First things first - laying in the sun for couple of hours in the morning. Finding the house pool half way filled with water was the best surprise yet :) No need to walk all the way to the beach now.
Jaana booked me a safari for the afternoon. I don't know what she told the guy on the phone, but I got special treatment from a handsome tour guide throughout the trip :) Locals seem to have all gone to some charmers courses or something :) But the safari - it was all good. After pick-up we were taken out of town, it was about 45 minute drive towards Oman, to the gathering point.
From gathering point convoys of 4 wheel drive cars were formed. Our tour guide explained the drill that convoys are formed so that if something happens to some car the others can help out. Well, there were no other cars in sight anywhere :) He just smiled and assured that our convoy is somewhere around here, we found it after a bit, turned out that our tour guide is the coordinator and he needs to review all the activities during this tour. Going up and down the sand dunes was neat, made me wanna drive there myself :) Later on we were taken to a little village where lots of food was offered, couple of activities lined up (like riding a camel) and main attraction of the day - belly dancing show took place. We were taken back by 9 in the evening.
Rest of the evening went on the name of my last project - kill time till my flight at 4:50am :D This project looked like it will be a fun one :) Jaana and her friend were gladly planning the time and kept telling one location after another while I just nodded to questions "should we go to place X or Y?" :D
Number one on the list was a Southern African sports bar offering wonderful food, luckily it also had nice big TV's to follow an ongoing rugby game. South African team lost their home game :(
As all sources say, one of the many must visit location for looking at the city of Dubai is The Address Downtown Burj Dubai 63rd floor. Yesterday it was closed, but today it was quite open and packed with people. View was grand, apple martini as well :)
Another pub followed, this time a hidden Irish one. During those lonely 3 minutes we managed to stay in there we saw the band leaving, had a chat about why are they leaving (because everyone wanted to see the rugby game instead) and where can we follow them to (some hotel far away) and witnessed an uncomfortable situation that was so close to lead to a fight - out we went and headed over to a night club :) Me looooves dancing and dance we did, me a lot and the others a lot-lot. Quickly found another dancer with whom to take over the dance floor & let the rhythms take over :D
Party till 2, walk back to the apartment, quick shower, goodbyes, 14 minute taxi ride to the airport, endless lines of baggage scan/check-in/security/entry to the gate. Buuh, can't wait to get to the plane to take a loooong nap - it's been a tiring day.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
25.2 - Tourist in Dubai
Another wonderful morning of sleeping in till 9 :) Relocated for the night to another part of the town - much different one. One with green grass in back yard, two level private homes, area with on the premises tennis courts and aquatic center - a very nice location to live. Sunscreen and bikinis on and out to the sun I went :) Later ended up by the pool - oh the joy of jumping into refreshing water in about every 15 minutes, outside temperature is close to 30C again.
Afternoon went for relocating back to the apartment and visiting the Mall of the Emirates. Yeah, that was a bit fancier shopping center. Not to even mention the skiing hill at the one end of the mall. Looking around one would see quite a bit fancier stores this time like Gucci, Versace, YSL, Ralph Lauren, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Christian Dior and so on. Of course all the regular stores were present as well. This mall has over 450 stores, over 75 restaurants, largest indoor amusement park in the region and the ski/snowboarding hill.
For the evening we had great plans: starting off with drinks at Atlantis on the artificial islands, then to dinner at one of the skyscrapers to have a look at the lit up city and later to the pubs. Wonderful plans, was waiting forward to the evening. Now it turns out that Prophet Mohammad has a birthday tomorrow which means there will be no alcohol served from 2pm today for the next 24 hours (or something similar). So there goes our plans for the night.
Alcohol in general is allowed here only in the hotel premises. Due to this all bars and night clubs are located underneath hotels. Alcohol buying license is needed to get liquor from the stores. All private areas (so houses, apartments) require an alcohol permit to have any alcohol in the premises. There are some free zones where the rules don't apply, but I could not figure out what is behind those.
