Watz crackin kids….well trinity term is about to get rolling…here is a looooooooong update…it talks about what i consider one of the highlights of my oxford year…trip to dubai! It was my very first time to the middle east region and it just blew me away. Below is a day by day break up…. What else…sick as a dog since i came back..35degress Celsius to 8 with some hail will do that to u. I write this fighting the flu. Also have a longish trip coming up in bout a weeks time…NY-Austin-California. Time to take the business idea on the road and also meet up with some family and friends. So without further ado, i present to u – the Dubai show!

Day 0:  7 of us on a flight from Gatwick, London to Dubai. I nearly missed the flight as the damn cab refused to come in the am (530 to be precise) and I just about caught the bus to Gatwick by jumping the Q. I had to – the next bus was a couple of hours later which means I miss the flight. There is an unforgettable story to share even on this flight trip (yup…tat is how interesting this trip was). So we are on the 45 minute flight from doha to dubai. 4 of us are sitting on adjacent seats in the mid row of the flight. Suddenly one of the people on the left side of the seats along our row calls the air hostess and complains that one of us is harassing him. We were all busy watching some stupid gig on the tv then and we look at him as if ‘what the ..’. The air hostess asks him as to how is it that he is being bothered to which he replies : “ He (pointing to one of us) is removing bones from his neck!!!”. I swear we thought we heard him incorrectly and the air hostess obviously chose to ignore the complaint. Wait it only gets interesting. We get down at the airport and are moving towards customs and much to our surprise, the person has lodged a complaint with the airport cops and hence that one of us is thus held back for q & a. Cut to and hour and half later we are upstairs in the Dubai police joint at the airport, and speaking some hindi I find out the the complaint made is still the same: “that one of us removed his kidney and bones from his neck using some black magic!”. The cops though obviously in disbelief have to entertain the complaint and they confiscate the passport of one of us and ask the person making the complaint to go get an xray to prove otherwise and ask us to ocme and collect our passport the other day!! I kid u not! Its difficult to believe because even as we were going through this, I was messaging back and forth with a couple of local friends in dubai and they obviously thot I was making this up sitting in some bar. Though it was very very late, we all needed a drink when we got to the hotel at like 2 am. We hit the bar right before the last call, caught a pint and went up to crash at 3. Obvious as my luck would be my dear friend with whom i was sharing the hotel accommodation was flying in later that night and he lost his bags. So in all honestly I really slept at 5 am with a morning alarm set for 7.00 am. Dubai hadn’t really kicked off well at all!

Day 1: Up to the automated morning alarm service, the day started in the fast lane. Quick breakfast and we were on our way to the Shell office. They were located at the Convention Tower. This was my first serious view of Dubai as we were on our way there in the bus. My first impression was Los Angeles on steroids (to borrow a commonly used way to describe Dubai in Dubai by expats). Wide roads, traffic and legoland like contructions. Overall for Sheik zayad road and most of new dubai think Los Angeles weds Las Vegas. At Shell we had a great morning. We had the head of the Middle east regions and 

Day 2 (the day that changed my life..for now): Day 2 was to be in Abu Dhabi all day. After a looooong bus ride (1.5 hours) we got to the ADIA Tower – our first meet for the day. This is the morning meet which would really start to turn me around somewhat in awe of the magnitude of stuff going on in the middle east region. Though a highly covert sovereign fund, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority might well be the worlds biggest investor fund (though they do not officially publish their numbers) and the second biggest international institutional investor in the world. They recently struck a deal on November 26, 2007, with Citigroup, the largest US bank, by agreeing to invest 7.5 Billion dollars in Citigroup. This deal gives ADIA 4.9% of the New York-based bank, making it the largest shareholder, with Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Al Saud of Kingdom Holding of Saudi Arabia the second-largest shareholder, with 4.3%. But what was ‘surreal’ was the obvious richness seeped into the 33rd floor of that building. A fantastic reception, without doubt the most breath taking view I have ever seen overlooking the corniche and a snappy presentation. We obviously could not get much details as previously mentioned it is an organization that as a policy does not divulge much details. Personally I felt it would be a great organization to work for. If morning session left me dazed, I had to recover fast as the afternoon lunch was hosted for us by the Undersecretary of the Department of Civil Services, Ali Rashed Al Ketbi – a very friendly young personality with a sharp acumen, The lunch was a lavish 4 course middle eastern meal at the Emirates Palace a 7 star wonder and the biggest land mass hotel in the world. I also had the good fortune of having a wonderful lunch time conversation with a British academician who had for the past 18 years been in the middle east region helping out with strategy with regards nation building activities. The meeting was insightful as it was obvious that one cannot ignore the middle east region of the world. Infact this might well be the region that pulls the world through the ongoing recession (i personally believe the states is in recession currently as i write). The biggest problem that the MENA (main players Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Dubai, Sharjah, Oman, Bahrain) might have is too much liquidity which is causing inflation. Except for Dubai the other regions have enough oil reserves to last another 5 decades. Most importantly they are really focused on investing in infrastructure (universities, art, research, telecomm) a lot more carefully not the repeat the 90ies mistake and they can do it without fully opening the floodgates to the world like Dubai. Dubai today has 95% expats and just 5% local emiraties. But then again, Dubai has no choice – they are adopting a Singapore weds Las Vegas model and have successfully made it into a top trading and tourist spot. As you shall read in the following days, some of their tourist destinations are simply jaw dropping and make anything i have seen in any top spot in the states ny, la, vegas, miami or london, beijing, mumbai pale in comparison. The bus ride back was dreamy! Lots of sleepy snaps should be testimony to that. The evening was a wonderfully chilled out event serving the perfect antidote. Chandni, Farhaan and myself went down to the Jumeira beach. Falafel wraps by the seaside, be giving them a brain dump of my day so far, followed up by a nice meal at Saladacious (yup the duck pasta rocked most ;-)!) and then onto Baristi. Another big ass resturant cum bar cum sheesha place on the sea. A few drinks, walk down the beach cum bar (yup it was that long) and then on our way back we got a ride on of the electric vehicles and the guy himself a newly transported expat actually took us down to the pier – a drive usually forbidden for the ‘commoners’  Phew…all in all. This is a crazy part of the world with things changing every day and every night, lot of action, people and youth from world over and way too much cash. That can be a heady mix!

