First 12 Hours in Dubai

After the stupid incident on 9th October, I finally boarded my aeroplane early and flew to Dubai. The flight journey took 7 hours during which time I hardly could sleep because the stewardesses were hard to be ignored and they kept giving me foods !

I landed in Dubai International Airport at 0300 hours (this time I knew it was 3.00 am in the morning, thank you..). I had a smooth check out with the immigration. There were a lot of peoples in the airport that night. Some of them come to Dubai as their destination and some as transit airport. I noticed a lot of the immigration officers are young and they wore dishdasha and Arab's headgear. I think they are UAE nationals i.e the Emiratis. I can say Emiratis are quite an elite group of peoples in their own country because they are only 20% of the UAE population. The rest are expatriates like me.

I called the hotel driver and he told me he was already waiting outside the entrace gate. He drove me to hotel Holiday Inn Express in Safa Park. Apparently it is a new hotel, just 4 months old. The receptionist was nice and helpful and my room was clean and set in a contemporary design. I looked at my watch after settling down in my room and it showed 5.00 am. Still very early, so I went to sleep.

Hotel driver and taxi that took me to hotel

My bed.
The widow is facing Sheikh Zayed Road

I woke up, prayed, showered and went to hotel lounge for breakfast. I called my recruitment agent to fix a meeting with him. Around 9.00 a.m I reccee the way from hotel to Al Attar Business Tower, the building where my office is located. It was a short ride of 10 minutes and costs me AED11.00. After I surveyed the office I strolled along Sheikh Zayed Road by foot. There were many shops and boutiques in each building. There were many coffee shops too including Starbuck. This place really attracts peoples with moneys to spend.

My office building. The office is at 18th floor

In front of my office building. View to the west.
The metro line is still under construction

In front of my office building. View to the east.

Emirates Towers, behind my office

Dusit Dubai, at the end of Sheikh Zayed Road

Burj Dubai, 800 meters tall ! still under construction

Around 11.00 am I took a taxi to the Mall of Emirates, one of the biggest malls in Dubai and it has a Ski Dubai where people ski in man-made snow slopes. One thing I noticed about Dubai is that they use their cash to make their life very convenient. The bus stops are air-conditioned. The musolla is big like a mosque and the water for ablution is made warm. In the mall the management put on azan on loud speaker through out the mall, so it is very easy to get reminded to perform solat.

The view inside Ski Dubai, whilst eating my lunch

Main entrance

Ohh yeah...about the food, so far all the food I tasted were delicious. But a little bit pricey. I had fried soba mee for lunch and sechuan fried rice for dinner. Very delicious !

Sobayaki, AED37

The malls contain a lot of shops and boutiques for clothes, jewelleries, IT accessories and a lot more. I went to Borders to look for local law textbooks but they were in Arabic. I went to Virgin music store browsing the local production. I will buy them later. In Dubai, most peoples wear designer clothes and accessories because those branded items are quite affordable. I checked the price and I thought with Dubai salary, inshallah, I can afford them. I think it is useful to follow this trend in order to look apart and understand the culture in Dubai. There was one boutique from the USA called FIT, it covered so large an area and even has pedestrian conveyors on it s floor for people to save their energy from walking. Another convenience sponsored by cash !

Heaven !

I got a running nose that day.

Om Kalthoum of Egypt, the oldtimers sure know..

Yamaha 5 strings bass guitar for AED1950.

Long way to shop

???

My agent canceled his appointment with me due to other business. Whilst I was queuing for a taxi, a superbly long Hummer arrived at the hotel entrance. The Hummer is too long that it took 5 minutes for it to clear a corner after picking up its passengers. It caused a brief traffic jam in front of the mall. So I went back to the hotel at 11.00 pm. By that time it was 3.00 a.m in Kuala Lumpur. No wonder I felt so sleepy.

Stretched Hummer.

To be continued..

"Welcome to Dubai, Muhammed"

Mohammed, the hotel receptionist