New Terminal 3 of Dubai Airport

An airport limo was supposed to pick me up from the hotel back to the Dubai International Airport. I thought the limo would wait for me but it didn't. The hotel staff did tell me when I check in earlier that the limo would be fetching me around 12.30pm. I only came down at 12.45pm.

Ended up having to take a taxi to the airport and the hotel staff hailed me a taxi. Then I realised I don't have UAE Dirhams. As I was told that the taxi fare would be 20 Dirhams, I found only 18 Dirhams in my wallet. Forced to change my US Dollars into Dirhams.

The taxi driver was really cunning. The hotel staff told me that I need to pay 20 Dirhams for the short journey but upon arrival, the driver said it was supposed to be 30 Dirhams.

So be it. If he thinks by earning another 10 Dirham would make him rich, let him continue to dream like that. And this fellow almost missed the drop off point for Business class passengers. Even though I have told him earlier, he almost wanted to go straight to the normal public entrance. Not that I hard up for making a grand entrance at the Business class area but the crowd there is much lesser and would be faster in going through the immigration checks too.

Another long walk back to the departure area of the airport. Really really big airport. As I was walking in, I just realised that I still do not know which boarding gate is it for my flight to Sudan.

Walked back to the check in counter and was told gate 222. My my ........... how many boarding gates do they have.

Even their lifts are super duper huge.






Dubai Airport is famous for their duty free shopping. How duty free also, you have to fork out money to buy whatever you wanted.

The Business class lounge in Dubai Airport is really spacious till I can't capture the whole area in one shot. It has a few rest areas and through my estimate, it could easily fit in more than 300 people at one go.

Of course, this shot was taken near the food counter. Lots of people were eating away just like me. In terms of quantity maybe not like me.

They have computer workstations for people like me to update FB and blog hehehe. Not only washroom was provided but shower areas too.

With 35 minutes to go, I went to my boarding gate no. 222. Saw the whereabout of the boarding gate prior entering the lounge ........ you know la, just in case it was my bad day in missing the major part of my travel ........ which is the airplane.






Upon entering the boarding gate, one has to walk really really far just to go into my airplane. You need to go down to a waiting area by escalator and then all the way passed the yellow coloured seats to enter another door to access the ramp to the airplane. Too huge.










You can't see me taking such picture at Khartoum airport due to security reasons ......... your camera will be confiscated if caught doing so, in which case, your friend here was almost the victim.

Yeah, beat that!

Awwwwww my airplane is already here ....... here I come Sudan. Khartoum, the capital city, is considered my hometown. This is the next city or town after Kuala Lumpur that I have spent most of my time.

Related post - Transit Time in Dubai
Tags: Dubai, Terminal 3 Dubai Airport, Dubai International Airport, Khartoum

Subway Grew Faster Than McDonalds

Subway, a fast food operator that serves sandwiches and salads, has grown so fast that it has overtaken McDonalds in the United Kingdom and Ireland markets. Subway operates via the franchising system and in the last three years, they opened up 800 outlets and it has 1,300 outlets in the whole of UK and Ireland now.

Their next target, 2,010 outlets by year 2010. Surprising to find out that their Meatball Marinara in UK's menu has a number of Facebook fan clubs. Must be very delicious that people reveal their love for it virtually. Subway is almost in every UK major cities / towns and would be flooding the universities, hospitals and football stadiums.

McDonalds in UK has been in the fast food industry long enough and would be able to withstand or counter such business competition with their 1,266 outlets in both UK and Ireland.

Even though Subway has more outlets than McDonalds, McDonalds' revenue is still much higher at £1 billion plus compared to Subway's £400 million sales. Looooooooong way to go for Subway.

Subway in Malaysia has only 27 outlets and if not mistaken, I have not tried their menu yet. Reason being that their presence is not wide enough to capture my attention during meal time. As for McDonalds, there's one just opposite my office building. How not to miss it. I like their Sundae Cone and French Fries.

Reading: How Subway overtook McDonalds - Telegraph UK
Tags: Subway, McDonalds, United Kingdom, Fast Food Operator, Subway Franchise, Subway Sandwiches

Transit Time in Dubai

Arrival at the newly opened Terminal 3 of the Dubai International Airport. It was really huge and empty. Empty because planes were staggered throughout the terminal and this terminal serves Emirates Airlines only.












