Sounds odd, I know… but the oldest profession around was sure to be found here in Dubai - and I wasn’t even looking. Dubai is definitely a freaky place — contrasts in every direction. Like I’ve told you guys before, traveling along on business is not always the glitz & glamour some think it is - most of the time you are alone in random hotel bars having a drink trying to make bad conversation with bartenders.

Today was a little different. Having had too many meals from room service at my hotel, Radisson SAS Media City, it was suggested to me to check out the Buddha Bar at the Grosvenor House, so I went. Nice bar - really fun vibe, but I did not want to sit at a table alone eating a late dinner, so I hung out by the bar. No way I could eat though… too many people. Anyway, back to the title… prostitutes in Dubai. I don’t frequent bars/clubs that often, but there was something about the look this one girl at the bar was giving guys, including me. Felt odd. A keen observer, I couldn’t help but notice the dude next to her - an Arabic pimp if I’ve ever seen one. Not that he had goldfish in his boots, but he seemed “close” to the girl, but almost wanting her to make a move.

Enter Ben & Simon. Start chatting with these two guys who came to the bar to get a drink, one of them clearly past his first drink, and looking to shag… soon. Funny how both me and the girl could see this …. next thing you know, she’s chatting him up. Bit later he gets up close and I hear,

Drunk guy: “So let’s cut the bullshit out. Are you coming back with me to my hotel room?”
Creepy chick whispers to him.
Drunk guy: “Two thousand is too much.”
Creepy chick whispers to him.
Drunk guy: “No seriously… less. Two thousand is too much.
Creepy chick moves on to next target.

Turns out drunk guy’s friend I’m chatting with says that you wouldn’t believe the stuff that goes around… hasn’t seen stuff like that outside Thailand and other south-east Asian areas. Nutz.

oh … and walking out of the bar at 1am, you should have seen the skimpy dressed “pitounes” hanging off the arms of a few arab guys as they entered the Lamborghini and three Ferrari (yeah, 3!) that the valet guys were rounding up.

Taxi!