Yesterday I got a small taste of the frustrations Ben had to deal with when he first got here. We took the shuttle to JBH. Waited for about half an hour for the shuttle to Lamcy. It doesn’t matter if you’re waiting in the shade or not, as long as you’re outdoors, it’s hot, hot, hot! It’s literally a sauna out there. Didn’t help that I didn’t get much sleep the night before also because it was warm n stuffy in the bedroom, so standing outside in the middle of summer even for 2 minutes feels like hell!
After we got to Lamcy, we walked in the sun towards Lamcy Plaza and took a cab to Rashid Hospital. At the information counter, alamak… a taste of home (Malaysia). You get the same type of “pow tau” moving in slo-mo, saying to you in that familiar lazy drawl that you hear in Malaysian immigration offices, “Health card…? … Today no health card… Closed today… You must come Saturday… The other building…”
So we left, waited in the heat again for a cab. Told the cab driver, Immigration, typing center. After driving for a bit he says “Immigration?” And Ben’s already pissed from the reception at the hospital, so he says “What now? Immigration also closed? In Dubai no one needs to work? All useless!”
And cab driver says “Er you want to go Immigration can. But I think closed. Thursday Friday, all closed…what you call ‘hukuman’? Is all closed… But you want to go, I bring you.” So we go back to Lamcy Plaza instead. Have brunch while Ben cools down.
We walk back to the Jumeirah staff residence at Lamcy, wait, again, for the shuttle back to Madinat Jumeirah. By now I’m like melted to a pulp. The pictures of the Madinat Jumeirah look really nice, but mind you, standing outside for those few seconds just to take a photo fries a few brain cells each time.
Inside the Souk Madinat, it’s just alleys and alleys of tourist-targetted shops. Kinda like an upmarket, air-conditioned souk.
Here we step out for a few seconds again just to get a few more shots of the Burj and the Madinat, then hop back into air-con comfort again.
Later Ben n I walk back to the entrance of the Madinat Jumeirah to wait for the shuttle to Gardens. So we wait, again, in the desert heat. Gardens is another accommodation for Jumeirah staff which is a little less “ulu” and closer to where Ben works. Ben’s on the waiting list for an apartment there. It’s not as quiet and peaceful as Ewan, but if we get to move there we’d at least have a one-bedroom apartment all to ourselves instead of having to share this 2-bedroom one with another staff.
Right now our housemate is Yang, a Chinese fella who’s a Management Trainee with Jumeirah Hotels. He’s a nice guy, but these Chinese nationals really stick together huh. Every now n then Yang will have one or two friends over, and he’ll be like “This is my friend. We just met at the supermarket or on the bus”!
So anyway, we reach Gardens, and walk in the bloody afternoon sun to Ibn Battuta Mall. By now I’m just dragging my feet… I’m like the opposite of solar-powered. I complain to Ben that although he’s been waiting 6 weeks to show me around, he really didn’t have to squeeze it all into two days, right in the middle of summer.
The mall is huge n we start walking from China Court, to India Court, then Persia n Egypt. There’s also Andalusia Court somewhere near Egypt, and I dunno if there’s one more ancient city here, but by now I’m too tired to take notice. We stop for ice cream at Baskin Robbins, then shop at Geant (like Giant hypermarket). Here, we are swarmed by salesmen like how you get attacked by those idiotic insurance or credit card sales or survey folk outside the MRT station or bus interchange. Men in suits approach you, “Sir, looking for a microwave?” --- “Good evening. Are you residents here? Have you heard of Showtime?”
So Ben signs up for Showtime, a cable tv company that gives us 52 English channels on top of the regular hundred and fifty over local n Arabic channels. He gets a 20% discount and installation fee waived cos he’s a Jumeirah staff, so once they can finally figure out how to install it in our “ulu” desert home, we have to pay about Dhs.170 a month for cable – movies, sports, serials, CNN, etc.
This place is so huge, they even have a bike showroom in the mall.