A really long long walk to the immigration counters.















After clearing the immigration counters, you'll be passing by fourteen baggage areas. It was really a long walk again ........... long way down the hall. It took me ten minutes from the airplane to the exit.

Since I was in Business class, they do provide a limousine to your transit hotel. All the limos were Volvos.

Was allocated the Al Sondos Suites by Le Meridien. This was an all suites 5 star luxury hotel and was provided the Executive Suite.

A small area for entertaining your guests with a huge 32 inch LCD TV.

They have a tiny area for kitchen too with a hood, hot steel plates and the fridge was hidden in the tall cabinet.









The king size bed was soft and comfortable ..... only for one night ......















During breakfast, when you ordered tea, it was served in this teapot with strainer. Solid tea, definitely not a lipton tea brand.














The restaurant for the breakfast was designed in olden english style and food served was emmmmm ..... great!

The scenery from my sixth floor window. I'll be walking over to the Deira City Centre mall at the right hand side of the picture. A huge shopping centre indeed, probably the size of Mid Valley in Kuala Lumpur.

Lots of road construction that was on-going. The morning sun was still bearable.










My hotel taken from across the road.
















As it was still early, around 10.30am, the mall was quite empty. Saw quite a number of shops offering good discounts but my hand carry bag was already full.













As I was walking in the mall, I noticed a tall building located far far away and I was sure it was the current world's tallest building - the Burj Dubai. Certainly not one of those lamp posts.
Tags: Dubai, Transit In Dubai, Terminal 3 Dubai Airport, Dubai International Airport, Emirates Airlines, Al Sondos Suites, Le Meridien, Deira City Centre, Burj Dubai

Journey to Khartoum via Dubai

I can't help but to take a picture of this notice placed at a money changer's glass pane.

"Please satisfy yourself before leaving the counter, thank you, come again."

I knew what it meant, which is to count your money before you leave their place otherwise they won't entertain any claims of lesser amount given to you.

Won't name the place of this money changer. Next time if you discover it, you let me know.




Left my house at 9.40pm and arrived at the KLIA around 10.30pm and was shocked to see this crowd at the airport. Never before. Thought something went wrong somewhere.

Even the queue at the Emirates Airlines was equally bad. For this round, I get to have the Business class seat as I have upgraded it with my Skywards points. Thank you Emirates.

After checking in, I went straight to the dedicated Emirates Lounge, for my supper? dinner? whatever it is, I'm going to eat till time to board my plane. This lounge was located at the satellite building and meant for Emirates passengers only.

It has a number of tables for diners and leather chairs for people intending to have a short nap. Its food range was not extensive but enough for diners to have a good meal. The staff within the lounge were working non-stop. Clearing tables and ensuring the lounge was clean at all times.

The lounge provided a number of computer workstations for people to update their Facebook and Blogs ...... hehe.

Dinner was long gone and now for my next meal. Can't wait to try their spicy tomato soup, fried prawns, skewed beef, curry chicken and a bit of white rice. I can't do without white rice. Gossett champagne - not that nice ..... not to my taste (as if I drink lots of champagne before this).










Next, I took the small dishes of stuffed salmon, germany potatoes and turkey salad (bottom).










Just can't resist the sweet temptation of the sago with gula melaka and sweetened milk ......... slurp.















My plane was scheduled to depart at 12.30am and after watching the safety aspect of the airplane, I screened through their entertainment booklet to choose my movie.

Decided to watch The X-Files movie and Mamma Mia!

Yeah, I'm so far back in terms of watching movies. No time at all on normal days.







Of course, during this moment, they will serve drinks and titbits. I saw Moet & Chandon champagne on their list and since I knew its one of the most expensive, why not this time. Noticed that they opened up the bottle just for me.

While sipping the champagne and munching the peanuts, I enjoyed the movies.

About one hour plus into the flight, they served sandwiches. I took a bit ............... one of each is a bit lah.





There was this (clockwise) strawberry fruit tart, roast chicken breast placed on french loaf, a tiny chocolate cake, grilled vegetables on wholemeal bread and a camembert cheese with cream cheese rosette on brown bread.

