Am i driving on the right side?

Living in Dubai, mean i'll be driving on the left of the car and on the right side of the road. Am i driving on the right side? No idea! In malaysia, i'm driving on the right side of the car and on the left side of the road. Confusing eh? Well the very first time i drove on Dubai road, it does confuse me a bit, not used to have the door on my left side. Used to have girl on my left side, doing something interesting while i'm driving.. wink! wink!

Anyway, driving experience here on a smooth road is wonderful... if you're driving alone on a 6lanes speedway. Max 120kmh limit with loads of fully functioning speed camera (speedtrap summon is around dh210! And no discount!). Well, that's wishful thinking. The mean speedway, the back bone on Dubai is called Sheikh Zayed Road and it's a behemoth 6lanes highway. Here you can see the speed demon driving on the most right side of the road. The Asian, driving on the middle lane. The everyday peoples driving on left lane, and then middle lane, and then right lane and then on the line between two lane and then suddenly hit the break, and honking every now and then. That's the worst of being on the road in Dubai. Majority peoples living here, are not as developed as the nation itself, in term of self-attitude. And this make everyday commuting on Dubai road is a hazardous exercise. That's one of the main reason i don't like it here. Friends said Dubai is nice place to stay, well indeed, but not quite. A nice place to stay, in my vocabs mean, the peoples and places are nice. Here, only the places are nice, but nice for the rich peoples. The peoples... hmmm sad. The weather.... sunny, only good for the laundry. Will i stay here in a long run? NOPE!

One thing appealed to my liking is the car. Well car over here are generally cheap as there're no form of tax. You get to but a Lamborghini Gallardo for Dh690k (in Msia i think around RM1.5mil or more), a Mini Cooper S at Dh100k, a Golf GTi at Dh110k, a Proton Waja 1.6 at Dh39k, a Harley Davidson V-Rod at Dh77k and so on and so forth. Kinda cheap eh? But one need to have a resident visa to buy one, and as for me, i'm still on travelling visa. And for Malaysian, every person are allowed to import in one vehicle per person, but proof has to be made to show that one has stayed in a Country for more than 6months and owned the vehicle for more than 6months (i think, Ma'am Rafidah will know better). Well, tempting, but one problem, all vehicle here are left hand drive and Malaysia road system are right hand drive.

So come to the question? Am i driving on the right side? I'm driving on the right in Malaysia, but is it right? And i'm driving on the left here, but am i wrong? The British, French and American will know how to answer best in this matter.

Story goes ways back in year before car was made known to mankind. Peoples ride horse and cart. In Britain, for dunno wutsoever reason, the Brits rode on the left side of the road. When they joist (dunno how to spell, the sport where two knights go up on each other arse on a horse with a long wooden pole), the hold the pole-thingy on the left hand and the right hand old the horse steering (wut's the thing on horse-neck called eh?), so when they design a car, the Brits decided to drive on the right. So, when they set on the conquest around the world, they spread the how and what they ride in Britain. As for French peoples, they are known to dislike their British neighbor. So to retaliate, they decide not to follow the Brits and ride on the left, instead of right hand. They too, spread around the world (at least to the world they used to conquer) the way people should ride. And when the Brits went to Northern America, they fought with the Yanks and the Yanks made allies with French, so they too don't want to follow the way the Brits ride. So there you go, some lesson in driving not thought at driving school. Luckily, most of the Nation in this world decided on driving on the left or on the right.

What if someone come up with and idea, that the driver of a vehicle should be sitting on the back? Well, in Malaysia, we already practise that method years and years ago, till today. Go to Penang and you'll see some of the trishaw are of such design. 'Driver' at the back, and passenger at the front.

Shhooott... that's a Chinese design....

Misery Need Company....

Friday the 25th May 2007. A big day for someone on the other side of the globe and a gloomy day for me. I'm living in city where the sun shine almost 365days a year, but my day today was gloomed. I stay whole day in the room, doing nuthing but watching movies (pirated version of course!). Woke up at 11am and cook scramble egg with cheese and french fries and ate it as brunch with a French guy.

For the past week, i was stationed at work site near to Burj Dubai (or Dubai Tower) which will be the tallest building in the world. Rumour has it the height will reach 1000m. And it is that damn high! The weather everyday i think reached 45 degree Celsius, eventhough on the radio it always stay at 37deg C. The sun somehow did find a way to penetrate the spf50 sunblock i had on my skin and burnt my skin. Anyway, since i'm already here in Dubai, just have to learn to live with the heat. And everyday, i'm counting the day i'll be going back to my country, Malaysia. There's a saying "Eventhough it rain gold in people country, rain stone in your own country is way better" (I know, the word doesn't rhyme and the grammar's broken, but that's what we called direct translation from a Malay saying). Each day, i'm wanting to go home and be with my life, and each day peoples asked me, "Do you like Dubai?", i'll say, "naaaah.. i don't like it and nuthing here is good for me, Malaysia is way better". Frankly, till now, i can't think of a valid reason why people come and live here.

