Plus the office now tracks out internet usage. Meaning I have to do a lot of work and surf during of work hours. Stupid? You bet. Suprising? No. The net bill has shoot off the roof. Not suprising since we (that means me) use broadband internet radio. All day long:P Well, you win some, you lose some.
So, from now on, I shall be blogging on the weekends, unless something important happens. Tired... tired of looking at numbers...
Better start work, later!!
Love,
Julie
I woke up, realizing that I fell asleep while counting my debt and waiting for TJ to finish her shower. I was still fully dressed and was on top of the covers. I was reluctantly awakened to TJ’s threat of no breakfast. As I refuse to eat lunch anywhere so that we could splurge for dinner, I woke up groggily wondering if I really wanted to visit Dubai without TJ. As you know, she has an interview that morning. Every part of my body was aching and I had non-stop dreams/nightmares all night long. Grabbing a quick hot shower *thanking God all the time*, I let the hot water pound the aches and pains away. I had green tea with mint for starters and it relaxes me immediately. I refuse to touch coffee due to the fact that I was not sleepy at all.
After walking TJ across the street and flagging down a cab so that she could go the Le Meridian hotel, I walked to my favorite destination, the abra station. I suppose me being a Cancer has a lot to do with my love of any water related vehicle. Being a professional survivor in a strange country of which I don’t speak the language of, I took an abra across and open my guide book. There, I read the Diera walking route. Knowing that I have done some of that yesterday, I decided to visit the Fishing village, Heritage village, the Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum house and to skip the Dubai Muzium. Strange? Maybe.
I spent 1 hour at the Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum house which was turned into a muzium. Sheikh Saeed was considered the father of modern Dubai. He was the one who abolished the import taxes in Dubai. Cool dude, seems to love hawking a lot. He is the current ruling Sheikh’s great grandfather I think. I saw some of the historical money on display. If I had more time, I’m sure I could figure out how the whole modern Dubai evolved. 1 hour is just too short.
At 12.35 p.m. I met TJ at the Gold Souk. Poor darling has been there since 11ish. That stupid inconsiderate hotel HR manager didn’t tell her that she couldn’t seem to fit TJ into her schedule. So we walked to the Naif Souk, where I had the quickest tour yesterday. There I bought myself a black robe to wear on top of any normal clothes. Two robes that my friends told me to buy for them for a July wedding. A long scarf for me and 2 scarves just in case I need to give it to anyone.
We leisurely walked back to the hotel since we have approximately 3 hours or so until the Desert Safari. Woo hoo!!! We wandered around all the places and stopping at the electronic souk. Cool handphone on display. All those Nokia designs that you can’t find in Malaysia. Although we can’t afford to buy them, doesn’t mean that we can’t appreciate them:) We wandered into a local supermarket cum grocer and I bought nuts and figs.
We arrived at the hotel around 2ish and due to the fact that I wanted to count money (again) I decided to shower later (bad idea). In foreign country, I seem to have problem with keeping track of money. I can’t seem to keep the tally straight in my head so I usually immediately jot down my purchases when I get back to the hotel. Soon enough it was almost 4 O’clock. No time for a shower but enough time to wash my face.
One of my undying passions is for a big huge muscular car. Big black 4 WD with tinted windows seem to be a girl wet dream. Cause, it’ll be nice to be able to run stupid drivers down, but that’s a completely different story. In Dubai, I get to see the sleekest and sexiest car that doesn’t exist in Malaysia. *drools* I wish I was in Grand Theft Auto where I could chuck the owner out of the car and drive away. *sigh* I digress.
Where was I? Yeah, desert safari thing. A word of caution to anyone who is thinking to go to this sort of Safari. Don’t try this if you get sea sick in a rocking boat. Don’t try this if you get car sick in long journeys. Don’t try this if you get sick when you see heights. Don’t try this if you are pregnant. And lastly don’t try this if you feel unwell. Not even a tiny bit of feeling of off colorness. Because if you do, you are going to regret it when it’s too far to turn back and too far away from the campsite.
