Dubai, the town of mosts

After InfoComm India the next station is InfoComm MEA (Middle East & Africa) held in Dubai, simultaneously with GITEX where tremendous amount of money is invested in the booths and appearance.

Before the trip, Dubai was in my mind as an artificial town with no special history or natural beauties. After the trip, the first two things that come into my mind are glittering and amazing crazyness that couples with endless amount of money. I can tell you that in Dubai everything is shining. The huge buildings in themselves, returning the undisturbed rays of the sun. Even the most simpliest articles for personal use are created to shine. If India was the country of colours, Dubai is the town of golden-silver sparkle. If ever again I have a wedding, my wedding dress will be get from Dubai...

About Dubai: as a business and major transport hub of the Middle East, it is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates located in the Southeast cost of the Persian Gulf and is one of the 7 emirates that make up the country. Oil revenue first started to flow in 1969 but today, less than 5% of the emirate's revenue comes from oil. The main revenues now coming from tourism, real estate, financial services. Dubai has recently attracted world attention through many innovative large construction projects and sports events. The city has become iconic for its skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, in particular the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.

Even the local people says that things change so quickly, sometimes they also have difficulties with finding certain places. If you are in the city and somebody asks you where you are exactly, the answer is not correct if you say I can see Burj Khalifa because Burj Khalifa can be seen from everywhere. So the distances are very illusive; you think that the buildings are closer than they are in real because of the sizes. You easily realize this after a few hours walking when you still haven't reached your target.

First morning I encountered two vantage points for myself. First is a juice bar with heavenly delicious shakes and juices in the hotel's neighborhood, second is the feeling of being privileged on the metro while traveling in separated cabins reserved only for women and children. It was funny when we women in our cabin were only a few of us and behind the line the men were standing packed like sardines. But uninvited ignorant male tourists were found every time among us, at the expense of paying penalty. While sitting separated alone but together with many women, I was thinking about our mission that all women have and this is what we have in common.

For me, Dubai is the town of world records and achievements. It is very easy to bump into some things which are the biggest, tallest, fastest, most expensive, most elegant something in the world - even within an afternoon, or so.

- The Dubai Mall where we usually wound up after exhibition is the world's largest shopping mall with its 1200 shops and over 13 million square foot which is equivalent in size to more than 50 football fields. Also it is the world's most-visited shopping and leisure destination.

- The world's largest acrylic panel (Aquarium) and largest sweet shop (Candylicious) inside Dubai Mall.

- The Dubai Fountain is the world's largest choreographed fountain system set on the 30-acre manmade Burj Khalifa Lake.

- Burj Khalifa, the megatall skyscraper is the tallest existing and ever built freestanding artificial structure standing at 829.8 m with the highest and longest travel distance elevator installation inside and so on, and so on...

- World's largest indoor snow park can be found in the Mall of the Emirates.

- Burj Al Arab, the famous luxury hotel is called "the world's only 7-star hotel". The shape of the structure is designed to mimic the sail of a ship. Several events have taken place on the helipad 210 m above ground to attract media attention. There is a dress code for those who enter. The cheapest way to enter is the price of a tea for about USD 50.00 and the cheapest room costs more than USD 1,000.00 for a single night.

The DESERT. This is something that totally gingered me up so I definitely need to write about it. We were recommended and invited to a desert safari by our distributor company located in Dubai. Some colleagues missed it because they were not interested. Not me. I knew exactly that this is a must to try here. The experience is indescribable.  

The timing was perfect. We were picked up at 3 PM and took about 1.5 hour to drive out of the town. We were in the desert a little before sunset. Oh my God, what a view, what a climate! But let's go step by step:

Sitting in the SUV seeing the precisely worked out roll bars let us foreshadow that something craziness must happen. Once we were out of the town and saw the sand swirling on the road surface in front of us (just like the snow swirled in Alberta in front of us), the driver switched over the opposite lane immediately, and then with the same immediate action drove down and we were off the road - welcome to the desert!! Our driver got out of the car and started to paddle on the wheels. I saw him

doubtfully that's why he told me not to worry, he was just let the pressure down. Aaaand the fun just began! It was high time for a crazy drifting, up and down the dunes. Up high, on the top of the dune we could just suspect how steep the other side of the dune. Just like in a funfair. We needed to hang on strongly, the sand always covered the windshield and all windows sideward. Big wow. Then we stopped and had the opportunity to see wild camels. Once arrived the desert camp, the sun

started to go down. And I really really enjoyed the whole situation, the circumstances. From the top of a high dune watching the sun's orange glow over the vast expanse of rippling sand all around me as it sets. Sunset, endless sand, rolling dunes, barefoot, soft wind, wooow. All these were enough to my happiness and was unnecessary to try quad or sandboard but experienced a short camel ride, got on the niqáb (worn by Muslim women), let my hand painted with henna designs, enjoyed a

feast of grilled meats, fresh salads, Arab sweets served under the galaxy of stars while being entertained by belly dancers.

