Items of interest for the week:
http://hudang6234.smugmug.com/MiddleEast/Dubai-7-April-12-Public/22358051_JDQfDC#!i=1786642071&k=VR5JbMw
So, maybe it's a good thing that I'm writing about my Dubai trip a couple weeks after the fact. It'll probably be less long winded and more to the point. And besides, I think the entire point of this was to document what I did for the last few years overseas, since I have such an awful memory, and maybe I can get a few people to laugh too. If not, then meh, I'll laugh to myself. So here we go:
We kinda decided last minute to go to Dubai, which is usually very pricey. In this case, it's kinda like driving from Houston to South Padre. Maybe 6 hours of driving, or 1.5 hours flying. I don't have a driver's liscense, so that answers that question. Flights out of Saudi, Dammam, specifically were about 450 dollars (US) to fly out of, which would suck, so we elected to go out of Bahrain, which was much cheaper, 150 dollars. The airline was "Fly Dubai" which is like the Southwest Airlines of the middle east. Nothing fancy, but actually nicer than some of the US airlines I've been on, maybe I've been overseas too long, but all the airplane attendants are just nicer (and younger) than US domestic. So, I get off of work early with the intent of getting to the airport early, our flight is 7:50 pm, and I have 8 hours, no problem right? Just like everything else, things just don't quite work out smoothly. The weight limit is 10 kg, so I have to check a bag, and my friend the divo (male diva) haha, I hope he doesn't read it. Needs a checked bag as well. So I go online to get the bags (I played travel agent for a couple other guys, since I was booking mine anyways). The card gets declined once by my bank, since I booked two tickets so close to each other. So I call my bank, and have them clear it. But now my card's blocked from the Fly Dubai company. The price for bags at the airport for non-pre bought checked in bags is something like 75 dollars, double the ticket price. Screw that, I'll go to a travel agency. So I call around, and apparently not everyone speaks English, man, this sucks. They give me a phone number, which doesn't work, but I do kind of remember what the travel agency name is. (Well not now, but I did at the time). I've decided that we're stuck, and will have to pay 75 dollars, as Divo goes to get his hair done. Or cut, I don't know, it took forever. We drive by the travel agency on the way to the barber. I tell the driver to stop, I'm going to try to pay for bags there, and off I go. A little bit of a language barrier there. I tell the guy what I'm trying to do, he gives me a befuddled look, and the lady next to me, who's trying to buy a ticket, just smiles, and tells me "good luck." It worked out, and I paid 28 bucks each bag, which I think is still stupid, whatever. So haircut gets done at 3:00, I'm getting a little antsy, since Divo still hasn't packed yet. Man. We head back, and we're ready to go at 3:45. Still have time I think. Our ride hasn't gotten out of work yet. So he'll be here at 4:30. Man. We leave for Bahrain airport at 4:30. It's about 1-1/2 hours to get there no traffic. Doing the math in my mind, 6:00, no problem, if there's no traffic. So of course, once I say that, there's traffic. The ticket says we have to be checked in no later than 1 hour before flight. Man, man, man. Everyone in Saudi goes to Bahrain Wednesday night, either to go home, party, or fly out. Like us. We leave the gate at 6:20, and start driving to the airport. Ok, we're good if there's not traffic here. Road work ahead, one lane road. ARGHHH! WHY!?? "Hey, drive like a Saudi, like you own the road, we don't have time to be nice" OK, here we go, cutting off people left and right, honking, and pushing it. We get to the check in counter at 6:52. We're in the middle east, no one goes by this requirement that closely. We get greeted, smile, breath a sigh of relief, and go to the gate. No big deals going to the gate, we get there with 20 minutes till take off. The plane's delayed, so we have an hour anyway. ARGHHHH! WHY!???. Enough time to eat I suppose. I have a yogurt that had been in my bag all day. Eh, what's the worst that could happen? It's all bacteria anyways. And it was good. No problem. Stomach of steel. One of the Saudi's, not anyone I know, is quite trashed, and doesn't speak any English, but he does like talking to people who look white. He catches one of the white guys, and says something, does the awkward turtle symbol, does a swimming signal, and then laughs his ass off. No idea what he said. One of the guys translates. "He said he cannot swim, and if the plane crashes, he's going to jump on top of you, and you will swim him to shore." Haha, hah? Alcohol's a hell of a drug. We all secretly hope we don't have to sit next to him on the plane.