We decided to still go out besides the dry law, we assumed all the places to be totally empty and we were correct. Started at Barasti restaurant located on the beach, with marina, view was very nice - Atlantis across the bay and skyscrapers on the other side. Dubai night skyline is beautiful. Second stop was Atlantis hotel where we simply walked around on the beach, enjoyed Dubai skyline from the other side and peeked into the luxurious hotel lobby. Now was desert time :) For this we made our way towards Burj Khalifa and Mall of Dubai. In front of the tower they have dancing water fountain show in the evenings so we found a cafeteria close by to enjoy our cakes. For the last spot there was a plan to go up to a restaurant located high up in a skyscraper close by, but for some reason this place was closed - so no pretty view from up above for us tonight :( Oh well, there is always tomorrow :D
Another thing about restaurants and clubs here (all sorts of clubs like nightclubs, sports clubs etc.) is that many or even most of them are with restricted access, one needs VIP pass to get in. The place where we went to eat is a complex with a restaurant, marina and a sports club, as I understood the yearly pass there costs about 30 to 40 000 dirhams (so about 100 000 EEK). Good deal that we have the right connections for the occasion :)
Afternoon went for relocating back to the apartment and visiting the Mall of the Emirates. Yeah, that was a bit fancier shopping center. Not to even mention the skiing hill at the one end of the mall. Looking around one would see quite a bit fancier stores this time like Gucci, Versace, YSL, Ralph Lauren, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Christian Dior and so on. Of course all the regular stores were present as well. This mall has over 450 stores, over 75 restaurants, largest indoor amusement park in the region and the ski/snowboarding hill.
For the evening we had great plans: starting off with drinks at Atlantis on the artificial islands, then to dinner at one of the skyscrapers to have a look at the lit up city and later to the pubs. Wonderful plans, was waiting forward to the evening. Now it turns out that Prophet Mohammad has a birthday tomorrow which means there will be no alcohol served from 2pm today for the next 24 hours (or something similar). So there goes our plans for the night.
Alcohol in general is allowed here only in the hotel premises. Due to this all bars and night clubs are located underneath hotels. Alcohol buying license is needed to get liquor from the stores. All private areas (so houses, apartments) require an alcohol permit to have any alcohol in the premises. There are some free zones where the rules don't apply, but I could not figure out what is behind those.
We decided to still go out besides the dry law, we assumed all the places to be totally empty and we were correct. Started at Barasti restaurant located on the beach, with marina, view was very nice - Atlantis across the bay and skyscrapers on the other side. Dubai night skyline is beautiful. Second stop was Atlantis hotel where we simply walked around on the beach, enjoyed Dubai skyline from the other side and peeked into the luxurious hotel lobby. Now was desert time :) For this we made our way towards Burj Khalifa and Mall of Dubai. In front of the tower they have dancing water fountain show in the evenings so we found a cafeteria close by to enjoy our cakes. For the last spot there was a plan to go up to a restaurant located high up in a skyscraper close by, but for some reason this place was closed - so no pretty view from up above for us tonight :( Oh well, there is always tomorrow :D
Another thing about restaurants and clubs here (all sorts of clubs like nightclubs, sports clubs etc.) is that many or even most of them are with restricted access, one needs VIP pass to get in. The place where we went to eat is a complex with a restaurant, marina and a sports club, as I understood the yearly pass there costs about 30 to 40 000 dirhams (so about 100 000 EEK). Good deal that we have the right connections for the occasion :)
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
24.2 - Day in Abu Dhabi
Took a few hours before we were ready to head out of Dubai towards Abu Dhabi - the capital. It is the second largest city in the United Arab Emirates. United Arab Emirates Government is located here as well as Emirati Royal Family. Abu Dhabi is the richest city in the world as stated by CNN and other sources.
