There are many, many great places to go in the Middle East; Dubai's just not one of them. They do have hotels there, I guess. With bling. For cheap. For a reason. Ugh.
OMaaT's solution to the picture issue is, as suggested above, a point-and-shoot. His pictures are almost always quite serviceable -- decently lighted with ok resolution -- if not up to true "photographer" standards. (There's a post on which camera he uses, but I'm too lazy to look it up.)