The last few days have been a mad flurry of group fitness classes, some days doubling up.  Thailand doesn't really offer that, but the tradeoff is there is much better cycling over there than Dubai.

The combination of group fitness and healthy lifestyle has been, quite nicely and expected, a rapid drop in body fat.  The pace is sustainable so far, but just barely.  I'm trying not to overdo it.  The good news is that in less than a week, I've reversed nearly a month of fat gain from all the previous job pressure.  By the time I leave Dubai, at this rate, it will be possible to reverse another month of fat gain.

Combine that with social events almost daily, this city is really producing positive results.  At the same time, this trip is testing the waters to see what it would potentially be like to get a job and live here.  In short:  it's not all that great from this aspect and not likely to happen.  Certainly, the reality on the ground doesn't live up to the allure that people have about Dubai.  That's why I'm a firm believer that you absolutely have to check out a place first, have a dry run, try to get to know the ins and outs before forming an opinion.  If someone back in Thailand says, "Ooh wow you'll be a millionaire if you move to Dubai" then they're caught up in the allure and in certain perceptions.  People who say things like that don't know.  They've never been here. 

There's basically three reasons why I can see this isn't going to happen.  First and foremost, it's expensive as fuck.  I'm trying everything possible to cut costs and am still spending a fortune.  Even if a job paid comparable salary to what I'm currently making, the costs alone would eat into it.  Those teachers I met at the social event are correct in a relative sense.  Whether you're working in Thailand or here, the money gets eaten up.  Consequently, you can't save..  At first I thought those people were off base, but having done the budget firsthand and seen how fast things add up, they were more correct.

Second reason is that the vibe is too fast paced and uptight.  I'm beginning to notice this a lot more on the second trip.  If the goal is to leave behind a fast paced and stressful existence in a megacity and seek recovery, then Dubai isn't exactly a good option.  It's just transfering one codependent pattern of existence for another.  Granted the energy in Dubai is more positive and bullish, that is for sure.  Let's be fair, the social scene is amazing and far better.  The economy is on point and we don't have the political problems of China.  But I know myself well enough that if I were to make a move, given time, I would likely fall into similar patterns that I was trying to run from.  

Third reason probably settles it:  this is one of the most bicycle unfriendly places I've seen on earth.  Everything is cars, cars, cars, and more cars.  Public transit also is lacking.  A major point of making a move is to find somewhere that is more accomodating towards bikes.  Shanghai is moving in the wrong direction (as are most places on earth) towards a car culture, but Dubai is even more entrenched in this regard.  Cycling, where it exists, is limited to recreational use among restricted paths.  The concept of touring or commuting by bike is non-existent.  There are entire areas (such as Palm Jameirah) that are totally walled off to bikes.  If the whole idea is to cycle around the city easier and go from job to fitness class to social parties, the infrastructure makes it near impossible.  A real shame too, as the climate is conducive to cycling most times of the year except summer.

So those are the three reasons why I don't see this happening.  I won't lie, I did try looking for jobs and networking at social events to that end.  But nothing is really panning out, nor am I expecting it to.  You could literally fire off hundreds of applications and not expect to hear back from any.    It's just too competitive and people are cutthroat and superficial, which ties into the whole second reason.  The end goal is to seek a pre-retirement destination, i.e. somewhere for the next 10-15 years to bank good money but also enjoy the life.  If it's just more suffering in a fast paced existence, what's the point?    

Still, there are some very good outcomes.  There is of course the fitness culture, the healthy eating, the social networking, and the rapid loss of body fat.  The other is that I'm actually getting out the applications and doing a whole bunch more proactive steps to both find jobs and network that I had avoided doing for years before.  Whether or not something pans out isn't the issue, it's the whole process of taking agency and taking matters into my own hands.  For example the entire Thailand portion of this trip beforehand was about this, and I directed the whole show from start to finish.

Another huge positive success was taking a big risk to trade full contracts in my futures account.  I said I would never do this, but the opportunity was too good to pass up.  Gold hit an all time high, and more and more people were talking about how bullish gold was and how it was the right time to buy.  Spoiler alert:  whenever that kind of buying momentum takes hold, it is the cue to short it.  So I did this, and took a huge risk to short a full contract which is 10 micros.  This consumed nearly all the margin in my account and I was shocked to find how sensitive this was.  A tiny change in the gold price would amount to hundreds of dollars gain or loss.  So once I hit $500 profit I immediately closed it.  Good enough!  Gold continued to tank and I could have banked $2000 at the low but didn't want to push my luck.

So overall I felt good about the progress.  On the heels of that success, I decided to eat the loss with the current Airbnb and the tight host, then move into the previous one.  While negotiating with the other host on Whatsapp, she offered 3 nights stay for 2 nights price, and a 15% discount on top of that.  It works out to an extra $120.  This is basically eating the loss since I can't get a refund on the first place.  But then I made $500 on shorting a full gold contract so I would reward myself, stay in somewhere better, and not get woken up by the fajr prayers in the mosque.