Europe Trip Diary : Day 3 Part 1 (Dubai Airport)

Hi guys...

Actually i feel like crying right now, i've written this third post of my Europe trip two days ago for hours, it was all done and ready to be published, i was going to write the second part and publish the first part just now and somehow (i'm sure i didn't delete it!!!) it was gone. Poufff... Just like that. WTFFFFF HUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHU!!!! All of my hard workkkkk huhuhuhuhuu... So now i have to re-write everything huhuhuhuhu.....

Hishh... There's nothing i can do anyway, crying also won't bring the stupid post back right :(... ZZZ... I remember i had to apologize because on the last post i promised you that you'd finally read about Europe on this entry, but when i was selecting (and resizing, cropping and hitting the Auto Correct button, that's as far as my editing skill goes) the photos on Dubai airport i realize, that's just isn't happening *LOL*. So, this entry is solely dedicated for our time stranded in Dubai airport at dawn :p.

But you won't be seeing a lot of pictures of my face in this entry. As soon as the put your seat belt sign was off i wiped every trace of make up i had on (with TFS Facial and Eyes&Lips Make Up Remover Wipes, they worked pretty well although needed some work when it comes to waterproof make up like mascara), but i didn't cam-whore much not because i was bare faced (in fact i am not the kind of person who's afraid of going bare-faced, yes i do go to the mall bare-faced occasionally. I think i look the same, with or without make up, i am just super pale-ghostly pale without make up) but it was the combination of lack of sleep, puffiness, not being able to shower for a whole day and super oily and limp hair-the salon blow dry didn't help AT ALL. In short i was completely un-presentable. LOL. Since i couldn't cam-whore (much), i made hunny did *LOL*, you'll see quite a lot of his face in this entry for a change.

When the day changed, i was still somewhere up in the air, like i said i only slept for two hours, i jerked awake somehow after two hours. Couldn't go back to sleep so i went to watch another horror movie :p (what's with me with long haul flights and horror movies?? No lah, i just love horror movies-full stop :p), The Apparition. It was even worse than Sinister lah!!! Not at all scary, only weird and confusing haha. Too bad because the casts were smoking hot! Ashley Greene was HOT, Sebastian Stan was HOT, and there's Draco Malfoy... I mean Tom Felton :p! It was funny seeing Alice from Twilight and Draco from Harry Potter, i kept on waiting for them to start flying (with and without broomstick) or something *LOL*.

Oh, i forgot to tell you, our original seat was around lots of babies (who kept on crying or making a lot of noises..), and we were wedged in the middle seat, one person on each side. I really HATE not getting an aisle seat (and i almost never did in the entire trip WTF, only once and for a very short flight!!! FML), i constantly needed to go to the toilet (plus it was cold lah on the airplane) and we had to kept on disturbing people beside us to get out of our seats, so uncomfortable.

Not only that, the little girl in front of us kept on blabbering and at some point sprayed saliva all over our face. OMG!!! I know she's a little girl and all but you cannot blame me for being completely grossed out! Thank God the plane's not full (at all actually), there were a lot of empty seats behind so we moved to the back and that's when i finally fell asleep (for two hours, i repeat!).

The flight was around 7 hours or so, we left Singapore at 9 something at night, but because of the time difference it was not too long after midnight local time when we arrived in Dubai. We had no tour leader with us and almost all of the other members of the group that was with us were uncles and aunties. Nobody had been to Dubai airport before, and one of the worst thing about traveling with uncles and aunties? They were so afraid of getting lost of separated, the won't let us out of their sights! FOL!

Naturally young (ish) people likes to explore right, as soon as we touched down Dubai i wanted to go round and see the airport, but they kept on asking us to wait "stick together, stick together!", pfffft.... There were so many people to wait for and they took forever in the bathroom haish... 

As we waited for them, we cam-whored a little bit (we also kept on trying to find backgrounds with Arabic writings, anything to show that we were in UAE lah!). To be honest with you, both L and i actually didn't mind at all that we had to take a de-tour and transit at Dubai. I mean... Dubai is one of our future destinations lah, so we were actually glad we'd be able to visit it for a bit. Not visit Dubai lah, just the airport i know, but it was quite an "appetizer" lah, at least we'd be able to get a little glimpse of Dubai, even if we never left the airport. Better than nothing lah haha. 

Hahaha, i know, the picture is so dark you can't even see my face (which is good :p!), that's because of all of the lights from the screen lah, but what's important is you get to see all those Arabic words behind us, that's the point my friend! The arrival area was deserted so i wasn't shy to take pictures (coz there was nobody to be shy of!)

Long and huge lanes in Dubai arrival area, see the wall clock? They were all Rolex lah WTF

When all of the aunties and uncles finally ready to move on, we began our search for the transit and departure area. Like i said, it was deserted, there was not too many people we could find to ask for directions for. Plus, the local staff wasn't all that friendly or helpful, nor did they speak English well. Thankfully there was (Emirates, it was dominated almost completely by Emirates) a Chinese staff who was very friendly and pointed us out to the right direction!

