Here are a few of the outrageous ways Middle Eastern guys show off!
Find out exactly why these falcons are flying all over the place in the middle east!
8 - License Plates If you want a specific license plate in the
Middle East, be prepared to pay a lot of money.
Unique plate numbers have become the latest sought-after item by UAE millionaires as an
accessory to their exotic cars.
Many times, the amount that’s bid for the plate actually exceeds the cost of the car
that the plate is on!
Their aim is to get the smallest possible license number.
Single numbers such as 1, 2, and 3 are the most desirable numbers.
The next most sought after are two-digit numbers ranging from 10 to 99, with repetitive numbers
such as 11, 22, 33, being quite popular.
Other car owners are also bidding for numbers that are linked to their car’s model number.
For example, the plate number 599 for a Ferrari 599.
Then apparently the rest of the time it’s just the normal desire of having numbers that
have personal significance.
Such as numbers that’s a birthday or an anniversary.
The most expensive license plate ever sold in Dubai was auctioned off for a whopping
$14 million dollars back in 2009!
In 2016, another man bought a license plate for his Rolls Royce for 9 million dollars!
In the middle east, it seems like everyone drives an exotic car.
There are a bunch of Ferraris and Lamborghinis flying around everywhere like Hondas and Toyotas.
So how exactly can a guy set himself apart?
By the license plate!
A lot of the bidders that win ultra-expensive plate auctions are young people who believe
that having a good number on their car will win them respect.
But then, there are those people who’ll also buy these license plates and never put
them on a car.
That’s because there’s such a big market for expensive plates that there are people
whose only business is just buying and selling license plates!
7 - It’s for the kids Did you guys know the newest way to status
signal in new york city is to have a lot of kids?!
That’s the newest way to say, “I’m rich”!
The average cost of raising a kid to over age 18 is around 550 thousand dollars.
And instead of having the newest birkin bag or exotic car, rich families in Manhattan
choose to have kids instead as a status symbol!
And that’s basically kinda the same thing that’s happening here.
There are a ton of rich Middle Eastern kids that’s out there just spending Daddy’s
money.
We’re going to profile probably the most famous of the rich middle eastern kids here.
17 year old Rashed Saif Belhasa goes by the name 'Money Kicks' on Instagram.
He’s got 1.5 million followers on there and lives in the UAE with his family in a
mansion so big they use a golf cart to get around their property!
That property includes their own private zoo filled with exotic animals.
They have over 500 exotic animals.
However, the reason they have such a big zoo is actually for a very good reason.
The family started collecting their animals from other private zoos that were neglected.
Rashed’s dad is billionaire Emirati businessman Saif Ahmed Belhasa.
That’s why his instagram is filled with exotic cars, expensive bags, private jets,
and celebrity visits.
For example, he got a brand new Ferrari wrapped in Louis Vuitton Supreme logo for his birthday.
And in case you’re wondering, yes, he IS too young to drive the car.
The legal age to drive in Dubai is 18.
Their zoo actually is a popular destination for celebrities such as Mariah Carey, Ronaldo,
Floyd Mayweather, and Rihanna.
Rashed’s pets have names such as Versace the lion, Gucci and Dior the orangutans, and
Armani the chimp.
The names can keep going on and on.
Just like what you’d expect for any spoiled teenager, Rashed’s the proud owner of a
huge shoe collection that’s supposedly worth well over a million dollars.
This is exactly what you do when you want to status signal.
Because you can’t be direct with the signaling, so just give your kid a giant piggy bank and
shower him with gifts!
6 - Exotic animals Ownership of exotic pets has long been considered
a status symbol across the Middle East.
Wealthy owners can often be seen walking their tigers on public beaches in the UAE.
And let’s not forget that plenty of them often post pictures on social media showing
off their exotic animal collection!
The most popular pets are easily the big cats, such as cheetahs and lions.
However, thankfully, owning an exotic pet is slowly going away.
Anyone that’s found keeping exotic wild animals as pets face roughly a $190,000 dollar
fine or even jail!
After years of pressure from animal welfare groups, the UAE recently has passed a law
banning the private ownership and trade of wild and dangerous animals.
Exotic pets have long been considered a status symbol across the Middle East.
It dates all the way back to when Egyptian and Persian royalty kept big cats.
But nowadays views are changing.
Exotic pets are expensive upfront, but they’re also expensive to keep.
Many owners end up feeding them prime cuts of meat.
But what’s a luxurious meal to us isn’t exactly a healthy one for most big cats, such
as a cheetah.
Their diet in the wild is quite different.
But the big problem is what ultimately happens to the pets.
It’s not exactly easy to develop a relationship with a big cat that can become dangerous at
any moment.
