Search

My travels abroad (3) Trip to Africa (7)

Home /
  • Blog/
  • May 18, 2023

    My travels abroad (3) Trip to Africa (7)

    Leaving Cairo, we flew to Dubai via Mumbai. Originally, we were supposed to return to China directly, but due to airfare problems, we need to transfer back to China from Dubai, so chairman decided to visit our clients in Dubai.

    During trip to Dubai, there was an episode in Mumbai, that is, ticket was not revalidated, so I could not board plane. When I was in Cairo, I called by phone to confirm our itinerary and tickets, I usually do this and confirm seats day before departure. But when we flew to Mumbai we were told that tickets to Dubai had to be validated after confirmation otherwise we would not be able to arrange seats. This is different than usual, no way, after talking to airport, they asked us to wait for notification, and spent four hours anxiously waiting for a connecting flight. I remember that almost before boarding plane, airport told us that initially, according to schedule, economy class was full and there were no seats, but there were still seats in business class, and there were exactly five seats, because landing was very close, and these five seats would be unavailable. Someone else took flight, after their agreement, given our actual situation, they gave us a free upgrade and still took same flight to Dubai. It's really a great thing, I didn't expect anything to go wrong and such a good thing, it's really lucky and it also added fun to our boring plane trip and at same time enjoyed luxurious service in UAE business class hangkong.

    Located in middle of Middle East, Dubai is a flat desert land overlooking Persian Gulf. It is one of seven emirates of United Arab Emirates. It is also synonymous with luxury. The streets are full of luxury. cars, and shops full of goods at high prices. , Everywhere luxury. I really can't imagine such a trendy city standing in desert.

    After arriving in Dubai, a major customer of our company came to pick us up to visit his home, and chairman also took opportunity to meet this major customer overseas. Since they are corporate clients, presidents of two banks were not involved in our activities. I remember a client driving a BMW, which in those days was considered a luxury car. When I came to client's house, area was very large, front yard was full of flowers and plants, living room and room were in middle, and there was a swimming pool in back, it was a luxury configuration of house. First look. The hostess enthusiastically arranged a sumptuous dinner for us. During dinner, client also introduced us to some things to do in Dubai, saying that in Dubai, children can start from kindergarten and go to same school until they graduate from high school. Excellent academic performance also allows you to directly enter headquarters of European and American universities to continue your studies after graduation. UAE residents in Dubai enjoyi got all free benefits yiliao. They said that if they were born in dubai, even if they didn't work or didn't work, they would live pretty well just on aid money. In addition, he said that law and order is also all right here, and there is no petty theft. He said that even if you carry a transparent bag of money and walk down street, no one will stop you, and no one will look at you and say that this is a crime, this is normal behavior, and no one will think about it.

    In Dubai, we also visited some of local attractions such as mall, Sharjah Cultural Center, etc. and also took a look around street. In Dubai in 1998 there was no Burj Khalifa and Burj Al Arab had not yet opened, but this did not diminish importance of this city in any way. It is an important transit port. Most of our country's flights to Africa and Europe in those years had transfers here.

    In Dubai, I remember that in order to save money and reduce cost of one room, chairman and I lived in same room. There are no standard rooms in hotels, only a large room with a large bed, and in principle there are no two single-sex rooms. Thus, it was first time that two men, one at head and other at head, had to sleep together after so many business trips, fortunately, it was only two nights, not long.

    After two days in Dubai, we flew back to China via Kuala Lumpur and moved on to Shanghai. The trip to Africa ended happily.