Flight's uneventful, I watched "The Sitter." Hilarious toilet humor. How do you get an 9 year old girl to say "I sharded" in a movie? Awesome. So was the vodka redbulls on the plane. We're ready to party!
Let's go to the hotel. Welcome to the "Taj," the only 5 star hotel in the slums of Dubai, known as "Old Dubai." We have a 3 bedroom apartment, freaking huge room, and includes a servant's bedroom. Full kitchen, and balcony. It's very nice. The TV said hello Mr. Dang on the screen. I didn't get to take a picture of it, :-(. We unpack, and decide to go out and party. Clubs and bars, no matter where you go in the world, same stuff. Loud music, expensive booze, and lots of smoke. It was kinda fun. We close out the bar, since we get there late, and get ready for tomorrow. Two of the guys want to sleep in, and I want to go siteseeing. Me and the poor guy who got the short end of the stick (in the servant's room) go check out downtown old dubai. I took a bunch of the street pictures you may have seen. For some reason, I like the ground looking up picture.
Everything's closed in the morning, well until at least 10:00. We walk around, car rentals are quite cheap for what they are. 300 bucks a day for a porche, no insurance, or anything needed. Hmm, maybe next time. We walk around, and move towards the subway. The subway is pretty intuitive, and nice. It cuts through the middle of the city, and connects one side of the city to the other. Cheap too, a buck fifty to go from one side to the other. We decide to go to the mall. Mall, just like everywhere else, freaking huge. Took forever to walk just from one side to the other, let alone check everything out. We did see the infamous "Ski-Dubai" the only indoor ski place I can think of. It's pricey. Same price as a lift ticket, only there are 2 runs. And they look short. We don't have time to maximize the 180 dollars, so that'll be next time. We get some McDonalds, and start heading back. We have to go to see the Burj Khalifa in a couple hours. And I need a suit to get in. This is going to be expensive. My friend who's been there, knows how to get a good suit for a good price. We go to a suit place, and I see one I like. How much? 5000 AED. (Same as Saudi Money, divide by 3.75). No freaking way. Uh, do you have something, uh, more frugal? Yes sir, come with me upstairs. Alright, the stuffy room upstairs. At least the price is better. 450 AED. I can do this. But of course, they do the ridiculous price versus normal. I think they said it retailed for 4500 AED, now marked down to 450. Riiight. Special price just for me. But it's suit, pants, shirt, tie, and they'll cut it to size the same day. 600 AED. Done. Slight pinstripes, and it's an Italian suit. Can't be bad right? Well, I can't find it on the internet, so I'm assuming it's the Walmart of Italian suits, but hey, who needs to know that? Just the people who read this blog. Screw the rest. I look good.
So, every time I plan something, I really need to double check the times. Twice. And then get someone else to confirm. I though the tickets were for 2:50. Not 1:50. We waddle back to the apartment at 1:00, joke around a little bit, and around 1:30 I look at the ticket. CRAP. NOT AGAIN! ARGHH!!!! WHY?!!! Tickets are non-refundable, and non-transferrable. Go, go go!! We all run out of the hotel, one of the guys just went to go take a nap. He was rudely awakened. We hop into a Taxi, and I tell the driver, 50 buck extra if you can get us there in 15 minutes. He hauls ass, driving like a maniac, and we get there with 5 minutes left. It's on the other side of the mall. A very big mall. The picture below is a picture of the mall. We had to run from one side to the other. And scale wise, you can tell we ran quite a ways.
