Dubai Trip (19-23 May 2007)

“Sze, you have to go to Dubai,” I was told. “Huh? Whyyy? What if I don't wanna go?”

Everyone thinks going to Dubai would make a nice, exotic Arab holiday. But with Eunice being unable to travel with me, and me in the midst of rushing to finish the way overdue Logic Notes article, exam papers waiting to be marked (while my colleagues are almost finishing theirs), with an avalanche of student projects coming in the following week, plus me being totally unprepared for the exhibition workshop (I was doomed to embarrass myself and the college on the international stage), this last-minute traveling assignment had really come at a bad time for me. I was SO NOT looking forward to this trip - if ever there was a reluctant traveler, I was IT. All I could do was to make the best out of the situation.

The trip was for PALME Middle East 2007 - it was the Professional Sound, Light, Music, Audio Visual and Systems Integration Exhibition (previously known as PALA). ICOM had a booth at the exhibition and I had to man it together with Kenny, my colleague. Held at the Dubai International Exhibition Center in UAE, it was located in a large complex that also housed the Dubai World Trade Center and the Dubai International Convention Center... which all sounded very impressive indeed.

PALME Middle East 2007 at the Dubai International Exhibition Center.

Entrance to the DWTC Exhibition Complex via the Convention Gate.

Upon arrival, one of my first impressions of Dubai was the unique, designer-like architectural styles - many of its tall buildings were curved upwards like the Menara Telekom Malaysia building (or just imagine Burj Al Arab, Dubai’s 7-star hotel). There were less of the block-shaped, rectangular high-rise buildings, which are so common in Malaysia and on TV. While not all tall buildings would have the curved architecture, they would nonetheless have some other “designer” shapes. However, such buildings were not densely located as the Dubai skyline was quite sparse. Most other buildings were no more than a few stories high but there was heavy construction taking place everywhere in the desert sands of the city.

Speaking of desert, the common question would be, “How was the weather?” Well, it was very hot but there was no sweat... at least I hardly sweated (although “big” Kenny had sweat dripping from his face). I suppose this was due to the very dry desert air which also dried up my contact lenses.

Moreover, I had complained to the hotel maintenance that I was not getting cold tap water in my bathroom, as the water was hot enough to burn my face during shower. Upon checking, the technician said that the burning water was indeed their “cold” water! I could not believe the Dubai air temperature was so hot outside that even the tap water burned my skin... actually, I still cannot believe it, not even now.

And if Malaysians complain about the haze every now and then, Dubai looked somewhat hazy all the time. View of the scattered skyscrapers in the distance was never clear but I guess this was due to the dust of the desert sand.

The 1st day of the trip was our only “free day” (the next 3 days would be spent working while the last day would be at the airport and on-board the flight home). After Kenny and I had set up the booth at the DWTC Exhibition Complex, half the day was already gone. We spent what was left of that day sightseeing in Jumeirah, Wafi City and Karama.

Jumeirah appeared to be the posh area of the city. This was also where the waterfront and some of Dubai’s world famous hotels were located. On the way back to our hotel, we stopped by Wafi Mall – it was like the Suria KLCC shopping mall, but minus the crowd. After taking a shower and a short rest back at the hotel, we headed out to Karama. It looked like the “old town” of the city and reminded me of the PJ SS2 commercial area with its many shoplots. We had our dinner and did most of our shopping there.

Jumeirah Beach Park, Dubai (cameras not allowed on the beach).

Dubai was an expensive city. The food was at least twice the prices of Kuala Lumpur while we easily exceeded our transportation allocation with the expensive cab fares. We had to be very careful with our food expenses; as such, drinking/entertainment in the nightspots and bars were totally out of the question. Many people had advised us to bring some USD currency but everything here in Dubai was in Dirham (AED), the local currency. Thus, the USD was not necessary as it would have to be converted to Dirham anyway.

I had been looking forward to watching the English FA Cup final for weeks and I had hoped to catch it (MU vs. Chelsea) here in Dubai. To my surprise, no one seemed to know anything about this football (soccer) match. The Dubai Sports channel was showing some German match but perhaps the hotel bar would show that cup final, I thought. However, upon checking, none of their cable channels had the match on either (I told you this trip was bad timing). So I was reduced to only getting “live” sms match updates from Eunice in Malaysia.

On the 1st night here, I set the alarm on my cell phone but forgot that it was in Malaysian time, so it rang at 4am… haha (Dubai was 4 hours behind Malaysian time). Anyway, daylight broke very early here, something like 2 hours earlier, and it felt like I was oversleeping, so I got up at 6am (as it felt like 8am already due to the early sunrise). Over the next few days, while Kenny slept or watched TV, I had to get up early, sleep late or forego that nap just to prepare for my workshop. Now, who said that Dubai would be a nice holiday?

After our 1st day at work, we queued up for a cab outside the DWTC. It turned out to be a 1¼-hour queue! Even then, it was only for a “shared” cab (with another 2 passengers), and we went to Karama for our dinner. Btw, all Dubai cabbies drove like F1 racers - hard acceleration and hard braking. However, the cabs were quite comfortable as the Toyota Camry was their most common taxi while the Toyota Estima MPV was another very common taxi here, both of which are considered luxurious vehicles in Malaysia. And oh, virtually no motorbikes on the roads (we only saw one bike throughout our stay here).

After dinner in Karama, we tried to buy some foodstuff to take back to our hotel room but that proved to be a rather difficult task – there were many restaurants around but none of the shops or supermarkets sold any foodstuff (dried/packed/canned food, snacks, ice-cream, etc). Many sold clothing, shoes, electronics, etc, just not food. Finally, we found one little store that had some foodstuff and we bought some snacks to eat in our room when we got hungry.

Another striking characteristic of Dubai was of course, the diversity of its people. If you think Malaysia is a melting pot of 3 races, wait till you see the mixture here – there were the white, tanned and black Arabs, the foreign whites/expatriates, Filipinos/South East Asians, Indians/South Asians and the occasional oriental/Chinese/East Asians. I also found that the residents here were all very Dubai-centric – there was interest only in all things Dubai, i.e. Dubai had to be the hub of everything.

Upon returning to Malaysia, I exchanged my “Arabian Nights” stories with the KLIA airport cabbie. His experiences with his Arab passengers were that they were quite generous with their money. But on the other hand, they also had many complaints, even though many services in their own countries were worse than in Kuala Lumpur. He went on to quote a Malay proverb, “Masuk kandang kambing mengembik, masuk kandang lembu menguak” (when in Rome, do as the Romans do). I guess my Dubai trip could probably have been better, but nevertheless, it was a life-enriching experience that made me appreciate home even more… ahh, home sweet home!

P.S. Photos courtesy of Kenny's camera.