'Prostitutes everywhere, no footpaths, and men staring': Waterford woman on living in Dubai

A young Waterford woman who lived in Dubai for a year before moving back to Ireland has shared how the city is not everything it appears to be on social media. 

22-year-old Mia Crawford, who is originally from Tramore, moved to Dubai in 2023.

"When I thought about leaving Ireland, I was after going through a very bad heartbreak. I was in therapy, and I was like, 'I need to get out of this country'," Mia said.

She made a vision board, decided to start manifesting, and then forgot about it until about five months later.

Her mam came into her room and told her she needed to tell Mia something.

"She's like, 'I have a job interview in Dubai and I'm thinking of taking it. Would you be mad at me?'," Mia said.

She decided after a few days she was going to go with her mam as there was nothing in Ireland for her anymore.

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At the time, Mia was a surf instructor by day and bar woman by night.

She already had two cousins, an aunty, and uncle living in Dubai, and one of her cousins did surf lessons over there.

Mia's uncle asked whether any job openings were coming up to see if Mia could start working over there.

"They happened to be looking for a surf instructor and usually you have to work your way up. You have to become a student, then you have to work your way up to become a coach. You can't just apply and become a coach. But I did and I got it because he absolutely loved me and he wanted me," Mia said. 

She got the job and got flown over to Dubai and started working with Viking Surf Club, teaching children as young as two-years-old how to swim and surf. 

Mia had a second job in Dubai too, doing the same thing but for a different company called Ignite Water Sports.

She also had a side hustle doing the social media for a member of one of Dubai's royal families, of which there are many.

Mia was working hard in Dubai but something was missing. 

She had jobs she enjoyed, family over there with her, and had made some lovely friends.

"I think it was the most depressed I've ever been in my life, really," Mia shared. 

When I told her she looked so happy on Instagram, she replied, "that's Instagram."

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"I was just so sad. I don't know why. I don't know to this day. It wasn't because I was heartbroken. I was after healing, I was after going to therapy. I was after doing my journey. But I was just so, so sad. I never remember being that sad in my life, like I was so sad, I was genuinely contemplating jumping off the balcony," Mia said.

"I think it was a huge culture shock. I think I got a bad fright when I went over there. I just didn't know what I was expecting and I was so alone, if that makes sense, like I felt so alone. My mam was in work all the time and I was just so sad," she added.

As much as Mia struggled while in Dubai, there were times when she couldn't believe how fortunate she was to live the life she had.

"There were days where I was just like, 'how is this my life? How is this real?' Like, in a good way, in an amazing way. There were moments where I would be teaching the children or paddle boarding and the water is like glass. There's jellyfish floating around, there's a stingray underneath my paddle board, I'm in 40 degree heat in my bikini, and I'm a tanned, healthy, 19-year-old at the time. This is my life, like, this is unreal. How did I ever complain or cry a day I was in this city? Then the next day you're there and you're like 'nah.' It's weird," she said.

In terms of the culture shock, Mia knew that Dubai would not be like Ireland, but it also wasn't like the Dubai she had seen on social media.

"The side of Dubai I was in is different to the average person that goes to Dubai. I personally feel any girls I know that are my age that go to Dubai, they go to the glamorous side of Dubai. They go out. They go to the beach clubs. I've never been to the beach club, only once and that was to go work teaching swimming," Mia said. 

Mia was in what she would describe as "surfer Dubai" where she was waking up at 4am to go to work.

In Ireland, if you were up at 4am, it would be rare to see another human up, but in Dubai, that was not the case.

"In front of you on the beach there's people running, sprinting, cycling, rollerblading, skateboarding, kayaking, paddle boarding. It's fitness crazy over there, really fitness crazy. If you want to go feel like sh*t, go to Dubai," Mia said.

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The pressure of looking glamorous and going out also got to Mia at times.

"You see these girls going to all these bougie restaurants and all that. I never experienced that when I was in Dubai. There is that part of me, like, I love all that but for some reason when I go to Dubai, I just don't go and do that. I just think there's so much pressure on you to do that," she explained.

