The Dubai Chronicles

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

the fool

day 1
the frequent flyer is back in me and it's time for another visa run. my flight going to kish from dubai was in the evening to a new chartered flight. this was the seventh time going back to that island. after waiting for hours at the airport, i've met a few of fellow kababayans who were going the same place. the usual talks were on how many times you've been in kish, what type of visas your getting when you're there, and how long you've been in uae. some people are confident and proud that they've stayed for months and knew the process already of going there. others... afraid and tense on what will happen to them. it's like you're on a mission to exile waiting for repatriation.

aria air has a new chartered flight from dubai to kish and i was booked on that airline. my expectations was it sucks after the delay of flight, waiting for two hours then boarding to 50-seater, twin-turboprop fokker plane. however, the smell of interiors was much better and the packaging of "snack" is ok. we went up to the skies, eat the snack then land. it was just a forty-five minute flight. upon arrival at the airport, things were the same once again with the long queues, harassment of taxicabs and shuttle bus drivers on which hotel to stay, and of course, bedbugs.

2-star (no stars for me) hotel with sharing bunks

shutter speed: 1/30 sec, aperture: f/5.6, iso: 400, focal length: 18mm, manual setting with external flash

after we found a place to stay, we went out for a little night out... shisha. shisha is a water pipe with flavored tobacco smoked and puffed. it cost only five dirhams and it lasts for an hour or two depending on how many "jam" with it. the usual uae experience and hangups were discussed once again on the shisha place.

usual hangout during the evening... shisha.

shutter speed: 1/20 sec, aperture: f/5.6, iso: 200, focal length: 18mm, manual setting with external flash

i listened to it over and over again and had enough of those stories. im not going to go for details but i have to give one advice though... don't believe in everything what people say about the good and easy life here if you don't want to be an april fool's day for the rest of your stay.

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