About four hours into the flight, I was served breakfast? Was it? When you fly over different time zones, you'll be wondering which meal. As long there is food placed in front of me, I know what to do. There was croissant bread (don't know how to describe but it was very tasty not bland like a bread). Bread was unlimited and it came in various types. It came with fresh fruits, a yoghurt, cup of fresh orange juice and a tiny weeny honey in glass container.

I ordered the poached egg meal and it was really feeling, comes with german big sausage, potatoes with cheese at the base. Too much fat? Don't normally eat like this. I had been eating non-stop since dinner time at home and this was the fourth meal within twelve hours.
Tags: Emirates Lounge, Emirates Airlines, KLIA, Gossett, Moet & Chandon, Champagne

Dinner at Baby Moon

When it comes to dinner time, it's always the biggest question of my life - "what to eat?".

This time I remembered that a new restaurant, located at Taman Danau Desa, has just opened and why not try it out. Just a short walk from my condo.

Very torturing in blogging about such nice food when you are stucked in Sudan.

I can't recall the name of this dish but it was fried with lots of pepper. Nevertheless it was tasty with the aroma filling the restaurant the moment it was put right in front of you. Joshua, if you were reading this blog posting, please let me know the name of this dish.

This was mine, the Japanese Curry Chicken that comes with white rice. The gravy is basically more of black pepper than the curry taste. Maybe that was Japanese curry style. Never tasted it before so I gave a shot.

This is the Herbal Chicken Soup with Noodles together with a Honey Milk Tea. Too much ........ just writing the name itself got my saliva drooling.








Was this the Seafood Fried Rice ....... really got confused. Their food is given thumbs up by us. Won't mind going there again if the question of "what to eat?" crops up again and not knowing where to go.

All in all, four main dishes with three drinks cost us RM52. No 5% service tax.









They mentioned that their shop has good tau foo fa. It was served in a wooden container. Nice, not too sweet and smooth of it is important.

Tags: Baby Moon, Taman Danau Desa, Tau Foo Fa, Japanese Curry Chicken, Herbal Chicken Soup

On The Way to Sudan

* Latest
Can only say that I'm full again ............ need to go to the boarding gate now for my 1500hrs flight to Khartoum of Sudan, another 34 minutes for departure. A possible 10 minutes walk to the boarding gate.
Adios!

------------------------------

Updating at the KLIA Emirates Lounge and just heard that I have been called to go board my Emirates plane. The gate is 5 minutes from this lounge.

Very full now ......... and in the plane, will be eating all the way to Dubai (transit).

Got the Al Sondos Suite by Le Meridien as my transit hotel. It's an all suite hotel, really high class.

See whether I can update again in the Dubai Emirates Lounge about 15 hours later.

Cheers!

Bigger Better Cinemas in Malaysia

If you are thinking that recession is setting in then you are wrong from the perspective of cinema owners. Malaysian movie goers will get to watch their favourite movies in 51 new cinema screens throughout Malaysia in time to come.

TGV, GSC and Cathay Cineplex - here they come. Heard of Bollywood? Yeah, an Indian company by the name of Adlabs Films Limited, a subsidiary of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, have bought into a local Malaysian company, Lotus Five Star AV (M) Sdn Bhd, that is currently operating forty cinema screens under Star Screen Cinemas. This Lotus Five Star company is part of the Lotus indian restaurants ............. yeah, the expensive indian restaurant. They have made their profits and is diversifying into the entertainment industry now.

Initial capital outlay for the Malaysian operations would be about RM100 million to expand up to 100 cinema screens within the next fifteen months. There would be a change of name as well ............ BIG Cinemas.

This cinema chain is not new as they have cinemas operating in USA, Mauritius and Nepal at the moment. It's proven! Today it has 155 screens in India and 220 screens in overseas investments. In time to come, the cinemas will show English, Malay, Cantonese, Mandarin, Tamil, Thai, Indonesian, Korean, Japanese, Hindi and other language films, depending on demand from the neighbourhood.

Will it become a BIG bang when it has fully expanded in Malaysia?

Reading: Adlabs Films to operate cinema chain in Malaysia - Reuters India
Tags: Adlabs Films Limited, Lotus Group of Companies, Lotus Five Star AV (M) Sdn Bhd, Bollywood, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Hindi Movies, Tamil Movies, Star Screen Cinema, BIG Cinema