I’m going for a quick trip this weekend to go visit some family. Going to London for about two days and coming back right into the morning and going straight into work. I’m going to make sure that I get a lot of sleep on the plane since I’m only going to be there for 48 hours and then I come back to work. I have a vacation planned, but this to see some family.
It took me a week to get confirmation on the British Airways flight to London, and I got confirmation for the return ticket the same day without any issues. I wanted to avoid BA for trips over the next couple of weeks but I had no choice in this case. They seem to be losing bags and having problems, and a few people that have traveled on it recently have had some issues. I’m just hoping that since I’m stopping in London and have no connecting flight I won’t have any problems. For the vacation I have planned I am avoiding BA for my flight bookings.
I have been there a couple of times at this point and I have to say that it is one the best malls I have been to. It is not because of the size of the mall but the diversity, and organization of the mall. They did a really good job of bunching up shops of similar interests within the same area to make easier for the shopper to find what they want, compare prices, and find different brans of the same product. This is the case for every type of product, and there is a very large entertainment center, skiing, a few food courts, a cinema, and everything else you could want in a mall.
The Avenues could be comparable in size but the it is no comparison when it comes to the quality and diversity of the stores. The Mall of the Emirates targets every possible consumer, there is something for everyone, The Avenues currently only targets women, and there wasn’t much organization in place of the shops.
Every time I go to the Dubai I always go to the Mall of the Emirates when I have time since its always fun to walk around there.
I was really looking forward to visiting Borders in Mall of the Emirates, it was on my list of places to go to on this trip. I got this feeling of anticipation as I was getting closer to the store inside the mall, as soon as I got close I just wanted to run in and stay there but I knew I couldn’t, I would go later since a few of the guys had somethings to do.
When I walked in the first thing I did was to look for any changes in the books and positions in the wall from the last time I was there. I have to say that I was impressed they really were updating the books and details every week which is very good. You get to see a different selection and that they are paying attention the stock and items they have, with different recommendations and also trying to improve the layout for you to see more interesting books easily. I couldn’t help wanting to read a book for a longest time or just sit there but I had a few things I had to do. I picked up a few magazines and a couple of books this time around, and I still wanted to stay there for a little while longer, but I had to leave.
When you are in Dubai you really don’t feel like you are in a Gulf Country, that is a good and bad thing. All these towers and people living there from all over the world. The one thing which is a little confusing is that people who are there are from all parts of the literaly from every continent living and working there. You are dealing with so many different nationalities yet there isn’t one speicific way to deal with all of them.
All the amount of good looking women is just insane, forget about when you go out at night to specific place, I’m talking about just going to a shopping mall. Its as if cut-outs of Stuff and Maxim magazine were walking around the mall. Its a very crazy mix of people, and from so many different cultures. I think one of the key factors which makes Dubai successful is that they make everyone feel welcome. I think its nice to visit, but I wouldn’t be able to live there.
I have been on a few different airlines over the years, and recently I wanted to rank the airlines based on my experience to see which one had better service overall. I separated into two categories such as short haul, and long haul because some of these airlines only do short haul and to be more precise about their service.
The factors I’m using to place these airlines higher or lower on the rank:
- Staff Service (Professionalism and Friendliness)
- Plane Quality & Interior
- Baggage Handling
- Flight Promptness
- On-Flight Entertainment
- Food
- Lounge at Main Airport
Short Haul:
Best:
- Jazeera Airways
- Qatar Airways
- Emirates Airlines
- Sri Lanka Airlines
Worst:
- Greece Airways
- Egypt Airways
- Kuwait Airways
Long Haul:
Best :
- Lufthansa
- Virgin
- British Airways
Worst:
- American Airlines
- United Airlines
- Kuwait Airways
We checked out of the hotel at 6:30pm, and we went to the Dubai Airport to check-in for our 9:00pm flight. We only had carry ons and we were checking into Economy but we tried a trick from the last Dubai trip and it worked for check-in. Usually for business and economy there are long lines, but for economy they were longer.
TIP: For checking in you can go to the Excess Baggage counter and check in there instead of the normal lines, and usually there are only two or three people there at most because they don’t you know can check-in there. And it was the same lady from last time.
Dubai Duty Free:
I have to say that Dubai Duty free has some very good deals on electronics. Some of them are even priced as low as Amazon items, and they have a large selection of magazines in one compact area. Its always fun walking around there.
After finishing up from the Duty Free we went Costa Coffee to get something quick to drink before boarding the plane. Two of us boarded before the other two since they weren’t done with the Duty Free. We had four seats right next to each other and four of the rowdiest kids in front of us. A baby wailing his little head off, I couldn’t block it out because he kept changing the tone.
