Last week when I posted about Bahrain, I received two predominant comments 1) My picture on the page looks like I am very sad 2) Compared to my write ups about my travel experience in Europe, this pot was very non-humorous. My answer to both these is same; it only reflects my present state of mind. I have lost some (one) of the important treasure in my life and it still pains. In fact the objective of this outing is to divert my mind from these things. So, friends this post will be like a Chinese noodles compared to my previous write ups of Indian noodle types. Oops!!! (for) tube lights, this write up will be non-spicy without any humour.
I was accompanied my college junior Ravi, who is also working in Bahrain. Our flight was at 7.30 pm on 11-0ct-2007 and Ravi called me at 6’ o clock and told that he is still on the way. His tone was scared and he told the ticket mentions check-in is 3 hours before flight, without knowing checking in can be done till 1hr before flight. Common this is my chance…. Once he reached airport I started giving him gyans about boarding flights, procedure for immigration etc... He listened all these with a grave look for around 2 hours till we boarded in the flight and finally told, Nirmal u know “Am in Bahrain, which means I have undergone immigration already”. I just erred “Arasiyala ithu ellam saggam aapa” and remained silent for rest of our journey.
The flight landed about an hour late at 10.30 (Dubai is one hour ahead of Bahraini time). The grandness of Dubai begins in airport itself. Huge airport…with escalators even for moving horizontally. Though I had been to Dubai airport it still kept me amazed. This time I was more pro-active, I asked Ravi “had u been here already?” No came the answer. So, I started my gyan session about Dubai air port “Apada…Inga oruthan matitanda …evlo alandhalum ketkuranda”. However our excitement didn’t last long, when we reached the immigration counter there was huuuuge queue. We were sure that the night was out. We were standing in queue but how can a blabbering mouth be calm? We innovated a (fool proof!!!) system with which immigration can be automated and were discussing why it was important for an economy like Dubai which plans to make tourism as the 2nd largest contributor to its GDP (ok verum vayila vada sutom…poduma). At around 3.00 am our entry to the city was cleared, but not the nightmare. There was a huge queue for Taxi and my knowledge of queuing theory said that it would take another 4 hours to hire a taxi. So, we went out of airport to hire a taxi. My goodness, taxi drivers are least bothered to stop or even listen what we are asking and to our dismay Ravi had booked the lodge in Sarjah which is about 30 mins travel from airport. Finally we hired a taxi run by paki guy and managed to reach the hotel by 4 am. Having decided next day is gone we slept at around 5 am.
Chinna veerapan (CV), another junior in my college who is working in Sarjah joined us at around 1 pm next day. We started of our tour with a visit to sharjah city centre. Though there were lot of things to do in the mall, we ended up posing near the women dolls in the lifestyle showrooms. We wandered in the mall for around 2hrs with the usual oath “For lot many years now we are going out only with guys, this is goanna be my last outing with guys”, I guess this oath taking is goanna continue for some more time to come. Then we decided to go out to Dubai. I insisted that we should use the public transport system which is a Volvo bus. Nevertheless fat lady continued to sing, again there was a huge queue for bus, and so cursing Ravi for booking the room in sarjah we hired a taxi.
We got a drop in Deira Dubai, but we wanted to go to Burj Dubai, which is in the other side of sea/ back water. To connect this they have tunnel which goes under the sea and public boat system (called as Abra). We opted for boat which hardly takes 10 mins to reach the other side. In Deira we went through the old souq which is like Bazaar Street. Bargaining is the key for shopping here, every other shop contains an Indian sales person and made me feel home. I was just reminded of the SMS that came about Sreesanth after the 20-20 finals. (Paki hit the ball back without knowing that a mallu will be there in every nook and corner of this world).
Next day CV opted out of our group, sighting official works, so Ravi and I went for desert safari. A land cruiser jeep picked us up and we had to travel for around 45 mins to reach sand dunes. Normally I would enjoy watching through the windows in these kind of situations, but somehow heavy heartedly I was laid back in the head rest with a heavy heart. May be my mind was just revolving around an issue but jeep moved, we reached the sand dunes. At the entrance the driver reduced the air in tyres to half and said to Puzzled looking me “saab otherwise it won’t be possible to drive in the sand”. The safari was marvellous to say the least. Those of you who are interested in roller coaster ride just try this, moving up and down in the mountain of sand…oops it requires stupendous driving skills and the way they organised it with around 20 jeeps rallying like a snake is also commendable.