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But once again, saved by the grace of ignorance, and the lack of strict deadlines, we were able to get in, 1/2 an hour late, with no problems. And up we went. Very reminiscent of the Empire State building. Just freaking tall. Tall to the point, where you lose perspective of how high up you really are. Beautiful view, you can see the entire city, and it's interesting to note how things grow in sections. Oh, if you wanted to stay in a hotel in the Burj, you're talking about 1000 a night. Maybe next time, haha. But the pictures describe themselves. It's a cool feeling to say you've been at the top of the tallest building IN THE WORLD. Awesome. Glad I'm not afraid of heights. Next door to the Burj, and the mall, is the indoor Souk, the flea market. We walk around, it's quite over priced, I try to get a phone number from someone selling scented reverse osmosis shower something or other. I look at it, hmm. Looks more like a softener that smells like lime. She was not impressed by my engineering marvel. Rats, next time. I buy more red bull. I'm running on 4 hours of sleep. I'm exhausted, but I'm in Dubai, gotta keep on going. Next on the itinerary is dinner at the "world's only 7 star hotel." According to Wikipedia, it's really only a 5 star, but it's gonna be nice. And expensive.
So, we plan ahead, I have someone check twice, my reservation, and we have plenty of time to get there. The taxi drops us off, and we are surrounded by luxury super cars, greeted with fleet of Rolls Royce's, and the most ridiculous lobby ever. All the gold you see in the picture, is real. No joke, gold foil, under an epoxy. It is literally breathe taking. You can tell why this place is $3000 a night. I wouldn't pay it, but it's nice, very nice. Unfortunately, one of us, decides to go for the cool hipster look, rather than the business casual, which is required to get in. Apparently a backwards cap, hollister shirt, pre-torn jeans and headphones is not appropriate at a nice restaurant. Who knew? He didn't have any other clothes, so we were hoping his charm would get him in. Nope. We ask to see the manager, and ask if there's anything he can do for us. He see's that the guy is from KSA, and mumbles something about being ignorant, and sees us Americans. He's french, makes some cowboy joke, sees that we're cool, and offers us a private room instead of being out in public. Hey, that's awesome. We can't tell if Kobe Bryant is here, but at least we get to eat. The ambiance is stupid nice as well. We don't get to see the main aquarium, but we get our own section of aquarium. Also nice. Regular fish though. They aren't gold foiled.
Food: It's nice. Good, gourmet quality for sure. I didn't take pictures of the menu, which sucks. But the food pictures are quite nice. Makes my mouth water for sure. Here's my favorite:
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Salmon, oysters with a parsley foam and edible gold foil, (I couldn't find any. My waiter kept on pointing but I didn't see it. I think he's just saying it) oyster soup, with egg white, Scallop with fried arugula, and truffle, with potato cake, and a Parmesan doily. Pumpkin and fig soup. Scallop in a rich broth, can't remember what. Seafood medley (actually disappointing, kinda bland compared to everything else), mango puree in sponge cake, in a white chocolate shell, and some awesome chocolate thing. I gave up chocolate for lent. I got fruit. ARGHH!!!! WHY?!!! Haha. The drinks were nice, expensive. You knew exactly the markup on it, so that was kinda sad, but complimented the meal nicely. Total damage, 5500 AED. Man, you gotta play hard sometimes. I won't be doing it anytime soon, but, that was awesome. We take some more pictures from the hotel, and head back. We go to a Filipino bar, listen to some old school rock. Man, they're good, no accent when singing, but very thick accent when they talk. It's a nice way to end the night, very quiet. I'm spent. I hit the bed, don't even move until the morning.
Next day, I'm ready to party again, our flights late, and we have a day to conquer. Someone at the beginning of the trip thought it'd be a good idea to buy alot of milk, vodka, and beer. We have to check out in 3 hours. Don't want to waste it. We all give it the college try, while trying to find a nice brunch. I'm feeling great now. Maybe too great. We decide to go to the Marriot, where they have a good assorted brunch. One of the guys wants pizza. For brunch? Whatever. We go there, there's a nice car outside, good sign. I'm still feeling good, and the bar's open. There's always time for a beer. We get a beer, while waiting for brunch to be open. It's noon, so it's legitimate. No judging. The bartender was nice enough to deal with two loud mouth Americans trying to spit game, so that's nice of her for sure. We eat brunch, it's quite nice, and there's all you can mimosa. Man, that's too much for me. We eat, drink, and are quite merry. I go to take a brief nap, I won't say where, but it's for an hour or so. My friends finish their dessert round, and go find me, drag me out, and we head out. We go to the other mall, the Mall of the Emirates, trying to find a store for a friend, we fail, it's at the other mall, give up, grab subway, and head towards the airport, on time. The rest of the trip is actually quiet, nothing crazy on the way home, we're all tired, I'm hungover, and we all want to head home. One of the guys gets stuck in the wrong line, and takes an hour to clear customs. We got through in 20. He's super agitated, since the only reason the line was going slow was a apathetic customs agent. He wasn't in a rush at all. We head back, and I crash, ready to go to work the next day. Whew, heck of a weekend.