Unfortunately our car had a couple of German tourist and their 5 years old baby girl. So our driver had to take it slow and avoid the real cool steep sand dunes. Definitely not fun. On the other hand I really pity the lady. If I was her, I’d definitely say, “Screw the car, lemme walk.” The baby was napping in the car instead, talk about irony. Next time, I shall have to drag some macho ass chick or guy on the safari, all 6 of us has to have a wild time in the same car.
Poor darling TJ became a bit dizzy after the driver slowed down to practically a crawl to accommodate the sick lady. Which made it worse cause, it made the rocking motion more prominent. But TJ and I had a great time frolicking amongst the sand dunes when we stopped twice. The view was beautiful. We took off our shoes on the first stop and burrowed our feet into the warm sand. TJ was amazed by the vastness of the desert. Smirking, I suggested that I’d sell her off to a Bedouin tribe for couple of months so that she could discover the vastness of the desert. Needless to say, she was not amused.
As soon as we arrived, the sun was almost fully set. We saw 6-7 camels strung together to make a caravan. The wind started blowing and we could feel the cold to the bones. Both TJ and I rode a camel. Woo hoo! Thankfully she recovered enough to ride them smelly animals. Cool, seems that TJ’s camel had a thing for me. It kept on walking close to my hips. I was scared of the descending camel. I was like, “Woo, way too slow for me.” TJ was freaked out by the rising camel. After the camel ride, we went into the camp where people were eating and merry making. We sat at the same table as our tour group. Then, I dragged TJ to go and discover the whole enclosure.
There was a man playing the Gambus, except he was playing western songs. My first reaction was, “Say what? Now why would I go to Dubai to listen to acoustic of English songs?” We saw one place where people was having their body drawn with henna. Which was cool but no big deal. Then I went to the hawk that was on display. The handler let me touch it. The bird pecked me as I touched it’s feather. The handler explained that it was the bird’s way of keeping hands off its feather, not like it was painful but enough to get the message across. Still, I kept on patting the bird until it was used to my clumsy hands. Next came the sheesha area. TJ was dying to try it since it’s free and all but there was only guys there and we decided to behave.
Soon we started eating. I think we had some camel meat kebab, which was cool. But I maintain that camel meat is tasteless. But it could be that I don’t recognize the taste. Later we had one of our hands henna painted. Soon the belly dancing started. Super cool except that the lady doesn’t look Arabian. More Russian than Arab, but then what do I know. We go back to the hotel almost 10 p.m. I think. I really enjoyed the whole experience I think.
That night I soaked my aching body and later watched some really corny golf movie. What was the title TJ? I forgot. As so happens, the whole time in Dubai, my phone rang at around 3 a.m. Dubai time. Papa’s golfing buddy calls to check up if my dad was on the golf course yet. @#$%^&*! It’s 7 a.m. Malaysian time but for @#$%^ sake, it’s 3 a.m. in Dubai. I had to say, “Sorry uncle, I’m in Dubai, why don’t you call the house.” every single morning. In fact, when I was in the Naif Souk, mom called to check up on me. *sigh* I love you too, mom.
That's all today. Later!!!
Love,
Julie
Day 0
I spent the whole day at home packing and cleaning up things. Knowing that I was leaving for a few days for a trip to Dubai still feels quite unreal. I was actually going to accompany a friend on a hare brained impulse. I knew that my passport was up to date, but I occasionally glance through them to assure myself that I wasn’t about to make a fool out of myself.
Papa and mom took the grandkids out to keep them from bothering me while I pack. I look through my wardrobe and sigh. My wardrobe sucked after a long 6 month of no shopping. Everything screams of university kid. And because I rarely go out I don’t bother shopping for casual clothes.
