Burj Khalifa says F*&ck You.

To be a tourist in your own city is one thing, to be a tourist in a city that has adopted you is another.  I have lived in Dubai since March 2009, a bad time, a time when layoffs and salary delays were common, jobs were scarce, abandoned cars were plenty and the Burj Dubai (now the mighty Burj Khalifa) was pending completion, with rumors that Dubai, the once glittering promising metropolis was sinking in debt. It wasn't really the most ideal time to look around aside from the fact that my early paychecks could not afford going on tours (this was during pre-Cobone and Groupon discount voucher deals).

I spent most of my time working. The Burj Khalifa was eventually completed, the metro was finally up and running, and things started to bustle again. I got a new job, I did get to go around more often than usual, but I no longer had the "tourist eyes". You know those fresh eyes that light up with wonder upon seeing something for the first time?  I was a semi-local, and pretty soon the Burj was just another tall building and the Dubai Mall was just another tiring walk, everything in the city was becoming a hyperbole bore, with only one exception, - the Dubai Fountain, swaying to Bocelli, that's the one thing that never fails to amaze my jaded city heart.

So this year,  as it was bound to happen, I had to play tour guide to a visiting friend and pretend that I know my city. It was the week before the big EXpo 2020 announcement and UAE National Day so there couldn't be any better time to get to know Dubai.

Golden City Dubai, as seen from the Dubai Metro.

My favorite building - the Twister at the Dubai Marina. 

A view of business bay from the Atlantis Monorail. 

Sunset at Jumeirah Open Beach.

From Jebel Ali to Rashidiya, Old Town to New Town,  from Burj Khalifa, to the Atlantis, from Irish Village to Global Village, from Souk Madinat to Bastakiya, we went to explore every nook and canny, with me struggling to explain the way of life, picking up interesting realizations along the way.

These walls could talk. Anonymous Grafitti artist "Arcadia blank"
captures the inner city soul.

Every day a different story, every day the city that I had grown indifferent to was looking better. I was like this bored boyfriend who was suddenly seeing how lucky he is to be with a nice beautiful girl everyone would want to have.

Of course Dubai is not without its faults - the silly rules, the annoying people, the expensive arrogance and daily luxuries, the lack of alcohol, real music and street life, but overall there is just this unique air of confidence, this overwhelming sense of pride coming from an accomplished, self-made, half-crazy, half-obsessed City who beat the desert odds.

Airshow at the Dubai Marina
celebrating Dubai's 42nd anniversary and Expo 2020 win. 

Young Camel Dancers chilling outside before the show.

What is Dubai if doesn't have a Gold Plated Mercedes
parked outside the Mall ? 

Dubai and the whole UAE may just be 42 and way too young to be in the 1^st world champion league, but what it lacked in history and experience it certainly made up in steel determination and discreet charm. I think of the UAE and of Dubai, and I think of Leo Di Caprio in Titanic or The Wolf of Wall Street. I see a young and ambitious first-time Wall-street hack daring to make a million on his first year, with many people envious and challenging, waiting for him to fail, but he goes around making it happen anyway.

I heard an old joke before that the BurjKhalifa is middle finger of the UAE. After winning the Expo 2020, I think it could very well be that fitting gesture from the Middle East to the rest of the world - and maybe, just maybe, there is rock and roll in this town after all.

                                         

Georgia On My Mind : The Road to Kazbegi

After spending half a day in Tbilisi and the other half in Mskheta, our second day in Georgia was booked for a roadtrip to Kazbegi to witness the Greater Causcausus.

For this trip, there were still 11 of us, all Filipinos except for one Dutch. We booked a bus and a driver to take us there, along with our host Bahman who served us our guide. We  paid 45 Lari each, and I would say 45 Lari well spent.

The road to Kazbegi is not without its so called "Thrills", I would probably not recommend it to the faint-hearted, those who don't like humps and bumps and driving along narrow roads next to steep mountain cliffs. Let us just say that I am grateful to have hired a seasoned professional driver and a guide to take us there.

I don't remember the names of most of the places where we stopped and took photos, but I remember seeing majestic rivers, beautiful green countryside, lambs and their shepherds crossing the street, and  of

course Snow peaked mountains for the first time ever in my life.

