Day 1 – Takeoff to Dubai!

Well, as you all know, I woke up damn early Monday morning to take the YoYo bus straight to KLIA for my bloody 10.40 a.m flight. I reached KLIA about a good 4 hours before my flight and an hour before the Gulf Air check-in counter opened so I wandered around and took a few snapshots before the sun came up…

Waiting around for the counter to open up



International Departures, baby!

Around 7-ish the counter opened up, waited for about 10 minutes and was later ushered over to the Business Class counter just to check in my bag. Waited around a bit and then took the aerotrain over to the Duty Free section… Choiy… There’s a reason why KLIA won International Airport of the Year 3 times dude. Place is banging!

The Aerotrain



Expensive booze *drool*

Later this caught my eye. Check this. I saw the sign and then I looked right…

Hm, I wonder how's their lounge...?



Freakin' hell! It ain't even done yet!

Riiiggghhttt… Knew those Chinese buggers were up to no good! First the melamine then this! Outrageous! Hehehhee…Walked around a bit more, found my gate and used those horizontal escalators to zoom back and forth the departure hall until the gate opened. Not much people flying to Bahrain though. Hung around for 30 minutes in the departure lounge until we were permitted to board.

Inside the plane



Walking into the plane



Probably my bag's in those cargo bunches!



That's the plane right there...

As fate would have it, they somehow had put a M’sian girl from Johor Bahru around my age right next to me. I was taking the window aisle seat while she had the window seat. Her name was Liaw Ei Hong. What’re the odds? We talked a bit, got to know each other a bit more then I started to get bored so I went ahead to try the beer on the plane. Never really tried Tuborg before but it was pretty alright. After lunch was served I got even more bored so decided to take try the cocktails. Ordered up a Bloody Mary followed up by a Screwdriver. Good God… Either I’m bad at this drinking thing or the stewardess was shitting me. The Bloody Mary tasted like tomato soup laced with turpentine and the Screwdriver was like orange juice laced with turpentine. The next half an hour I was staring at the ceiling going nuts. It was a great feeling but as usual, the after effects were the shittiest. I forgot how I got off the plane and into Bahrain without security dragging my ass out but I did it somehow. My flight was in roughly 2 hours while hers was in 3, and she had another 8 hours to go ‘cause she was going to London to see her boyfriend. Lucky son of a bitch… Check it out…

Most people that arrived were just here for a stopover as well



Duty free loves giving out cars in competitions!



Mini art gallery near the entrance of duty free



Local burger stall. Fucking expensive and nowhere near Dubai quality!



A head piece that talks, looks around and even sings. Who would need that?

Bahrain’s all brown, man. I’m not talking about the people but the place! The sand’s sand of course but the houses and structures are all brown!

Finally had to whip out my camera 'cause my phone can't zoom that far



Brown... more brown... and brown. Jeez...

Finally got on board the plane after awhile. Head was bumpin' and the Panadol was taking it’s sweet time to kick in. Flight was about an hour and I finally touched down in Dubai! After all the balls that these guys were telling me about immigration I was kinda spooked walking up to the dude. The fact that he was wearing the Arab costume thingy didn’t help either. Finally it was my turn. After seeing about 3 white dudes getting turned away, I was shitting myself. I went up to him, passed my ticket and passport, got asked what was my name and where I was from, he just stamped my visa without a second look. Fuck… pays to be in a country that has good relations with everyone!

The walk out to the open was a freakin’ long one, even with the conveyor belts! Took me a good 20 minutes to get out. Got to the exit, took a peek was still too hung over to dare take a step out so I called Rushdi and Taqi to check where they were. Eventually I stepped out into Dubai, at last!

Touchdown! Dubai International at last!



Taxi stands over there just waiting to cheat white buggers!



Lift to the departures



Seriously this place reminds me of Pudu Raya...