The following weekend was pretty quiet, a repeat in Bahrain, and Kobar. Ate some really good, cheap Indian food, paid for it later, the same way I always do with spicy food. I bought gifts for family, and friends. A nice watch too. Bought someone a slice of cake for their birthday, since they had to work. Sucks to work on your birthday. I've done that a few times. Hopefully it made her night. We'll see what happens next week. Might be quiet, but I know better than to say that now.
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Letter to *******,
So I don't know why, but I came across my "myspace" page from way back in the day. Looking through, yeah it's old, no one uses it, but I did come across some interesting things I typed back in the day. I think this one was 6 months from when I moved to Texas. I remember it was actually quite lonely. Trying to find a niche in a big city, in a small town was difficult. It wasn't until I moved into the city, was I able to find my niche, and find out where to go, and who to hang out with. It's a clear reflection of how I still think, mixed with a little bit of sadness. I kinda wish I could tell myself 5 years ago (that's how old it is, wow!) that it'll get better. Definitely different, but in a good way. I may not be married with kids, and all that, but I have more self confidence, have much better opportunities, and am in a spot to steer life how I want to, rather than to just float through life. I've always been determined at work, but not as directed with life. I can say that I'm in control of both, and know what I want. It's nice. Here's the excerpt. I still actually believe the universe theory mentioned below.
Its a funny thing these Sunday nights. I always seem to get insomnia on Sunday nights. Maybe its all the things I didn't get done during the weekend, or maybe the things I need to do this week. It always seems as though my mind is going a mile a minute, while the clock lethargically ticks away. Maybe that's why people get into diarys and such before they go to bed. I find myself to be a very organized person on paper, but not so much in real life. Maybe that's why I'm writing now.
Thoughts in my head at the moment:
1. The Kardashian family blows.
2. Why do people hermit themselves at times?
3. Playing sandlot style baseball is sweet.
4. Ankle bracing.
5. Training.
6. Old friends coming and going.
7. You.
It's funny that I still think about you sometimes. One day I will find words to express the complexity that I am still trying to unravel. Others say its so simple, but it isn't. It can't be. Can it? Is it? Is density and complexity the same thing? I don't know, but I know I spend these Sunday nights thinking about it.
I read somewhere online about infinite universe strings based off of decisions we make. It's a fun thought. Everyone has their own infinite number of universes everytime we choose to do something. Everytime we choose one or the other, the later universe plays itself out, but we in our frail human state just can't see it play out. Maybe that's what dreams are made of, our mind starting to pick apart these other universes. I do wonder what decision tree I had to follow to end up fighting Aliens at Walmart. Maybe it was just bad pizza. I'd like to think not. Somewhere I'm out there saving the world while keeping prices low. Hopefully not at the expense of human rights lol. Other nights though, you come up. Part of me wishes that these are universes that involve you and I in a different light. They can't be bad, we seem pretty content in these universes. On the other hand, (interjection, this is what we call optimistic realism, or maybe that idealistic cynicism, yeah put that in your pipe and smoke it) I think it has more to do with wishes and desires. Those occur in your dreams too. Logically this makes no sense at all. If it was that simple, then I shouldn't be dreaming this kind of stuff at all. I'd like to think it's subconscious, but sometimes its not. It's actually what keeps me up on Sunday nights. I think sometimes that there isn't a way to write how I feel on paper. I start writing hoping that the words will start flowing. They don't. It's probably more that I don't know how I feel. The internal struggle, the complexity of it all just boggles my mind. My personality revolves around logic, and things like this just don't make logical sense. That's why I struggle with it so badly. Maybe a poem that's really vague and full of imagery will encompass it all. Oh man, engineer + poetry = math equation? No, I don't think so.
