I see London....

Greetings from London! Okay so I've actually already been here for 2 weeks but better late than never right. Its been a pretty interesting few weeks back, back in Western Civilization. Its taking a bit to get myself readjusted, there are a few things i've gotten used to and i'm not sure if i'm willing to give them up.

For example shoes - I haven't worn a pair of heels in 8 months. Seriously its been a very long time since my feet have been more than 1/2 inch off the ground. So last saturday when i decided to be cool and sport a pair of 2 inch heels i was in hell! within 5 minutes i had blisters and my ankles were crying out in pain. Then of course there's the hair - it hasn't been cut in over 4 months, hasn't seen a hairdryer or styling products in over 6. And lets not forget about the clothes - my jeans, my lovely replay jeans have seen their last days... they've seen me through thick and thin and have covered my ass, litteraly when nothing else could. All of this is really fine by me but its not a good thing when people start dropping their spare change into your coffee as you're waiting for the signal to change :)

Besides all that London has been excellent. Went up to Manchester on Monday for two days to see some sights and get out of London. In the 15 years that i've been coming here, i've only left London once! Luckily the weather here has been great and have mostly had sunny days with a bit of overcast here and there and little to no rain. Which is more than I can say for you guys on the East coast! Hope you all made it safely through the storm. Seeing my cousins and some old friends was my main reason for stopping in London, that and puting off having to go back home ;) The family got a little bit bigger last january and my nephew, Rohan, just turned 1 a few weeks ago. He is absolutely adorable - all smiles and giggles, with one massive front tooth!


Anyway, hoping to catch up with some of the old Tokyo crew later today (that's me and Derek having what else - Japanese!), as well as get out to Cardiff to see Gabe and Alice (friends from New York), catch a football match and hopefully venture out of london a bit more. Only have 2 weeks gulp! left before i fly home so in typical BG style am trying to stuff as much in as possible

Dubai, or not To Buy

After 7 odd months in third world and developing asian countries I was pretty excited about visiting Dubai, one of the 7 emirates that makes up the United Arab Emirates on the Arabian Peninsula. It was considered the Las Vegas of the Arabic World, a vacationing spot for oil-rich sheikhs and their wives, rich Brits and Europeans itching for a little Gucci, Fendi, and Armani.

Unfortunately its all the things that make Dubai-Dubai that made me realize that being a developed city is not necessarily a good thing. I mean everywhere I turned there were shopping malls, shopping centres, malls with the world's largest in-door ski resort, 5 star hotels, hotels with shopping arcades, hotels that charged non-guests an entrance fee of 200dhs ($70)!

I took the hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus to see a bit more of Dubai and thought it was hysterical that 80%of the tour consisted of pointing out the hotels and real estate projects - where they're building the worlds largest manmade island resort, the worlds largest shopping mall, and of course the world's largest tower!
Beautiful, clean and sterile, Dubai had no personality no character. Just superficial and consumer oriented.



It wasn't all that bad, luckily my friend Kamal had gotten me in touch with his friends Prakash and Jenna who were sweet enough to entertain me for a few days - their company was great and saved me from sitting in my hotel room watching Star Movies all weekend long.