I arrived at the airport around 11 p.m. We checked in at around 12.30 p.m., unfortunately, it was almost ½ an hour until everything settles. My parents left the airport at around 12.30 a.m. and my brother arrived sometime around 1 a.m. accompanied by Errol. We hung out at McDonalds till departure. My brother was sweet enough to give me a red rose. I highly appreciate it of course. The flight departed at around 2 a.m.
We took the Emirates flight. It seems, the Emirates like to feed people. They fed us as soon as we got on the flight. Afterwards around 4 a.m. in Dubai time (8 a.m. Malaysia time) they fed us again. The Dubai time is 4 hours later than Malaysia and the flight lasted about 8 hours. The is this one particular handsome Arab air steward that I find handsome. But later in Dubai, I sort of changed my mind. They all mostly look a like to an outsider like me.
Day 1
Arrived in Dubai around 5.30 a.m. It was Subuh prayer already. We got out of the whole immigration thing in about ½ an hour. Being the adventurous soul that I am I queued away from our traveling group. Which was a mistake because our line was slow. TJ being TJ, she bitched until we got over the immigration process. At around 6.30 a.m. we arrived and checked into the hotel. Both TJ and I share a room that overlooks the creek. The Reviera Hotel was situated in Diera, beside the creek overlooking the Bur Dubai. We showered and dressed and went down for breakfast at around 8 a.m.
We started out using the Lonely Planet Guidebook, a very useful manual for a tourist. We decided to tour Deira. We walked through the electronic souk(market), the Naif souk, gold souk and the spice souk. In the Gold souk, we ogled at the cool jewelry designs that was displayed there. We found the spice souk when I managed to sniff the smell of curry powder and TJ decided to follow the road towards the creek. To say that we were lost was kind of an understatement.
After stopping at an abra station for some mango juice, in the afternoon, we rode one of the abra to the other side of the creek, Bur Dubai. I really love to ride the abra. An abra is a water taxi, kind of like a small boat with engine. Each ride costs 50 fils and I really like to look at the buildings as we cross the creek. The water is clear and green, unlike our beloved Sungai Kelang. On the 2nd day when I took the abra, I could see small fishes playing under the waiting boat.
In Bur Dubai we saw another souk, which mainly sells cloth. At 12.30 p.m. we heard the Zohor call for prayer. One of my strangest quirks during this trip, was that I was afraid of the Arab men. And in Dubai, it’s a very patriarchal society. You rarely see any woman outdoors without at least 1 men to accompany them. There I was, scared witless by the unknown, but by the 2nd day things got better. I have gotten used to the male population of Dubai. Plus after seeing them with their children, it’s hard to fear them. In Dubai, as far as I see, children tend to stick close to their father. They even go to playground with their father. Cool… but digress.
After walking around in Bur Dubai in the waterfront, we took a cab to the Bur Juman shopping center. There we walked around the mall, just admiring things. I bought 2 work pants and then we had coffee at Coffee Bean. An expensive indulgence but I really needed to sit down after a long day of walking. By then, the day seems so endless and that time moved so slowly. I guess cat napping on the plane didn’t really count as sleep or rest.
Next we decided to walk to Karama, the jeans/souvenirs/shoes barginer’s heaven. TJ bought a pair of jeans for her beloved sister and I couldn’t seem to decide on which pair of shoe to buy. I eventually gave up and decided to come back later. We took a cab to the waterfront and to a creek side café. The Fatafeet Café which was featured prominently in the Lonely Planet Travel guide as a good place to have sheesha. Both TJ and I shared a cherry sheesha, a pizza and mixed grill. Little did we know about the Arab’s serving portion. It was huge. Although I knew that we could have finished the food had we hung out later, TJ was starting to whine. Eyes rolled upwards, I conceded to go back early. I can’t stand whining in any form.
We rented a personal abra for 10 dirham since TJ’s feet was killing her. Quite a cool thing to do especially when I know that we don’t do this every day. I am tired therefore my very impassioned report of what happened. I'm sorry. I'm just not in the mood, although I know that I want to write this trip down so I can remember this forever. *sigh*
Love,
Julie.