So 5 years ago Huy, buck up, cheer up, don't eat so many of those Pot Pies, and know that Things Come together, even when they look like Things Fall Apart.
http://hudang6234.smugmug.com/MiddleEast/Dubai-7-April-12-Public/22358051_JDQfDC#!i=1786642071&k=VR5JbMw
So, maybe it's a good thing that I'm writing about my Dubai trip a couple weeks after the fact. It'll probably be less long winded and more to the point. And besides, I think the entire point of this was to document what I did for the last few years overseas, since I have such an awful memory, and maybe I can get a few people to laugh too. If not, then meh, I'll laugh to myself. So here we go:
We kinda decided last minute to go to Dubai, which is usually very pricey. In this case, it's kinda like driving from Houston to South Padre. Maybe 6 hours of driving, or 1.5 hours flying. I don't have a driver's liscense, so that answers that question. Flights out of Saudi, Dammam, specifically were about 450 dollars (US) to fly out of, which would suck, so we elected to go out of Bahrain, which was much cheaper, 150 dollars. The airline was "Fly Dubai" which is like the Southwest Airlines of the middle east. Nothing fancy, but actually nicer than some of the US airlines I've been on, maybe I've been overseas too long, but all the airplane attendants are just nicer (and younger) than US domestic. So, I get off of work early with the intent of getting to the airport early, our flight is 7:50 pm, and I have 8 hours, no problem right? Just like everything else, things just don't quite work out smoothly. The weight limit is 10 kg, so I have to check a bag, and my friend the divo (male diva) haha, I hope he doesn't read it. Needs a checked bag as well. So I go online to get the bags (I played travel agent for a couple other guys, since I was booking mine anyways). The card gets declined once by my bank, since I booked two tickets so close to each other. So I call my bank, and have them clear it. But now my card's blocked from the Fly Dubai company. The price for bags at the airport for non-pre bought checked in bags is something like 75 dollars, double the ticket price. Screw that, I'll go to a travel agency. So I call around, and apparently not everyone speaks English, man, this sucks. They give me a phone number, which doesn't work, but I do kind of remember what the travel agency name is. (Well not now, but I did at the time). I've decided that we're stuck, and will have to pay 75 dollars, as Divo goes to get his hair done. Or cut, I don't know, it took forever. We drive by the travel agency on the way to the barber. I tell the driver to stop, I'm going to try to pay for bags there, and off I go. A little bit of a language barrier there. I tell the guy what I'm trying to do, he gives me a befuddled look, and the lady next to me, who's trying to buy a ticket, just smiles, and tells me "good luck." It worked out, and I paid 28 bucks each bag, which I think is still stupid, whatever. So haircut gets done at 3:00, I'm getting a little antsy, since Divo still hasn't packed yet. Man. We head back, and we're ready to go at 3:45. Still have time I think. Our ride hasn't gotten out of work yet. So he'll be here at 4:30. Man. We leave for Bahrain airport at 4:30. It's about 1-1/2 hours to get there no traffic. Doing the math in my mind, 6:00, no problem, if there's no traffic. So of course, once I say that, there's traffic. The ticket says we have to be checked in no later than 1 hour before flight. Man, man, man. Everyone in Saudi goes to Bahrain Wednesday night, either to go home, party, or fly out. Like us. We leave the gate at 6:20, and start driving to the airport. Ok, we're good if there's not traffic here. Road work ahead, one lane road. ARGHHH! WHY!?? "Hey, drive like a Saudi, like you own the road, we don't have time to be nice" OK, here we go, cutting off people left and right, honking, and pushing it. We get to the check in counter at 6:52. We're in the middle east, no one goes by this requirement that closely. We get greeted, smile, breath a sigh of relief, and go to the gate. No big deals going to the gate, we get there with 20 minutes till take off. The plane's delayed, so we have an hour anyway. ARGHHHH! WHY!???. Enough time to eat I suppose. I have a yogurt that had been in my bag all day. Eh, what's the worst that could happen? It's all bacteria anyways. And it was good. No problem. Stomach of steel. One of the Saudi's, not anyone I know, is quite trashed, and doesn't speak any English, but he does like talking to people who look white. He catches one of the white guys, and says something, does the awkward turtle symbol, does a swimming signal, and then laughs his ass off. No idea what he said. One of the guys translates. "He said he cannot swim, and if the plane crashes, he's going to jump on top of you, and you will swim him to shore." Haha, hah? Alcohol's a hell of a drug. We all secretly hope we don't have to sit next to him on the plane.
