Bye bye southern hemisphere - hello Dubai!

15/11/10
Wow, its been 2 weeks since my last blog and a lot has happened. Finding the time between the travelling to dedicate some time to all my lovely followers has been hard...I’ll give the recollection of the past couple of weeks a good shot however there is a lot to remember...good thing about this is you’ll probably just get the highlights...let me check where I left off last time...right after Yarra valley the following day was spent driving through Melbourne City with my Uncles father in law...my dad took a turn for the worse and wasn’t feeling too great which wasn’t ideal given his flight was the following day!! We stopped at the docklands for a light walk and then onto St Kilda where Jane lives for a spot of Pizza at the Stokehouse – they were soo nice. We went for a short walk along St Kilda beach before making our way back home so my dad could relax.
When my dad was taken to the airport the following day I decided to meet up with Jane for what I thought was going to be an afternoon of stress free sight seeing and fun...what I thought was going to happen and what ended up happening were 2 completely different things. Basically Jane is in love with Melbourne city and desparately wants to work toward becoming a resident. In order to do that she needs commitment from her employer that they will sponsor her. Once upon a time ago her employers did promise this however they are now in the process of selling the bakery. You would think the simple solution would be to get the new owners to sponsor them...however they still weren’t going to be owners for another month and Jane only has another couple of months left on her working holiday and time is running out. So we discussed the situation she was in and thought up options...with only 2 months left it was going to be too late to find another company to sponsor her, the other 2 options were student visa which killed 2 birds with one stone as she wanted to study anyway, however that was another can of worms in terms of red tape so the easiest option that would buy her more time in Melbourne was to do rural work for a couple of months to allow for visa extension. The rules are you need to do 3 months of rural work to qualify for an extension, however Jane only has 2...so she would need to use that wit and charm to good effect to talk her rural employers around to signing off on a slightly untruthful but earlier start date. It was her best option so we hunted for books and websites to apply for this work and I left her with that. It was a good day and spending time with Jane is always great regardless of how its spent!
In the evening I met up with some old friends from Canada who live in Aus – Sam, Tim B and Matty...they are all doing well, Sam is a ski bum still and Tim and Matty are well and truely in the groove of their careers! It was good to see them even though they are still kids – I cant believe how young they are!! Good times.
I flew out the following day back to Auckland then through to Brunei for a 12 hr stopover. I decided to do the city tour of Brunei to kill some time – It was interesting we went to 2 Mosques on built for the 28th and 29th kings of Brunei, every time a new king is borne a mosque is built in their honour and the number of domes is equivalent to which generation of king they are. It seems like a very monarchist country – most of the touristy places and memorabilia is around the Royalty and the royal family. All very interesting indeed. We went to a Water Village where there was a subset of civilians from Brunei lived. The houses and pathways were built on water stilts – crazy stuff!
Before heading back to the airport we had a couple of hours in the mall where I sampled the Brunei KFC – it was pretty awesome as far as KFCs go! I wanted to spunk the rest of my Brunei dollars so decided to buy some sunnies a watch and a usb key all for 22 quid! Ha!
I returned back to the airport with about 6 hrs to kill and subsequently destroyed the book “White Tiger” it was a great read however no as epic as the Godfather, that is still by far my most favourite book of all time – the Sicilian not far off it either!!
Before I knew it, it was Sunday afternoon and I had landed back in London to find my dad in hospital and my mum still away. It was me and Ash so went to visit my dad and made sure he was taken care of. After completing some admin on Monday I went to the embassy of Japan to submit my working holiday visa application – they didnt require my passport which meant I could go to Dubai to my best friends wedding!! Before I knew it I was flying with emirates to dubai the following day and surprising my best friend with my arrival.
The first thing I noticed about Dubai was the sweltering heat! I met up with Cams family at the airport and we drove to meet him at the hotel. The shock on his face when he saw me was very amusing, even more amusing was the fact that I called him whilst at the airport to tell him I wasn’t going to make it. Sad news was Paul didnt make the flight! His fear of flying got the better of him, he has to learn to get over it. I met most of Camerons family and they were all welcoming loving people and we were all there to celebrate this great occasion.
As a result the first couple of days weren’t really spent doing much in the way of touristy things...me and Oualid (Shabnams boyfriend) hung out a lot whilst Cam was busy with family duties along with Shab. Memories include going to the biggest snowdome in the world in the Emirates mall – It was ridiculous!! So much fun tho! I taught Oualid for about an hour then rode for an hour! It was soo dope seeing the riding scene over in dubai – there were some seriously sick little Arabic riders! They loved it
Other highlights included going out a club called Chi where we were VIPs watching Tinie Tempah perform a few songs. We got a table and even though this place was huge and had about 3 massive rooms we stayed in one little place the WHOLE night – I guess we had in the back of our minds the fact that we paid a shitload for our VIP area so we weren’t going to abandon it. Along with the table came a lot of drink and lets just say we got merry and had good times to celebrate Cameron getting married.
Cams wedding was a beautiful, it started with a soft drink reception for everyone to gather, we got changed at the venue which was a very grand hotel with stunning architecture and amazing interior design. We all took our places on the patio and the bride and groom arrived on their chariot – a boat in a river pulled into the patio and they stepped off and joined the ceremony. The service was short and sweet and done in a very classy stylish way. The bride and groom rode off to freshen up for dinner! Which I must say was epic!! Too much food – lots of meat and a crazy amount of deserts – so delicious so tasty so good! I loved it! Cam and Nilu looked great together and were so happy.
We spent the following day going to the tallest building in the world which was an architectural stroke of genius, the Burj – however I found it to be pointless. It was built for the sake of being the biggest building in the world as opposed to having any sort of purpose. Everything has be to bigger and better in Dubai. Before heading out for a traditional “after the wedding meal” between the families. The brides family invites the grooms family for a feed and they just get to know each other and marry themselves!
We had a couple of nights we spent out and about in Dubai and it is definitely a happening place! There was a bar called the Roof Top which Lonely planet recommended and the decor was so chic it was like being in a Western European Bar like the Kensington Roof Gardens . The Jameria Beach Resort Walk is very nice with lots of nice bars and restaurants and shops. After our Mega night out Oualid and I spent the day in the beach, the water was so nice and warm and some of the sun set shots were so picturesque!! Ahh good times
My overall opinion of Dubai is if you like Modern Architecture, then its a great place too see. There is a lot about Dubai which feels a bit pretentious empty and showy. You don’t feel like you are experiencing any Arabic culture, English has to be spoken widely and there are a large number of expats. It seems Dubai has been sold to the western world as an extension of their paradise in the middle east. Its hard to spot natives and feels like there is no historical or cultural significance. It feels like a sell out and this was a part I didnt appreciate. Along with this is the fast cars and malls and flashy living is one that doesn’t appeal to me anymore.
In all it was a great place to visit but not what I was expecting and a place I am not sure I would visit again. I cut my trip short and didnt really feel like I was missing out!
I am now back in the UK and I think that brings everyone upto date. Between now and me leaving for Japan I have lots to do which will mean my next post will probably be from Tokyo.
Origato!!
Peace and love people