Last night in Dubai

Wow, its been a really long time since my last blog! Well, i am kinda lazy recently so that explains why. I will be going back to Spore tml!! My flight will be at 8pm (local time) so I will be back in Spore on Sun morning!

Its kinda a mixed feelings for me now. On one side, I am dying to go back to Spore to be back with my loved ones and friends while on the other side, I am sad to leave the great friends that I made here! Well, that's the sucky part of international rotation. Well, I believe that there will definitely be opportunities where i will meet them again. In fact, I am thinking of visiting Lebanon in the near future since I met so many great lebanese friends here! Baby, go with me okie?? Hehe.



Enough of the sad parting stuff, here's some photos of me visiting the desert safari 2 days back! Damn, its definitely fun and my only regret is that I did not get to try the ATV! Alas, hope I will have chance in the future.

The Toyota Landcruiser that we took. Damn its a good car!!

The ATV which I wanted to ride!! Too bad. BOo....

The thrilling part. The driver will drive the car up/down slopes like these found on the desert! Its really scary when you sense the car nearly flipping over!! Haha. And I was sitting in front!! Cool!!

Haha. Its not what you think! We are just excited at the fine sand!! Too excited actually.

There are alot more photos of my safari trip on facebook. So do check it out! Seeya pple soon!!

Its all about the money..........

Why I keep saying that Dubai is all about money? Check this out.

You know that there are always some rich fellows that bid for a particular number for their car plates and that in Spore, the amount can reach tens of thousands? Well, Dubai beat Spore hands down in this extravagant display of wealth. The guy in the middle bought the number "7" for a cool Dh11m. That's S$4.5m dollars!!! WTF right??!! And this is not the extreme. The same fellow had earlier set a world record, paying Dh25.3m (S$10.5m dollars!!) for the number "5"!! Haha. Can you imagine? The car plate number is actually more expensive than the ferraris and lamborginis that he will probably own!! Haha. I can picture him saying to his friends while pointing to his latest ferrari, "don't look at the car, check out the number 7!" . Haha. I just don't get it. Well, at least one good thing that came out of this crazy auction is that the money raised will be used to help accidents victims although we can't really know for sure. But at least that's what the article says.

Oh ya, the kid on the left is the son of another rich Arab. He is only 10yrs old but is already spending millions of dollars to bid for NUMBERS for his dad!! Haha. Case closed.

Mall of Emirates

Hey pple,

been really lazy to write about my trip to Emirates Mall aka The Biggest Mall in Dubai. So I will let the pics do the talking. Oh btw, this is the mall with the snow city in it! But think it costs quite alot to go in and the hourly charge is crazy. Well, this is Dubai. The city of money. Haha.

Nice huh? Imagine having this in your living room!

Check out the size of this TV!!! (I put myself in the pic as a gauge!! Haha). Seriously, why do you need such a big TV for? Well, if you have too much cash to spare, this is one TV you can get for Christmas!! Haha. Imagine playing PS3 on this TV!! Haha.

The Cineplex

These are some photos of the snow city - taken from OUTSIDE!! haha.

And my dinner for the night.

For more pics of the mall, pls check out the album on Facebook!! Haha. Good night pple.

Look at this shit!!! Haha

Over here in Dubai, this is what happens if you leave your car at the carpark for a week!

Now you know why car-wash is good business in Dubai huh!! Haha.

My lebanese takeway.

Check out the lebanese dinner which I just bought! Shiok man. And its cheaper than chinese food!! Haha.

This is a lebanese cocktail. Its a mixture of quite a few fruits including, apple, orange, kiwi, etc. I bought it becoz its look kinda cool!! Haha. The damage is about S$4.

For my main course, I ordered this boneless chicken (half). As you can see, the chicken comes with a few other stuffs. Bread is almost a compulsory item in lebanese food. So you can wrap the chicken in the bread toge with other ingredients like, vege, olive, cucumbers, etc. And you dip it in the garlic. Its actually pretty good but i hated the waiting time for it. As the lebanese believed in cooking on the spot, so everytime you ordered anything, you will have to wait about 15mins. Its a good practice but its just plain frustrating for a hungry man!! Haha. Anyway the damage is about S$10.

A Bad Night!!

For all those that likes to check out the night scenes of various countries, remember to bring a partner of the opposite sex with you when you are here in Dubai! And even that might not get you in! I had a bad experience last friday and it really left a bitter taste in the mouth.

