Now this is my first update from an actual computer, all the earlier posts were written and submitted from my phone using this splendid little Blackberry app for WordPress blogs (you will also find it in AppWorld). Amazing the things you can do with a wifi enabled Blackberry.
So I thought I’d do a recap on the few unplanned days that I spent in Dubai and use some bigger words, maybe write a little more too.
A number of people have asked if I would be getting a refund from the airline: When I sent in a refund request to Emirates I received an email a few minutes later stating that it would be done to my credit card within the next 15 days. I’m not convinced that’s going to happen that smoothly though, let’s see.
As for hotel bookings, those were all automatically voided due to the volcanic ash emergency circumstance, no losses there.
Concert bookings – all refunded too: I received a phone call from a lady in Germany (“Spreuken de Deutsch?”) telling me that the concert tickets I had bought to the 3 Snapcase club shows will be refunded as it didn’t look they were going to make it to Europe. I told her that I’m actually back home in South Africa now so they better not make haha. A few hours later it turned out that Snapcase announced the full cancellation of their European tour as there was NO way for them to get into Europe to start their tour, even if they skipped a few days. Kind of the same predicament as me, when it turned out the next available seat to Germany was 2 weeks after I landed in Dubai (more on that further on) . Even if I had made it to Europe in the next few days I’d be immensely upset if there was NO Snapcase!!
So far the only money lost was the 80 Euro for my Groezrock ticket. No huge loss. What’s money anyway, there’s more where that came from, mlehhh.
Here a few anecdotes I’d like to share from my very short time in the ‘United Arab Emirates’. I’ve never seen the mythical TV series called LOST, but from what I hear this might be my own mini version:
- One story that stands out in my mind was when I made my first purchase from a cafe there (they call them hypermarkets even though they’re the size of a large bathroom). Bare in mind their English was very broken so connecting with people was a little trying. Anyway… It was around 11pm and I was on my way back from exploring the waterfront and waterways of Sharjar. Feeling like a little treat for myself for when I get back to the hotel room I stopped into this ‘hypermarket’ and picked up a Pepsi and Crunchie – despite wanting to try something more ‘exotic’ I backed out of risking internal organ distress and went with something safe and known. I didn’t have any Dirham(?), the local currency, and thought I could just use my VISA card at the till. Uh oh, no go, cash only! The teller started asking me where I was from, and how I was in Sharjar. She was somewhat startled at the story of the volcano and stranded passengers. It appeared that she never left her station at the till to see or hear what was going on in the walls outside this ‘hypermarket’. Next thing I know, she tells me to not worry about paying for my goods, and be off… I was like WHAAAAT? “No don’t worry about it” she says in broken English. Ok. I was blown away. Thank you, gracias, dankie, you rock! I returned to the hotel with a little fire of faith restored in peoples humanity, and settled down to an hour of CNN updates detailing the thousands of stranded passengers across Europe. This was when it first actually hit me how BAD the situation was. Dubai was nothing, Europe was TOTAL CHAOS!!!!!!!!!!! Thank heavebs I wasn’t there and trying to get home. There were stories of people hiring TAXIS/CABS and going from London to Frankfurt for thousands of Euros. All forms of ground transport was booked solid, Eurostar, car hire, buses. This was when I started contemplating the impact on my travel plans if/when I made it to Frankfurt..it didnt look good.
- The hotel I was booked into had around 100 other stranded passengers from various flights and origins. A sense of camaraderie started building up at the buffet meals each day as people started realising they were going to be STUCK in Arabia for a bit longer than just a day or 2. I met a professional MMA fighter who was returning from a tournament in Bangkok. Him and his girlfriend had spent all their travelling money in Thailand and now found themselves with NO money at all and no way of getting any They sat on the internet trying to get relatives and friends to wire them money somehow, not sure if they got that right in the end though. Now this pretty much sucked cos you can’t get around Dubai or Sharjar without taking a taxi, public transport seems to be still developing. Staying in the hotel all day and night just eating the free meals can get depressing. Bare in mind everyone had only their hand luggage which meant most folks only had the clothes they were wearing: no change of socks, or underwear. Bit siff hey (I know some friends who would have loved this circumstance)? Seen as I was now planning on going back to Durban the next day I decided to give the kick boxer some of my Euro’s as I wouldn’t be needing them if I wasn’t going to make it to Europa! The dude was stoked! Now at least he could change the Euros for local currency. We exchanged facebooks and whatnot, I think I made a bodyguard fighter friend for life. Amazing what the promise of a change of underwear and socks can do to bonding levels.
- I had to get up at 430am to catch the hotel shuttle to Dubai airport. It was on this trip I met 2 Russians and got to know them as best I could in the 30 minute journey.. Aiiiii!!! It was a guy in his 20s and his mom(I assume!?) returning from a holiday in Thailand. They could just BARELY speak English which was so funny to me. The only time I’ve ever been around people who can’t understand English is at here at home with the indigenous people. I found my mind actually thinking they were African – not sure you will understand what my mind is doing or how retarded it is, but anyway, it was a real mindscrew. So a lot of our conversation consisted explaining words like ‘fly’, ‘airport’, ‘car’, ‘holiday’. In the journey I learnt that they lived in Russia 1000 miles from Moscow and they were a little peeved cos once landing in Moscow they still had this epic journey still to travel by car, and had no way of telling their friend from their village what time or day to come pick them up from the airport!! Crazy! So they were anticipating having to camp out at Moscow airport for a good day or so waiting for this lift to come and pick them up. The Russian language is an angry sounding language let me tell you.. I felt a little privileged in being able to just text family back home and update them on when I was landing, be picked up prompty and be home in a few minutes.
This past weekend Snapcase played their ONE American reunion show, which I was desperately trying to get to but flights were literally 3 times the cost of European flights. Apparently they may still return to Europe for some shows as there was a lot of interest in them. I wait in anticipation to complete the dream and make it back for another attempt.
Over and out, future blogs may be dangerous to your health and written much more coherently.
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