So we had the marathon day in Dubai last week, we were all exhausted after our meal at Meat Co. We had a schedule to follow and the next movie was “In The Name of The King” which was a disastor. We went to the Cinestar Gold Class at Mall of the Emirates. We were supposed to go to Cloverfield but we decided to go to this movie because of the Gold Class.

All Six of us went in and we ordered some green tea and some blankets. All six of us agree that the VIP Gold Class in Mall of the Emirates is much more comfortable then the new one by Cinescape at the Avenues, you can really lie down, there is room to change how your seating, and the couch is very soft unlike the electronic couchs at the Avenues.

After recieving the blankets the movie started, 3 people were asleep right away and that was probably the best thing to do. 20 minutes in, only 2 of us were left awake watching the movie. It just went from bad to worse, we had hopes but every time Burt Reynolds was on screen it just got worse. Then I fell asleep for about an hour, and woke up for the last half of the movie. The best part of the movie was that one hour worth of sleep.

K said “That was the best 100 Dirhams I have spent on this trip”

We had to postpone our Lunch due to the delay to see the movie. We call The Meat Company and they were very easy about the delay since we wanted to be seated outside on the deck. The only problem is getting through to them, their line was busy over the one hour period we were trying to call them to delay our lunch.

We got there around 3:30 pm and we were ready to devour everything in front of us. We had a hearty meal ahead of us and each one just wanted to eat since we were hungry. The weather was amazing, but the funny part was the amount of Kuwaitis at the restaurant. Every 20 – 30 minutes we would get up to say hello to people we knew, it was funny how many people vacated Kuwait and yet you always see them out of town.

This was one of the quickest business trips I have had in a while. We left on Qatar Airways which I was looking forward since I heard a lot of good things about it. Right away you notice that the plane is nice from the inside and the seat is comfortable. They had liban at take-off which helped with a quick morning nap, and the staff were very nice. We arrived on time, and the bus that takes you off the plane is a special bus for First Class passengers of Qatar Airways, which is different then anything I have seen before.

• 9:50 am Plane Took Off
• 11:00 am at Qatar Airport
• 11:30 am Meeting
• 3:30 pm Finished Meeting
• 4:00 pm Airport
• 6:30 pm Plane Took Off
• 7:40 pm Plane Landed

I didn’t see much of Qatar except for one hotel which was nice, but the rest of Qatar seemed like one huge construction yard. Construction every where, not necessarily towers but infrastructure and more. Their airport is pretty small, smaller then I expected but Qatar Airways has a terminal for First and Business Class all on its own which is very nice, didn’t get to see it though since I was coming back on Kuwait Airways. The one thing that surprised me was that Kuwait Airways left 10 minutes early, and landed 10 minutes early, I have never seen that in my life.

Link: Flickr

It seems I specialize in these one day trips. I have a few meetings in Qatar form 10 am to 4 pm, I was nominated with short notification. At least I will be back home in time to hang out with my friends. This trip is going to drain the last energy out of me. I keep hearing mixed opinions about Qatar, I really don’t know what to expect.

When we got to Dubai we were out very quickly since we had a schedule to follow. I got out the fastest due to having the E-Gate Card. I flew through and went straight for the car rentals, to our luck they were out of the pink Honda Jazz Vans. After asking all 12 car rental places we decided to go with the 2008 Chevy Tahoe for 49 KD a day.

We were renting it from Budget, and the guy was a complete dick to us. He thought we were kids or something just because we were laughing. Most of us a well above the limit, then he asked to keep my passport and I told him I’m not carrying one, then he told me he wants to keep my civil ID. Then I realized its illegal to do that and I was pissed, why is he being a dick towards us. At this point me and K were pissed at him so we gave him our humbled opinion. I thought to file a complaint about this idiot, but we had other things to do.

We got in the car and took off, two of the guys know Dubai relatively well and we took the exit I took last week. It seems within a week they changed the road so we got screwed and had to find another way around which delayed our first movie an hour for the next showing. We managed to keep things on schedule throughout the day, and the Tahoe is a fun SUV to drive but Budget seemed to have tampered with the car, it was very oddly slow. We were laughing throughout the day and going from point to point, good music and cool wind. It was a big car in the parking lots, always had to empty the car before parking. I had some fun over the bumps which the people in the back seats of the Tahoe weren’t too happy about. It was a fun car to drive but in Dubai you can’t speed because there is a camer every 20 meters.

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That was one hell of a trip! By around 10:00 pm Kuwait time we were reaching our limits. We got in at 4:30 am Kuwait time. 6 guys and two guys per car all headed to their respective homes. We were dead, it was one of the funnest trips we have had, and this will be done again, from this we learned our time table and what can be done, next time we take the earlier flight since we were burnt out completely by 11 pm Kuwait time and dragging our feet to get on our plane home. But we enjoyed every moment of it, more to follow up.

I slept like a brick and woke up at 1 pm, I think everyone kept waking up around that time or maybe I was the last one to wake up.

 

At the airport things changed so we had to make decisions, and make them quick. People were shouting while we were planning!

We decided to go Monday since our schedule is open that day, but the return flight has changed so we are going to stay a little longer then just 8 hours, it extended to 13 hours so our plans have also extended with that.  

Marzouq: Hey you guys want to come? We are going Monday

Zahed, Shoomy: We are coming!

So now we have increased from 4 people to 6 people, not including those in Dubai who are aware of our ridiculous plan.

