Dubai
In February I had a good opportunity to visit the DDX conference in Dubai. DDX is a global conference series focused on UX, digital innovation, product design, and AI. Tickets were reasonably priced, both for the conference and the flights.
I haven’t flown for some years, and this was a good re-entry. I started at the small, cozy Ljubljana airport and, after a six-hour flight, ended up in one of the largest airports in the world, in Dubai. The Dubai airport is well organized though, and I didn’t have a hard time finding my way. Finding a taxi and hotel went smoothly too.
It’s worth mentioning that my journaling habit came in handy. I plotted the whole conference in it and made notes of all the events I intended to visit, including where they were located within the conference.
The main purpose of my trip was to network and meet new people from my field of work. The conference organizers encouraged this, and people were quite open and approachable.
On the second day especially, I mostly skipped the presentations after meeting rather striking individuals from all over the world. I got lost in conversations covering a great variety of topics, and I was especially interested to learn about life in Dubai from people who actually live there. There was consensus: February, or early spring in general, and late autumn are good times to visit. Summer was strongly advised against, especially for those who don’t like heat.
Since I was in Dubai only for a weekend, and the conference took most of the day, I had only two evenings to actually explore the city. On the first day I visited the mall, which is an enormous complex, basically a city within a city. I came there to buy toothpaste, which I forgot to take with me. Naturally, I got lost. I found a nice place to eat, with lots of vegetarian options. I directed myself towards the Dubai Fountain and Burj Khalifa, and came just in time for the light show. The evening flew by pretty fast. Of course I forgot to buy toothpaste, and even if I’d remembered, it would’ve been rather hard to find in a complex of such magnitude. I ended up ordering it in, and it came at a good discounted price, so a happy ending.
On the second day I visited Souk Madinat Jumeirah, an old market. I grabbed dinner there and went shopping for souvenirs and presents. I found a rather good coffee shop called Hafiz Mustafa 1864 Souk Madinat Jumeirah. They were very kind, and after I bought candies they offered me a free tea.
As I was leaving, a perfume vendor pulled me into his stall, as they do, and bargaining began. I was not interested in buying perfume, but he had some nice soaps. For half an hour I checked everything there was and lowered the prices as much as I could. He said he was making no margin, but I do not believe it.
The weekend went by too fast and I ended up wondering why I didn’t book a longer stay.
It’s worth mentioning, of course, that my timing was really good. Or was it bad? Only two weeks after I left, bombs started to fall on Dubai.
Photos from the trip:
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Tempus meum Dubai bene actum est. Urbem mirabilem esse inveni. Conventus occasiones utiles dedit.