London, June 4 (ANI): Dubai, which is one of the world's most devoutly Muslim countries, still manages to attract a number of people from Britain with three things in mind - to strip off and get a tan, get trashed and have sex.
In Dubai, it is forbidden for women even to venture out with an sleeveless top on, as showing skin is provocative in Muslim culture. So is dancing and pop music.
To drink alcohol is one of the ultimate sins, yet there are at least 100,000 people from Britain living here and it attracts a further three million British holidaymakers a year.
It's a volatile mix, the two polar-opposite cultures often clashing with frightening consequences.
One Brit to feel the wrath of the Dubai authorities is expat Rebecca Blake. The 29-year-old got so hammered on a ten-hour drinking binge two weeks ago that she was arrested.
She claims to have had alcohol amnesia, but a taxi driver says she was getting naked in the back of his car with a male pal, prompting the driver to turn them in to the cops.
The recruitment consultant was then slung in a cockroach-infested jail for five days and sacked from her 100K pound-a-year job.
In Dubai most of the drinking is done at clubs and bars inside hotels. Alcohol is not found in shops, so hotels end up full of Westerners getting plastered day and night.
The country has also become an international sex centre, where girls brazenly sell themselves to Westerners in the downtown bars.
Authorities turn a blind eye and certain places have become sex supermarkets where men can buy a girl of almost any nationality for as little as 40 pounds a night.
Friday is the Muslim world's holy day, when no work is done by locals, and for expats in Dubai it is the equivalent of Saturday.
All-day benders start at noon at any of the infamous 'brunch parties' hosted by hotels. For between 70-150 pounds Brits can eat and drink as much as they possibly can.
The most raucous party is at Yalumba restaurant at the Meridien Airport Hotel.
"The girls are so up for it out here, it's much easier to get laid here than back home. I think it's something to do with the heat," the Sun quoted one partygoer, an expat called Joe who sells swimming pools in Dubai, as saying.
"It's the new Ibiza, except there are no drugs because the penalties are so harsh," he said.
A group of girls from Liverpool are seen whooping and spining on a makeshift dancefloor.
"I was told the hotel grass you up to the police if they see you take a bloke back to your room but I've s****ed two fellas this week and no one's said anything," one of the girls said.
Outside, the air is filled by the Imam calling his faithful to prayer on a loudspeaker.
As the sound mingles with the staccato throb of the pumping dance music, it is an eerie reminder for Brits that they are a long way from home.
Inside, at the prostitute-ridden York Bar, girls grab men the moment they walk in, some even putting their hands inside their trousers.
In broken English they coo crude offers of sexual acts. Asking some their nationalities reveals there are girls from Thailand, Ethiopia, Russia, Belarus, Estonia and the Philippines.
Those who are here legally must take an Aids test once a year, as do any expats, including Brits.
"I like English men very much, my favourite," one prostitute said.
"You look like David Beckham. Shall we go to my apartment? Despite the drinking starting at noon it continues long into the night," she said.
Most places are open until 3am, many of them Irish or British-themed bars.
The Foreign Office warn British holidaymakers and expats that there is a "zero-level tolerance for drugs and alcohol" in Dubai, while sex outside marriage is illegal.
But despite that, the strictly Muslim Arab emirate has become a magnet for Westerners hungry for all three.
Although alcohol is served in licensed hotels and clubs, it is an offence to drink or to be under the influence of alcohol in public.
Drinking risks up to six months in jail and a fine of up to 340 pounds, while sex outside marriage can get you up to three years.
Possession of even small amounts of drugs can lead to a minimum of four years. People can also be arrested for kissing in public and women must dress modestly. (ANI)
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