One of my most vivid and mundane memory from childhood was staring at a calendar from my Mom's office, and looking at the month of February that had an image of people Skiing in the snowy mountains on a bright sunny morning. I was maybe 4 or 5 years old. I remember thinking how come the snow doesn't melt even if its sunny.

Snow in the summer was sight to see.  I can just imagine how beautiful this town would be in the Winter. They said that its mostly a Ski Resort and that the Great Causcausus rivals the French Alps in that regard.

All through out the ride, we were just constantly in awe (and sometimes in fear.. of heights). It was just Beautiful, the way nature intends itself to be. I was like seeing Mother Nature without makeup on, and just resting easily in a place that not many people know of.



While on the way, our well-travelled friend who has been to Paris and Rome and everywhere else in Europe it seems, said that Georgia is quickly coming up on her top 3 list of most beautiful places ever, that is saying a lot.

I have not been to Europe, in fact this is the closest I have been to Europe, but it still seemed to me that it might not get any better than this one, not just for the landscape, but just the whole uniqueness of it, sitting at the crossroads between Asia and Europe,  a place that has been there for centuries, that still seem mostly untouched.

Georgian art and culture on the walls of the viewing deck to the magnificent Causcausus.

You know how you sometimes you looked at postcards and you imagine yourself in them. Kazbegi is that kind of a place, it is too good to be true that our pictures still seem like the background was photoshopped or something.

Perhaps many will agree that there are some places that cannot simply be captured by pictures or words, no matter what I say or how many millions of photos we've taken, Kazbegi will always be one of those places.

Wish you were here! (actual mountain on the background, no photoshop required)

There's no other way, you just need to see it, you just gotta take that high road, you just need to be there.

Georgia on My Mind : A Taste of Tbilisi

Taking a 3-hour red eye flight on budget airline Fly Dubai, we arrived in Tbilisi early, at 5am on a Thursday morning, a big tour group of 11, all Filipinos except for one Dutch guy. Tbilisi Airport was a quaint little efficient airport in a middle of a sleepy town.

With hardly any line at the immigration, our shiny 1-week tourist visas were issued quickly upon paying 50Lari (around 120dhs) which we took happily, considering how pretty it looked on our passports.

The door going out had a huge sign saying “Tbilisi Loves You” and from that moment on, I somehow sort of knew that this was gonna be a good trip.

Taxi drivers were waiting outside, speaking in broken English and a mix of Russian, and Georgian,  we negotiated a fair price based on what we were told – which was around 25-30 Lari per car, which can hold a maximum of 4 people, going to Rustaveli Avenue, Tbilis's main avenue, and where our hostel was located.

The trip to the hostel took less than 10 minutes, while we buckled up on the backseat thinking Tbilisi Drivers must have been retired Formula One racers.  Soon we had our first experience of the Georgian highway and got acquainted with their speed limits or lack thereof. 

BHM hostel was a nice decent place right across the grand Marriot Hotel along the famous Rustaveli.  Bahman the Iranian owner and operator was nice guy who helped us settle in, gave us tips on where to go, how much to pay, what to try and arranged for the next day’s road trip.

Across our hostel, the Rustaveli Theatre, the largest and one of the oldest Theatres in Georgia. 

There was a bookstore below the hostel, and it was just perfect.

As Neil Gaiman writes - Cities are not people. But, like people, cities have their own personalities. 

As for me, every city I've been to has its own unique smell.  The crisp old-world smell of Tbilisi's  Rustaveli Avenue on that bright Thursday morning was exhilarating to me like the smell of an old book being opened. It was love at first sight. It was my kind of place, a thousand-year old city, charming, brimming with culture and history, and best of all -  non-mainstream.

We were most probably the only Filipino tourist at the time, as we kept on getting stared at and asked if we were Chinese. Anonymity is freedom and frankly a great retreat from  the  condescending cosmopolitan Dubai.

Dobre Utra! Read all about it. 

The tourist / hipster Cafe.

Gorgeous Georgian women. 

Our neighbors whispering about us. 

