Day 3 in Dubai

February 25, 2007

I’m now here at the reception of my hotel, waiting for Tim to fetch me, an hour ago I received a phone call from my other friend in high school, I talked to her last night and told her my purpose here. Maybe lady luck is still with me, hehehe... She told me she has a friend who has an Iraqi boss, and a dermatologist as well, she added that her friend’s boss is also a distributor and maybe I can make a presentation of my products, I told her to arrange an appointment for me, by the way, her location is in Abu Dhabi, it’s around 2-3 hours bus ride from Dubai, what the heck?? I’m only here for 2 weeks and I have to give all I got and take advantage of the opportunities, todo na to! Go! Go! Go!


Here I am now with Tim, he fetched me in my hotel, he will drop me in Mall of Emirates, he said it’s a huge mall, 2nd largest mall in Dubai, you can find different brands there, its also a high end mall, travel time from my hotel to the Mall of the Emirates is around 20 minutes, from the outside you can see a big slope, like the nose of an aircraft, Tim said it’s the Mall of the Emirates already, I asked why is it designed that way, he answered, because inside that mall is the “Ski Dubai” its an indoor ski place, and the slope you saw was the slope of Ski Dubai, that’s exciting I said, he said they will take me there if they have free time.. Wow, I can experience real snow, at least... hehehe…

Inside this mall are different signature brands, I can’t remember all the names sa dami, Kenneth Cole, Louis Vuiton, Charles & Keith, Mango, Ripcurl, Quicksilver, etc... And the shoppers also are Class A; some are Russians, British, Indians, Americans, Japanese and Filipinos as well.

I also saw some Filipinos who’s working as a sales person, some are service crews of Carrefour, I went inside Carrefour and bought some items of competitors, it took me 3 hours to finish my product hunt coz this Carrefour is very big.

I went to the insect repellant section twice and I didn’t see “Off Lotion” there, I was amazed so I asked one of the crew there if they have this lotion and he said they don’t have, the person even asked another crew if he knows that product. There are also few baby detergent products; sunblock section only has Nivea and Banana Boat, few kinds of Hawaiian Tropic also, there are several brands of lubricants but the most kinds are the “Id” brand. It comes in different flavors, and are imported from U.S.A. Sugar sweeteners have also several brands but the out of stock brand is Candrel, I spoke to a Filipina cashier and asked what’s the popular energy drink and she answered its “Red Bull”, I also saw only 1 kind of vitamin C which is Aspirin C, it’s an effervescent tablet.







After my “product hunt” in Carrefour it’s time for me to eat, I’m walking like 45 minutes already and I can’t see the food court, all I can see are high end restaurants, of course I can’t afford there, so I kept on walking till I see the food court, when I reached the food court, there’s another problem, the foods are expensive, I wanted to try an Arab food but sorry for me, its out of my budget, have to settle for another Big Mac meal, maybe I’ll get used to eating Big Mac here…

It’s already past 6pm, and in a few minutes time Tim & Rose will fetch me here, that’s if they can finish their work at 6pm… while waiting for them to arrive, there’s a Filipina who is selling “empanada” I just had my meal, but to her perseverance and “kakulitan” she then convinced me to buy, I said to myself, it will be a great help to her if I buy 1 of her “empanada”. Then she asked me, “Are you also looking for a job here?” I replied no, I’m here to look for business opportunities, and I asked her, are all the Filipinos staying here in Dubai looking for a job? She answered yes, there are many Filipinos here are trying and dying to get a job here, any job she added, and what’s sad is some of the Filipina’s who are desperate in looking for a job are entering prostitution business. She also added that some Filipino males do that also just to survive in this country.