Diving Dubai, what other locales? And did you like them "deep" or at the depth that most of the divers would be diving them?
For the deep in Tulamben, similar stuff to the shallows but more of it, also bigger schooling fish were deeper
Other locals. Thailand and malapascu in the Philippines I wouldn't go back to, and put them on the same list as Tulambem
Misool, Komodo and Nusa Lembongan so far in Indonesia were great and I'd go back
The Maldives were good and worth a repeat
The Red Sea, I learnt to dive there so obvious your first dives are special, the last trip was yet okay, I think the Red Sea has been over dived (sour then Red Sea) then again fir me to get there from Dubai it takes 15 hrs, if it only took the 5 hrs it takes from the UK my perspective might be different
My local is the Mussandam, the northern tip of Oman in the strait of Hormuz. Not always great vis (it us at this time of year) loads of great hard and sort coral lots of life that we take for granted that others get e cited about on other trios. whales sharks we see most months. Local fishing is just by small boats and no dive industry to ruin the place.
Still want to explore the South Pacific and want to see dolphins underwater and schools of hammerheads the glapagos is a $20k trip and cold water diving (for us) so not on the radar as yet, but lots of other places are. We just want decent diving to match the effort expended