TIP 2: if you are on the BOEING planes then you will have the update I.C.E(Entertainment System) and when you are on the AIRBUS planes then you will have the old systems.
With the ICE system you can watch a movie before take-off and after landing, but on this flight we didn’t. The other problem was that the plane’s A/C wasn’t working so it was getting very very stuffy and irritating. I really was happy when we took off, but it could have been cooler.
Kuwait Airport was something else, it was like herding sheep with a bunch of monkeys running around. It was insane, not the amount of people but the way things were being handled very very sad. The whole trip was fun as hell and we were laughing like crazy.
This is just hilarious, I don’t think I have done a trip this quick and this short, in such short notice before.
Tuesday Conversation went like this:
Me: I’m thinking about going.. hnmmmm
K: Why not…
N: We going
Me: Alrite… lets see what we can do
K: We going
N: Tickets and Stuff
Me: Leaves those to me
N: What about S?
Me: He can’t go!
K: Pressure him!!
Me: Too Short notice!!!!! I will work on him!
N: See you tomorrow, going to be funny
……
Right now I’m packing some clothes and just getting ready to go. Our flight is at 6:00pm but they say there is a delay, and then we get there and we go out.
Update: S is going and he just decided at 12:30pm to come!! Packing real quick and heading out!
I have a few things that I have to do before going on this quick trip!
- Top off the oil in my car since its really running low
- Make a few payments for things that I need to take care of
- Pack a few things for the trip such as:
- Cloths
- Laptop
- Phone charger
- Cash
- Passport
- MP3 Player
- Camera
- Bathroom things
What I want to do:
- Go watch Transformers and as many movies as possible
- Pass by Borders
- Buy more helicopter rotors for my helicopter since I have already destroyed all my spares
- Enjoy myself
Sometimes its always good on a weekend to do something different, and myself and a few guys are going to do something different for sure.
We want to watch Transformers so we have decided to fly to Dubai and go for a movie marathon for the hell of it. Everything is being done on the fly, and we are just going to wing it until there, trying to figure out which hotel to stay at and when we are coming back. We found a good deal so Emirates, cheaper then Jazeera so we are going for it, going on Thursday and coming back on Friday.
I will probably go to the Borders and check it out as well. This is going to be funny.
It was Thursday and everyone was getting ready for the important night, well all the females were. We were supposed to be at the hotel by 9:00pm since a few things were running late, and the hotel was 10 minutes away with traffic. We were relaxing by the pool for a few hours before deciding to freshen up, what we did was hit the steam room in the Four Season’s Spa for a few minutes, then jumping in the jacuzzi for bit, then taking a shower, and then shaving right after that. This was all taking place in the spa and provided for free to guests of the hotel, they also had a shaving kit which we all used. Then each one of us headed to their rooms to get ready by 8:30pm.
I went upstairs and took my time since it wouldn’t take me much to get ready, I decided to take another shower. I finished showering and changing into the suit in less then twenty minutes, and I have to say that I felt good. The first thought that came into my head was that now you can call me Tony Soprano, I felt like an old school mobster and it was fun.
We met in the hotel lobby and went to the hotel where the engagement was being held. When we walked into the hall I kept saying hello to all the parents that remember me from the US, then I was also saying hello to the parents of the bride and it seems they heard a lot of about, I seem to be “infamous”. Our table was pointed out to us and so we went and sat down waiting to hear arrival or some notification. The music started so we knew something was starting, and we went out to see the groom and bride. The groom was dressed nicely, but the bride looked great and both of them looked very happy. I was happy for the guy, he got a good girl and I managed to sit down and talk to her before, she had to pass my test since the groom is one of my closest friend, and she passed with flying colors. What you could pick up between them is that there is good chemistry and they do care about each other, and the funny part is he is the type of guy who doesn’t like showing his softer side, so I was enjoying every moment of it.
As they were walking in I felt really bad for them because they had to smile so much and for so long. They didn’t even get to sit down for long before they had to get up and start dancing. This engagement party was a little different then what I used to, I have never been to an Egyptian engagement party but it was very nice and classy. Everybody started dancing around the bride and groom, and all I have to say was that my feet were sore after a couple of hours. It was 90% Egyptian songs, but when the other 10% kicked in I have to say I’m happy I learned a little salsa back in the day. It was a lot of fun with great company, and everyone was very happy. It ended around 4am, and by that time I wanted to put my feet in cold water.
None of was went to sleep until 8:30am Friday morning we were sitting a while at the hotel talking about a lot of stuff and laughing, thinking about whats going to happen during the big wedding in December. The trip was worth everything to see my friend happy as he is, I’m thinking he would like to skip the whole steps but something you just have to go through.
