Yesterday evening I took the shuttle to JBH to meet Ben after work. Caught my first glimpse of the Burj Al Arab from a distance. Although it’s really hazy here, just seeing the Burj for the first time in real life kinda gives you goose bumps. I guess cos each time I saw it on TV I’d think to myself, my husband works there, how cool is that? And now to see it for real…
Then we took the shuttle to Lamcy, and a cab to the Dubai Museum where we were supposed to meet Andrew. But due to miscommunication, Andrew was waiting for us at Deira City Centre. So Ben and I took another cab to City Centre to meet Andrew and had dinner at Japengo. Andrew’s one of the chefs at the Japengo outlet at Madinat Jumeirah.
After dinner we took a cab to Regal Plaza Hotel and had drinks at an English pub there. There were a few Chinese men at the next table conversing in Hokkien, so Andrew said must be Malaysian or Singaporean. But of course once you hear familiar phrases like “wa lau eh” and “k-n-n” you know for sure where they’re from lah. Before we left Andrew n Ben chatted with them a bit. They’re in the Construction business here, and come to this pub often for live soccer matches. They also said there was gonna be some kinda gathering or party the next weekend to celebrate National Day at the Singapore Consulate or whatever.
After that we got Rana to send us home. We dropped Andrew home first and had a look at his place. He’s paying 3,500dhs a month for a really crappy place. He lives in Deira, in a tiny one-room flat. It looks clean n new inside, but really cramped with only enough space for a bed, tv, small cupboard. The ‘kitchen’ is the same size as the bathroom… like ‘hobbit’ size, and even his laundry has to be hung at a funny angle in the kitchen or it wouldn’t fit. Poor guy’s still asking Rana to help him find a better place. Even the location is really bad. It’s like in some dark n dingy back alley, and it’s true that it’s like Geylang… just that those living n ‘working’ there are Nigerian ‘kai’.
Today Ben brought me to the “white house”, Jumeirah’s HR office, to get my paperwork done and apply for my medical check-up. So now it’s my turn for the big Dubai run-around. Apparently I have to go to Rashid Hospital to get a Health Card, and then to the Immigration Typing Center to pay 150dhs to get my visa application typed. This is after Ben’s crazy Dubai run-around plus a few hundred dirhams to apply for my visa that got me here in the first place.
The “white house” is located opposite Jumeirah Beach Hotel and Burj al Arab, so I finally got to take some pics of the Hotel. But this is the closest outsiders like me can get to the hotel – the security gate.
Then we headed over to the Mall of the Emirates.
Apart from being a huge-ass mall, Emirates Mall has this Star-Wars-X-Wing-Fighter-docking-bay-looking thing sticking out at one end. This part of the mall is actually Ski Dubai, an indoor ski and snow park.
Ben waited till I was with him to step into their posh “department stores” like Harvey Nichols n Debenham’s. You have salespeople dressed in designer suits waiting on you so it’s really quite intimidating to walk around the store. Then Ben n I had tea at Armani Café cos he says when ever or where else would we be able to have kopi at ARMANI café… Paid something like 80 dirhams for a skinny latte, a fruit cocktail, tiramisu and apple pie.
We bought some household stuff from Carrefour – electric kettle, laundry basket, foldable laundry hanger-rack thing, etc, then headed home. We watched a rented DVD on my laptop – Wicker Park. Really nice movie… Why was it rated R(A) in Singapore? Or is the stuff we get here really censored big time?
Anyway, how DVD rental goes here is, Ben pays the shop 300dhs. He gets to borrow 30 DVDs (no time limit). Each time he borrows a DVD, whether one copy or 3 at one go, he has to return it within 12 days. Once he’s completed renting 30 DVDs, the shop will return him 150dhs. So it costs about 5dhs a DVD lah. A movie ticket here costs 35dhs!
Then we took the shuttle to Lamcy, and a cab to the Dubai Museum where we were supposed to meet Andrew. But due to miscommunication, Andrew was waiting for us at Deira City Centre. So Ben and I took another cab to City Centre to meet Andrew and had dinner at Japengo. Andrew’s one of the chefs at the Japengo outlet at Madinat Jumeirah.
After dinner we took a cab to Regal Plaza Hotel and had drinks at an English pub there. There were a few Chinese men at the next table conversing in Hokkien, so Andrew said must be Malaysian or Singaporean. But of course once you hear familiar phrases like “wa lau eh” and “k-n-n” you know for sure where they’re from lah. Before we left Andrew n Ben chatted with them a bit. They’re in the Construction business here, and come to this pub often for live soccer matches. They also said there was gonna be some kinda gathering or party the next weekend to celebrate National Day at the Singapore Consulate or whatever.After that we got Rana to send us home. We dropped Andrew home first and had a look at his place. He’s paying 3,500dhs a month for a really crappy place. He lives in Deira, in a tiny one-room flat. It looks clean n new inside, but really cramped with only enough space for a bed, tv, small cupboard. The ‘kitchen’ is the same size as the bathroom… like ‘hobbit’ size, and even his laundry has to be hung at a funny angle in the kitchen or it wouldn’t fit. Poor guy’s still asking Rana to help him find a better place. Even the location is really bad. It’s like in some dark n dingy back alley, and it’s true that it’s like Geylang… just that those living n ‘working’ there are Nigerian ‘kai’.
Today Ben brought me to the “white house”, Jumeirah’s HR office, to get my paperwork done and apply for my medical check-up. So now it’s my turn for the big Dubai run-around. Apparently I have to go to Rashid Hospital to get a Health Card, and then to the Immigration Typing Center to pay 150dhs to get my visa application typed. This is after Ben’s crazy Dubai run-around plus a few hundred dirhams to apply for my visa that got me here in the first place.
The “white house” is located opposite Jumeirah Beach Hotel and Burj al Arab, so I finally got to take some pics of the Hotel. But this is the closest outsiders like me can get to the hotel – the security gate.
Then we headed over to the Mall of the Emirates.Apart from being a huge-ass mall, Emirates Mall has this Star-Wars-X-Wing-Fighter-docking-bay-looking thing sticking out at one end. This part of the mall is actually Ski Dubai, an indoor ski and snow park.Ben waited till I was with him to step into their posh “department stores” like Harvey Nichols n Debenham’s. You have salespeople dressed in designer suits waiting on you so it’s really quite intimidating to walk around the store. Then Ben n I had tea at Armani Café cos he says when ever or where else would we be able to have kopi at ARMANI café… Paid something like 80 dirhams for a skinny latte, a fruit cocktail, tiramisu and apple pie.We bought some household stuff from Carrefour – electric kettle, laundry basket, foldable laundry hanger-rack thing, etc, then headed home. We watched a rented DVD on my laptop – Wicker Park. Really nice movie… Why was it rated R(A) in Singapore? Or is the stuff we get here really censored big time?Anyway, how DVD rental goes here is, Ben pays the shop 300dhs. He gets to borrow 30 DVDs (no time limit). Each time he borrows a DVD, whether one copy or 3 at one go, he has to return it within 12 days. Once he’s completed renting 30 DVDs, the shop will return him 150dhs. So it costs about 5dhs a DVD lah. A movie ticket here costs 35dhs!
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