While driving from Dubai to Abu Dhabi I saw all this sand all around us, fields of sand. But apparently it is soil not sand! And very fertile, as soon as it gets water, plants would grow there very nicely. By the roadside there are always trees and bushes, planted of course. To keep them growing there is irrigation built into the ground to keep constant water supply for watering. As I learned, there is a huge desalination plant to create clean water (since it is a desert here and not much clean water around). Apparently this plant produces way too much clean water and they had to dump whole lot of it back to the sea, so now they have the plant running only for 3 days a week. Also learned that UAE is one of the biggest wheat exporters, they also grow quite a bit of dates around here.
Plants are necessary by the roadside to keep the sand off the road when winds pick up. It is about 160km between the two cities, having 4-by-4 lane road all the way all lit up with street lights :) Very nice I must say :) As the speeds on the road can go up to 160km/h the ride was quick :D And they have similar speed check boxes on the highway here as they are installing on Tartu road ;)
On our way I managed to see some wild camels by the road as well. For obvious reasons could not take a photo with a camel though :) Perhaps some other day ;)
As Wikipedia states, Abu Dhabi city is geographically located on the north-eastern part of the Persian Gulf in the Arabian Peninsula. It is on an island located less than 250 metres from the mainland and is joined to the mainland by the Maqta and Mussafah Bridges.
There is much talk about oil, Abu Dhabi holds 9% of the world's proven oil reserves and almost 5% of the world's natural gas. It has taken on an active diversification and liberalisation programme to reduce the UAE’s reliance on the hydrocarbon sector.
More from Wikipedia: the majority of the inhabitants of Abu Dhabi are expatriate workers from India, Pakistan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Philippines, the United Kingdom and various countries from across the Arab world. Consequently, English, Hindi, Urdu, Tagalog, Tigrinya, Amharic and Bengali are widely spoken. Apart from Urdu and Hindi spoken by Indians and Pakistanis, many South Asian expatriates also contribute other South Asian languages to the cultural milieu, including Malayalam, widely spoken in Kerala.
First we visited Sheikh Zayed Mosque - the largest mosque in UAE and 6th largest in the world (Wikitravel). It was opened year 2007, capacity is 40 000 people. Building was magnificent - all white marble, beautiful decorations, floor is covered with carpet all the way, it is just gorgeous and very spacious. A must see place.
Next stop was Corniche - Abu Dhabi's spectacular waterfront that stretches for miles from the Breakwater near Marina Shopping Mall almost up to the Mina Zayed port. It has a walkway for the entire length, and certain stretches have sandy beaches. Had lunch in Marina Shopping Mall and of course had to squeeze some shopping in as well :)
Right after Marina Shopping Mall there is Emirates Palace - built at an estimated cost of US$3 billion, this was by many accounts the world's most expensive hotel to build, with oodles of gold and marble plating every available surface. The scale of everything is gargantuan — you need directions just to find your way from the gate to the lobby! — and the hotel feels like it's straight out of Las Vegas, minus the slot machines. Day tripping visitors are welcome, and entertainment options include caviar and champagne at the Caviar Bar, a fine Cohiba and cognac at the Havana Club, or a Turkish coffee (Dh 30) at Le Cafe. Rooms for the night start from about US$500 (Wikitravel).
Peeked in Emirates Palace as well - it is exactly as grand as they say it is. Managed to see an exhibition about Guggenheim Museum plans for making cultural center at Saadiyat Island. Seems to be a huge program with co-operation between Guggenheim Museum and UAE - all the plans seem fabulous. If all the financing goes through then seems like Abu Dhabi will be a grand place in few years.
Getting back to Dubai was even quicker as speedometer showed mostly 170km/h - no I was not driving this beautiful grey Porch suburban :D
Now the plan is to go over to Jaana's friends place and make Estonian food for dinner, watch some movies and have good time with the whole crowd :)
While driving from Dubai to Abu Dhabi I saw all this sand all around us, fields of sand. But apparently it is soil not sand! And very fertile, as soon as it gets water, plants would grow there very nicely. By the roadside there are always trees and bushes, planted of course. To keep them growing there is irrigation built into the ground to keep constant water supply for watering. As I learned, there is a huge desalination plant to create clean water (since it is a desert here and not much clean water around). Apparently this plant produces way too much clean water and they had to dump whole lot of it back to the sea, so now they have the plant running only for 3 days a week. Also learned that UAE is one of the biggest wheat exporters, they also grow quite a bit of dates around here.
