Never did I think that I would willingly spend ~8hours sitting on a plane just to meet anons
It was a wild time well spent but I gained lots of insights, very unlike the pompous glamorous city perceived to be lined with gold and luxury all over.
Here I will dissolve my experiences and illusions of an artificial city built on sand, The Good, Bad, Ulgy 👇
I usually 99% of the time dont travel to cities, which screams all concrete and unbearable heat, because from where I am from, I probably have touched walls more than I ever touched grasses.
This time was for a different purpose, to catch up with friends whom I've speaking to for over 3 years not knowing how I look. The best part, it was indeed different, being welcome with the rarest disaster in Dubai's history which crumbled the city. Go more into that later.
The GOOD 🟢
- The best place for business, people are driven and everyone talks business, straight to the point and they are all out here to achieve something
- Service stuff are always welcoming guests/people very warmly, not sure if this is part of their service protocols but definitely something that caught me off guard. As I am always 1000% cautious when I am in a foreign land, I initially took their warmness as something that could mean ill-intentions. Later on, I just grew to realize that its just how nice they were.
- Some might say Dubai is a copy of Singapore, and some might say Dubai has a strong business energy than Singapore. Though Singapore is also a business oriented country, because all they have is nothing but human resources and FDI. Met a guy who actually really liked Singapore but he felt that the drive in the Singapore's environment was weak and so he very much prefers Dubai for business.
- I do see Dubai as the hub as the rich and businessman would move to Dubai and make this their ground. The airport is probably one of the busiest, welcoming my with grand silver and gold colored pillars and ceilings.
- Its an international city. Dubai is no city for their local population and the bulk of their population are migrants from another country/part of the world
- A perfect crypto hub, though I didnt get to spend much time out there because 2 days were down and couldn't get to meet much of those i wanted to catch.
The BAD 🔴
- Nothing too bad actually, its just probably their way of life :)
- The air-conditioned air that you are breathing in the malls and my hotel room is just so bad, never have I felt the need to yearn for that outside air so much in my life. At least from where I am based, I don't have a need for artificial air
- Too much housing is being built, likely an over supply in certain areas. Properties are being sold all the way from the airport to shoppings malls and to hotels. I have not seen a single soul enquiring OTC about these properties. Just who are buying these massive amount of properties and just from the ride from the airport to the lower part of Dubai, there could easily be more than 10 to 15 property developments going on the both of of the roads.
- I appreciate the public transport but this also shows how small the country actually is and how many are actually taking the train. Trains are way smaller to those in Europe, London, Turkey. Safe to say that many rich people in Dubai dont really take trains. Its those who are really working on the ground who are taking the trains and I am joining them.
The ULGY 🤮
- I do see strange males nearby train station (where I was staying near to) trying to sell seemingly looking apple products. This totally changed my perception as this is something so common in some countries of Europe where, strange males try to sell you something like a wristband. There are many homeless and poor people in Europe but this was the Dubai city supposedly perceived to be a rich country. There's still income disparity here, probably more so than anyone would know.
- Never have I have to swim my way through deep waters and walk an hour to get back to my accommodation just because the city broke after a rain. Hey, it isn't even a natural disaster, not a quake or hailstone, just a rain...someone told me this "This city is not built for rain", entirely true and city got broken for days right after the rain occurred on Tuesday.
- Probably no one as crazy as me would take the public transport in Dubai on their way to the airport and just so happen the trains gone live. I cannot describe in words how jam packed the train station was when the next train is arriving in 40mins. It was as bad as the peak hour trains in Japan packed right till the train door. Entirely regretted the choice there.
Takeaway 👀
- Not sure if i can say the same again for the next Dubai 2049 and if I would be there, would probably be more focused the next time round to meet targetted friends and people.
- Solana is impressive, building an army of developer with their hacker house event, it was a pity I couldn't be there but I heard some stuff about it
- Met a lot of AI projects that were so good and building, some of which i might not have heard about it before. Though the flipside is that there is going to be a diverted attention with so many AI projects, but the vibes I am getting is that AI and DePin will be one of the key focus in this cycle
- Omnichain capabilities along with Data Availability are some of the narratives that I do feel will take on a good amount of hype in this cycle
- Not to mentione Runes was the talk of the town happening right in the middle while 2049 was going on, pretty certain that it will be one of the biggest narratives to come.
Let me end this long tweet with some credits to @time_4444, inspired by this tweet and unlike him, I am surrounded by concrete and long to reunite with nature.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/arndxt_xo/status/1782772955233271828
Interesting ground information.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience.
It also shows how vulnerable of a modern city in the dessert to climate change on urban city planning and the importance of a proper drainage system.