The first thing we saw when we finally arrived at the departure area was Costa Coffee. I was kinda bloated and gassy, so being a true blue Indonesian i wanted to take a jamu (Indonesian herbs concoction) called Antangin, we stopped by to buy some water. It was quite expensive, i am not surprised, i've been told before that everything is expensive in Dubai (a friend and her husband used to live there).

Expensive Dubai water *LOL*

Eek also wanted to buy some and he made a mistake, instead of taking thee regular water (like what i got), he got himself an Evian. It was USD 3 *LOL*. None of us obviously brought any Dirham (we weren't planning on going to UEA!), thankfully they accepted USD. But Eek only brought bigger bills (USD 100) and they would only give you change in AED, and we wouldn't need so much AED right!!! Then he tried using his credit card! (for non-Indonesian, we don't normally use credit card to pay for such small amount of money, there are even minimum payments in Indonesia for using credit card, if you buy below the minimum payment then you cannot use credit card, so him trying to pay USD 3 with credit card was pretty hilarious for us!), but his card was declined! FHL!

Actually it was not uncommon, Indonesian credit cards company are so pathetic, most of our cards were unable to be used in Europe (all four of us experienced the same thing at some point) because we didn't call the banks before to declare we were going abroad (doesn't apply to South East Asia or other Asian countries like Hong Kong/China, we never had any problem using them there). 

Thankfully i brought small bills (USD 1 and 5) and was nice enough to lent him some. I know some people who would let him be, considering what a douchebag he is. I'm such a pushover *sigh*.

Anyway, i made hunny pose in front of Costa Coffee with Arabic signs :p.

Eek was like "WTF? You got nothing to do ah? There are a lot of Costa Coffee in Jakarta!". I told him i DON'T care, it's the Arabic writings i was looking for! And his reply was "Then i want one too!". WTF indeed.

LOL. Don't be confused, that's just the way he rolls :p. But you should start to be annoyed already LOLOL. i have a lot more stories about him and his obnoxiousness. Like, how he likes to tell people they are stupid, and how he loves to talk nonsense and when people protested he'd reply "I don't careeee", but when other people are talking nonsense (and not even to him) he'd tell them "Is it important? So unimportant!" Yeah, he also likes calling people not unimportant *LOL*. His favorite story to repeat about me? "I'd be calling my wife, asking her where she is. She'd say TP, i'd ask whom with, she'd say #Pink. I'd immediately say sooo unimportant. Really really unimportant." WTF is that even means? LOL.

Enough about Eek for now, when we were looking for our gate area we found a lot of bed-styled seats (i guess because Dubai is very often being a transit place, there were also showers, i would've brought my shower kits with me if i knew and washed my hair! I wasn't sweating so not showering is not a problem but my hair was really yucky already!) and hunny immediately lain in one and made me took his picture. LOL.

He's a total closet cam-whore, don't you think?

Found the gate area and sat around for a bit while waiting for Eek continuously trying to use his credit card (it kept on being rejected, of course. Once rejected you won't be able to use it again in the same country lah :p). Despite looking every bit yucky, i wanted to to show you how the waiting area looked so i made hunny took my pictures :p.

See the guy taking picture in the back? That's Fahmi, the young doctor i mentioned before *LOL*

Oh, i saw this! Emirates "Barbie"!

Sorry lah, i'm always excited whenever i see Hello Kitty, Barbie or something like that :p

We went to explore the airport afterward, it was pretty nice but not as nice as Changi obvi (where is??), not too many shops either. I mean, there were some, including huge Duty Frees, but i wasn't interested in branded shops, so there were not a lot of shops to see for me. I was looking for some pimple creams (developed a very painful zit on my chin) but they didn't have any at the drug store, so weird, don't Arabian get zits? LOL.

I was also looking at drugstore cosmetics but the choices was very limited. I mostly looked for an eyeliner, but they were super expensive lah! (a lot more expensive than in Singapore, let alone Indonesia!) I mean, i wouldn't want to buy a Revlon eyeliner that i could find in Indonesia for twice the price! I was desperate but not that desperate!

My goal for this trip in the shopping department was to buy drug store (or at least affordable) make up brands that i couldn't find in Asia (Dubai is in Asia i know, i'm talking about the rest of the trip okay), but it was proven to be a pretty hard task when you're with a tour group *LOL*. 

Anyway, the cosmetics were really un-buyable in Dubai but the bath and body cares were okay priced, i was also attracted to a Car shower gel (for Baby Boy) but it was quite big and i was worried if they'd let us bring it to the cabin (coz we won't get our checked-in luggage until Amsterdam), the attendant told us (with difficulties) that we could, as long as Amsterdam was our final destination, but i decided not to risk it.