My friends (4 guys & 2 girls, including me) were going to this R&B disco club at some hotel after hanging out at some pub earlier in the evening. When we reached the club, there were a swarm of people crowding at the entrance. My friend Marc (US NG) manage to squeeze to the front and get the attention of the bouncers. He was told that to get into this club, you must come in a couple, ie a guy with a girl. Hearing that, we quickly got to know 2 Egyptians ladies who were very nice in agreeing to be our "partners" so as to get the 2 extra guys (one is me!! Haha) in. So we thought that the problem is solved. When its our time to go in, 2 guys in front (Marc & Nizar) and the 4 girls start making their way in. When it comes to my other friend and I, we were stopped! Marc quickly explained to the bouncer that we are in a group and that we have 4 guys and 4 girls. But the bloody ass bouncer refused to listen and keep pushing Marc in. And the sickening part is, he threatened Marc, saying "Do you want to go in anot? If you want, just shut up and go in!" We were feeling really pissed and Marc was still trying to explain to that bouncer. By this time, he was already about to burst and punch that ass. Luckily we managed to stop him. So in the end, we walked off without entering and as we walked off, I turned back and still saw tons of people begging the ass bouncer to let them go in. WTF man!!

Well, I do not know what reasons the bouncer has for stopping us. But I guess its probably out of all these,

1.) Its their business tactic so that in the end, there will be more girls inside then guys.
2.) They do not believe that the 2 egyptians were part of our group! Which is bullshit!! Haha.
3.) The last and most disturbing, that maybe they discriminate against Asians!!

If it is the last reason, I am not really surprised. Cause I already feel a mild level of discrimination in this society. To me, Dubai is all about money. There is this materialism and individualism behaviour which you can sense it everywhere. In the malls, pubs, resturants and even in peoples' conversation. Some of the places, its especially strong while some are still ok. So generally, when the shop helpers/bouncers/whatever look at you whenever you step into the shop, you get a feeling that they are seeing whether you have the money anot. I know its probably the same for most modern societies, but I just feel that it is especially strong over here. And back to the point of being Asian, I think asians (and this is just my own opinion) here are not being appreciated as much as the other nationalities. I do not know why but maybe they think that Asians are not as rich as the others. But I will find it out before I go back. I want to know where Singaporeans or Asians stand in other parts of the world. It just wakes you up and takes you out of your comfort zone and to let you be aware of what's happening in this world.

So for someone like me who has been "protected" since young at the safe havan of Singapore, this job rotation has really benefited me greatly. And pls do not be alarmed by this post. I am still being treated really well by my friends here. They are really a great bunch of people to hang out with and I feel a part of them. So no worries.

My new office!

Oh, I have moved to the new facility! The new premise is alot bigger than the old one and I also have my own cubicle! But the sucky thing is the strategic position of it! My back is facing the entrance of the cubicle so that meant everyone that walks past can see what I am doing. And that makes msning difficult!! Haha. And another super sianz thing is that its in the middle of the desert! I know Dubai is a desert so its kinda of an irony but at least the old premise is in the populated area of the industrial area! Now, there are no neighbours around us. Only sand and dust accompany the people working here! We are the first company to move into this part of the free zone (aka really really big industrial area). And that day, I heard from my colleague that there was a sandstorm just a day before we moved in!! Wtf man!! Haha.

My Cubicle. Btw, the chair sucks! Forces you to sit upright all the time. NB!!

Views from the new plant. They are building more around here but till now, only my company is in this part of the free zone. So even the cab drivers are not sure. That time I overheard my colleague giving directions to the cab driver. This is what he said, "South part of zone, near new foodcourt, near desert. " Haha.

The view from the car during journey back.

There was an atonishing thing I learned about Dubai recently. They have no residential postal services!! This explains why there is actually no proper address for my apartment!! Only companies have postboxes and postal codes. So, if anyone wants to send letters/parcels to someone in Dubai, it has to be send to his working address. And i was telling my flatmates about this and John (the french engineer) says that actually there are alot of countries that do not have postal services! So apparently, I am the country bumpkin here! Well, you always learn something new everyday. And you can probably imagine the look on the face of the customer service officer of the nearby mall when I asked her for the nearest post office earlier. She gave me a "WTF look" and smile before telling me that there is no residential postal service but there is stlill a post office that deals with overseas postal. But it will take ages, according to her. Haha.

Seems like for all the money that Dubai has and invested in real estates, they ignore services like this. Sighz.