After US was rejected, Dubai got the great opportunity to say yes to me. Last year October I went to Dubai for a week, an official trip. That was my first abroad trip and first time travel in Wright brothers invention. I have never been traveled out of south India. So this was a really excited and interesting trip. We are team of 10 guys reached Dubai. Thankfully I got some interesting guys as my roommates.
After we got down, and started to Hotel from Airport I was surprised to see everything, For me the thoughts was like Dubai will have some tall buildings and all. But the city, traffic and everything was like well developed and what you call it as a super power country. The well maintained government and private taxis which look alike with beautifully designed(or advertised) car exteriors. As Goundamani says AC – yo – AC everywhere. AC in Bus stops, watchman room and even in rest rooms. Because of the hot temperature, which is the only worst thing in this country you would say.
Beautifully maintained lawns in road sides. If I have to show such a place something in Chennai, from what I’ve see so far is, DLF IT park where I work. The traffic system, man I’ve seen it only in movies. Vehicles slows down for pedestrians and always gives importance to pedestrians. If the signal is red, all vehicles will stop before 3ft of stop line. All because of strict traffic rules and people obeys it. Else you have to pay a lot and will get points for every violation.
My roommate got a friend there, so with the help of him I was able to visit some great places that includes some exotic Night clubs :P, Abu Dhabi. Also went to the Desert Safari which I recommend as ‘Do not miss it’ if you go to Dubai. Desert Safari is a great package which includes safari ride in desert, Quad bike, camel ride, belly dance with awesome Arabian dinner. All in the desert. Beach, where people come at morning with stuffs to cook food and spends a whole day there. Wow, that’s a life. Even though it was just 7 days trip It was unforgettable.
To my surprise I got another opportunity to travel to Gulf on last week, and this time it is Qatar and I got to travel alone. That’s also somewhat interesting. Again a short trip, just for 5 days. Here I was not able to explore more places, because of no company and don’t know any people. I heard about this Pearl Qatar and people said it will be very good place to see. I missed to see Palm houses at Dubai, these houses at Dubai was just awesome, each house has a swimming pool, and when you come at just outside each house, you have the beach. Take a look at these pictures of Palm tree houses at Dubai. So I don’t want to miss this at Qatar. I hired a taxi and got down and this place. Well, I really do not aware of where I was standing, so walked around enjoyed to see the stuffs around there, took some pictures. Came back to hotel, checked Google maps to find out where exactly I was standing and roaming. Ok I was there and seen the houses built above the sea water by filling sands.
One thing which is common in both Dubai and Qatar, you can hardly find the local people. Most of the people living there are from Asia and Africa. Well at least I have found more local people at Qatar than Dubai, but for my work related activities I have only talked to Asian people. Most of them are from India, specially from Kerala(man they have contract with these Gulf countries or what), Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Africa. These Gulf guys will never be an employee, they will only be an employer it seems. You can never find a taxi driver who is a citizen of Dubai or Qatar. It seems this is same in all the Gulf countries.
I was just amazed and could just dream for such a life at India some day. At least the roads and traffic.