Just remembered one...
My Dad took my brother and me out to Australia to see my uncle for the first time ever. We had a couple of nights stopover in Dubai. Somewhat stuck for something to do the first evening, we nip into the hotel nightclub. There's a fairly average cover band with the girls in skimpy costumes wearing bicycle shorts over the top (local laws presumably). My Dad orders a pitcher of beer for us...

Eighty quid!

We drank that slowly. Luckily the next night we found a seedy little place just next door where crates of beer were piled around the room and about £2. Got some funny looks from the denizens but good times were had.
(Richy_T hundreds if not thousands of dollars, Thu 16 Apr 2009, 1:06, 2 replies)

Wow you were ripped off
Alcohol laws Dubai are lax by Arab standards but still pretty silly. You can obtain drinks in most restaurants attached to hotels. There are also places like Hard Rock Cafe which sell them. I don't recall them being extortionately expensive when I visited. Yes they cost a bit, but no more than some posh bar in Dublin or London.

My worst experience in Dubai was going to TGI Fridays which WASN'T attached to a hotel. So not knowing this we sat and discovered they sold a range of "fun" fruit punches. TGIs is barely justifiable for its prices at the best of times but at least you can drink beer, get a little pissed and feed your face. No beer is bad enough but what killed the evening was being seated next to about 10 women all dressed from head to toe in black hijabs. They didn't say a word the whole time and even had to cut the food up in little pieces to slip under their veils. Very depressing.

If I was a women in that hellhole I would catch the first plane out to anywhere which wasn't there.
(MagicMoose, Thu 16 Apr 2009, 10:30, closed)

This was in the Best Western Hotel.
Possibly time has exaggerated this in my mind but it was certainly up there. I'll have to check with my brother. Possibly a G&T for my dad was involved.

I really enjoyed "The Caravan" restaurant in Dubai. All you can eat buffet food from around the world. Right next to that big arched clock it was.
(Richy_T hundreds if not thousands of dollars, Thu 16 Apr 2009, 14:41, closed)