Plants are necessary by the roadside to keep the sand off the road when winds pick up. It is about 160km between the two cities, having 4-by-4 lane road all the way all lit up with street lights :) Very nice I must say :) As the speeds on the road can go up to 160km/h the ride was quick :D And they have similar speed check boxes on the highway here as they are installing on Tartu road ;)
On our way I managed to see some wild camels by the road as well. For obvious reasons could not take a photo with a camel though :) Perhaps some other day ;)
As Wikipedia states, Abu Dhabi city is geographically located on the north-eastern part of the Persian Gulf in the Arabian Peninsula. It is on an island located less than 250 metres from the mainland and is joined to the mainland by the Maqta and Mussafah Bridges.
There is much talk about oil, Abu Dhabi holds 9% of the world's proven oil reserves and almost 5% of the world's natural gas. It has taken on an active diversification and liberalisation programme to reduce the UAE’s reliance on the hydrocarbon sector.
More from Wikipedia: the majority of the inhabitants of Abu Dhabi are expatriate workers from India, Pakistan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Philippines, the United Kingdom and various countries from across the Arab world. Consequently, English, Hindi, Urdu, Tagalog, Tigrinya, Amharic and Bengali are widely spoken. Apart from Urdu and Hindi spoken by Indians and Pakistanis, many South Asian expatriates also contribute other South Asian languages to the cultural milieu, including Malayalam, widely spoken in Kerala.
First we visited Sheikh Zayed Mosque - the largest mosque in UAE and 6th largest in the world (Wikitravel). It was opened year 2007, capacity is 40 000 people. Building was magnificent - all white marble, beautiful decorations, floor is covered with carpet all the way, it is just gorgeous and very spacious. A must see place.
Next stop was Corniche - Abu Dhabi's spectacular waterfront that stretches for miles from the Breakwater near Marina Shopping Mall almost up to the Mina Zayed port. It has a walkway for the entire length, and certain stretches have sandy beaches. Had lunch in Marina Shopping Mall and of course had to squeeze some shopping in as well :)
Right after Marina Shopping Mall there is Emirates Palace - built at an estimated cost of US$3 billion, this was by many accounts the world's most expensive hotel to build, with oodles of gold and marble plating every available surface. The scale of everything is gargantuan — you need directions just to find your way from the gate to the lobby! — and the hotel feels like it's straight out of Las Vegas, minus the slot machines. Day tripping visitors are welcome, and entertainment options include caviar and champagne at the Caviar Bar, a fine Cohiba and cognac at the Havana Club, or a Turkish coffee (Dh 30) at Le Cafe. Rooms for the night start from about US$500 (Wikitravel).
Peeked in Emirates Palace as well - it is exactly as grand as they say it is. Managed to see an exhibition about Guggenheim Museum plans for making cultural center at Saadiyat Island. Seems to be a huge program with co-operation between Guggenheim Museum and UAE - all the plans seem fabulous. If all the financing goes through then seems like Abu Dhabi will be a grand place in few years.
Getting back to Dubai was even quicker as speedometer showed mostly 170km/h - no I was not driving this beautiful grey Porch suburban :D
Now the plan is to go over to Jaana's friends place and make Estonian food for dinner, watch some movies and have good time with the whole crowd :)
23.2 - Bur Dubai
Perfect holiday morning - slept till 10 :) and spent an hour laying in the sun and reading. It must have been about 30C outside, the sun was burning and seemed to be the most intense sun ever. Was great though, I'd better get a nice tan while I'm here.
