*Disclaimer: this is my American point of view on the Middle
East and India. Please do not think of
me as ignorant or pompous… my eyes have since been opened.
Some people envy my job because it seems I get to travel a
lot. Just to put it into perspective, I
work, on average, 14-16 hours per day. That's a normal day. I
have very little time for a personal life during the week. I live for the weekends and the time I spend
with my boys in San Francisco. While on
business travel, my day increases to 19-20 hours per day on average. On this trip, I even had one 24 hour day. So while I get to travel to various countries
and stay in beautiful hotels, it all comes at a price. But I'm not asking you to feel sorry for me. It's not that at all. I chose this job, and I continue to choose this job. If it were that bad, I wouldn't do it. But I just wanted to put it in perspective for you.
With that said, this was one of my favorite business trips
by far. I still had those long, long
days, but boy, it was absolutely fantastic.
We traveled to three countries, four cities, in five days. So as you can imagine, there was a lot of
plane hopping going on.
I arrived in Dubai a day before my boss so that I could do a
little bit of sightseeing before our business trip officially started. I used my Marriott points to stay for free at
a hotel on the Dubai Marina… and it was gorgeous. However, the only room that was available was
a two-bedroom, three bathroom suite. And
it was just me staying there! I felt
like I was rattling around in my hotel room.
There was so much room! I
encouraged my colleague, Roma, to stay with me but she has family in Dubai and
wanted to stay with them instead. I'm hoping she just doesn't think that I smell. ;-)
Driving through Dubai from the airport to my hotel, I
noticed many familiar things: a restaurant called “Livin’ la vida loca,” Tim
Hortons (my absolutely fave coffee and donut place in Canada), McDonalds (of
course!). In my opinion, Dubai is a
perfect combination of the U.S. and Europe.
Moreover, there are so many expats from all over the world that live
there. Out of the hundreds of people
that I met, only one person was born and raised in Dubai. The rest came from across the globe, many
from England, Australia, and New Zealand.
In some ways, I felt like I was on a cruise ship. If you’ve ever been on a cruise, all of the
staff come from all over the world and on their name tag, their home country is
listed. I felt like it should be the
same way in Dubai since people are from all over.
While I was in Dubai, I had my sights set on several tourist attractions: Burj Al Arab, a seven-star hotel that is shaped like a boat sail; Burj Kalifar, the tallest building in the world; Dubai Mall, the largest mall in the world. Unfortunately there was a sand storm so visibility was limited and I didn't get to all of the attractions – but two out of three isn’t all that bad.
The Burj Al Arab is such a prestigious hotel that people
can’t even walk on the property without a reservation. So Roma and I made a reservation for
lunch. And let me tell you, that lunch
was NOT cheap! But the ability to just
walk into the hotel was totally worth the price. Take a look at some of the pics and video of
the hotel (to be posted soon). For lunch, we dined on the 54th
floor and you could only see the ocean.
It was just incredible!
We also went to the Dubai Mall, did a little shopping. That place is massive!! I tried to haggle with some jewelers for some
gold. But in the end, I just walked away
because I couldn’t get the price that I wanted.
At the Dubai Mall, I got to see the water show, which was a lot of fun
as well.
After my one day of fun in Dubai, Roma and I met Jonathan at the Dubai
airport and we were whisked away to Saudi Arabia…
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