The hoodie couldn't be more true

Oh yeah, life is good, baby. Living the dream at long last. Dubai, baby, Dubai. Rushdi came first, we hung around the departure gates ‘cause it was easier for Taqi and Mustapha to fetch us there. Eventually they came and we went to Qusais to fetch Shakir for dinner at Pizza Hut. From here I noticed a few things:

1. In Malaysia we get Jalan this and Jalan that. Here is Al Qusais, Al Karama and sometimes just Bur Dubai and Deira. Hm.

2. The road signs are a FUCKLOAD better there.
3. Traffic’s a problem on this side too.
4. The weather was FREAKING AWESOME~!
5. Left hand drive. Was weird getting used to.
6. Construction everywhere. 24/7!
7. Drivers are better, slightly less aggressive than KL drivers and twice as good.

Arrived at Qusais after struggling through traffic for about half an hour. Me and Rushdi went up to Shakir’s to pick him up. Accidently went up a floor too high and knocked on the door of some stranger’s. Some old lady probably got shocked seeing a huge Chinese dude in a hood standing right on her doorstep. We went down a floor and got it right and were invited in to sit by Shakir’s mum. Nice lady. Shakir and his dad had gone out to pray Maghrib and were going to take awhile to come back. Eventually they did, had a short talk with his dad. Nice dude. Huge fella. Keep in mind that I am keeping this charade up with alcohol still running through me and a hangover. Shakir instantly asked me how much I drank as soon we were in the lift. I just laughed.

Went to a nearby Pizza Hut located in some supermarket kind of place. Supposedly the supermarket catered especially to Arab families. Hm. The menu in the Pizza Hut there was slightly different. Most faves were still on the menu and there were others that had a more local taste, as usual. We ordered a Super Supreme and one that was local to them. Super Spicy, I think! No soup on the menu, pity. Ordered some garlic bread, too. Theirs is not served with whole loaf like us but a huge piece. These guys ordered the Super Supreme version that was supposed to have some pepperoni and junk on it but when it came it just came with cheese. *shrug*

The salad bar… Hoo boy… The salad bar there makes the salad bar here looks like it would’ve been better off as a pig’s trough. Pizza was slightly better than M’sia’s one, though. Had a bit more oomph in the ingredients, you can actually taste the cheese and the crust was just nice. Shakir and Taqi later brought me into the supermarket to have a look see. Apparently Arabs love their cheese a lot. Especially this kind called feta cheese. White in colour usually comes in small square chunks. When sold in bulk kinda looks like taufu. These guys showed me the berry cocktail they used to enjoy back in school during the summer time. Man, it was literally a party in my mouth and crack was being passed around. Beats Malaysian juices hands down and bangs it in the ass dude.

We went over to a nearby sheesha parlour later on. Place was pretty lousy but these guys reminded me that this is one of those “we came here outta convenience” places and also that usually the places were a lot better. Smoked up and had my 1st mint tea. Amazing shit. After about an hour or so of fucking around, Mustapha sent Shakir back and we took off to my hotel in Bur Dubai, Panorama Hotel.

Arrived there pretty late and we kinda got shocked when we reached. No less than 20 black hos were across the street there and we actually saw someone stop their car and talk to them. Eventually we found a space a bit further down after a sandlot and checked in. Got a bit shocked entering the room. I seriously didn’t imagine getting a place this sweet!

Room 303, right next to the lift. Nice.

Two single beds, choiy!



Couch set which was pretty comfy considering this was supposedly a budget hotel!



Wardrobe and dressing table



Bathroom was cool too. Even had a phone next to the throne. Hm.

Double single beds, couch set, wardrobe and dressing table. An attached bathroom with a tub and showerhead and you could probably fit 8-10 dudes inside just to fill it up! Too bad the balcony was locked though. Here’s what the view was from the balcony, in the morning.

Parking lot

Phew… after a rough day, these guys left and I crashed. As usual I didn’t sleep well since the time difference was that Dubai’s 4 hours behind Malaysian time. It was 4 a.m. in Malaysia and I pretty much crossed my personal threshold of sleeping times. Slept only 3 hours. Pity.

That covers up all that happened on the 1st day, which was the 29th of December, 2008. Peace out y’all!