- What's up, everyone?
I'm Drew Binsky,
and today I'm gonna show you what $10 can get you
in the expensive, yet incredible city of Dubai.
(upbeat music plays)
I'm here in Dubai in between trips.
It's kind of been my base over the last few weeks
and 'cause it's one of the only places open.
There's so many things to do
and so many amazing cultures here.
It's like a fusion, wonderful food,
and of course you cannot forget about the sightseeing.
Dubai, as you probably already know,
is famous for having a lot of Guinness world records.
You have the world's tallest building,
the biggest shopping mall, and the largest indoor aquarium.
But one feature that is often overlooked is the culture.
You gotta love Dubai for what it's worth.
A lot of people make fun of it.
They say it lacks culture,
um because it's such a new city
and it's mostly immigrants, but I completely disagree.
I think it has so much culture
because it's a blend of cultures.
You have the Indian communities,
you have the Pakistani communities,
you have the Iranian communities.
You have a lot of Brits here.
You have people from all over the world
who come and settle in Dubai and make Dubai home.
And that is the most beautiful thing about Dubai.
Today, I'm here in Dubai to meet some old friends
who are newly residents of this incredible city.
They are friends that you will probably recognize
because they are both video creators
with viral stories all over the internet.
Nuseir, known as NasDaily, and his soulmate Alyne.
How are you?
- Good, how are you?
- We're COVID-free.
- Yes, we're COVID-free.
- Okay. So do you have any idea where we are right now?
- [Alyne] A creek!
- [Drew] Have you ever been here before?
- Bro...I live here? I brought Steve Harvey here.
Have you not seen the video?
- [Drew] I saw the video.
So we have Nuseir and Alyne, old friends.
When did we first meet? Like?
- Four years ago.
- Four years ago. It's been awhile.
And we met in the Philippines and Sri Lanka and
- [Alyse] LA?
- [Drew] LA and Zanzibar and now Dubai.
Antarctica?
- [Nuseir] No, the only time I was jealous is when
you went to Antarctica.
- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Alyne] Yeah, I've never been.
- [Nuseir] I wanted to go to Antarctica so badly
- So now you guys are living in Dubai.
I caught up with you here.
What's it like to be an expat in Dubai?
Everybody's an expat in Dubai.
What's it like to live in Dubai?
- It feels like a local.
I mean, cause 90% of the country is us
- Right?
- It's nice. It's nice to live in a country
where there's a lot of expats,
cause then you don't feel super different.
You feel like part of the community.
- But also I think the country realizes that that cannot
succeed without you.
- Right
- So this isn't like someone said,
get out of my country!
It's more like, please come to my country,
- Right.
and help me build this.
- [Drew] And has it been everything
you guys ever imagined?
Or any struggles living here?
- I'm happy. How about you?
- I, I really like it. I mean, Dubai is
you see what you get, you know?
I know the good and the bad before coming.
The good is you can fly in and out very easily.
They're not strict with COVID rules.
So you can travel without feeling like you're in prison.
Um the bad is, you know, they don't have
like a super long cultural history, right?
You're not going to have pyramids hanging around,
but you got to deal with that.
- Yes, there are no pyramids in Dubai.
- There are no pyramids unfortunately.
But there are amazing markets.
- And that's a good thing.
- [Drew] And there's a riverfront and I'm not,
I don't know everything about Dubai,
- Wow.
- but I do know that the city started from like this point
back in the day, when the merchants and traders
were coming in, they would be dropped off here.
And it's a beautiful place in the city.
I know you haven't been here before.
- I have not been here.
- You have not been here?
- [Alyse] No! I never go anywhere.
- [Nuseir] That's why I asked.
- This is the best place to be in Dubai for sure.
So that mosque is like over a hundred years old
and then beautiful riverfront.
- [Alyne] Oh, I love this.
This, this feels very much like um not here.
It feels like I'm in Istanbul. There's a cat.
There's a river. This feels like Istanbul.
- I want to take you guys through the market
and we're going to each pick something
that's like $2 or less to buy.
- Great. Do you want to meet my friend?
- Can we buy things that are more than $2?
- I would love to meet your friend.
- Come meet my friend.
- You have friends, really?