There is still a lot to write about like Bastakya by night (Old Dubai - for me it 's Aladdin town), the world-famous Palm Jumeirah with Atlantis that can be seen from the space such as the Chinese Great Wall and was approached by monorail and also under the sea. The morning Dubai Creek filled with ancient ships and dhows with large quantity of products shipped by sea. The officially amazing Burj Khalifa which let us being "at the top" and seeing down the country while experiencing

its elevator which let us reach the 124th floor within a minute. The new rainforest investment of which luxury apartments are on sale now (got it? rainforest in the desert!). And a wonderful business dinner at Grand Hyatt. Thank you Suraj, Yati, Gopan to contribute making our stay unforgettable.

If you are in Dubai, you are amazed and can't get enough of it. Thank you that I could be there.

Destination: MUMBAI

I'm glad that my work brought me to Incredible India this time. India is the second largest and also the fastest-growing pro-AV market in Asia Pacific. We had a booth at InfoComm India exhibition that showcases the latest pro-AV and Info-Comm technology innovation a broad spectrum of industries from conferencing, presentation and training equipments to digital signage and projection technology, from signal management and processing to system integration services and command and control systems.

To tell you the truth, India is rather a continent than it is a country. Untouched jungles are a short drive from polluted cities and it is possible to stand at the foot of a snowcapped mountain one day and be travelling by camel through a desert the next. Basically, there is a big contrast within the country between poverty and luxury but poverty, fug, lack of hygienie are more dominant. It is interesting that so many dialects exist within the country so that two Indians coming from different places do not understand each other. According to Census of India 2001, India has 122 major languages and 1599 other languages.

Each and every set off hides millions of photo theme, contains great chances of taking great pics because this is a basically completely different world than ours. Indians' lifestyle in general means land of plenty for photographers. Just a couple of themes to mention: the way of transport with their no-rules on the road and having no role of the lanes at all (that's why honking is continuous that is still clang in my ears); their attitude to clear the distance by inches between the cars,

motorcycles, rickshaws and other objects so that we never wanted to try to put our fingers there; the number of people riding on the same vehicle; the nice colourful dresses worn by the Indian women; faces with the specific red or black spot on the foreheads; fresh exotic fruits vending by the roadside; the types of native animals, etc...

Our hotel was built, furnished and designed for One Thousand and One Nights... Beautiful and sumptuous in every detail. And the cuisine was unearthly. Everybody could find the eatables according to our own taste. I ate really very healthy food stuff and dishes during the whole week that made me very happy. Although, Indian gastronomy tastes very spicy for European people, I tried and liked several dishes. But at the first half of our visit we needed to be very careful because of our stomach so that not to knock out ourselves with an indigestion or diarrhoeia. 

Unforgettable experience was that business dinner we spent with our cooperation partners who lives in Dubai but originates from India. They invited us to a seafood restaurant after I told them that I definitely wanted to try Bombay Duck during my stay in Bombay and this way spared them a dilemma where to bring European people for dinner in India, and so let them to introduce us their favourite restaurant in Mumbai! Aaaaand it was pompous!! 

After the still alive sea-animals were displayed, we needed to wait until they prepared them freshly, then one dish was followed by the next. Crabs, lobsters, prawns, clams... For me, Bombay Duck (= Bombil Fry, fresh Mumbai fish coated with a masala based batter and fried to a crisp) was the zenith of course, but I also really liked the stew made of crab served with naan bread and ate by hand (by right hand strictly) tearing little bread and grab the stew inside using two or three fingers.

Prior to the show, we had the chance to see some famous spots in Mumbai including the world's largest open-air laundry at Dhobi Ghat. Being the only white woman made me to feel special at India Gateway where a huge crowd got together. Indians do realized and stopped me to take a picture with them. And one photo was followed by the other and the other and I thought it never comes to an end. 

