The Adventures of Jas the Opossum - Part 1

The roses are blooooming! The rabbits are fluffy, the sun is shining, and the grass is cloud-soft! Am currently in the best of moods! *G*

How is it that some things are able to inspire you to such mood-extremes? But so long as it's a good extreme, then what right have I to complain? And depending on certain factors, I'll probably remain in this blissful state of near-euphoria for the next three days, at least. *G*

Right. I know I said I would write some days ago, but the computer crashed (again!) and brilliant us (me and siblings) forgot (again!) to back-up our more recent files. *grumbles* So because I was in a merajuk mood, although I have a laptop, I was boycotting all computer-leisure related activities. Hah! Irrational, I concede, but if the pissed-off-ness has degraded so much that you've gone into merajuk mood, it's obvious that you've given up all claim to rationality. N'cest pas?

My birthday passed without .. incident. Thank God. My (non-immediate) family can be somewhat demented. Thanks for all the birthday wishes!

Thanks also for all the well wishes regarding the umrah and return! And now, for all of you who have been asking for "The Adventures of Jas the Opossum and Friends - Jas Goes To Mekah!", here it is! Only it'll have to be in installments because Jas the Opossum is crap at summarizing, and in case you hadn't noticed, is superlatively verbose. Nyeh eh eh.

p.s: Nads, I saw the word 'mayn't' used in literature recently: in Henry James' "The Golden Bowl"! So there you go! *G*


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Chapter 1 - Jas in Dubai!

Our journey began at KLIA. Duh. Fast forward 6 hours and we found ourselves at the Dubai International Airport. I, the snobby Malaysian-with-the-KLIA I am, expected a not-even-Subang Airport-type facility. Boy was I wrong! It totally slipped Jas' mind that Dubai is the Middle Eastern playground for the ultra-rich. What we were met with instead was a KLIA-standard facility, only maybe 1/3 in size.

[mini rant]
Y'know, when they take away the 'duty' to give us 'duty-free' shopping, then hike the prices up sky-high on account of it being at an airport, 'duty-free' shopping becomes a load of baloney! *Huff* Then again, what would I do with an ashtray carved to resemble a semi-nude nymph?
[rant over]

As we flew Emirates, we were in transit in Dubai (that's doo-BAY, not doo-BUY, evidently) for 16 hours. Yeesh. Plus to that the fact that we arrived at 1am-ish, they gave us accomodations at the airport hotel.

How often does a girl find herself in Dubai, baby?!! (Shuddup all you jet-setting rich people! lolz.) Not one to pass up an opportunity, I roused everyone at 8am to go sight-seeing! It didn't help in making me Little Miss Popular, but I wanted to see Dubai!!!

I should have just slept in. Beach-malls-beach-malls-beach-beach-beach-malls. Very LA ... or Penang. Seeing how it was also a Friday (which is their weekend), most of the malls were closed. Sigh. And add to that the fact that we were all covered up (due to being on 'umrah'), watching everyone prance around in bikinis and Speedos in the hot, hot sun, well.

The only semi-highlight to the 'tour' was seeing the very-hyped-about, most expensive and only seven-star hotel in the world, the Burj Al-Arab in the flesh. Err .. in the concrete-and-steel. Glass-and-canvas. Whatever. And I say "semi-highlight" because we couldn't actually go into the hotel to have a look-see. While we were riding in the taxi, I joked that the hotel is so exclusive that we would probably have to pay to breathe the air. Mulut masin! It costs 200 dirhams just to walk over their foyer for non-guests!! That translates into RM200, approximately. Yikes! Oh! But you get a free drink! (What? Liquefied gold?!?!!)

We headed back to the airport to catch our connecting flight at 2pm. Spent a leisurely time browsing through 'duty-free' items (cekik darah!!), sipping Turkish coffee. Yum. I can't find Turkish coffee anywhere in Malaysia! Forgot to buy some back. :o(

One question: why are there so many Bangladeshis in Dubai?? The airport was absolutely teeming with Bangladeshi arriving and departing. Even more weirdly, they were buying 'duty-free' foodstuff by the trolley-loads and stuffing it into their luggages. Absolutely boggling. On our 5pm flight to Jeddah, easily 60% of the passengers were Bangladeshis. The fragrance! The aromas! The choking bouquet! *Aheks* Cubaan! Thank God it was only a 2 hour flight ......

~ to be continued ~