"The social life is amazing but, I personally found it hard to make friends. I have one or two friends there but I'm just like that everywhere I go, because that's kind of person I am," she said.

Mia's sister also moved to Dubai and the two of them had a great time going to the desert, for ice cream, and exploring the City together.

"She literally knocked my door trying to go for ice cream. It's three o'clock in the morning. We're like in our pyjamas going down for the ice cream," she said.

On the day that they went to the desert, which was one of the stand-out moments of Dubai for Mia, they couldn't believe its beauty. 

"The desert is like you are in a movie, a picture, or a piece of art. It's the craziest thing in the world to experience. The sand is like no other sand in the world. I don't even know how to describe how insane the colour of the sand is. It's bright orange and the sky is bright blue," Mia said.

"I tell everyone that's going to Dubai that they have to go to the desert but I don't support the camel-riding or the quads," she said.

Mia says you can "do anything you want" while in Dubai, which might shock some people who believe the city is very strict, particularly for women.

"People are going to want to know what it's like out in Dubai, because apparently you can't dress like this, can't dress like that but what I will say is not a lot of people have fashion sense," Mia said.

She says that although she dressed respectfully while there, you can wear whatever you want.

However, it might cause men to stare.

"It's weird because the men stare. I've had men come up to me and just say mad things like they wouldn't in Ireland, because they just tend to have the audacity to do that. And I do think a lot of women in Dubai are desperate because they want money and a man," she explained.

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Despite it being illegal, Mia said she regularly saw prostitution in Dubai. 

"Outside where I lived, there was prostitution cards everywhere. There were cards on the floor with photos of women and numbers," she said. 

There was one instance where Mia remembers being in a hotel when a group of businessmen came in with a number of prostitutes. 

This, along with a lack of footpaths and good food, led Mia to start to consider coming home.

"I just wanted to come home to Ireland food, the Irish veg, the Irish chicken, the steaks. Like, it's so hard to find a steak over there that's not costing an arm and a leg," she said.

The lack of footpaths meant walking to and from places was not an option but the traffic was so bad that people are left sitting in it for over an hour. 

"There's trains but the train stations are what feels like miles away from everything. You just need a car and even if you do have a car, you're sitting in traffic for hours. There's traffic everywhere," Mia explained. 

On the day Mia spoke to us, it was lashing rain outside and there were very strong winds.

"I just couldn't think of anything better than today, the lashing rain. That's all I thought about. I just wanted to get home, just to be on a day like this," she said.

Despite the lack of rain, the odd stares, and terrible traffic, what Mia really wanted from home was to be with the person she had fallen in love with just three weeks before moving to Dubai. 

She had travelled to Portugal with her sister to go to a concert when she met her now boyfriend.

For the nine months after getting her heart broken, Mia focused on herself.

"I was working my two jobs. I was surfing. I was going to the gym. I was going after going through that heartbreak and I was going to therapy," she said. 

"I was planning on going to Portugal to just go see my favourite rapper, Nines. I didn't care about boys. I didn't care about anyone else that was going to be at the festival," Mia said.

That changed when she got to the airport though. 

In the airport, she bumped into a boy that her sister knew and it turned out that him and his friends were going on the same flight as Mia and her sister.

That's when she met Denis. 

"I just saw him for the first time and once I looked at him, I just fell in love. I was supposed to go to Portugal for like six days and I ended up staying there for three weeks with him. Then I went straight to Dubai and I just didn't want to be anywhere else other than with him," Mia explained.

Mia and Dennis have been together for over two years now and have lived in Belfast, travelled to Disneyland Paris, and are currently in a long distance relationship.

Dennis is looking after his grandmother while Mia thrives in her new job as the manager of an aesthetician clinic in Waterford. 

Mia's mam and sister are still living in Dubai but come home once a year to visit.

When asked whether she would move back to Dubai, Mia answered, "I'm not going back there until I'm a multi-millionaire with a driver's license. Those are my two things."