After dinner at some Lemongrass Thai joint at the food court, we took a cab home. By this time I was down with a sorethroat, runny nose n slight fever. Still battling with a sorethroat n sniffles now n trying hard not to let it develop into a full-blown flu. Doesn’t help that I can hardly breathe in the bedroom. Worst part is, here, you can’t just simply step outside for some fresh air!
After we got to Lamcy, we walked in the sun towards Lamcy Plaza and took a cab to Rashid Hospital. At the information counter, alamak… a taste of home (Malaysia). You get the same type of “pow tau” moving in slo-mo, saying to you in that familiar lazy drawl that you hear in Malaysian immigration offices, “Health card…? … Today no health card… Closed today… You must come Saturday… The other building…”
So we left, waited in the heat again for a cab. Told the cab driver, Immigration, typing center. After driving for a bit he says “Immigration?” And Ben’s already pissed from the reception at the hospital, so he says “What now? Immigration also closed? In Dubai no one needs to work? All useless!”
And cab driver says “Er you want to go Immigration can. But I think closed. Thursday Friday, all closed…what you call ‘hukuman’? Is all closed… But you want to go, I bring you.” So we go back to Lamcy Plaza instead. Have brunch while Ben cools down.
We walk back to the Jumeirah staff residence at Lamcy, wait, again, for the shuttle back to Madinat Jumeirah. By now I’m like melted to a pulp. The pictures of the Madinat Jumeirah look really nice, but mind you, standing outside for those few seconds just to take a photo fries a few brain cells each time.
Inside the Souk Madinat, it’s just alleys and alleys of tourist-targetted shops. Kinda like an upmarket, air-conditioned souk.
Here we step out for a few seconds again just to get a few more shots of the Burj and the Madinat, then hop back into air-con comfort again.
Later Ben n I walk back to the entrance of the Madinat Jumeirah to wait for the shuttle to Gardens. So we wait, again, in the desert heat. Gardens is another accommodation for Jumeirah staff which is a little less “ulu” and closer to where Ben works. Ben’s on the waiting list for an apartment there. It’s not as quiet and peaceful as Ewan, but if we get to move there we’d at least have a one-bedroom apartment all to ourselves instead of having to share this 2-bedroom one with another staff.Right now our housemate is Yang, a Chinese fella who’s a Management Trainee with Jumeirah Hotels. He’s a nice guy, but these Chinese nationals really stick together huh. Every now n then Yang will have one or two friends over, and he’ll be like “This is my friend. We just met at the supermarket or on the bus”!
So anyway, we reach Gardens, and walk in the bloody afternoon sun to Ibn Battuta Mall. By now I’m just dragging my feet… I’m like the opposite of solar-powered. I complain to Ben that although he’s been waiting 6 weeks to show me around, he really didn’t have to squeeze it all into two days, right in the middle of summer.
The mall is huge n we start walking from China Court, to India Court, then Persia n Egypt. There’s also Andalusia Court somewhere near Egypt, and I dunno if there’s one more ancient city here, but by now I’m too tired to take notice. We stop for ice cream at Baskin Robbins, then shop at Geant (like Giant hypermarket). Here, we are swarmed by salesmen like how you get attacked by those idiotic insurance or credit card sales or survey folk outside the MRT station or bus interchange. Men in suits approach you, “Sir, looking for a microwave?” --- “Good evening. Are you residents here? Have you heard of Showtime?”
So Ben signs up for Showtime, a cable tv company that gives us 52 English channels on top of the regular hundred and fifty over local n Arabic channels. He gets a 20% discount and installation fee waived cos he’s a Jumeirah staff, so once they can finally figure out how to install it in our “ulu” desert home, we have to pay about Dhs.170 a month for cable – movies, sports, serials, CNN, etc.
This place is so huge, they even have a bike showroom in the mall.
After dinner at some Lemongrass Thai joint at the food court, we took a cab home. By this time I was down with a sorethroat, runny nose n slight fever. Still battling with a sorethroat n sniffles now n trying hard not to let it develop into a full-blown flu. Doesn’t help that I can hardly breathe in the bedroom. Worst part is, here, you can’t just simply step outside for some fresh air!
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