors) for a watch, a family insurance plan, a deodorant, an item of clothing – and then claim that the joy and satisfaction of that moment was due to the product we owned or were wearing. As if the source of the feelings came from a logo.
And so, at my best, I’m indifferent to the food we’re eating, or the style of music, or whether they’re serving alcohol or not. The key question is – is this a good time spent with good people? I need to push myself to emphasize this more and sometimes I miss golden opportunities. Last night after midnight following a late evening meal, I took a taxi home rather than walking 200m Jules and Jim style along the promenade with two of my best friends here. I usually pride myself in calling these better.
The final thing is that activities – ‘doing stuff’ – is often a key part of good times. There’s only so much eating and talking you can take, and these things rarely get epic. In my new posting, I hope to do more stuff – whether it’s hiking or surfing, or volleyball or photography.