Day 3 (anything’s possible!): Ok i m running out of time. Been 20 days since i started writing bout this trip. So I ll rush thru it now..:-). But day 3 we went to Nakheel…These guys literally are magician real estate people. They can do anything. Sheikh Mo woke up one day and wanted to increase the coastline of dubai from 60 odd km to much more as real estate on beach is valuable. The crack team of HBS alum come up i guess with the ingenuous idea of reclaiming land in the sea and voila more beach. Nakheel is the company that made it possible!! They really took great care of us. The piece de coupe of the trip was a boat ride to the middle of the sea and then suddenly in there u see trucks spitting sand and islands and huge villas…in the middle of freakin nowhere in the sea!!!!! The next presentation was HSBC. Not much here for me..:-). The nite went to madinat with farhaan and channi, also channi’s place for the first time. Madinath is the absolutely magical mini city almost full of fancy restaurants and bars. Great drinks at bar raza and must see hukka bar called sheikh pier…back at nite close to 2-3 am with jobs and Vicki!

Day 4 (fun continues): Next morning we went to the office of Dubai holding in the emirates tower. Would love to fill in on the details but maybe later. Was unbelievably lucky to actually see Sheikh Mo in person walking out of a restaurant in the towers. Afternoon at another consultancy firm ! Evening went to the networking event hosted by us for the alum and other guest at the wonderful palace hotel in old town (which actually is anewly build town which resembles old town..go figure). Great setting and met a few interesting ppl. Great chat with an alum who now works with ICC, the cricket body based in dubai. Followed that up with a trip to ‘bar dubai’ with chandni, aashima and luvraj to get some desi grab..chat to pav bhaji to kulfi…awefun!!!!!!!!!!

Day 5 (Thursday): mah fav day! Okie. Went to the 3 big ones – mckinsey, bcg and booze allen. Great talk at all 3. Had the most international lunch hosted by BCG at place called Galliard. N i mean international… argentenian fish, Chinese tempura, lebaneese mezaas, Persian khus khus, Indian dal, Italian pasta, greek salad, lamb cooked in a style could not recognize! Back in the hotel…quick drink with farhaan and Vicky at the hotel bar called longs bar (which is named so as it was the longest bar in dubai at some time).. Then went to what was my favourite place in dubai…old dubai. Crossed the channel via a ferry where i hit up an interesting conversation with a local who had been in dubai for 40 odd years. Was sad though as he lamented on how all the progress and internationalism in the last 10 odd years has hurt the trader – at one time the main vocation in dubai the most!! Then had dinner, sheesha and drinks and just lazed at kan-zaman – beautiful old open air and terrace restaurant right on the river. Just talking with family, enjoying good weather and food…loved it loved it loved it!! Slept over at chand’s that nite!

Day 6 Me and chand left for the hotel as we were to go for the world famous Dubai desert safari. Was great fun going in huge  land rovers doing dune bashing!! Then a couple of hours in a setup in the desert in the middle of nowhere with some belly dancing, middle eastern kebabs, camel rides et….and back on our way ot the hotel!

Got to packing and grab a couple of hours sleep before is say good bye to dubai!!! That was my trip..sorry for rushing thru day 3- 7..but better have it there than never ;-). N no..dont believe a word of what i said about dubai. Do yourself a favor. Go visit Dubai! And you will be blown away… Since then have been on amazing trips to the US (NY, Austin, Bay area) and Paris (I LOVE THIS CITY)…Shall put up updates soon…wait for them… Peace out!

If you wanna check out the full Dubai Trip Album click here