Macaroni Grill

After you are done eating at the Macaroni Grill, when the server brings over a device that looks like a calculator, and asks you if you want to fill out a survey about your recently concluded experience, please kindly decline. Why? Well, after a recently concluded dining experience at MG, and after being disappointed that Macaroni Grill did not have Mac N Cheese (????), while filling out the survey, we said that there weren't enough food choices and that the food was bland, because what I got was pasta shells with cheddar cheese on it.. not Mac N Cheese. Not 5 seconds later, the manager of the restaurant walks by and asks us why we didn't like the experience. We were like what? How did you know? Apparently he gets a beeper message when some one isn't satisfied and then comes over to your table and asks you why! Needless to say, after that embarrassing moment, all other questions were answered with an 'extremely satisfied'. Those surveys must be inaccurate!

Dubai World Cup!

The Dubai World Cup is the world richest horse race with a pot of $6,000,000 for the winner. Of course, most of the people who go to the races go there for the social aspect rather than the race itself. It is a pretty cool event! There are competitions for best dressed couple, best dressed man, best dressed woman etc, with the winners taking up to $5,000 each!

The lines to get into the race was ridiculous. Some people waited in line for 2 hours, while I had to wait in line 'only' 45 mins because we cut the line, it was still bloody hot standing there in the sun with our suits and boots.

The track!

Man, I'm sure glad we left early, cos otherwise we would have been one of the 20,000 people waiting at the Nad Al Sheba race course for a dang Taxi! Got out of there in the nick of time!

New Diggs

New Diggs

So I finally got out of the Lotus to a new place near the Dubai Creek. Its a lot nicer location. The old Hotel Apartment was really nice in terms of the apartment being very big, nice and clean. But the location was totally horrible. Yes, it was close to work. A 5 minute drive.. if you had a car. Since I don't have a car and had to wait for hours for taxi's, it didn't matter to me whether I was a 5 minute drive from work or a 20 min drive from work. The good thing about the new place is the view..

Thats Al-Makhtoum bridge right outside the apartment and you can see the 'downtown' skyline in the distance, including the Burj Dubai (now the tallest structure in the world). I'm still waiting for a clear night so I can get good pictures of the view.. but being that summer is 3/4th of the way here, it's going to have to be a long wait for a clear night I think.

Another good thing about the new place is the location. I am close to Deira City Center mall, a 5 min walk.. so if I wanted to see a movie, I can just walk to the mall and see it and will NOT have to wait for 45mins in the taxi line to come back home.. ahh.. that is great!

Holi in Dubai

This is definitely very late, but better late than never a smart person once told me. So anyway, on Saturday, March 21nd, at Dubai Wonderland, near the creek, 1000's of people celebrated Holi! It was pretty crazy! There were a lot more people than I ever expected. I haven't ever celebrated Holi like this ever before in my life, it was a lot of fun.

Oh, I'm sure some of you are wondering what Holi is. Source:Wikipedia

Holi also called the Festival of Colors, is a popular Hindu Spring Festival observed in India

People spend the day throwing colored powder and water at each other. The spring season, during which the weather changes, is believed to cause viral fever and cold. Thus, the playful throwing of the colored powders has a medicinal significance: the colors are traditionally made of medicinal herbs prescribed by Ayurvedic doctors.

Here are some pictures. After looking at the reason for throwing color at each other, and honestly, I didn't know that until today, I have no idea why all those people got into that large area filled with stagnant water, if they were trying to avoid getting sick. I didn't get in the pool, but it was fun never the less!