Approaching a building, each people can count on some obligatory security checkings, even entering a mall or the own hotel. Women and men in separate rows, bodies and bags are scanned just like at the airports. Even our taxi was always checked carefully by the hotel staff every time, inspecting the under-carriage with mirror and opened the trunk. A couple of years ago there were some heavy explosion at certain crowded places by assassins that required many human lives. 

Sanjay Gandhi National Park with its flora and fauna, with its temple where unclothed(!) men were walking up and down, with its 109 pieces of 2400-years-old Kanheri Caves sculpted by Buddhist monks including Buddhist viharas meant for living, studying and meditating were all very very special experience for me such as flying with Emirates Airlines on Airbus A380-800 (capacity: 489-517, number of aircraft: 67, wingspan: 79.8m). 

Birthday Party inspired by Sherlock Holmes

The eagerly expected 8^th with the eagerly expected mysterious investigation!

The mystery that the guys needed to be revealed was a theft. A diamond from the English Queen's crown was disappeared. The investigation scene was the European Park right next to the Gate of Vienna, the entrance of the Royal Castle District. The boys had to solve some problems, decode secret signs, puzzle the traces and put everything together in order to find the stolen diamond. They were smart detectives enough to get to the bottom of the affair.

Birthday party held with classmates in mid-summer is a good thing but a bit risky because this is vacation season. The funny thing is that the classmates appeared in insignificant minority and the invited ex-nursery mates at full strength! I was amazed and so grateful.

Making a wish  and blowing out the candles on the cake is the best thing - unless it is not in vain. This time it was. Dominik wished if only his great-grandmother got better who had been in hospital for weeks at that time. Sad to say, it was too late but we weren't aware. We were informed on Saturday, the following day that she died even on Thursday...

Collecting UNESCO Wold Heritage Sites: NAPLES & POMPEII

Diving into history is good. Diving into history and being personally on the spot in the Italian region of Campania is very good. That is exactly what me any my mom did during a long weekend spent in Italy between 18-21 of July.

I was more disappointed than I can describe when it turned out that the planned one-week girlish camp in South Italy had been cancelled. I was so prepared and so decided and engaged with Italy so I checked the actual possibilities and finally chose Napoli and Pompeii as a destination. Although, my original plan was to keep the girlish nature of the holiday and invited a couple of girls but when it became serious, nobody wanted to join, except my mom. 

Walking up and down on the streets of Naples, finding the famous buildings and key spots, tasting the world-famous Italian ice-cream, drinking limoncello, being witness of several weddings, buying gorgeous PEACHES, trying the public transportation, seeing roaches and rats in the harbour in the evenings, founding the town itself rubbishy, experiencing the endless helpfulness of the local people, founding the policemen really handsome, seeing the thermometer showing 42°C at 6PM are those things that I will never forget. 

Watching the movie of Pompeii in the air while approaching (and leaving) Italy is a splendid engagement and superb way to be prepared from the history of the city which gives deep impression about the happenings in the past. Pompei, along with Herculaneum was mostly destroyed and buried under 4 to 6 m of ash and pumice in the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. An estimated 16,000 people died then. The objects have been well-preserved for centuries 

because of the lack of air and moisture. These artifacts provide extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of the city during the Pax Romana. During the excavation plaster was used to fill in the voids in the ash layers that once held human bodies. This allowed one to see the exact position the person was in when he or she died. So awe-insipring and poignant.

Although, the serpentine row at the entrance of the ruins in the heat was a bit depressing at the first sight but tanked up with melone made it bearable. Being watchful and discovering another "fast way" to enter is a chance if return ever.

Pompei tour can be complete if you can combine with a tour to Mount Vesuvius. Monte Vesuvio is the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years. Today, it is regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of the population of 3,000,000 million people living nearby. That area was declared a national park and there is a spiral walkway around the mountain to the crater. Of course, we climbed. Thank God, buying

a sunshade to my mom was an excellent decision that eased to bear the heat while walking up and down the tuffs. And what a view unfolded on the top! Undescribable.

Walking several kilometers during two days made me to spare my mom and slow down on our last day. We looked for the only beach (Mergellina) suitable for swimming in Naples (the cost is predominantly for harbours) and spent the whole day with sunbathing, swimming and relaxing. 

I came to like the catching Italian words, accent and speech. Buongiorno, Molo Beverello, Piazza Garibaldi, Corso Umberto, allora, ciao bella and others that all tempt me to learn Italian. And a couple of things remained that also tempt me to return like the island of Capri (approaching by hydrofoil) with Grotta Azzurra (sea cave), and the real pizza (evolved from Naples in the 18th century) and pasta...