(upbeat music plays)
Is there anything here that's $2 or less?
Like eight Dirham?
- Come inside.
- [Drew] Okay. Okay. Let's go inside, guys.
- How much is this?
- This is a $20.
- Twenty dirham.
- This is $8.
- $8? We need 8 Dirham. This is definitely not a
hundred dollar show anymore.
- $8! $8! Mm that's a tough one, bro.
$10 is tough.
- It's tough. It's tough.
- [Drew] In Dubai it's tough. It's not tough in
Afghanistan or
- No, no, no.
- [Drew] Do you have anything for six to eight Dirhams?
- Okay. No problem. This stuff here, the spice,
this is uh one Dirham to two Dirham.
- [Drew] Two dirham?
- Yes. This is a black jade.
- [Drew] What about anything over here?
Is there anything less than ten?
- This is ten dirham.
- [Drew] That's ten Dirham?
- Yes.
- [Drew] OK. How much are these salt and pepper?
I like those.
- [Alyse] These are funny.
- [Drew] Oh, that's too much.
- [Alyse] Big price.
- [Drew] Isn't that for men?
- For sure, for men. No problem.
- What's happening?
- [Drew] It's very cute on you actually.
- By the way,
I wore one of these to the mall once
- [Drew] It actually does look very nice on you.
- and I feel like I got in trouble
because I'm not a boy. I feet great.
I look good with head coverings.
I don't know if that's a good thing,
that I look better when I'm more covered.
- [Drew] I'm pretty sure you can't
not buy it now. It's on your head.
- [Nuseir] Nice, not perfect.
- [Drew] I kind of like the headscarf
better than the salt shaker.
- [Alyse] But it's probably too expensive, right?
- [Drew] It's much better.
- It's $15. One, five.
- [Drew] What about, can you make a better price?
Like maybe ten?
- Could you do ten just this time?
- Yeah, yeah. Take this, it's $10.
(hands clapping)
- But we're going to give him a five Dirham tip.
- [Merchant] Yes, yes.
(cash register chimes)
- [Drew] Thank you, my friend.
- Welcome.
(upbeat music playing)
- This is my friend.
- How are you?
- How are you? I have the best prices.
- I have the best prices here.
- [Nuseir] No, look at this. This is it.
- [Alyse] Dude, ten. Do you want this?
- I should buy this.
- [Alyse] Put it on.
- [Drew] You should probably buy that.
- Okay. I'm going to buy this
because what's my budget? It's $2?
- [Drew] Yeah.
- Two and a half dollars?
That's it. Two or $3 right here.
- [Drew] Pick one that you like though.
The green one, you like?
- I like green.
- [Alyse] Are you going to wear it?
- [Drew] Green represents Islam.
- Thank you, my Jewish friend
for telling me about my religion. Okay.
- [Alyse] Isn't that for girls?
- [Merchant] Yeah, this for the girls.
- Yeah. Who cares? We are gender neutral.
- [Alyse] You're going to wear this around?
- [Drew] It's not terrible, man.
- [Alyse] Oh, that's kind of Nigerian, right?
- [Merchant] Yeah, yeah.
- [Drew] Is that Nigerian?
- [Alyse] Oh, you could wear this.
- [Drew] Dude, you definitely can pull it off.
- Dude, sick.
- [Drew] What do you think about it on?
Does it look good?
- Yeah. It's really good, see.
- [Drew] You like it?
- Yeah. I like this one.
- OK. Guess how much this is?
No haggling, nothing. Zero haggling.
10 dirhams, which is less than $3.
- [Drew] Perfect.
- Thank you my friend.
- Good prices for you.
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
(cash register chimes)
- [Drew] Isn't this place cool, Alyne?
- This is really cool. I wish I knew about this.
- We're making moves pretty fast here.
Alyne got her headscarf.
Nuseir got his green smock.
What would you call that?
- A dress.
- This is a dress.
- This is for ladies.
- He said it's for ladies. That guy said
it's for ladies.
- I've never seen a 1 Dirham price in my life.
- [Drew] Let's each get one?
Yeah, that's each get one. One of this.
One of this.
- [Drew] This is great.
- And one of this.
