Why We're Skipping Dubai

Getting to Berlin, and Throwing In Dubai Along the Way

In September we were booking travel for the rest of the year.  For two years we had been talking about going to Berlin at Christmas time.  I determined earlier in the year that I was going, no matter the obstacle.  When I started searching for seats, I was finding fares in the neighborhood of $1200 for each of the two of us, which is more than I'd ever paid for a plane ticket, I think.  Looking at possible alternatives, I saw that we could add in a stop in Dubai for just $200 more.  It seemed like a bargain and we went ahead and booked:  we would leave out on a Thursday night, transit in Paris, arrive into Dubai after eleven Friday night and head out in the wee hours of Monday morning, transit through Paris again, onward to Berlin for a week before transiting Paris a third time on the way home.

Dubai had been on my list for a few years.  It looks exciting and I looked forward to going up in the world's tallest building, exploring Old Dubai, and getting to see some of the great architecture.  We'd been to Istanbul and I imagined, given everything I had seen, read, and heard, religion’s influence would be at a similar level.  So, I didn't give a second thought to not going.  Why would I?

Leave Your Drugs (and Pastries Containing Poppy Seeds) At Home

Well, after a few weeks a guidebook arrived.  I had lots of other travel going on so I didn't really have time to delve into it nor to give much attention to planning.  About a month before we were to leave Philip said something along the lines of "we'll need to clean all of our stuff out really good and make sure we don't have any drugs or drug residue."  I laughed:  there is not drugs nor drug residue in my stuff. It was then that I started to explore the issue and to read some pretty scary stuff.

I am not interested in doing drugs, much less trafficking in them, so I always think I'm pretty safe at customs, here at home and abroad.  But, when rules are stringent to the extreme and the possibility to do something illegal purely by accident is a strong possibility, I take notice.  Here's a sampling of the instances I read about in our guidebook and online, mostly via newspaper reports:

• An incoming tourist who had melatonin with him was held for weeks in jail before authorities determined that it was not illegal.  He was held for a further few weeks while they thoroughly searched and tested the rest of his belongings.
• A twenty-year-old was arrested and sentenced to four years prison because he'd smoked a joint the day before he arrived into Dubai.  (Having drugs in one's system is considered possession, just the same as if he had the joint with him.)
• A German flight attendant unwittingly ate a pastry that had hash in it, offered to her at a gathering.  Still unaware what she'd eaten, she went to hospital because she wasn't feeling well.  A blood test revealed THC in her bloodstream.  The police were called and she was arrested.  She spent the eleven months in prison, fighting for release.  Her argument was that she was actually the victim of a crime.
• A British visitor ate a poppy-seed roll at Heathrow before his flight to Dubai.  Authorities at the airport discovered three (three!) poppy seeds on his clothes.  (Regular poppy seeds are illegal in the UAE; possession of them carries a minimum jail term of four years.)  Another story told of a visitor who had a pastry containing poppy seeds; the offending pastry landed him in jail.

There are lots of other stories of tourists unwittingly entering with routinely-prescribed medication that is illegal in Dubai and are carted off to jail.  Still more are detained while authorities test their belongings and decide the legality of medications (and, presumably, pastries) they may be bringing with them.

There are more prohibited items on the entry list than any other country and it is very easy to fall afoul of the rules without knowing it.  Add in the fact that they have "invested" in the most sensitive detection equipment in the world, and it becomes quite scary.  And, if one is inclined to intentionally bring in drugs, well, ask the guy who brought in and tried to sell 3/4 ounce of pot to an undercover officer and was sentenced to death.  (My sympathy at him getting caught is nonexistent but the punishment seems harsh.)

Making the Trip Less Stressful

I know people who have been to Dubai and liked or loved it and had zero problems.  I think that we would have entered also without issue and would have enjoyed our couple of days in Dubai.  But, I found the possibility of having issues just too daunting.  For me the standard is just too stringent and the consequences too great to bother with.  And, with that level of power, all it takes is ending up with the wrong customs agent, and things can quickly go wrong.  The more I read the more worrying it all was.  I finally talked to Philip Friday night about just bagging the Dubai piece and think of going somewhere else instead.  He agreed that it was likely the best thing to do.

If Not Dubai, Then Where?

Saturday morning I woke up and started looking at other options.  Possibilities I offered Philip as viable were Stockholm, Helsinki, Vilnius, Kiev, Dubrovnik, Venice, Milan, Straßburg, Zurich, Budapest, Munich, Vienna, and spending more time in Berlin.  In the end, after we started digging down and looking at hotels, flights, and so on, we settled on Budapest.  Once we made the decision, the entire trip was re-booked and sorted within an hour.

So, we will be missing Dubai, which I'm sad about.  But, I prefer my piece of mind and to not have to worry about accidentally falling afoul of rules that are just extreme and harsh in my opinion.  On the positive side, Budapest is an excellent destination and Philip has never been to Hungary, so he can mark another from his list.  It'll be a great trip, no doubt.  And, I don't have to scrub my luggage!