My bad experience in the UAE after spending the night in Dubai

First of all, I want to say that I don’t really like Dubai. If I compare it with Singapore, I find Singapore much more comfortable, and I would definitely choose Singapore. So, I’ll try to explain what I liked and disliked about Dubai. Unfortunately, this trip started pretty badly because while I was on the flight, I started feeling a little bit sick after the food. I had a headache and just felt uncomfortable. So, by the time I arrived in the UAE, I was already not feeling my best.

The first thing that really annoyed me was the taxi situation. After leaving the airport, I went to the taxi pickup point, and a man came up to me and offered me a taxi. I asked how much he wanted, and he said 150 AED. I was surprised because on Uber, I could order a taxi for around 80–90 AED ($25). At that moment, I immediately understood that I probably shouldn't take his offer. I don't know why he thought I would agree to pay that much, but it was definitely not the best first impression of the city.

After that, I started paying more attention to how much everything was actually costing me. The second thing was the prices in general. In just four hours, I spent $55 on taxis, just getting from the airport and then back to the airport. I think it’s probably my most expensive taxi story ever. Even in Europe, I’ve never spent so much money on taxis. Of course, you could say that I could have taken a bus, but at 2 AM I couldn’t find a convenient one. According to the information I found, most buses start running around 4 or 5 AM. So, at that time, taking a taxi seemed like the easiest option, even though it turned out to be pretty expensive.

And then there was the weather, which made everything even less enjoyable. At 2 AM, it was already 33 degrees, which was awful. On top of that, the humidity was very high. While I was walking around, I got wet from my head all the way down to my legs. I was already tired and not feeling very well, and the weather definitely didn't help. Now I’m sitting at the airport, still completely wet from the humidity.

As if that wasn't enough, I also had another strange problem during my short walk around the city. I couldn’t find any available toilets near the Burj Khalifa area. I even asked some people, and they told me, “You won’t find toilets at this time.” What the hell? In all the countries I’ve visited, I’ve never had this problem before. It was such a small thing, but when you're walking around at 2 or 3 AM and can't find a toilet anywhere, it becomes surprisingly annoying.

By that point, I was already getting tired of everything. I spent about two hours in Dubai, from 2 AM to 4 AM. After a while, everything started to irritate me, so I called a taxi and left the city. I think it was a pretty unsuccessful and completely unplanned visit. Still, at least I saw the Burj Khalifa, some of the nearby buildings and main attractions, and also the Museum of the Future. So, even though the experience wasn't great, I can at least say that I saw some of the most famous places in Dubai.

And finally, even my taxi driver managed to annoy me a little on the way back to the airport. When I came back to the airport, instead of taking me to Departures, he dropped me at Arrivals. He just said, “Sorry, I took the wrong way.” Well, okay — if you took the wrong way, then I clicked the wrong button. At that point, I just laughed about it and gave him 1 star as feedback.