So once the novelty of owning an exotic pet is over, a lot of times the animals are just
abandoned.
However, just because something is illegal doesn’t mean that people will stop.
It’s still all about power and influence.
Only time will tell if the ownership of exotic animals has decreased.
5 - England What’s the hottest spot right now for Middle
Eastern men?
Going to England!
The past few years, Manchester is experiencing a tourism boom sparked by rich middle eastern
men.
The city's hotel room occupation rate is now at an average of 80% all year round thanks
to rich Middle Eastern tourists!
They’re attracted by the fine dining, top hotels, and luxury shopping, among other activities
we won’t mention here.
Weather is also a big factor.
For example, Manchester has 140 days of rain per year.
It has an average summer temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit.
That’s IDEAL weather for Middle Eastern tourists looking to escape the heat back home.
So during the hotter months, many middle eastern rich people leave the unbearable temperatures
of their home countries and cruise around Manchester.
But it’s not just Manchester.
In London there’s an area called Knightsbridge that’s so packed with Middle Eastern tourists
that it’s nicknamed Little Arabia.
And it’s not just the people that come on vacation.
Their cars come too!
They’ll easily pay thousands of dollars to ship their cars to England just so they
can have their exotics to drive around.
Their souped-up supercars have become an annual summer feature on the streets of west London.
The cost of flying in the cars coupled with the cost of a high-security garage aren’t
the only car expenses.
There are personal chaperones for the cars sometime as well!
That person’s main job is to make sure nobody touches the cars while they’re parked.
While it may be interesting to other visitors to see all the high end cars, not everyone
is happy about it.
Locals are concerned because their neighborhoods are essentially turned into loud and dangerous
race tracks!
The fines aren’t enough to stop the speeding, illegal parking, and noise complaints.
The Middle Eastern billionaires just have too much money!
4 - I’m on a boat In case you didn’t know it, Middle Eastern
billionaires dominate the list of the world's’ top superyachts.
If you’re a billionaire, you basically need to have a yacht.
Yeah, we know that talking about yachts is played out, but would it make ANY sense if
we didn’t talk about yachts?!
If you’re a middle eastern billionaire, you may have the latest super car and maybe
even a private jet.
But you’re still not part of the super rich elite if you don’t have your very own luxury
superyacht!
Superyachts are the most popular luxury asset among top billionaires.
That’s according to research carried out by Wealth-X, a leading intelligence provider
for ultra high net worth individuals.
They compiled a list of the top ten most expensive billionaire luxury asset acquisitions of all
time.
Eight out of the 10 purchases were superyachts!
The UAE is home to the world’s largest megayacht, called the Azzam, which is worth an estimated
$630 MILLION dollars!
A yacht is essentially the ultimate symbol of success.
In fact, you’re almost guaranteed to lose money on the resale of a yacht!
A yacht is just purely a luxury item and it just drips excess.
No one NEEDS a yacht!
All the other big purchases are different.
A house is a necessity and most of the time it’s an actual investment because you can
make money from it.
And a private jet can be written off as a legitimate business expense.
And that’s why corporate jets outnumber superyachts by more than 2 to 1!
A boat’s age can exacerbate a superyacht’s already super expensive operating costs.
Between crew salaries, fuel, dockage and maintenance fees, owners can expect to pay the equivalent
of 10 percent of a superyacht’s value every year in upkeep!
But to own a superyacht is like joining an exclusive club.
These guys don’t care!
Think these decisions are dumb yet?
Well, there are wayyy dumber financial decisions out there.
Find out about rappers who went broke because of their dumb decisions in this video!
3 - British butlers It doesn’t mean anything to have just a
butler now.
That butler better be from England!
Yes, it’s a big difference!
The aesthetic of a British butler is a big draw for middle eastern billionaires.
Roughly 30% of the people hiring British butlers are in the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
These billionaires typically have at least three houses.
And they have roughly 15 people on staff per house!
Butlering is a growth industry.
Currently, demand is higher than the supply.
More and more people want good service and they want qualified people.
About 350 to 400 butlers are trained each year in Britain, estimates Gary Williams,
former head butler at the Ritz Carlton London.
He’s now the principal of the British Butler Institute.
For all the new butlers trained each year, only about half stay in the UK.
The rest go overseas, particularly to increasingly middle-class China and to countries in the
Gulf.
They teach Butlers how to explain the certain “je ne sais quoi” of Western sophistication
to businessmen from the Middle East.
Rich Middle Eastern people want to learn the manners of the west.
They want to learn how to dine, such as what piece of cutlery to pick up first.