- We literally found something for one dirham each
that's like impossible almost.
- It's pretty much impossible.
- We did the impossible, so.
- My friend, how much are these?
- This is 100 Dirham.
- [Alyne] Ahhh.
- [Nuseir] How much?
- 100 dirham.
- [Nuseir] Oh my God, we can't afford that, man.
- I'll give in. Give me 99 Dirham discount.
How many piece?
- We'll take three. Three piece.
- [Drew] Here, put it on. Put it on your neck.
- How do you make money from this?
- [Alyse] Oh, special!
- Wow. It's very nice.
- It smells good.
- Smells like 50 Dirhams. Wow, I love it.
I'm not even saying this for the camera.
I love it!
- [Drew] Thank you, my friend.
- Welcome.
- [Drew] Is it for a men or for women?
- Yeah. This one is good.
- Mine's for women. He gave me a special one.
It's normally two Dirhams.
- [Nuseir] Thank you bro.
Why is the price so low?
- I make people happy. This why I'm selling
very low.
(cash register chimes)
- [Drew] We're going to have the sugarcane juice.
- [Nuseir] Can we get three sugarcane juices?
- [Drew] This stuff is so good.
- [Alyne] This is such a cool place.
- This place needs more tourists.
- [Drew] I know, dude.
- Corona kills.
(upbeat music plays)
- [Drew] Where is the sugarcane from?
- [Nuseir] Oh, it's from Egypt?
- [Drew] Keep the change.
- [Nuseir] Thank you, man.
(cash register chimes)
- Sugarcane juice, delicious all over the world.
And definitely delicious here in Dubai.
Not bad, right? Refreshing.
It's always hot in Dubai.
- It's pleasant six months a year.
- [Drew] I mean, how is it?
- It tastes really good.
- We are now going across the river on a boat ride.
- [Alyse] Whew!
- [Drew] Who doesn't like boat rides?
- How much is the boat ride for three?
(indistinct)
- Yeah, three people.
- [Alyse] It's only one Dirham?
(upbeat music playing)
- Alrighty.
- This is one Dirham?
- This is one Dirham.
Your city is cheaper than you think.
- This is like 25 cents, this is cool!
- Also, we're not gonna hear what we're saying,
so unfortunately
- That's what subtitles are for.
- Yeah, that's what subtitles are for.
- These are museums and a lot of them are free.
There's like 20, 30 museums in that district
and many of them are free.
(upbeat music plays)
- Thank you.
- That was awesome.
(cash register chimes)
- When you get off the boat, it takes you to the other side,
which is the less exciting side.
There's like a really tiny market. And then a street.
- [Nuseir] That's the gold market.
- [Drew] Oh, the gold market.
Dubai is super famous for its gold.
A lot of gold trading happening here.
- "Ashra," oh that means 10 right?
- Oh, wow. You're Arabic is good.
Oh, you speak Hebrew, so.
- Dude, I took Arabic in university.
- Dude, you did?
- Yeah. Cause I knew I would date an Arab someday.
I had to prepare.
- Oh, wow. Nuseir, how good is her Arabic?
- Almost nonexistent.
- Almost nonexistent. How do you feel about that?
(speaking Arabic)
- [Drew] As we walk through the markets,
literally every single street vendor
will come up to us and say,
come in my shop, come in my shop.
- [Vendor] Spice, sir? You want spice?
But the sad part is because of COVID there's nobody here
shopping and it's really terrible.
- And the shops are really nice. I feel bad.
- Yeah, I just feel terrible.
These people thrive off tourism.
They live off tourism.
- [Drew] Unfortunately, time was tight
and I had to say goodbye to Nuseir and Alyne.
But I had a few minutes left
to wander around the market alone.
Third time here in Dubai,
always a beautiful moment
when the whole city just stops
(prayer sounds over speakers)
and the prayers come on.
It's really amazing. I love it.
- What a good, Dubai good.
- [Drew] Dubai good?
- Yes, Dubai. People good, country good.
- Chai, in your shop?
- Yes.
- These amazing Afghan guys here
invited me in their shop for some chai.
Of course I have to say yes. It's like obligatory.
Truly, what I love about the middle east
and the Arab world is
they always offer you chai.