We spent the morning wandering around, as I soaked in the old architecture and the lovely little pieces of sculpture and street art that lurks at almost every corner.

I'm not a big grocery fan, meaning I don't really like grocery shopping, but I have to admit, Groceries in foreign places are the best way to take a crash course on its people and culture.  Two minutes in a Tbilisi grocery and I discovered the great Georgian spirit, (or spirits)  -

All kinds of Alcohol. Name it and they have it, 2 Liters of beer is only 4dhs, ut the best ones are homemade.

This and pork. Its truly a piece of heaven for deprived pork & beer fans like us coming from Dubai.
History has it that Georgian's discovered wine and that Tbilisi's landmark statue, the Mother of Georgia overlooking the city holds a bowl of wine in her right hand to welcome friends and a sword to ward off enemies.

At this point, I was ready. I was ready to embrace Mother Georgia (ok, and maybe the hot Georgian men)  and drink from her sweet bowl.  Jeff Buckley's version of Lilac wine plays on my mind as I learned one very useful and important Georgian word that came handy in many later situations : Gaumarjos!

(to be continued..)
Up next, the Ancient Capital, Mtskheta...

Island in the Sun

Summertime always make me think of home - the roadtrips with friends, the weekends out-of-town, sand, surf, barbeques, mangoes, fresh air, fishballs, corn cobs, the dirty ice cream in the street, drinking coke out of plastic bags,  sipping fresh buko juice or eating halo halo on a hot summer day.

These flood of memories makes me yearn to be back in the Philippines, to be embraced warmly by its familiar, welcoming shores, to leave the cruel indifferent desert-concrete jungle of Dubai and once again be treated as a golden island senorita. Yes these are the stuff of my summer daydreams.

When people, foreigners, ask me about the Philippines, I always ask them back "Do you like the beach?" If they say yes, I immediately brighten up and become a little miss unofficial tourism ambassador, happy to go on talking about the places I loved the most, Boracay, Palawan, Batanes, Pagudpud. The list goes on. If they say no, well there's always San Miguel Beer, Sisig, Balut and Karaoke.

There are usually so many good things to say, that sometimes I wonder why some Filipinos choose to brood over or highlight the bad things. 

I think of home in the summertime and I hear a song in my head that goes – On an Island in the sun, we’ll be playing having fun, and it makes me feel so fine, I can’t control my brain…

Define Love

 So its that day again in February, and normally, I would let this day go by like any other day, except that this time I’m around I feel the urge to finally discuss it.

LOVE.

Photo taken at Mt. Tapyas, Coron, Palawan, Philippines (while climbing 724 steps to the Summit) 

I have spent most of my younger days pining for it, and most of my adult life trying to understand it that being single and in my 30s, things do seem a lot clearer now, and I am finally getting a good grasp of this thing, of what this so-called madness is all about.

After millions of pop songs, chapters and volumes of books, short stories, poems, movies, TV series, and countless hours spent with friends whining, crying, ranting, gushing over, getting over guy after guy after guy, (or girl after girl –in the case of my male and lesbian friends).  I think I am finally getting the drift.

And its not about chocolates, chuahua dogs, Shakespeare sonnets, or silly love songs. I don’t believe that Cupid or his arrow has much to do with it.  

Its not about movie dates, or liking the same bands, or obsessing over the same hobbies.

Its not about wedding gowns, or romantic getaways, hell, its not even about marriage proposals or destiny, although a lot of people will probably contradict me for this.

Its not about French kisses or Sex, good or bad, long, short, hot, warm or lukewarm, although these could actually be grounds for divorce, and I do know how sex is a significant part of a relationship, but its just not LOVE.

I’ve seen Love. I’ve touched and felt it, I still believe in it, and What I know is this  -

That LOVE is a CHOICE. A choice you make everyday, a choice that keeps defining your relationship with another person who is important to you. And by important, I mean the one you’ve chosen to give that VIP badge or that backstage pass to your life to. The person you can be yourself with, no matter how difficult you or he/she can become. The one you would not think twice about growing old with.

After a certain age, you realize that its not just a matter of being there for someone anymore, but being there WHEN IT MATTERS. Being there when it is difficult. Being there despite of or inspite of. And being there, even when you can’t actually “be there”.

