Of the many trips that I have taken in my life, ironically, the most memorable one was one filled with numerous problems: to Dubai. In spite of having visited Singapore, Malaysia, India, and China, we had never faced back-to-back dilemmas during travel and, with only four days to use, our ability to solve obstacles in a limited time was tested, especially on the last day.
Upon landing in Dubai, the first thing we realized was how the weather was exceptionally hot; it felt somewhat like a muggy sauna. Regardless of the weather, some of our close relatives took us to a well-known restaurant, Karachi Darbar, located deep inside the area. The restaurant served delicious food that rejuvenated us after the long flight.
During the next two days, my family and I visited the popular, and very expensive, Gold Market, took a city tour of the entire Dubai, visited the Ibn Battuta Mall (which was
stunning since each part of the mall was a replica of an ancient country such as China, India, and Egypt), and saw the famous Burj Dubai. We even had a chance to visit the King’s palace from the outside which was astonishing, since it was lined with live, dancing peacocks. My brother and I were also able to ski and ride in a cable car inside a mall named Ski Dubai, in one of the hottest place on the planet, on manmade snow, with a private instructor!
When the last day for our stay arrived, chaos took over. We were running around trying
to get laundry done along with some last minute shopping. The laundry-boy came by and picked up our clothes, promising that they’d be done and returned to us with ample of time before our flight. When everything was packed, one bag was left open for the laundry which was supposed to arrive 30 minutes earlier. We became frantic; a shortness of time was not something we could afford. When the laundry-boy finally
came, he was precisely three hours late. We thought that was the end of our problems. But we were greatly mistaken. The next problem was that there were no available taxis! Again, we were delayed. Finally when the taxi arrived, my dad told the driver to hurry up a bit because we didn’t want to miss our flight back home. He had enough guts to scold us, his customers, during the whole ride! He lectured us on how we should prepare ahead of time and that, because of the traffic situation in Dubai, we should leave three hours for backup. When we finally reached the airport, and were rid of that terrible driver, we checked in all our luggages only after rearranging some of the items in the bags because one of the bags was overweight. When that was all said and done, we were finally ready to get to our terminal. To top off our list of things that delayed us was the fact that our boarding gate, of all the twenty-seven that were available, was Gate 1, located on the other side of the airport, literally. With some three minutes left, we had to run at lightning speed if we were to have any chance of reaching the plane on time and with two little kids and a handful of shopping bags, that was never going to happen. Still, we rushed as fast as we could, and quickly boarded the plane with everyone staring at us. It was pretty embarrassing. But with a huge list of “Things Gone Wrong,” we would do anything to go back again to Dubai.
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