It's just like a friendly thing and everybody does it.
And of course you just hang out with each other,
sip on some chai,
and it's a wonderful thing
that I wish was present in other parts of the world.
The chai culture.
- [Drew] You're from Kabul?
- Yes.
- [Drew] Amazing, bro. I love Afghanistan.
- What a group.
- [Drew] Thank you for the chai.
- Yeah, this is tea for you, this is for me.
- [Drew] Pretty good?
- Yeah, very good.
- Very good. Sweet.
In total, we got a headscarf,
a green outfit, sugarcane juice,
three perfume samples and a boat ride
across the river for $9 and 94 cents.
And that is what $10 can get you
in the amazing city of Dubai.
Listen, as I said at the beginning,
a lot of people sometimes talk smack about the city,
but it is amazing. I encourage all of you guys to come.
It's a perfect layover city, great place to network,
hang out for a few days,
and experience the incredible markets
that the city has to offer and the food.
So to keep updated on my travels,
hit me up on Instagram @DREWBINKSY
I'm posting stories there as well.
And I really appreciate you guys tuning in.
Have a wonderful day and I'll catch you later.
Peace.
- Alright. So we have new Nuseir and Alyne.
Most people watching this video
probably know who you guys are,
which is awesome
cause we're in the same world of creators.
Nuseir, how did you get started
with content creation?
- I wanted to do what I like for the rest of my life.
This. And so I started making videos
and I put them on Facebook,
and I made a thousand of them
in a thousand days and people started watching.
- [Drew] And Alyne?
- Hello, Drew.
- [Drew] Why did you start making videos as well?
- I started making videos because
I was scrolling Facebook and I was pointing
at other people being like,
why don't you make a video about this?
Why don't you make a video about that?
And then I realized I should point at myself.
And if there was a video I wanted to see,
I should make it and stop expecting everyone else
to do the dirty work.
- [Drew] And you are a female creator,
in a world of male dominant creators.
- It is very male dominated.
- [Drew] Do you feel, do you feel extra pressure
on your shoulders? What is it like
to be in your shoes?
- I don't feel extra pressure,
but I feel like it's harder to build community
because there are so many male creators,
especially in the travel space,
um but honestly I'm doing fine.
I'm happy with my progress and
I'm not as motivated as some other people.
Like I don't create content every single day.
You know?
- You don't create content every day, do you?
- You also did before.
- [Drew] I mean, I do.
- He did for a thousand days when we met.
- I do, I do, I do.
- And you did? I've never done daily.
- So Nuseir, what's it been like
to like switch from everyday to,
what is it once a week?
Or it's three times a week?
- Uh no, now we're gonna go back to everyday.
We're going to start making seven days a week.
- But that's different cause you have a company,
you have a whole team.
- I mean I work much harder now
than for making videos.
- [Drew] Right, right. You've evolved.
- Like hiring, firing is very hard.
And building products is very hard.
Companies, legal, lawyers, paying lawyers.
That's my life now.
But I think that's the only way
so I could survive for a hundred years.
- [Drew] Where do you guys think
the whole creator world is going?
- I think it's gonna get more common.
I think more people will be creators.
And I think it's just like, it becomes more
and more conforming. What do you think?
- At the end of the day to survive on the internet
you need a thousand people that really like it.
That's it.
- [Drew] Yeah, yeah. Right.
- And it's going to be a lot more common to have people
like us. You don't need millions.
A thousand people that each one of them
gives you three bucks.
- [Drew] Yeah, exactly.
- That's it. You are good, for life.
- [Drew] And that's inspiration
for everyone watching this,
that they can do it.
- No, they totally can.
I mean, we both teach students all the time.
We both teach students and they are doing it.
I just shot a video this morning.
One of my students who took the class,
won the scholarship six months ago.
Now she has hundreds of thousands of followers and is
helping us make videos.
- [Drew] Wonderful.
- You can do it.
- [Drew] Any final words, guys? Final thoughts?
Words of wisdom?
- See you on Facebook.
- I'm ready for lunch.
- The better video platform.
(group laughs)
- [Drew] All right. And, cut.
I'm Drew Binsky,
and if you liked my travel videos,
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