• 0600 – 0700: Call Jazeera and make sure their planes aren’t breaking down and are on time so we don’t have to go to the airport at 6 in the morning (after sleeping late) only to find a parking spot, wait in line, go through security checks and then be told that our flight is delayed for fours hours leaving us with only 3 hours in Dubai if we would have went.
• 0700 – 0725: Kuwait Airport
• 0825 – 1100: Flight | KWI – DXB (If Jazeera doesn’t mess up)
• 1100 – 1200: Rent-A-Car (Pink Honda Jazz) | DXB – Mall of Emirates
• 1200 – 13.30: Cinema | Cloverfield
• 1430 – 1445: Car | Mall of Emirates to Madinat Jumeirah
• 1500 – 1700: Lunch | Meat Co
  • Appetizer
    • Beef Ribs
    • Beef Carpaccio
    • Salt & Pepper Calamari
    • Red Chilli Prawns
  • Main:
    • Wagyu Striploin
    • Prime Rib
    • Black Angus – Fillet
    • Marinated Lamb Skewer
    • Lamb Cutlets
  • Side:
    • Steak-cut Chips
    • Shaved Biltong
    • Baked Potato
    • Onion Rings
  • Desert:
    • Chocolate and Pistachio Fondante
    • Traditional South African Malva Pudding
• 1715 – 1730: Car | Madinat Jumeirah to Mall of Emirates
• 1745 – 1930: Cinema | Jumper
• 1930 – 2115: Shopping / Skiing
• 2115 – 2200: Car | Mall of Emirates to Grosvenor House
• 2200 – 0100: Dinner| Buddha Bar
• 0100 – 0200: Car | Grosvenor House to DXB
• 0320 – 0415: Flight | DXB – KWI (If Jazeera doesn’t mess up)

So we went in the morning all hyped up and ready to go. Most of the guys were carrying nothing, I was carrying my back pack:

• Canon Rebel XT
• 2 Lenses
• iRiver Clix2
• Nokia N800
• Cough Medicine
• Cash
• GPS Unit

That is the simple list of things, we were all revved up and ready to go.

We got to the airport ready to check in, there were lots of people at the airport. When we were checking it they told us our 8:25 am flight was delayed until 12:30 pm. That pretty much ruined our day schedule in Dubai. We were completely easy going compared to a lot of people at the counter. It was technical difficulties which were unforeseen. We were calm and collected about it, we made some decisions, some plans are being made, this is now considered Contingency Plan B.

We will execute on Contingency Plan B when details are finalized which I will be posting up. This is turning out to be a lot funnier then expected.

This is a long weekend and people have lots of plans, well ours is a short one for this long weekend, and its going to be very entertaining.

Marzouq: There were tons of good movies in Dubai .. didn’t have a chance to see anything.
Khaled: We should go watch them and comeback during the weekend
Marzouq: How bout in one day, Saturday?
Khaled: Meh .. yalla.

Marzouq: Saturday, Dubai, Movie.You guys in?
Abdulrahman / Saleh: ok, fooga

• 0630 – 0725: Kuwait Airport
• 0825 – 1100: Flight | KWI – DXB
• 1100 – 1200: Rent-A-Car (MiniVan) | DXB – Mall of Emirates
• 1200 – 1515: Cinema
• 1200 – 13.30: Cloverfield
• 1345 – 15.15: Jumper
• 1515 – 1615: Shopping
• 1615 – 1630: Car | Mall of Emirates to Madinat Jumeirah
• 1630 – 1830: Lunch | Meat Co
  • Appetizer
    • Beef Ribs
    • Beef Carpaccio
    • Salt & Pepper Calamari
    • Red Chilli Prawns
  • Main:
    • Wagyu Striploin
    • Prime Rib
    • Black Angus – Fillet
    • Marinated Lamb Skewer
    • Lamb Cutlets
  • Side:
    • Steak-cut Chips
    • Shaved Biltong
    • Baked Potato
    • Onion Rings
  • Desert:
    • Chocolate and Pistachio Fondante
    • Traditional South African Malva Pudding

• 1830 – 1930: Car | Madinat Jumeirah to DXB
• 2100 – 2200: Flight | DXB – KWI

I had about three meetings in Dubai which seemed reasonably timed. One at 9 am, next at 11 am, and the last at 3pm. My flight was at 8:50 pm so I thought I had enough time to go to all the meetings, get work done, some shopping and a movie.

The one factor that wasn’t really taken into consideration was how much I misjudged the amount of traffic in Dubai. Two meetings were close and one was far, based on distances I had to travel 30 minutes for the second meeting so it meant 60 minutes total, but that turned into 2 hours due to traffic. I finished at 10:30 am, made it to the second meeting by 11:30 am, that finished at 1:00 pm and I go to the mall at 2:10 pm which gave me exactly 20 minutes to pick up what I wanted before having to go to the 3 pm meeting, which I barely made.

Then there was the drive to the airport, I had to be there by 7:30 pm at the latest to make my 8: 50 pm flight. I took off from the hotel at 6:30 pm I thought I would make good time since usually it would take about 25 minutes to get there. This time was a different story it took over 1.5 hours to go to the airport, I arrived at exactly 7:55 pm which was cutting it real close, I wasn’t sure I was even going to get my bags.

Traffic is hell in Dubai, in every direction and at every point in time.

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