Flight's uneventful, I watched "The Sitter." Hilarious toilet humor. How do you get an 9 year old girl to say "I sharded" in a movie? Awesome. So was the vodka redbulls on the plane. We're ready to party!
Let's go to the hotel. Welcome to the "Taj," the only 5 star hotel in the slums of Dubai, known as "Old Dubai." We have a 3 bedroom apartment, freaking huge room, and includes a servant's bedroom. Full kitchen, and balcony. It's very nice. The TV said hello Mr. Dang on the screen. I didn't get to take a picture of it, :-(. We unpack, and decide to go out and party. Clubs and bars, no matter where you go in the world, same stuff. Loud music, expensive booze, and lots of smoke. It was kinda fun. We close out the bar, since we get there late, and get ready for tomorrow. Two of the guys want to sleep in, and I want to go siteseeing. Me and the poor guy who got the short end of the stick (in the servant's room) go check out downtown old dubai. I took a bunch of the street pictures you may have seen. For some reason, I like the ground looking up picture.
Downtown Dubai
Everything's closed in the morning, well until at least 10:00. We walk around, car rentals are quite cheap for what they are. 300 bucks a day for a porche, no insurance, or anything needed. Hmm, maybe next time. We walk around, and move towards the subway. The subway is pretty intuitive, and nice. It cuts through the middle of the city, and connects one side of the city to the other. Cheap too, a buck fifty to go from one side to the other. We decide to go to the mall. Mall, just like everywhere else, freaking huge. Took forever to walk just from one side to the other, let alone check everything out. We did see the infamous "Ski-Dubai" the only indoor ski place I can think of. It's pricey. Same price as a lift ticket, only there are 2 runs. And they look short. We don't have time to maximize the 180 dollars, so that'll be next time. We get some McDonalds, and start heading back. We have to go to see the Burj Khalifa in a couple hours. And I need a suit to get in. This is going to be expensive. My friend who's been there, knows how to get a good suit for a good price. We go to a suit place, and I see one I like. How much? 5000 AED. (Same as Saudi Money, divide by 3.75). No freaking way. Uh, do you have something, uh, more frugal? Yes sir, come with me upstairs. Alright, the stuffy room upstairs. At least the price is better. 450 AED. I can do this. But of course, they do the ridiculous price versus normal. I think they said it retailed for 4500 AED, now marked down to 450. Riiight. Special price just for me. But it's suit, pants, shirt, tie, and they'll cut it to size the same day. 600 AED. Done. Slight pinstripes, and it's an Italian suit. Can't be bad right? Well, I can't find it on the internet, so I'm assuming it's the Walmart of Italian suits, but hey, who needs to know that? Just the people who read this blog. Screw the rest. I look good.
So, every time I plan something, I really need to double check the times. Twice. And then get someone else to confirm. I though the tickets were for 2:50. Not 1:50. We waddle back to the apartment at 1:00, joke around a little bit, and around 1:30 I look at the ticket. CRAP. NOT AGAIN! ARGHH!!!! WHY?!!! Tickets are non-refundable, and non-transferrable. Go, go go!! We all run out of the hotel, one of the guys just went to go take a nap. He was rudely awakened. We hop into a Taxi, and I tell the driver, 50 buck extra if you can get us there in 15 minutes. He hauls ass, driving like a maniac, and we get there with 5 minutes left. It's on the other side of the mall. A very big mall. The picture below is a picture of the mall. We had to run from one side to the other. And scale wise, you can tell we ran quite a ways.
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Dubai Mall
So, we plan ahead, I have someone check twice, my reservation, and we have plenty of time to get there. The taxi drops us off, and we are surrounded by luxury super cars, greeted with fleet of Rolls Royce's, and the most ridiculous lobby ever. All the gold you see in the picture, is real. No joke, gold foil, under an epoxy. It is literally breathe taking. You can tell why this place is $3000 a night. I wouldn't pay it, but it's nice, very nice. Unfortunately, one of us, decides to go for the cool hipster look, rather than the business casual, which is required to get in. Apparently a backwards cap, hollister shirt, pre-torn jeans and headphones is not appropriate at a nice restaurant. Who knew? He didn't have any other clothes, so we were hoping his charm would get him in. Nope. We ask to see the manager, and ask if there's anything he can do for us. He see's that the guy is from KSA, and mumbles something about being ignorant, and sees us Americans. He's french, makes some cowboy joke, sees that we're cool, and offers us a private room instead of being out in public. Hey, that's awesome. We can't tell if Kobe Bryant is here, but at least we get to eat. The ambiance is stupid nice as well. We don't get to see the main aquarium, but we get our own section of aquarium. Also nice. Regular fish though. They aren't gold foiled.