We had agreed to meet in town with Jaana in the afternoon. So I ended up navigating my way to Deira City Center by metro. Metro is nice here, it is brand new and it runs mostly on higher ground above the roads. Antoher line will be opened soon. In all the buses and also in metro there are special seating areas for females - men are not allowed to be there. And if there are no seats left in the female area then females are not allowed to stand up or anything, they have to catch the next bus (this rule does not apply in the metro). Strangest thing :) Aah and apparently there are even special taxis for ladies - the driver is a female.
Whole lot of shopping and then via bus to Bur Dubai to visit the Souq's or markets - spice market and most importantly gold market.
Malls are very very much the same as everywhere in the world - no there are no special nifty additions or anything (besides the huge downhill skiing park or aquarium of course ;) ). Food court in the mall still has Subway and Pizza Hut or Hardeys and McDonalds - nothing fancy, nothing special. Stores are the same as everywhere - Next, Gap, Nike, Promode, Zara, Adidas, Banana Republic and so on.
And the markets are just like in Thailand :) They basically block your way and drag you into their little shop to show their goods and to get you to buy at least one little pillow case.
Jaana's friend took us to dinner in Festival City - they had the best cheese cake there :) Dinner was super nice and it was great to dine in a good company. Tomorrow we will go on a trip to Abu Dhabi - the capital.
We had agreed to meet in town with Jaana in the afternoon. So I ended up navigating my way to Deira City Center by metro. Metro is nice here, it is brand new and it runs mostly on higher ground above the roads. Antoher line will be opened soon. In all the buses and also in metro there are special seating areas for females - men are not allowed to be there. And if there are no seats left in the female area then females are not allowed to stand up or anything, they have to catch the next bus (this rule does not apply in the metro). Strangest thing :) Aah and apparently there are even special taxis for ladies - the driver is a female.
Whole lot of shopping and then via bus to Bur Dubai to visit the Souq's or markets - spice market and most importantly gold market.
Malls are very very much the same as everywhere in the world - no there are no special nifty additions or anything (besides the huge downhill skiing park or aquarium of course ;) ). Food court in the mall still has Subway and Pizza Hut or Hardeys and McDonalds - nothing fancy, nothing special. Stores are the same as everywhere - Next, Gap, Nike, Promode, Zara, Adidas, Banana Republic and so on.
And the markets are just like in Thailand :) They basically block your way and drag you into their little shop to show their goods and to get you to buy at least one little pillow case.
Jaana's friend took us to dinner in Festival City - they had the best cheese cake there :) Dinner was super nice and it was great to dine in a good company. Tomorrow we will go on a trip to Abu Dhabi - the capital.
22.2 - Beach, Burj Al Arab and swimming
This was one short night. Due to our long discussion and catch-up session last night, got only about 6h of sleep. Oh well :)
Camping over at Jaana's place. She is sharing a nice big apartment with another co-worker. View is quite beautiful, could see the sea and Burj Al-Arab from living room balcony only IF the visibility would be better. At least the sun still shines in this town, not like in Bangkok.
More apple cake for breakfast and off to the beach we go. It was a nice walk through local neighbourhood. Dust is everywhere around here - Dubai is a total desert city. Only green patches are by hotels or public parks, and in the parks they have an entrance fee by the way.
Layed on the beach and got the first sun overdose :) We must have been in the sun for about 1.5 hours or so. I guess I did not do a very good job with applying sunscreen :) I got finger marks on my back and my legs are burned :D But it was so nice to feel the heat, themperature must be close to 30C here - so incredibly wonderful!
Visited Mercato which is famous Renaissance-themed shopping mall, it featured all the wonderful shops like GAP, Laura Ashley and Laura Ashley Home, Promode, Virgin records and so on.
