On the Middle East

Reading my origin story on real-life-fantasy(dot)com and my early posts will provide the context for this post.

If the events had not unfolded in the way that they did since April, I would be out of the United Kingdom by now according to my original plan. I travelled to Dubai earlier this year to set up my residence and I planned to party like there’s no tomorrow in Berlin for six months every year, detox in Dubai during the winter for three months whilst meeting the residence requirements for 0% income tax, and split the remaining three months between London and China. And I would be netting mid-six figures as a digital nomad.

I originally planned a two-week trip to Dubai to set everything up, but I was in and out of the country within 96 hours. In those 96 hours, I had a health check completed in under 10 minutes which involved a blood test and a chest X-ray, had the phone contract setup and bank account opened, had my biometric appointment and the visa was approved as well as received the residence permit within 48 hours.

I mainly ordered takeaways to be delivered to my Airbnb and I noticed a couple of strange incidents where the delivery drivers kept apologising to me for being a couple of minutes late. I had no idea they were late if they didn’t apologise to me in the first place. Their exceptionally apologetic attitude made me quite uncomfortable since I do not see the need for that over a minor delay that could very well be due to factors outside their control. I later found out that one bad customer review pretty much means their future in the country is done and they will be sent packing. They have a near-unlimited supply of low-cost labour from nearby countries that are at the bottom range for GDP per capita.

If you have enough zeros in your bank account and want to be served like a God, then the Middle East is your heaven.

Feel free to read my post titled “On Possible Antichrists” for my list of potential candidates.