Would prefer to try local food but couldn't find any restaurants that serves them fast enough so we decided to eat... McD! *LOL*. Dunno what mealtime it was, probably supper? LOL. It was near dawn i think. McD is okay too, we do like to try McD in other countries too *LOL* (do you know that there's no McD in Vietnam?)

It was McD but we're in Dubai leh, so must try something at least local-inspired right?

McArabia

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It was something like tortilla lah, with some aromatic Arabic herbs and spices i guess, it was pretty good. Oh, their chilli sauce was weird, tasted exactly like ketchup but hot O___O.

Hunny liking it

We only had the McArabia+Fries with coke to split, that cost us:

USD 10. Could easily get two or more McD sets in Indonesia *LOL*. I know i know, shouldn't compare, must spend like the locals spend. But how not to compare? I cannot lah *LOL*, am i weird? 

After we were done with McD we walked around and found a place which i believed to be a tourist information center. It was deserted with a lot of cam-whoring spots (with Arabic culture illustrations), we weren't sure if taking pictures were allowed, and it was so well arranged we were afraid of sitting in the area, but the signs all said "No Sleeping!" but not "Do not sit!". (Turned out it was ok, i guess they built is for taking pictures purposes. I was just being paranoid lah, wouldn't want some scary Arabian guard to pop out and threw us out!). Cam-whoring session ahead, hunny sitting in for my position *LOL*.

Hunny with his harems *LOL*

Now with his bodyguards :p

Harem style, LOL

Okay, here's one of me :p.

Still too afraid to step in *LOL*

We then found an M&M store. What i love about M&M stores (although i don't love their chocolate, i'm not crazy about chocolate lah, i just eat them when i'm PMS-ing *LOL*) is they always incorporated the country they are in to the store's decors. We asked the nice attendant if we could take pictures there and he said "Sure, go ahead!", we needed no more persuasion!

A flight attendant passed by and told Eek to kiss the M&M on the lips *LOL*

Hunny with M&M Seikh :p

The attendant didn't mind us just taking pictures there but i was embarrassed by his niceness, i browsed around and tried to find something to buy. I ended up buying a bag of Bounties (if i have any weakness for chocolate, that would be a coconut-filled ones! Do you like Bounties?).

Was super tired and getting sleepy by then, went back to the gate area and tried to sleep, i dozed off but kept on waking up because sleeping in two benches of chairs brought face to face (for our legs) wasn't very comfortable! So we decided to look for empty bed-style chairs (which is a bit hard to find, they were mostly occupied already), as soon as i found one and parked my ass, i went to dreamland! Hunny said i slept soundly and never woke up until L's flight landed and she herself materialized  beside me!

L said she couldn't sleep and had a fever on her flight, but she looked a lot more normal than i did *she wasn't puffy like me, i could put puffer fishes to shame by then*, we went to brush our teeth and change. I actually didn't change (too lazy :p), but i added a layer of brown knitted top because our next destination is Amsterdam and it'd be chilly!

L then dragged me to retrace our earlier steps, visiting the shops and then forced me to cam-whore with her at the tourist information center. It was morning already and the place was crowded with tourists taking pictures.

There were local staffs dressed in Arabic robes and L asked one to take a picture with us. The guy was embarrassed and was like "But why...?" but agreed to do so. Well, because of your outfit lah sir! Also because you're kinda hot haha. I had to cropped myself out of the picture because i looked horrible beyond belief, but here's the picture of L and the Arabic gentleman.

He really is handsome, isn't he? Even better looking IRL

Dunno why people kept on forcing me to pose like this... Eek did the same earlier *___*

Hunny put on his new leather jacket by now and i dunno, i just find him 1000% hotter in jackets and suits *LOL*. Got some Korean actor vibe coming out of him LOLOL. That's not my opinion, that's the 12 aunties'. They kept on gushing about him looking like Bae Yong Jun (actually, we heard this before so i'm not surprised LOL). They also kept on asking him if he's half Korean LOL. They repeat this so often i got sick of it at some point zzzz. We'll get to that LOL.

L started to complain that she was hungry so we searched for some food, she ended up buying some real expensive kebabs.

I didn't try any, but all three of them said i was... well, Donner Kebab (an Indonesian kebab chain stores) was much better LOL. I guess authentic food is not always easy to accept? LOL. L said it was really bland, hunny said it was inhumanly sour-but that's L's doings, she drizzled lemons all over it. She said it was to get rid of the mutton's smell :p.

Well, even if she didn't like it she had to finish it because it was very expensive! LOL! We were called to board the plane for our flight to Amsterdam soon after, so i'm going to stop now, part two would be all about the rest of the day in Amsterdam! Please look forward to it :D! Toodles for now..

#Pink