After a certain age, you realize that LOVE is not stupid or blind, that it is in fact the smartest thing, the missing piece, the answer to the big riddle.

It opens up a world of possibilities and wakes you up to the reality of how it made a great deal of sense to be with this person, or how sometimes it was really the only thing that made any kind of sense at all.

It is not complicated or mysterious, because if it is, then it isn’t Love just yet. Love is simple. Love is clear-cut. It tells you where you should be and where you want to be in the next 10, 20, 30 years or even the next 3minutes. 

 Love is dedication, Love is commitment, Love is responsibility.

It is often times setting aside your own personal needs to give someone the best of you and the best that you can offer, because you want them to become better people. This is exactly why my parents, despite their limited capacities chose to send us to good (expensive) schools.  This is exactly why Jesus chose to die a gory death. He loved us enough to want us to become better people. Simple as that.

Like when you say you love your job or whatever it is you do, whether you are salesman, an artist, a writer, a basketball player, you are committed to it, you will not let a slip up if you can help it, you will not stop until you get it right,  until you’ve done everything you could. Love doesn’t give up easily. Love works harder at it and finds a way to make it work.

Love is trust. Love is respect. Love is friendship.

Hachiko, the Akita dog who has a statue in Shibuya, Japan. He is  remembered for his remarkable loyalty to his owner, even many years after his owner's death.    

Think about your best buddy, your good trusted friend, the one you respect highly above all, would you cheat on her/him? Would you hit her/him?  Would you stop listening to them? Would you stop caring?

If you are a normal honest person who has genuine relationships you would try your best to never do anything to break a good friend’s trust, and you will always aspire to get their respect - that, my friend, is Love. 

Also, its important to remember, that Love is FREE and it is given in abundance. So never buy, ask, beg, borrow, or steal it. Hatred has its ifs and buts, Lust has its conditions. Love just gives. Give and receive it freely without pride, without hesitation, without money involved.

Love spotted on display at Opera Gallery, Dubai International Financial Center, on the eve of Valentines 2012

 Love is hope. Love is faith. Love is kindness.

It is having something or someone to hold on to when the road gets dark and slippery. It is believing that someone waits with open arms at the end of the road, the train station, the airport at 3am, or at the dinner table at home. It’s the sound of a tired sleepy voice still saying “hello”and asking- how was your day?” after you’ve kept them waiting on a long busy day.  It is the embrace of forgiveness. It is the Lighthouse. 

The giant Cross awaits and welcomes everyone at the summit of Mt. Tapyas, after 724 steps. Lighted up at night, it also serves as a ''lighthouse" so sailing ships (often  with tourists) can find their way back home. 

Life is tough, Relationships are hard but Love, when its real, it comes easy and It SAVES. 

So if you ever  find yourself struggling, choking, drowning in it with no one to save you, then maybe its time to reconsider your options. It doesn’t matter how brief or how long the affair is, it doesn’t matter how much you’ve got invested in, if it isn’t Saving you, or at least making an effort to, then maybe its not worth Saving, and maybe its time to move on and Love yourself a little a bit more. Remember that the choice is always yours to make.

Sure, there are instances that will make you think twice or thrice or a hundred times about loving someone, there will be unforeseen circumstances, force majure,  maybe the timing isn’t right, maybe you are caught unprepared, maybe there’s no easy way out of a situation, maybe he doesn’t have enough money, maybe his mom doesn’t like you, maybe she doesn't live in your city, maybe she smokes too much,  the maybes are endless...but going back to my first point, it is a CHOICE, and one that you''re gonna have to stand by and keep making. 

So this Valentines day, 

I wish you Love,

 which is to say -

I wish you the Courage to make your choices,

The Wisdom to make the –right-choices

the Strength to stick by your choices,

and above all, that you would find genuine, lasting HAPPINESS 

in all the choices you've made and continue to make.

I wish you Love.

Happy Valentines day!

Words and photos by Kristine Abante
(except for Hachiko Statue and Lloyd Dobbler from the movie Say Anything)
Illustrations from The Little Prince

Written in Dubai, UAE on the 10th February 2012