Getting back from Mercato was a bit of a hassle. It is located on one of the main roads here - Jumeirah road. Hassle was because of the bus traffic here, it is very anti-touristy since you can't buy tickets in the bus, you need the buscard, which I did not have :( After 45 minutes of trying to get on a bus, me and one other lady (from Kazhastan) ended up catching a cab to get down the road. Stopped by Burj Al-Arab Hotel - trademark of Dubai. As Wikitravel writes it is famed for being the first seven-star hotel in the world (technically a five star deluxe hotel), this striking sail-shaped building is a symbol of Dubai and one of the most opulent hotels in the world.
By the hotel there is Madinat center - I'd name it a little Venice :) It has canals between the houses where gondolas take people around. There are lots of little shops and restaurants and the whole place is quite nice. Since no-one is allowed to go to the Burj Al-Arab hotel area then from Medinat center one gets a beautiful view :)
In the evening Jaana took me along to the swim practices that she joins here once in a while - that was fun :) The coach is from UK, former swimmer, and trains about 30 master swimmers here. Quick warmup and then 25-125m splits with various speeds, last bit was 2x100 all out. So basically, quite intense training. Whole practice lasted an hour. Dragged ourselves back home and were soo happy to go straight to bed.
Thank you all for the numerous birthday wishes :)
Camping over at Jaana's place. She is sharing a nice big apartment with another co-worker. View is quite beautiful, could see the sea and Burj Al-Arab from living room balcony only IF the visibility would be better. At least the sun still shines in this town, not like in Bangkok.
More apple cake for breakfast and off to the beach we go. It was a nice walk through local neighbourhood. Dust is everywhere around here - Dubai is a total desert city. Only green patches are by hotels or public parks, and in the parks they have an entrance fee by the way.
Layed on the beach and got the first sun overdose :) We must have been in the sun for about 1.5 hours or so. I guess I did not do a very good job with applying sunscreen :) I got finger marks on my back and my legs are burned :D But it was so nice to feel the heat, themperature must be close to 30C here - so incredibly wonderful!
Visited Mercato which is famous Renaissance-themed shopping mall, it featured all the wonderful shops like GAP, Laura Ashley and Laura Ashley Home, Promode, Virgin records and so on.
Getting back from Mercato was a bit of a hassle. It is located on one of the main roads here - Jumeirah road. Hassle was because of the bus traffic here, it is very anti-touristy since you can't buy tickets in the bus, you need the buscard, which I did not have :( After 45 minutes of trying to get on a bus, me and one other lady (from Kazhastan) ended up catching a cab to get down the road. Stopped by Burj Al-Arab Hotel - trademark of Dubai. As Wikitravel writes it is famed for being the first seven-star hotel in the world (technically a five star deluxe hotel), this striking sail-shaped building is a symbol of Dubai and one of the most opulent hotels in the world.
By the hotel there is Madinat center - I'd name it a little Venice :) It has canals between the houses where gondolas take people around. There are lots of little shops and restaurants and the whole place is quite nice. Since no-one is allowed to go to the Burj Al-Arab hotel area then from Medinat center one gets a beautiful view :)
In the evening Jaana took me along to the swim practices that she joins here once in a while - that was fun :) The coach is from UK, former swimmer, and trains about 30 master swimmers here. Quick warmup and then 25-125m splits with various speeds, last bit was 2x100 all out. So basically, quite intense training. Whole practice lasted an hour. Dragged ourselves back home and were soo happy to go straight to bed.
Thank you all for the numerous birthday wishes :)
Monday, February 22, 2010
I'm in DUBAI !!!
I made it! Got out of Munich just fine, flight went fine and all was pretty good. Until the customs. Oh this one was a headache and lots of standing in line. It is more difficult to get into Dubai than it was getting into US 10 years ago. Seriously it is quite bad. I was asked all kinds of strange questions about cigarettes and the like (don't ask). Once I got out of the customs I was ready for some serious drinking - it was bad.
Instead, Jaana was at the airport greeting me with a rose :D for my birthday, how sweet! Later she treated me with apple pie and now, 2 hours after heavy chatting, life is beautiful again. I think I'd be darn miserable in a hotel room at the moment - so thank you Jaana!