And when you are away from your country where you were brought up, you tend to lost contact with peoples you know. Well, not exactly lost contact, but for instant, most of my friends are married, or about to be married or busy with boyfriend, busy with their own life, busy shopping for boyfriend birthday present and yada yada yada.... but at certain extent, you do feel that you've lost everyone! That's when you'll feel damn lonely. And i did! I don't blame on this, as when i decided to leave Malaysia and go to any country, i was branded as a runaway. Sometimes, an email from home is the most item i look forward when i get online. Or an sms from close friend early in the morning (Dubai is minus 4hours from Malaysia, so whoever sent me sms at 8am, will somehow wake me up at 4am here, and my message ringtone is a cute laughter voice of Eddin and a mommy cat! Which cheer me up everytime i receive a message). A call from Malaysia, that's a wonderful feeling! But these are just my wanting. Well i do can call my friends and say hi, but it get too frustated when your effort to place the long distance call goes unanswer. And i was even charged a one minute charge (abour Dh2.50) as the voicemail start to get connected.

Anyway, as i've said, peoples back home have their own errand at hand, and i can't expect them to be available everytime i need someone to talk to. Tomorrow is a weekend anywhere else in the world but here. I'll be working tomorrow.. suck! And i bet, i'll be sitting at the site, watching the Indian worker do their things and me wondering of my own future. A future which i still can't see really clear. Kudos to all my friends who already has a family (or families) and whoever about to start one.

9.10pm now, and it's time to dine. Nuthing special but i think me n Cedric (the French guy) will be going to Mall of the Emirates to get something to eat... and clense our eyes!

..and the journey continue

23rd May 2007. The first day i'm writting on this blog. I usually wrote my rants on Friendster.com but for no apparent reason, in UAE, it's difficult to view my own blog.

I've been here in Dubai since 16th April 07 and my first impression bout this city started to change. When i first step my foot in Abu Dhabi airport, i was amazed with the car passing thru at the arrival area. While accompanying this new stewardess-to-be, named Natasya from Malaysia for few minutes, i get to see there're at least 5 Porsche Cayenne past in front of me. And for the past months, the only thing which is nice to see here in Dubai is the cars. It's cheap here. No road tax whatsoever. And that makes the traffic here kinda pathetic. Dubai is a small city, and basically the whole world is living inside it. Name any nationality, and you can find it easily in Dubai, especially Indian, Phillippine, Pakistan and Arab. But where are the locals?

So far, i've been to Deira Old Souq and i like it. Doesn't really make me feel like i'm in UAE, but more to New Delhi. Bought my new Sony T100 there with a good bargain. I've been to Mall Of The Emirates, well basically i go to the MOE every week! I live in Umm Suqeim area, which is 20minutes jog to Burj Al Arab, so MOE is kinda near and they house Carrefour, a place to buy all the food for the Villa. I've been to Ibn Battuta Mall, nice mall. Will go there again in the near future, and this time will bring my T100. Where else? hmmm clubbing? Yet to go to any posh club in Dubai (and there're a lots! More than Malaysia) but been to a pub full of Phillippino's, beer is cheap, so i don't really care bout the crowd. Last weekend (that'll be thursday nite) i when to a pub in York Hotel at BurDubai. Full of prostitutes, Russian, African, Chinese. Had a few pints of Kilkenny and Guiness with an Indian friend. Was approach by a couple of young Russian lady, tempted (and with a free treat offered y my friend) but it's just me... sex for money or money for sex doesn't really my way.... just need the beer. Planned to go for dessert safari, maybe in a week or two and bought a ticket to watch Aerosmith on 31st May at Exile Rugby Club (yet to know where's the exact location though). I'll have to go to Oman next month to stamp my passport as i'm only allowed to stay for 60days in UAE.

There're some activities which are to my interest! Sky diving, which i plan to do it in December, perhap on 15 Dec (damn, there'll go DH1,100) and air ballon ride (damn again, another DH850) maybe in November (perhap on the 9th) and upon obtaining my working Visa, getting (buying) a Harley Davidson. Oh yeah, hop on the Big Bus Tour of Dubai, just to have a glimpse of places of interest here in Dubai. Lotsa plan, but i dunno if i do want to stay here for that long. Because, other than what i've mentioned and shopping, yup... shopping is great here and can't wait til coming Dubai Shopping Festival in December (i think), for me Dubai is not a good place to stay.

Things here are expensive, i think more than Singapore. Peoples here.. hmm well don't really want to comment bout that as most of the comments will be negative. And it is HOT! Today, the temperature in the noon i think is 45deg Celsius. It's burning my brain, but for the sake of earning some extra quids compare to working in Malaysia, well, just gotta be brave and bold. Anyhow, i'll give myself, say a year to get a good feel of Dubai since peoples say that the weather is nice during winter (snow in the desert?). After which i'll re-evaluate of where i wanna head next (australia is still one of the place though), or head back to Malaysia and rearrange my life.

My life, for the past couple of days or so, has more or less melted! Things happened back home in Kuala Lumpur, which not supposed to be of my concern, but it did. I guess i gotta pull all the strenght i could and push forward. Some might say, no matter how much you love a soul, you might be together to walk her on the field of barley. I left the Country, to run away from peoples and thing was going just fine, till it dawn to me that there's hill for me to climb. I wish God will send me an Angel. Far fetch, i know.

Hmm i miss Malaysia... the foods, the peoples, my friends, good vibes, my family and she (the most).