A friend of mine texted me just before futoor telling me he wants a change of venue, I thought why not what do you have in mind. He wants to go for a drive to somewhere but with not traffic and get a coffee and then drive back, just to break the routine. The weather is nice, and I had some music I wanted to listen to so I thought why not. He said how bout we go to the new Starbucks in Julai’a, I didn’t know they opened one that far out.

So he came after futoor around 7:30pm, and he was going in his car and I decided to take a ride on Pyro since I haven’t been for a little while. I knew a few things were going to be odd since I haven’t ridden the bike for a little while and the ride is going to show me all the kinks. We went to gas station to fill up and check tire pressures before heading out. Then we got on Malik Fahad Highway going towards Julai’a, and it was nice & pretty empty. We were cruising between 140 – 180 the whole way there, I was listening to music enjoying the breeze.

The weather was just fantastic, it went from 35C all the way down to 28C when we got to Julai’a. At first we weren’t sure if the Starbucks was at Kempinski or else where, so we just decided to try our luck and head straight there. After getting there we were told it was by another resort up the road, and as we drove back down the road we found it next to a Sultan Center and a few people were there.

Then the hooligans showed up skidding around the parking lot on their buggies, and I was going to kill them if they even got dust on Pyro or the car. It was funny these kids had nothing to do, and so they kept going back and forth to that spot. The location of the Starbucks is nice, but it would be nicer to have outdoor seating, we moved a table outside and enjoyed the nice weather.

We were talking to the manager about this Starbucks and the expectations they had for it. During the week it gets very low sales, but during the weekend it would get between 3-4 times the target set for the store so it is doing well. They are open from 6 am to 12 am during a normal week, and maybe during winter on the weekends they might be open 24 hours. He was also telling us about lots of interesting stories, he told us bikers come out every Monday or Tuesday in about a group of 12 – 15 from 8pm to 10pm which is nice. Then he was telling us the stories of drunk guys coming in the morning and drinking lots of coffee, and about the girls that come park their cars there and leave with guys, and how when the place is full of girls the guys come by the truck loads later. It was hilarious listening to all the stories and what goes on, it was fun talking to him and after we were done with our drinks we decided to head back, and we were really enjoying the beautiful weather and the mostly empty roads back. We got back by 9:45 pm, and it was a nice change in the routine. The only thing I need to do is adjust the clutch on the bike, its a bit stiff and needs some tweaking.