haha okay i promised myself i would post about dubai trip so i wouldn't forget anything! (it's so easy for memories to blur tgt in a big palette of colours when you don't reflect back on them or think thru them again.... no matter how epic or memorable it is!)
i think the post is gonna be SUPER LONG... OMG. but nevermind, for my memory's sake i shall do it!
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DAY 1:
The flight was 7 hours long, but dubai is 4hours behind singapore... so we arrived in Dubai at 4 am in the morning? even though we left Singapore at 1am. Hahaha, so as a result, the day seemed superrrr long. like a day with much more than 24 hrs (like 28 hrs?). It felt like we'd been here for days after a while, but it was like only afternoon or something! haha.
First, went to the Burj Khalifah (direct translation: Tower of the Ruler) to take pictureeeessss. It's the tallest building in the world. Superrrrr scenic! ahhh =) We were total camwhores today. xD Seriously, everywhere. hahaha took pictures not only at the REALLY PRETTY scenic spots (such as in front of the Burj Khalifah where the water body reflected the entire tower below it with the morning sun gleaming) and in toilets, while walking, in the bus. HAHA. roomies yayyyy! hahaha amanda (amanda low) and florence! =)
went to the beachhhhhhh too! Specifically the spot of beach with the Sail-like iconic building of the Middle East in the background. It's called the Burj Al Arab (Tower of the Arabs) and it's the only (self-proclaimed) 7-star hotel in the world. hahaha. Superb camwhoring and jump shot taking place!!! The white sand ( omg never knew sand could actually feel freezing cold... at least the sand that wasnt in the sun), the clear light blue water, the totally cloudless sky and of course the iconic building in the bg! haha OH and we even camwhored with some shiny metal sheet on the side of the road... hahaha wuliao!
Later we had a "Mall Rat Race" in Ibn Battuta Mall (named after the famous M.Eastern explorer)... it had themes from ea continent thruout the gigantic mall. seriously, the middle east is filled with "the largest", "the grandest", "the tallest" etc! haha it was a sort of Amazing race like activity. Ran around asking Emiratis (the locals), as well as expats from everywhere (seriously everywhere, like Syria, Lebanon, Philippines, India, America etc etc) to do random tasks for us, such as write the date in arabic, or participate in a video being interviewed abt why they came to Dubai and for what etc. We even had time for a little shopping! heh bought a bag =)
Hmm later we explored down-town dubai, and observed the obvious disparity... Everyone thinks that in dubai, everyone is rich and wealthy and everything. But we got to see the "behind-the-scenes" of all the glitz and glamour of dubai-- the freaking pretty, ideal, picturesque landscape, all the palm trees that add to the beach resort aura, the clear skies, imaginative buildings, the futuristic metro stations, the first/largest/grandest/biggest everything. The down-town area for low-income workers (mostly foreign workers that helped build up dubai at its astonishing rate-- there is a LARGE indian and pakistani community there) and it was really old, rundown, dirty and sorta like some parts of underdeveloped dusty malaysia. LOL though they do have aircon busstops (though they are one for females and one for males! haha like toilets)
Later visited Bastakiah Quarter, one of the reallyyyyyyy few conserved places in Dubai. Where it's actually still olden architecture xD. everything else in dubai gets torn down every once in a while to build something new. like some mall that wasn't very successful and got torn down within 3 years of building it and spending 30 million or something? haha I LOVE the super pretty olden place, the tops of the buildings look just like boxes and squares whose edges just lead on into the endless night sky behind! ahh =)
DAY 2:
Breakfast in the hotel is awesome (we're staying at 4points at Sheraton btw.. a four star hotel.. the room is really quite nice!!) Ignoring the stereotypical western fried food, the fresh fruits when mixed with a combi of sweet fruit puree muesli and yoghurt and cottage cheese is AWESOME. Am eating this for the rest of the days' breakfasts idc!
Today was the day of the full day walking tour with no coach/tour bus. Went to a supermarket that seemed like a flashback of S'pore's past. Found in downtown dubai... haha obvious disparity once again. Went to the souks (markets/bazaars) after that! AWESOME SHOPPING TIME! Bought scarves, sand art bottles, skirt, blah xD Ashraf and Zaki bought the arabic male headgear (the gutra- that looks like a red and white checked cloth) together with the black cord/rope that goes around it! HAHA epic lah when they wore it later on! 2 look like arabs! and add to that, sunglasses and poser positions! LOL And damn funny that some shopkeepers kept saying Anyon or Irashaimase to us!
Later walked down the Dubai Creek next to the Sheikh's palace, loads of camwhoring! Ms Gan is damn cute! she crashes and photobombs like nobody's business! Next we took the water taxi, this wooden boat that fetched us across the river for the price of just ONE DIRHAM (SGD 0.40 is approximately 1 Dhs) so yea, that's like 40 cents for a boat ride... wonder how they earn money! but it's a traditional thing that they conserved so as to make sure that pple still have a little livelihood.
We then visited the spice and gold souks! Soooooo many spices! Flo was ecstatic over vanilla pods lol! And we all bought LOADS of ChocoDates. This super awesome classic must-have dubai sweet. it's like chocolate coated over the dates (that M.E. is famous for) and at the center there's an almond. mmm so good =) Got a picture frame that has sands from each of the Emirates in the UAE. Damnnn cool. because it's like transparent glass layers and in each one there's a diff coloured sand that can all move tgt to form various sand dunes separately! Then we went to the Sheikh's other house... haha such a visionary leader, he put in his own money to dredge the creek or something, so now it's this bustling port like area! Learnt about pearl diving too!
Dinner at the Diving& Heritage Villages was nice! We had our first middle eastern meal! First was appetisers... which was a giant plate of fresh vegetables and bread (flat bread) fresh from the olden oven but it's AWESOME to dip with hummus dip (some chickpea bean paste dip). and then the main course was a giant plate of more bread, roasted lamb, roasted beef, roasted chicken... mmm xD kebabs. And then we had fruits with some ginger tinge for desert!
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Hmmm, i think i'll post on the other days tmr! (this is as far as ive written in my book during the trip! the rest shall be remembered tmr!) Super tired now, went thru my hundred over emails today! ahahahaha. boonlay boonlay boonlay and the occasional facebook email (which i really love... because they mean that there's less work emails for me to deal with) ahaha. hmmm, dunno whether to feel super damn lucky or suay that the moment i touchdown in singapore i now have a cold, sorethroat and a slight fever. gah. need to get well before archery camp!
but anw i was fine the whole day until night. went for dinner and movie with the Easties (namely Miranda, Syakir, DJ.... but mir's cousin happened to come along too this time) today!! :D RAWR. DJ that BIMBO went to suggest Rapunzel 3d omggggg. And me and syakir stupidly went to buy tickets right.... and it was 70 bucks (for 5 pple) and we only realised AFTER that that it was 14 bucks per person. OMG. -.-'' haha we were contemplating throwing dj off the side of the building. haha. OMG. i cant BELIEVE i spent so much on RAPUNZEL instead of like HP7 which i still havent watched yet!! argh. hahaha but actually, quite nice lah the movie, we laughed like crap and the chameleon in the movie is damn cuteeee! Plus syakir is a pedo! of all the characters he only fawns over the little baby girl in the movie.... hahaha and he prob likes the old man as well!
okay nightzzz =)
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