Then we were taken to dinner arranged by the touring company. The place had every other thing that Arab culture is known for, Seesaw (smoking tube), mehandhi, Arab men and women dress to name a few. Ravi and I got dressed up in Sheik dress and shot few snaps. The dinner was also very good with options from western to eastern items. Then came the highlight of the trip, the ‘belly dance’. We had a few shots with her but for me it is nothing more than a live Indian film song. I just felt like repeating comedian sathiyan dialogue in Mayavi “ ni ellam nadicha padatha(film) than 3 hrs parpanga, enga thalivi simran nadich naan posteria 3 hrs parpen”.
We reached sarjah late in the nite, but CV had already made plans for Pub, so couldn’t decline. Sahrjah being the cultural capital of emirates, pubs and prostitution are strictly not allowed so we had to travel to Ajman which is 10 mins drive. I spent the night with soft drinks and dancing (roaming). Prostitutes from the world’s most populated country are available at anybody’s disposal in these places. Thank god it is one of the few un-ethical things that had never crossed my mind. However we spent time till 4 am in the morning. Yes henceforth nobody can say “vaypu kidikathathu naala than ni thapu panalai” at me. Yeah!!!
Next day we wanted to roam around the city, Ravi wanted to opt for double decker tourist service (Big bus). I started saying“ravi from my experience in Paris tour…” he just cut me short and told, “ I don’t know what is your experience, but from my experience I understand that you boast a lot about your only other overseas trip”. Now am trapped had to shut up my a__. We got on top of the double decker bus and watched the beauty of Dubai. The world’s largest floating bridge, Gold souq, in-number able sky scrappers to name a few.
We got down at Dubai museum, the museum looked so deserted at the first sight. Back home my cousin living in US had given lot of hype about this museum, but after seeing this condition I started cursing her. When we are about to leave we found steps like the ones that we see in Indian Ghost films leading to underground… dark and falcon birds hanging over. With kind of suspicion we got down slowly but there lied the real museum. Unlike typical museum where one can find articles of old ages this museum was full of plaster idols that depict the living style of Arabs in various forms of life. I just said “see ravi they have managed to create a museum out of nothing” had quick thought and continued “ they have created a marvellous city out of nothing, cant they built this museum then?”, made sense. Then we got on to the palace through Big bus. Again this is not as great as modern day saddam’s palace, but throws light on their trading relationships around the world. They have used all currencies from Indian rupees to British pounds during early 20th century. Realising that they didn’t had even a proper currency I just thought “Maadu maikira payaluku imbutu valvaa?”, jokes apart it appealed to me that even autocracy with proper visionary in top would lead to betterment, on the other hand democracy with selfish morons around, will lead to a great downfall.
From there we went to Jumeirah beach via Jumeirah Madina, the only mosque that is open for non-Muslims. A good sculptural work. Then we spent some time in Jumeirah beach, what else screaming at pairs, “Ennda nama matum epo paaru thaniyave beachuku varom”. Then we went to madyint jumeirah a mall exclusively meant for art works, it made even an art blind like me to appreciate things. The world’s first 7 star hotel “burj al arab” is also located in this region. A visit to this (vadikai parkrathu) will cost around Rs.2500!!! We consoled ourselves saying that ir-respective of number of stars all food are goanna come out as s__t” and decided not to go in. Finally we hit sack at 11 pm with the thought that like erstwhile hutch’s “thodi dhur mai” ad, Dubai’s places to visit list will never end.
Next day we packed things and handed over our luggage in cloak room before starting our trip. Then we took a public transport bus and reached for the much hyped “dhow cruise” / “water bus”. But it was nothing but the sea water trip(same as trip between Burj and desire Dubai), but in a sophisticated cruise for a longer time. By now we are more familiar with place, so spent this trip in just photo shooting.
Then after lot of struggle we reached “mall of emirates” through public transport. Oops what a mall, it is like you name it we have it. Retail giants like Carrefour looks like nothing inside this mall. The highlight of this mall is “ski Dubai”, the artificial snow land which is maintained at -2 degree Celsius. You have ice skating, skiing, winches on top of Ice Mountains etc… in the park. Due to time constraint we could not enjoy there. One thing is sure visit Dubai at least once, either as a bachelor with joy of looking at gals or as a couple with scariness of becoming bankrupt!! (I never mentioned women are spending freaks). It is not the cost but the options that will make you bankrupt by shopping.
By now we were running out of time so we came out and were looking for taxi. An Indian approached us and offered a drop to airport at a relatively cheaper price. The Indian mentality forced us to choose this, but soon we were told by the driver that he is also new to Dubai and hence he don’t know the way properly. My goodness, he kept on roaming before finally dropping us at airport. I just thought we could have hired him to roam around Dubai instead of opting for the costly “Big bus”!!
