Day D1A: Setting up Shop with Gusto

July 17, 2024

For some strange reason, I'm not feeling much jet lag. Certainly it is way better than the adjustment flying into the US. I still, however, lost a partial day on the long flight over. The flight left at 5pm Pacific time on Monday and arrived at 7:30pm Dubai time on Tuesday night. Thanks to conking out the first half of the 'night' with the alcohol (yes this was planned), when I woke up it was about 11am Dubai time. So I just forced myself to stay up the rest of the entire 'day' afterwards and the body clock reset while on the flight.

Since I was so exhausted, I slept really, really well. This amazing sleep was for several reasons: there was this profound sense of peace in the Airbnb, there were blackout curtains that my host had installed (she is also very sensitive to noise and light), as well as the delightful hum of the AC pumping out cool air.

As my host had also explained last night, Dubai is so wealthy and the vibes so peaceful that you don't have to worry about people stealing stuff. This is in stark contrast to where I just was. In Vancouver, Seattle, San Franciso, and San Jose you always had to be on guard and watching your back because people absolutely WILL steal! There's no fucking consequences if they do basically. My uncle was completely right, it is an injustice system. Street smarts were a necessity. I was not comfortable to walk around outside after 10pm most nights, and didn't do any partying. Too scared actually. Even in the Vancouver casino I would try to call it quits early and go to bed.

Streetsmart skills are meant to be sharpened obviously, but here in Dubai the vibes felt that I could relax more, maybe a lot more.

After that great sleep, I went back downstairs and joined my host for coffee and talked to her about extending a few more days. My next flight out isn't until over a week later from Abu Dhabi, so I figured I'll skip there and just take a bus directly to that airport with my bike. She was totally cool with it.

There was a ton of stuff that needed to be done so I wanted to prioritize and start setting up shop pronto. This Airbnb had so many nooks and crannies, drawers, closets, place to put stuff that I took several hours unpacking all my pannier bags and making it feel like a home. With time on my hands now, there was no need to treat these places like a crash pad while running around 100 miles an hour doing social visits and running errands as before.

Part of the problem with the first two weeks of the trip in Canada and the US is that time was just so limited and prices so expensive. This meant that I couldn't afford any fancy Airbnbs to base my errands out of. That also meant spending a ton of time on transportation since these places were not convenient nor central. The good part was using the bike as a transport tool, but it still took so much time.

This Airbnb here in Dubai was truly a minimalist's dream. It had all the features I wanted as described in previous blogs. Not only that, it was extremely central and a very good deal since this is the off season. There is no way I could have afforded this in Canada or the US. Now with the stuff all unpacked and everything set up the way I wanted, I could start setting up shop.

First need to find a place for my goodies. They gave me free whisky at the duty free

Now stepping out into 36 degree weather. It would only get worse.

Having unpacked and turned this house into a temporary place to actually live, it was then time to check out the nearest shopping mall -- Mercado Mall. My host said she even helped design this place. She was a woman of many, many talents and extremely busy. She works with artists and architects. Even at her age now, I'm presuming 60s and retired but would never dare to ask, she continues to do a ton of stuff.

I wasn't really sure what I wanted to accomplish at the shopping mall, just walk around and take some pictures, and see what could be done.

The stuff I saw even at first glance continued to blow my mind. There was a cinema, several book stores, multiple coffee shops, Virgin megastore, a gigantic supermarket and I'm sure many more. I was gobsmacked. Where to begin? A lot of stuff could get done just here!

So I sat down at Starbucks, ordered a coffee and a banana, then proceeded to update my budget. Part of that meant dealing with a ton of coins I had brought over. These were he last of the pile from different countries to be gotten rid of. Not really sure what to do next, I walked into a store and bought a pen. The staff right away were very friendly and with excellent service. One saw all the coins and she said, "I can see and hear a lot of coins you have, let me help you count these and exchange for some bills." She then put them into piles, exactly what I do all the time, but she did it much faster and more efficiently. All of this came to a 50 dirham bill. I asked her 'what's this' and 'what's that' when pointing to various coins. Apparently there are 50 fil and 25 fil coins which I just learned about today.

This was going way better than I imagined. Who would have thought? The customer service and general hospitality so far was exceeding all manner of expectations.

I was noticing people from all over the world already. A lot of Filipino workers (mostly the cashiers), Thai, Chinese, Africans, Indians, and goodness knows who else.

But all this was only the warmup.

I had heard there *might* be an Orange Theory fitness studio in Mercato Mall but wasn't sure. The legendary coach I took class with back in San Franciso used to be a Dubai expat and coached at studios here. But he said all the Orange Theory had closed down, basically the exact same problem as in Shanghai.

So imagine my surprise when I found it existed. I took a few pictures then walked in. The staff and the coach greeted me enthusiastically and we chatted for over an hour. I explained my story and all the classes I've taken around the world. They had a ton of stuff to say about how their studio runs and they wanted my feedback. As you can probably imagine, the coach had a body that people would kill for. She was most likely from Eastern Europe somewhere, judging by the accent.

Apparently the studio had literally just opened on Monday. They were super keen to get me in, and I agreed to do a trial class later today at 4:30pm. They tried to sell me a 24 pack of clases for 1500 dirhams, but I told them it was too many classes and would only be here for a week. They said, "But you're the kind of guy who comes in every day aren't you. No problem, we can negotiate with the manager and find a deal for you."

They also said, "We're gonna roll out the red carpet for you Fit Steve. We'll put something on there that says it's your first time to Dubai and give you shoutouts so that way everybody knows."

Well now you're talking.

That very successful conversation later, I then went down to the supermarket.

While there I saw so many things to buy and healthy options I couldn't believe my eyes. None of this was planned, so I started grabbing an armful of stuff then adding more and more and realized a shopping cart might be a good idea. There was even a large section for a healthy salad bar, you tell the guy which kind of salad you want and which size and he packages it for you. On average it would cost somewhere between 10-20 dirhams each ($3-6) which is very reasonable.

In the end I got all this for 100 dirhams ($27)

Realizing next that I needed to solve the electricity problem, I asked my host for an adaptor. She had one but it didn't quite work so I ended up buying two adaptors at the Virgin Megastore. Combine all that together it seems to have solved the problem.

This was only just the beginning but I was already seeing how liveable this place was. Even the simple act of unpacking my shit and making it feel like a home, not a crash pad, meant that I was already thinking of the next steps.

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