We love our home city, we really do – so much so that sometimes it can still make us gasp. A lot of the time, said gasp is accompanied by three special little words: Only. In. Dubai. In celebration of our unique home town and Time Out Dubai’s upcoming 10th anniversary (keep an eye on the mag for more on that!), here are some of the funniest/strangest/most shocking moments you (and we) have said it recently.

‘Livestock in the passenger seat; wives in the back.’

‘Trucks and taxis reverse down six-lane highways because the drivers have missed their turning.’

'A licence plate can cost more than the car.'

‘It’s seen as perfectly acceptable to hold a seven-year-old’s birthday party in a five-star hotel.’

‘“Partly cloudy” is considered unstable weather and is written about in lengthy news articles.’

‘I once spotted a man doing a crossword while driving.’

‘Curbs are considered big speed bumps, to be driven over to get to the good parking spots.’

‘You can have a maid and gardener before the age of 30.’

‘People park outside the grocery store and hoot to be served within the comfort of their 4x4s.’

‘You see a mother pushing her child through the mall in a Fendi pushchair.’



'Live salsa bands play gigs in venues with no dance licence.'

‘The metro stations look like spaceships, and their floors are polished more often than Paris Hilton has her nails done.’

‘It’s normal to carry a jumper to work when it’s 50°C outside.’

‘You can have a can of Coke delivered to your front door (not that we do it, of course!).’

‘You spot a car covered in Swarovski crystals.’

‘Road signs appear on or after the junction, so you have to carve across five lanes of traffic to avoid missing the turning.’

‘The tallest building in the world sits next to the largest mall in the world, containing the largest indoor aquarium in the world, next to the highest fountain in the world.’

‘We once built an air-conditioned dog house/shed the size of a small cottage for our two dogs in summer.’

‘It's standard to get a cookie with your coffee and a “bag chair” for your bag.’

‘You can go skiing in -7°c when it’s 45°C outside and have a cup of steaming hot chocolate under heaters.’



‘Here, you can be whatever you wish to be, and pretend to be something you’re not.’

‘You can drive an Aston Martin and no one will pay any attention to you.’

‘If you go to a service station at 6am and there are no attendants, you start to panic and think: “I have to fill up with petrol… by MYSELF?”

‘It often takes you longer to explain your address to the delivery guy than to order the food.’

'You'll see 15 members of the same family coming out of the same car.'

‘We didn’t lock the door of our house for four years because we lost the key.’

‘Place names are spelled differently depending on which road sign you look at.’

‘You put a cardigan on when you go inside, then take it off when heading out.’

‘Landmarks and tourist attractions are included on maps before they’ve been built.’

‘You get tailgated and flashed to get out of the fast lane, even though you’re driving at 140kph already.’



‘Doing half a dozen U-turns does not mean you’ve gone the wrong way.’

‘A small local football team can hire Diego Maradona to be their manager.’

‘You repeatedly encounter (and become increasingly annoyed by) the sentence: “Sorry ma'am, we don't have.”

‘You see not just Ferraris, but so many Bentleys, Maybachs and BMWs in your office car park that they suddenly feel like common cars.’

‘You see a two-year-old “driving” a Porsche while daddy is on the phone.’

‘I once saw a huge leopard in the waiting room when I took my dog to the vet.’

‘Caviar is cheaper than bacon at the supermarket.’

‘You can be part of building a city, and be the first to do so many new things.’

'You can think of SO many things to put on the "Only in Dubai" list that you don't bother getting started!'

‘You can get this many people interested in talking about the things that happen only in Dubai.’