Trip diary - Waiting... Again

Note: You might have read this, I posted it then removed it after realising that there was another 'diary post' that I have not posted yet.

Trip diary Day 5 – Queen Alia airport [July 29, 2007]

Haven’t slept since yesterday, was kind of worried that I might miss my flight if I went to sleep… Will continue where I stopped last night...

Here goes, Ashtek began playing at around 12-ish me thinks, another good local dj, nice warm-up for Gunther & Stamina, I think they’re quite underrated, it was the first time that I see them perform live (Missed their gig at Fashion TV Arabia’s gig in Dubai a few months ago). They played for about two hours, before Beebee took over the mixing duties. (Note: Flight started boarding at that point, now I am completing this 24 hours after arriving back in Dubai…). Bee Bee started his set with Karen Overton’s “Your Loving Arms” (The only track I ID-ed, hehe), played for about an hour or so.

Fila, one-half of Egyptian duo Aly & Fila, he's the one who’s more into DJing, leaving the production duties to Aly, started spinning, at that point, I decided to try my luck and sneak into the backstage area, luckily enough the security personnel didn’t spot me, and even afterwards, they did not seem to bother, thinking I was part of the crew maybe. It was far more fun there, seeing Fila mixing, in addition to meeting a childhood friend of his (A cousin) and a fellow trance hitter! Cool stuff, Fila is one really down to earth guy, gotta like the guy! He was brilliant, tracks that I expected him to play and he did anyway: “Whatever”, “Why” and his collaboration with Shadi of Lebanon aka. Amadeus “A Dream Of Peace”. He was forced to stop playing at 4:00am, as Julian, the event organizer asked him to do so as apparently the yacht club operators/managers/owners/whatever wanted that, in addition to the fact that guests of nearby hotels were complaining about the loud music. I bet he would’ve loved to play on, so many people came up to the dj booth asking ‘us’ (Me and Kevo, the fellow TH member) if the party is over or not, and other random questions, one even asked us where he can get the CD of the tracks that were played, hehe! Stayed there for a while talking to Gunther, Bee Bee, Fila, Julian and the people in charge of the lighting and the amazing visuals…

Went back to the hotel with Kevo, we initially planned to take the 7:30am bus back to Amman, but ended up falling asleep after eating a late, late dinner, woke up at 2:00pm (!), checked-out, and that took ages, the service overall at the Inter Continental was below par. Also had to struggle to find a bus back to Amman, ended up being put on separate seats for the long journey, but hey, at least we got on a bus when initially the bus was full. One was seated on the ‘hostess’ seat, when there was no hostess to begin with, and usually the hostess on such buses is a MALE! During the 4-5 hour journey, we met some new friends who were there at Aqaba and Wadi Rum (They were also staying at the same hotel). Cool bunch =). It took a while to find a cab while in Amman, when I finally found one, he started the same stupid price haggling argument, I wonder why they initially answer your question of how much are they going to charge with “Whatever price that suits you, sir”, only to begin arguing once you bring up ANY price! Even if it was well above the normal rate if they used the bloody meter… I mean, they should realize that sometimes if they don’t push for it, they might get that extra 1/2 JD or 1 JD that they're nagging about… Idiots!

Was checked-in and given the exact same room at the Holiday Inn! Bet it hasn’t been occupied at all since I checked-out three days earlier. Met with a friend, cruised around Amman for a good hour or two, finally got to see the new ‘place to be’ in Amman that's called Vy… The gym, bar, café and God knows what else (Not sure of what it offers exactly, but it’s quite massive and luxurious =)). After some driving around, went to get some sweets before heading back home. Stayed up watching tv, and decided eventually to stay up, simply becaue I overslept on every single day of that trip, thus, I just couldn’t risk missing my flight (Although thinking about it now, it might not have been THAT bad to spend another day in Amman…)

At around 4 or 5am, I signed in on msn (Well, not online, appear offline mode/status is good enough), and found a friend whom I only knew online, one that I argue about football with, the Champions League and AC Milan (The team he supports), and we decided to meet up, went cruising again in the early hours of the morning, empty streets rock! Went to the new bridge again, to Abdoun, deer ghbaar which has Casper & Gambini’s and Noodle House now and also to some oldish parts of town! Sometimes I wish I knew more people there to go to such places (Referring to NH and C&Gs), maybe I finally do now... But on a second thought, Dubai has these places and more, but I hardly go there either… Hmm, some food for thought there. Asked Mohammed (My friend) to drop me somewhere near our house there, I walked for a bit in a neighborhood that I shouldn’t have gone to (Second time in that trip), before going to our neighborhood… Felt awkward, first time being there in almost a year… Took some pictures before the battery of my SLR died (Didn’t have the spare one on hand :(, too bad).

Went back to the hotel, chatted on the phone with a friend for a bit, very constructive convo (Bless you H =)), before packing, checking-out (3rd check-out in 5 days!) and heading to the airport, everything was smooth. Got myself in mini-trouble when I cost the Duty Free a $700+ sale of a Canon camera, I advised the lady that wanted to buy it to NOT do so, as the price was ridiculously inflated when compared to prices in the UAE and probably the US. Some cameras in the States are sold at almost half the price they sell them for here in Dubai. The sales executive followed me after that to criticize my so-called unacceptable attitude, and accused me of being wrong about the prices, at that point, I claimed for the first time to be a so-called “professional photographer” and that I know the prices of these cameras, especially the G7 and my very own 400D, hoping that would shut him up but he kept on blabbing. Anyway, screw them, they’re supposed to be competitive prices and WITHOUT taxes, hey, I intended to buy the G7 myself from them IF it was cheaper than Dubai… If they want to cheat people into that, it’s their problem. They still had my obsolete S2 IS on display! Didn't check the price, but it would have been some ridiculous figure probably. The S3 IS and even S5 IS are out now! In the Dubai duty free on the way to Amman I checked out the prices of the same cameras, and they were the priced the way they should be =)... Their loss afterall.

On the flight, I happened to be sitting next to a mature and cool woman, kept on talking for most of the flight, was cool to do so. Most of the passengers are usually grumpy old farts after all or annoying crying and screaming kids ;). Upon arriving back in Dubai, it was a case of continuous and endless dozing off and waking up again. Was an exciting and enjoyable trip, but at the same time it was also tiring… I can safely say that I somewhat miss Jordan (Never expected I’d say that before), I hope I get to go there with my folks when they go there next month… Let’s see what happens =)

Cheers to Julian, Laith and his gang, all the djs, the ‘bus’ people, Kevo the fellow TH-er, Omar, Mohannad and many others for everything! Rave on peeps and see you on July 25, 2008 =)! Praying it wll be John Askew warming up for Paul Van Dykeee!