Food: It's nice. Good, gourmet quality for sure. I didn't take pictures of the menu, which sucks. But the food pictures are quite nice. Makes my mouth water for sure. Here's my favorite:
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Fresh Oyster, with Caviar, Parsley Foam, and sprinkles of Gold Foil
Salmon, oysters with a parsley foam and edible gold foil, (I couldn't find any. My waiter kept on pointing but I didn't see it. I think he's just saying it) oyster soup, with egg white, Scallop with fried arugula, and truffle, with potato cake, and a Parmesan doily. Pumpkin and fig soup. Scallop in a rich broth, can't remember what. Seafood medley (actually disappointing, kinda bland compared to everything else), mango puree in sponge cake, in a white chocolate shell, and some awesome chocolate thing. I gave up chocolate for lent. I got fruit. ARGHH!!!! WHY?!!! Haha. The drinks were nice, expensive. You knew exactly the markup on it, so that was kinda sad, but complimented the meal nicely. Total damage, 5500 AED. Man, you gotta play hard sometimes. I won't be doing it anytime soon, but, that was awesome. We take some more pictures from the hotel, and head back. We go to a Filipino bar, listen to some old school rock. Man, they're good, no accent when singing, but very thick accent when they talk. It's a nice way to end the night, very quiet. I'm spent. I hit the bed, don't even move until the morning.
Next day, I'm ready to party again, our flights late, and we have a day to conquer. Someone at the beginning of the trip thought it'd be a good idea to buy alot of milk, vodka, and beer. We have to check out in 3 hours. Don't want to waste it. We all give it the college try, while trying to find a nice brunch. I'm feeling great now. Maybe too great. We decide to go to the Marriot, where they have a good assorted brunch. One of the guys wants pizza. For brunch? Whatever. We go there, there's a nice car outside, good sign. I'm still feeling good, and the bar's open. There's always time for a beer. We get a beer, while waiting for brunch to be open. It's noon, so it's legitimate. No judging. The bartender was nice enough to deal with two loud mouth Americans trying to spit game, so that's nice of her for sure. We eat brunch, it's quite nice, and there's all you can mimosa. Man, that's too much for me. We eat, drink, and are quite merry. I go to take a brief nap, I won't say where, but it's for an hour or so. My friends finish their dessert round, and go find me, drag me out, and we head out. We go to the other mall, the Mall of the Emirates, trying to find a store for a friend, we fail, it's at the other mall, give up, grab subway, and head towards the airport, on time. The rest of the trip is actually quiet, nothing crazy on the way home, we're all tired, I'm hungover, and we all want to head home. One of the guys gets stuck in the wrong line, and takes an hour to clear customs. We got through in 20. He's super agitated, since the only reason the line was going slow was a apathetic customs agent. He wasn't in a rush at all. We head back, and I crash, ready to go to work the next day. Whew, heck of a weekend.
The following weekend was pretty quiet, a repeat in Bahrain, and Kobar. Ate some really good, cheap Indian food, paid for it later, the same way I always do with spicy food. I bought gifts for family, and friends. A nice watch too. Bought someone a slice of cake for their birthday, since they had to work. Sucks to work on your birthday. I've done that a few times. Hopefully it made her night. We'll see what happens next week. Might be quiet, but I know better than to say that now.