Instead, Jaana was at the airport greeting me with a rose :D for my birthday, how sweet! Later she treated me with apple pie and now, 2 hours after heavy chatting, life is beautiful again. I think I'd be darn miserable in a hotel room at the moment - so thank you Jaana!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
And the visa has arrived
I have got the visa now :) It is pink and all :D
Stopover in Munich was nice - 14h beauty sleep took care of my sleep deprivation very nicely. Now to breakfast and then back to airport and off to Dubai I go!
(dea is dancing.... and singing in the shower :-P)
Stopover in Munich was nice - 14h beauty sleep took care of my sleep deprivation very nicely. Now to breakfast and then back to airport and off to Dubai I go!
(dea is dancing.... and singing in the shower :-P)
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Stopover in Munich
I have no clue what the deal with the visa is. For now the the flight has been rescheduled and postponed for 24 hours - meaning, I get to spend the night in Munich :) I'm staying in a beautiful village close to the airport. It is total spring here, temperature outside is +5C, sun is shining and the birds are singing so loud that one can't hear his/her own thoughts. It is nice here.
Airport is wonderful as well, wireless does cost and is quite expensive, but at least it is available in quite big part of the airport (as I discovered by accident).
News about the visa is that it will be approved tomorrow morning at 7:30, my flight leaves at 14:25 so there should be plenty of time to get the documents across and figured out. My friend in Dubai has pulled quite many strings and gotten things stirred up quite a bit as I understand. Will hear the full story once I get there - all efforts are much appreciated!
Sleepless night is doing it's trick and I'm falling asleep as I'm typing here so I'll just go to sleep. More updated tomorrow. Tadaa!
Airport is wonderful as well, wireless does cost and is quite expensive, but at least it is available in quite big part of the airport (as I discovered by accident).
News about the visa is that it will be approved tomorrow morning at 7:30, my flight leaves at 14:25 so there should be plenty of time to get the documents across and figured out. My friend in Dubai has pulled quite many strings and gotten things stirred up quite a bit as I understand. Will hear the full story once I get there - all efforts are much appreciated!
Sleepless night is doing it's trick and I'm falling asleep as I'm typing here so I'll just go to sleep. More updated tomorrow. Tadaa!
Friday, February 19, 2010
Unplanned take-off in less than 9 hours
Long story short - Air Baltic has apparently very very strict regulations on letting passengers on the plane and I did not qualify :D Basically the magical visa printout was a stopper (Kaisa, they did not accept your version! Can you believe this??) and here I am in Riga airport waiting for my flight to Munich via Stockholm. From Munich I have hopes to get to Dubai by tomorrow evening.
Uh traveling is fun as always, sitting in airports is not, but adrenaline kicks rock :D
All this precious free time I got now and here are the results:
Top 50 funny computer quotes work e-mail reading pays off well, perhaps should connect to Yammer as well, probably more goodies are waiting there :)
I have already watched 3 episodes of Californication, 8 more to go. I have a selection on movies to choose from: up in the air, the cove, the reader, state of play, seraphine, moon, public enemies, disgrace, bright star
I learned that there was a pearl market collapse around 1930's, year 1966 oil was found in Dubai - and after this the world was never the same :) 1971 Britain left the Persian Gulf and 1973 Dubai joined the other emirates in United Arab Emirates. Today the area has become known for its ambitious building projects or artificial islands and tallest ever buildings and biggest malls and so on.
My task list has numerous rows about training plans, competition guides to complete and e-mails to reply to.. so back to being productive I go :) Will try to keep you updated on my doings!
Oh and just a note about Riga airport - it is a horrible horrible place to be. First of all it is kinda cold in here, it is small, not very clean, here are no eating places (except this one pizza place which provides items that does not qualify for food) and all the smokers use toilets for smoking as there seems to be no separate area for them :( A horrible horrible place to be (well, right next to Hanoi airport I guess). At least they got wireless! It's not for free, but it is cheap.. and it works well.