Finally we boarded the flight and reached Bahrain at 3AM. However, the objective of the trip, to get out of dissonance about Bahrain was defeated by a huge margin, after visiting Dubai my heart is feeling so heavy about landing in this deserted place and this continues to add to my already existing pains. Nevertheless, a good outing has come to an end and I need to live with reality!!
Guess this will inspire at least a couple of my friends to visit Dubai.
I was accompanied my college junior Ravi, who is also working in Bahrain. Our flight was at 7.30 pm on 11-0ct-2007 and Ravi called me at 6’ o clock and told that he is still on the way. His tone was scared and he told the ticket mentions check-in is 3 hours before flight, without knowing checking in can be done till 1hr before flight. Common this is my chance…. Once he reached airport I started giving him gyans about boarding flights, procedure for immigration etc... He listened all these with a grave look for around 2 hours till we boarded in the flight and finally told, Nirmal u know “Am in Bahrain, which means I have undergone immigration already”. I just erred “Arasiyala ithu ellam saggam aapa” and remained silent for rest of our journey.
The flight landed about an hour late at 10.30 (Dubai is one hour ahead of Bahraini time). The grandness of Dubai begins in airport itself. Huge airport…with escalators even for moving horizontally. Though I had been to Dubai airport it still kept me amazed. This time I was more pro-active, I asked Ravi “had u been here already?” No came the answer. So, I started my gyan session about Dubai air port “Apada…Inga oruthan matitanda …evlo alandhalum ketkuranda”. However our excitement didn’t last long, when we reached the immigration counter there was huuuuge queue. We were sure that the night was out. We were standing in queue but how can a blabbering mouth be calm? We innovated a (fool proof!!!) system with which immigration can be automated and were discussing why it was important for an economy like Dubai which plans to make tourism as the 2nd largest contributor to its GDP (ok verum vayila vada sutom…poduma). At around 3.00 am our entry to the city was cleared, but not the nightmare. There was a huge queue for Taxi and my knowledge of queuing theory said that it would take another 4 hours to hire a taxi. So, we went out of airport to hire a taxi. My goodness, taxi drivers are least bothered to stop or even listen what we are asking and to our dismay Ravi had booked the lodge in Sarjah which is about 30 mins travel from airport. Finally we hired a taxi run by paki guy and managed to reach the hotel by 4 am. Having decided next day is gone we slept at around 5 am.
Chinna veerapan (CV), another junior in my college who is working in Sarjah joined us at around 1 pm next day. We started of our tour with a visit to sharjah city centre. Though there were lot of things to do in the mall, we ended up posing near the women dolls in the lifestyle showrooms. We wandered in the mall for around 2hrs with the usual oath “For lot many years now we are going out only with guys, this is goanna be my last outing with guys”, I guess this oath taking is goanna continue for some more time to come. Then we decided to go out to Dubai. I insisted that we should use the public transport system which is a Volvo bus. Nevertheless fat lady continued to sing, again there was a huge queue for bus, and so cursing Ravi for booking the room in sarjah we hired a taxi.
We got a drop in Deira Dubai, but we wanted to go to Burj Dubai, which is in the other side of sea/ back water. To connect this they have tunnel which goes under the sea and public boat system (called as Abra). We opted for boat which hardly takes 10 mins to reach the other side. In Deira we went through the old souq which is like Bazaar Street. Bargaining is the key for shopping here, every other shop contains an Indian sales person and made me feel home. I was just reminded of the SMS that came about Sreesanth after the 20-20 finals. (Paki hit the ball back without knowing that a mallu will be there in every nook and corner of this world).
Next day CV opted out of our group, sighting official works, so Ravi and I went for desert safari. A land cruiser jeep picked us up and we had to travel for around 45 mins to reach sand dunes. Normally I would enjoy watching through the windows in these kind of situations, but somehow heavy heartedly I was laid back in the head rest with a heavy heart. May be my mind was just revolving around an issue but jeep moved, we reached the sand dunes. At the entrance the driver reduced the air in tyres to half and said to Puzzled looking me “saab otherwise it won’t be possible to drive in the sand”. The safari was marvellous to say the least. Those of you who are interested in roller coaster ride just try this, moving up and down in the mountain of sand…oops it requires stupendous driving skills and the way they organised it with around 20 jeeps rallying like a snake is also commendable.
Then we were taken to dinner arranged by the touring company. The place had every other thing that Arab culture is known for, Seesaw (smoking tube), mehandhi, Arab men and women dress to name a few. Ravi and I got dressed up in Sheik dress and shot few snaps. The dinner was also very good with options from western to eastern items. Then came the highlight of the trip, the ‘belly dance’. We had a few shots with her but for me it is nothing more than a live Indian film song. I just felt like repeating comedian sathiyan dialogue in Mayavi “ ni ellam nadicha padatha(film) than 3 hrs parpanga, enga thalivi simran nadich naan posteria 3 hrs parpen”.