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Letter to *******,
So I don't know why, but I came across my "myspace" page from way back in the day. Looking through, yeah it's old, no one uses it, but I did come across some interesting things I typed back in the day. I think this one was 6 months from when I moved to Texas. I remember it was actually quite lonely. Trying to find a niche in a big city, in a small town was difficult. It wasn't until I moved into the city, was I able to find my niche, and find out where to go, and who to hang out with. It's a clear reflection of how I still think, mixed with a little bit of sadness. I kinda wish I could tell myself 5 years ago (that's how old it is, wow!) that it'll get better. Definitely different, but in a good way. I may not be married with kids, and all that, but I have more self confidence, have much better opportunities, and am in a spot to steer life how I want to, rather than to just float through life. I've always been determined at work, but not as directed with life. I can say that I'm in control of both, and know what I want. It's nice. Here's the excerpt. I still actually believe the universe theory mentioned below.
Its a funny thing these Sunday nights. I always seem to get insomnia on Sunday nights. Maybe its all the things I didn't get done during the weekend, or maybe the things I need to do this week. It always seems as though my mind is going a mile a minute, while the clock lethargically ticks away. Maybe that's why people get into diarys and such before they go to bed. I find myself to be a very organized person on paper, but not so much in real life. Maybe that's why I'm writing now.
Thoughts in my head at the moment:
1. The Kardashian family blows.
2. Why do people hermit themselves at times?
3. Playing sandlot style baseball is sweet.
4. Ankle bracing.
5. Training.
6. Old friends coming and going.
7. You.
It's funny that I still think about you sometimes. One day I will find words to express the complexity that I am still trying to unravel. Others say its so simple, but it isn't. It can't be. Can it? Is it? Is density and complexity the same thing? I don't know, but I know I spend these Sunday nights thinking about it.
I read somewhere online about infinite universe strings based off of decisions we make. It's a fun thought. Everyone has their own infinite number of universes everytime we choose to do something. Everytime we choose one or the other, the later universe plays itself out, but we in our frail human state just can't see it play out. Maybe that's what dreams are made of, our mind starting to pick apart these other universes. I do wonder what decision tree I had to follow to end up fighting Aliens at Walmart. Maybe it was just bad pizza. I'd like to think not. Somewhere I'm out there saving the world while keeping prices low. Hopefully not at the expense of human rights lol. Other nights though, you come up. Part of me wishes that these are universes that involve you and I in a different light. They can't be bad, we seem pretty content in these universes. On the other hand, (interjection, this is what we call optimistic realism, or maybe that idealistic cynicism, yeah put that in your pipe and smoke it) I think it has more to do with wishes and desires. Those occur in your dreams too. Logically this makes no sense at all. If it was that simple, then I shouldn't be dreaming this kind of stuff at all. I'd like to think it's subconscious, but sometimes its not. It's actually what keeps me up on Sunday nights. I think sometimes that there isn't a way to write how I feel on paper. I start writing hoping that the words will start flowing. They don't. It's probably more that I don't know how I feel. The internal struggle, the complexity of it all just boggles my mind. My personality revolves around logic, and things like this just don't make logical sense. That's why I struggle with it so badly. Maybe a poem that's really vague and full of imagery will encompass it all. Oh man, engineer + poetry = math equation? No, I don't think so.
So 5 years ago Huy, buck up, cheer up, don't eat so many of those Pot Pies, and know that Things Come together, even when they look like Things Fall Apart.
1. The Kardishians are still shallow, and make millions based on drama. Things like that don't change. Well until people stop being dramatic and shallow. Good luck with that.
2. Because they're afraid of the unknown. What's the worst that could happen? People that are mean probably are worth your time, or they're having a bad day.
3. Yes, yes it is. Great movie. And I remember playing that game with 3 people. Lots of running. Baytown good times.
4. Sprains suck.
5. Yup, I need to do that, I miss martial arts.
6. Yeah, but there's no reason why you can't instigate it. If they don't answer, then well, that sucks. Maybe they weren't as good of friends as you thought. At least your tried.
7. Like someone said, don't shed a tear that it's gone, smile that it happened. A better way of saying that better to have loved and lost than to have never have loved at all.
And I still remember the Walmart Aliens dream quite vividly. I had to run to go get an axe, but I needed someone to lay cover fire while I did it. And then I woke up. Man, I could have Rambo'd the heck out of that dream. Stupid work. Haha. 9 days until I come home. Lookin forward to it for sure, for sure. Armageddonbaconboozingfrostedminywheatmexicanfoodwomenwithoutcovers!
-Huy
-Huy
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