As one of my friend's status message read: take a chill pill and relax!
Uh traveling is fun as always, sitting in airports is not, but adrenaline kicks rock :D
All this precious free time I got now and here are the results:
Top 50 funny computer quotes work e-mail reading pays off well, perhaps should connect to Yammer as well, probably more goodies are waiting there :)
I have already watched 3 episodes of Californication, 8 more to go. I have a selection on movies to choose from: up in the air, the cove, the reader, state of play, seraphine, moon, public enemies, disgrace, bright star
I learned that there was a pearl market collapse around 1930's, year 1966 oil was found in Dubai - and after this the world was never the same :) 1971 Britain left the Persian Gulf and 1973 Dubai joined the other emirates in United Arab Emirates. Today the area has become known for its ambitious building projects or artificial islands and tallest ever buildings and biggest malls and so on.
My task list has numerous rows about training plans, competition guides to complete and e-mails to reply to.. so back to being productive I go :) Will try to keep you updated on my doings!
Oh and just a note about Riga airport - it is a horrible horrible place to be. First of all it is kinda cold in here, it is small, not very clean, here are no eating places (except this one pizza place which provides items that does not qualify for food) and all the smokers use toilets for smoking as there seems to be no separate area for them :( A horrible horrible place to be (well, right next to Hanoi airport I guess). At least they got wireless! It's not for free, but it is cheap.. and it works well.
As one of my friend's status message read: take a chill pill and relax!
Planned take-off in less than 3 hours
Status update:
- it is snowing heavily outside at the moment, blizzard warning is up
- I have no visa to enter Dubai
- the person who needs to arrange me a visa is stuck in Brisbane (yes in Australia) for all I know
I was assured that all will be ok... so I try not to panic :)
I guess the biggest challenge will be getting on the plane from Riga as apparently they do check visas already there. Oh well, will see what happens :D Not to worry.
The worst case scenario is that I will be stuck in Dubai airport for couple of days I guess :) Simply waiting for my friend to get the visa arranged :D Fun huh? It will be an interesting trip... and I will call it a success if I get into Dubai before my birthday :)
I'll try to keep you all up to date via tweets at least (they are displayed on the right hand side on my blog as well)
- it is snowing heavily outside at the moment, blizzard warning is up
- I have no visa to enter Dubai
- the person who needs to arrange me a visa is stuck in Brisbane (yes in Australia) for all I know
I was assured that all will be ok... so I try not to panic :)
I guess the biggest challenge will be getting on the plane from Riga as apparently they do check visas already there. Oh well, will see what happens :D Not to worry.
The worst case scenario is that I will be stuck in Dubai airport for couple of days I guess :) Simply waiting for my friend to get the visa arranged :D Fun huh? It will be an interesting trip... and I will call it a success if I get into Dubai before my birthday :)
I'll try to keep you all up to date via tweets at least (they are displayed on the right hand side on my blog as well)
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Leaving the day after tomorrow
The bad news are:
a) I still have no visa :)
b) I have not even started to think about all the necessary preparations like packing/money exchange or anything of that sort... I really hope I can figure out in time where I keep my passport :)
The good news are:
a) My friend who I'm going to visit promised to arrange the visa for me by tomorrow - it should arrive to my e-mail during the day
... and that was the only good news I got :D
Ok, well I can think of few other positive aspects, for an example the temperatures while I'm there:
No complaints :)
a) I still have no visa :)
b) I have not even started to think about all the necessary preparations like packing/money exchange or anything of that sort... I really hope I can figure out in time where I keep my passport :)
The good news are:
a) My friend who I'm going to visit promised to arrange the visa for me by tomorrow - it should arrive to my e-mail during the day
... and that was the only good news I got :D
Ok, well I can think of few other positive aspects, for an example the temperatures while I'm there:
No complaints :)
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