Dubai: Pros and Cons

I’ve been living in Dubai for two months (!) now and feel pretty settled in my new dusty sweaty fancy pants city. I thought I’d share some of the things I love about living here, as well as some of the things I don’t love so much.

Things I love about Dubai

• It’s easy to eat healthily. Chicken and fish are ridiculously cheap and always fresh and the fruit and veg selection is pretty spectacular too.
• Watermelon is ridiculously cheap and always available. I love watermelon.
• It is always sunny and always warm. The sunsets are excellent.
• Outdoor and rooftop yoga! Everywhere!
• They have an Oysho in Dubai Mall.
• Coconut oil is £3 a LITRE.
• There’s an awesome 3.5k track for runners (around Safa Park) with a soft surface and four glorious ice cold taps. The taps are gold and are from HEAVEN.
• Going to a waterpark is a legitimate weekend activity.
• My tan is excellent.
• Hummus. Labneh. Lebanese restaurants.
• The Dubai Fountain. Never not delightful. (Especially when they do this song. And Thriller)
• Wearing a cap is legit because it’s sunny. Even if you wear it backwards.

Things I don’t love quite so much about Dubai

• Spinach is in scarce supply and/or ridiculously expensive. For someone who eats spinach with every meal and finds comfort in food routine, this is distressing on a daily basis.
• It’s too hot to run comfortably. All runs feel like someone’s filled your limbs with lead and forced you to fight to the death. IT’S THAT HARD
• Getting kerb crawled while you run. Not cool.
• It’s not very walker/runner friendly and the few routes there are get a bit boring.
• There are jellyfish on all the beaches so paddling is an extreme sport.
• No 1kg tubs of peanut butter.
• No Torq gels anywhere. My stomach has new gel fear.
• Whenever there’s something pretty, you can guarantee there’s a building site too.
• People in Dubai can’t use twitter and only seem to hashtag #dubai. Quite boring,

Have you ever been to Dubai or do you live there? What do you think?