My UAE articles, so far, are entirely about seeing Dubai during various layovers to other places. I began lengthening flight transits in Dubai after my brother got a job with its flag airline. I figured, family lives there now, so I decided to give the United Arab Emirates a closer look.

The United Arab Emirates is one of those countries that I know are popular, and for which I have a general positive impression, and yet for some reason I was never moved to visit. Like Japan, for example, or Portugal. It really doesn’t have anything to do with the countries themselves. It’s just that people and countries both have personalities, and we gravitate to different ones more than others.

But sometimes we’re wrong about that, just like we’re sometimes wrong about people when we don’t know them well. And sometimes, it turns out that when you get to know a country a little more, you realise you’re actually very comfortable there.

That’s the UAE – or at least Dubai – for me.

My Dubai articles focus on the part of it that’s legitimately world-class, but which isn’t what people typically think about – and sometimes this seems to include Dubai itself. Which is a shame, because I think this side of it is much more sustainable and worthy of the future.