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Published: December 4th 2008
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Dubai has been an eye opener in more ways then one, although the journey here like always has been an adventure. Given that I only had less than 26 hours in Dubai it was best that I made the most of it. Fortunately I had a contact on the ground in Dubai to organise things for me. But that meant a mad dash from Sharjah airport to my Dubai hotel, then onto the venue of the Ball all within three hours of hitting the ground. Given that it took an hour to get out of the airport I had it against me from the start, but it all ended well and Cinderella made it to the ball on time.
As always the leadup to all this was more of a challenge....... prior to starting on this little sojourn there was a brief rumour that I "might" be able to get a ticket to the Ball. But before I left it was looking a little grim so I didn't bother packing the black tie outfit (or a black bow tie for that matter). Fast forward now to Friday morning when I get a text from my contact in Dubai to say
that she can get me a ticket for the ball. All I can say is you try finding a black suit in Shiraz on a Friday night as Friday is like our Sunday and most places are shut. But I did manage to locate a couple of suit shops, including a few that were shut after walking up and down the main drag. Since I was on the day tour on Saturday it was looking like there would be a mad dash on Saturday night to get a suit. Meanwhile my Dubai contact was trying to work out what plan B could be while trying to survive the rugby 7's. After a day spent trekking around all the old things that the surrounds of Shiraz has to offer it was off suit shopping I went. As luck would have it the first shop I went to came up with the goods, well the finest examples of Iranian tailoring this side of Shiraz that's for certain. After a few tries I managed to get the right one and decided to forgo the waist-coat that came with it. Then came time to sort out the price, I think it originally started at
about 90 000 toma then he said 80 000 toma when I said I need a shirt but didn't need the waist-coat. Come time to pay and he only wanted 70 000 toma or about AUD100 for a Borat suit and that included taking up the trousers while I waited. Although finding a black bow tie in Shiraz was the source of great amusement for everyone concerned in the twenty or so shops I went to. Black Tie Ball here I come in the finest Borat Suit (sans bow-tie) a man could buy in Shiraz.
After a month of middle eastern food, minimal red wine and five days of not being able to even shake a woman's hand in Iran, let alone see exposed skin, the Kiwi Ball was definitely a sight to behold, talk about being like a kid in a candy shop. The food was absolutely amazing, there was an endless supply of the vino stuff and the women had well and truely excelled themselves on the dressing up stakes. Lets just say a good time was had by all and I managed to make it back to my hotel in one piece ready for some brief
How good is the Borat Suit
I really need to workout that red-eye reduction function on the camera. sightseeing the next day. Fortunately I managed to organise a late checkout the day before.
With limited time available and a bit of a slow start to the day it was off to Ski Dubai and the attached Mall of the Emirates to take in the Dubai shopping scene. Watching people ski down a slope while you're wondering around doing your shopping is a little bizarre to say the least. After the taking in the whole "mall" experience it was time to venture back to the hotel. There's a couple of things that you notice about Dubai, the traffic and all the building work. The amount of building going on is only outweighed by the size of the traffic jams around the place. This is helped somewhat by the attitude of the drivers, they are almost up there on the push and shove scale of Kuwait this lot. Who knows what it will be like if it's ever finished.
After an amazing 26 hours in Dubai, it's off to the final stop Malaysia via Karachi.
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