Friend From Dubai

Friday afternoon, I received a call. The caller said his name was Joy ....

I had forgotten all about it - Joy, a friend presently residing in Dubai had e-mailed me a week before that he was coming down with his wife to KL for 3 days and 2 nights and I had agreed to meet him for dinner on friday. However, it had totally sliped my mind that I had a relative’s birthday party to attend at the same time (That's another story however and maybe another post). I promised to meet up with them the next day.

Anyway, on saturday morning, I picked them up at their hotel in Bukit Bintang. Had bit of trouble finding their hotel. I just drove round and round and my insticts led me to the rear entrance of their hotel.

As it was their first trip to KL, I took them to the most famous tourist spot in the city – Kuala Lumpur City Centre and the Petronas Twin Towers. They were really fortunately because there was a nice breeze and the sun was hidden behind clouds. We sat down at the Dome restaurant and got to know each other. Before this we had only communicated through e-mails. As both husband and wife were architects, they guess they really found the Twin towers fascinating.


We talked about life in the gulf, about our occupations and about our home town (Yeah! We come from the same place). I learnt that Dubai is a metropolitan city state with a large foreign population. According them, there is a construction boom in Dubai (which is good news I guess). I also learnt one design limitation that they faced – almost all buildings they design must have an arch feature - representing Islamic architecture.

After years in the desert kingdom, I guess they love visiting places with a lot of vegetation – They exclaimed: “Its so green in here!”

Next on the itinerary was Petaling Street – KL’s so called China town. It was crowded like it usually is and we went around a bit looking at all the stuff available there. They were not interested in buying the imitation products but Sujata, the wife was amazed to find that the imitation Dune perfume on sale at one of the stalls smelled exactly like the original (her favourite). I assured her that it was indeed fake. I though that it would be a great chance to play tourist myself and took some pictures. They bought some souvenirs and we left soon after.

By then, my stomach was growling and I took them to Bangsar and to my favourite eating place there – Devi’s corner at Jalan Telawi. I love the variety of food available there. Joy loves to taste exotic food and I wanted him to try Patai. Unfortunately, it was not available. However, he loved the sambal they had. His wife is not as adventurous but she loved the Indian food.

We also talked about our experiences and I was quite amazed at what an amazing life Joy had lead and how he finally ended up in Dubai. I guess that would be another post.

I guess they were pretty much tired with the whirlwind tour of KL and I was leaving for Kedah later that evening, I finally dropped them off at their hotel. I wish I had more time to show them around.

In case you are reading this post, Joy, I hope that you had a nice time here in Malaysia and hope you come back again.