A mid-city district built in the 1970s as government housing, now one of the most densely South Asian and Filipino areas in Dubai. Low-rise, cheap, and useful: the Karama shopping centre and surrounding streets are the place for Indian textiles, tailors, phone accessories, electronics repairs, and the replica goods trade that has operated in broad daylight for decades without anyone formally acknowledging it.

The food is the real draw. A cluster of cafeterias around the market offers some of the best value eating in the city — paratha, biryani, chaat, dosa — at prices the Marina hasn't seen since 2008. Cheap tailors, small pharmacies, repair shops, and produce stalls: the infrastructure a working city actually runs on.