They also want to learn how to meet and greet Westerners, how long to keep eye contact for,
how to shake hands, and so on.
Butlers have to have a willingness to work hard at maintaining the highest standards.
For example, for something even as simple as preparing orange juice, they’re expected
to serve it to the exact specifications of the client.
It’s this attention to detail that makes having a well-trained British butler a status
symbol.
It’s one of the biggest reasons middle eastern billionaires pay a premium for!
As you’d expect, the biggest taboo for a butler is divulging information.
But here’s something you probably didn’t know.
A butler isn’t supposed to do certain things.
For example, a butler shouldn’t be asked to take care of the kids.
Or the pets!
And the most interesting thing is that a butler ISN’T a chef.
But, the butler can typically cook up the occasional good meal once in a while.
In the western world, salaries for a butler range from $57,000 to $71,000 a year.
But the pay is slightly higher in the middle east, where it averages roughly $93,000 dollars
per year.
This is of course, without the normally expected bonuses.
But how about the pay for the ‘super-butlers’ of billionaires?
The highest known paid butler is actually from the US.
He’s supposedly paid 2.2 million dollars a year!
2 - Flying Falcons Nope, you’re not seeing it wrong – you’re
looking at a bunch of falcons traveling on a plane in the Middle East!
Here’s an interesting fact, the falcons is the official bird of the United Arab Emirates.
Falcons are a symbol of force and courage, and that’s one of the main reasons why falconry
is a big part of middle eastern culture.
That’s why whenever trainers have to fly their falcons for big events, the falcons
aren’t gonna be just flying all cooped up.
They’re at the very least going to fly economy!
While a plane full of birds might be an unusual sight to our western eyes, it’s actually
not that at all unusual in the Arab world where falconry is pretty common.
According to the Qatar Airways OFFICIAL website, economy passengers can expect to share their
cabin with as many as six falcons!
In the United Arab Emirates, falcon racing is a premier sport.
It’s regularly broadcast on national television.
The sport has exploded all over the middle east.
For example, Falcons race in the President's Cup, a national competition where the fastest
falcons can win up to $7.35 million dollars in total prize money!
And also 73 cars.
Well, the owners keep the money and cars anyways.
In the Middle East, falcons range in price from a few thousand to almost half a million
dollars for just one falcon!
But, for the rich, they’re not in it for the money.
They’re in it to see who has the fastest falcons!
One reason that Falcons are cool is because they can accelerate faster than a Formula
One race car.
That essentially makes them the fastest animal on earth.
Top falcons can finish 400 meter course in just around 17 seconds!
Falconry has apparently always been central to Middle Eastern culture.
Nomads who historically lived in the region had captured migrating falcons for thousands
of years and trained them to hunt in the desert for food.
Some falcons are trained for hunting, while others are trained for racing.
It's a different training regimen for each Falcon.
Racing falcons are trained like a sprinter, while hunting falcons are trained more like
a long-distance runner.
You may think that training falcons is all just about prestige, but it’s apparently
not.
The falcon is a revered creature that’s a big part of the UAE’s culture and history.
Sometimes new expat owners have tried to give their birds humorous names.
It didn't fly!
1 - Camel racing Deep in the heart of the United Arab Emirates,
the ancient sport of camel racing is coming back to life!
Camels are beloved in the UAE and an important part of the country's heritage.
Prize money for winning camel races can now be upwards of $2 million dollars!
And the camels themselves?
They often attract huge price tags, especially the females that tend to be faster.
Racing camels can easily fetch millions of dollars!
One bull camel was reportedly sold back in 2017 for over nine and a half million dollars!
Camels were said to be God’s gifts.
That’s because camels made life in the desert possible, providing everything from transportation,
to clothes and even food.
But they also provided one more important thing back then.
Entertainment!
Camel racing has always been a part of the culture, but it’s now becoming more and
more popular.
The camel population has increased dramatically recently because they’re specifically being
bred for racing.
Even though the sport has been around for centuries, technology is still changing the
game.
Small robots are now frequently used to ride the camels, instead of young children.
The robots weigh around 9 pounds and have a walkie-talkie speaker.
That allows the owners to deliver commands to the camels during the race.
There’s also a small automatic whip operated by remote control.
Racing camels get their blood tested every week and follow special diets in order to
stay in top-notch shape!
Some trainers even buy honey for their camels for thousands of dollars per pound!
With camels valued so highly, it's no surprise that owners have also welcomed high-tech hospitals
that exclusively treat camels.
For example, Dubai Camel Hospital is a $10 million dollar state-of-the-art facility.
Camel connoisseurs from all over drop off their camels here for care!
Watch this next video to find out about rappers who went broke because of their dumb decisions!