We reached sarjah late in the nite, but CV had already made plans for Pub, so couldn’t decline. Sahrjah being the cultural capital of emirates, pubs and prostitution are strictly not allowed so we had to travel to Ajman which is 10 mins drive. I spent the night with soft drinks and dancing (roaming). Prostitutes from the world’s most populated country are available at anybody’s disposal in these places. Thank god it is one of the few un-ethical things that had never crossed my mind. However we spent time till 4 am in the morning. Yes henceforth nobody can say “vaypu kidikathathu naala than ni thapu panalai” at me. Yeah!!!
Next day we wanted to roam around the city, Ravi wanted to opt for double decker tourist service (Big bus). I started saying“ravi from my experience in Paris tour…” he just cut me short and told, “ I don’t know what is your experience, but from my experience I understand that you boast a lot about your only other overseas trip”. Now am trapped had to shut up my a__. We got on top of the double decker bus and watched the beauty of Dubai. The world’s largest floating bridge, Gold souq, in-number able sky scrappers to name a few.
We got down at Dubai museum, the museum looked so deserted at the first sight. Back home my cousin living in US had given lot of hype about this museum, but after seeing this condition I started cursing her. When we are about to leave we found steps like the ones that we see in Indian Ghost films leading to underground… dark and falcon birds hanging over. With kind of suspicion we got down slowly but there lied the real museum. Unlike typical museum where one can find articles of old ages this museum was full of plaster idols that depict the living style of Arabs in various forms of life. I just said “see ravi they have managed to create a museum out of nothing” had quick thought and continued “ they have created a marvellous city out of nothing, cant they built this museum then?”, made sense. Then we got on to the palace through Big bus. Again this is not as great as modern day saddam’s palace, but throws light on their trading relationships around the world. They have used all currencies from Indian rupees to British pounds during early 20th century. Realising that they didn’t had even a proper currency I just thought “Maadu maikira payaluku imbutu valvaa?”, jokes apart it appealed to me that even autocracy with proper visionary in top would lead to betterment, on the other hand democracy with selfish morons around, will lead to a great downfall.
From there we went to Jumeirah beach via Jumeirah Madina, the only mosque that is open for non-Muslims. A good sculptural work. Then we spent some time in Jumeirah beach, what else screaming at pairs, “Ennda nama matum epo paaru thaniyave beachuku varom”. Then we went to madyint jumeirah a mall exclusively meant for art works, it made even an art blind like me to appreciate things. The world’s first 7 star hotel “burj al arab” is also located in this region. A visit to this (vadikai parkrathu) will cost around Rs.2500!!! We consoled ourselves saying that ir-respective of number of stars all food are goanna come out as s__t” and decided not to go in. Finally we hit sack at 11 pm with the thought that like erstwhile hutch’s “thodi dhur mai” ad, Dubai’s places to visit list will never end.
Next day we packed things and handed over our luggage in cloak room before starting our trip. Then we took a public transport bus and reached for the much hyped “dhow cruise” / “water bus”. But it was nothing but the sea water trip(same as trip between Burj and desire Dubai), but in a sophisticated cruise for a longer time. By now we are more familiar with place, so spent this trip in just photo shooting.
Then after lot of struggle we reached “mall of emirates” through public transport. Oops what a mall, it is like you name it we have it. Retail giants like Carrefour looks like nothing inside this mall. The highlight of this mall is “ski Dubai”, the artificial snow land which is maintained at -2 degree Celsius. You have ice skating, skiing, winches on top of Ice Mountains etc… in the park. Due to time constraint we could not enjoy there. One thing is sure visit Dubai at least once, either as a bachelor with joy of looking at gals or as a couple with scariness of becoming bankrupt!! (I never mentioned women are spending freaks). It is not the cost but the options that will make you bankrupt by shopping.
By now we were running out of time so we came out and were looking for taxi. An Indian approached us and offered a drop to airport at a relatively cheaper price. The Indian mentality forced us to choose this, but soon we were told by the driver that he is also new to Dubai and hence he don’t know the way properly. My goodness, he kept on roaming before finally dropping us at airport. I just thought we could have hired him to roam around Dubai instead of opting for the costly “Big bus”!!
Finally we boarded the flight and reached Bahrain at 3AM. However, the objective of the trip, to get out of dissonance about Bahrain was defeated by a huge margin, after visiting Dubai my heart is feeling so heavy about landing in this deserted place and this continues to add to my already existing pains. Nevertheless, a good outing has come to an end and I need to live with reality!!
Guess this will inspire at least a couple of my friends to visit Dubai.
No comments:
Post a Comment