About Ninjas.

I have to get a photo of the women here in their Burkas (black robes & veil), but the thing is, I’m afraid that if I do, they’ll kill me. And I kind of like my life. But I also really want this photo…the women here look so mysterious, with most of them hovering around in these long, black swaying robes. . Kind of like a mix between the evil emperor from Star Wars and cousin IT of the Adams Family, except a lot better looking. Some have uncovered heads, and some have veils that don’t show even a little bit of skin -not even the eyes. These ones have a type of mesh strewn over their face, so they can see out but nobody cans see in. It’s all very mysterious.

You’d think that everyone walking around in these burkas would look identical, but they have millions of different variations. There’s some with little eye slits, some with veils covering the mouth (I watched one of these try to eat a sandwich… its not easy. You have to lift the mouth cover bring the food in from under your chin, and then kind of blindly aim for your mouth while one hand is holding up this veil thing). Then theres those few (usually old ladies) complete with metal faceguards covering the nose. And theres also those with uncovered heads, and others in jeans and mini-burkas. And the strange part is that under these veils the women can look absolutely beautiful, yet nobody gets to see them.

And I know I’m not supposed to stare , but its hard to turn my head away when they’re shrouded in all that mystery. I think, for some strange reason, that if they wore less concealing clothing then I wouldn’t have such an urge to stare. I’d be like ‘Ooh… it’s a person under that veil’. I guess its just a matter of time until I get used to it. I hope I don’t though.

And no, unfortunately, the photo above isnt mine. If it was I'd either be dead or very happy. Or both.

About Airports.

Yay. After getting a taste of the glamorous life of a data processor I now am Exectuive Vice Presedent of Airport Departures. Ooh yea. Giggedy Giggedy.

Ok, so I might have made up the job title, but I’m done with data inputting and that’s all that really matters. Today I was put on a project to increase guest satisfaction with the departures process. Simply put, I’m tasked to see if the hotel needs to add a person to stand at the airport all day and help leaving Ritz Carlton guests through their departure. So far I’ve spent the day opening car doors, carrying luggage, pointing to exits and getting strange looks. Then there’s also lots of sitting around and drinking coffee involved, so it’s ok by me.

Plus I’m my own boss (kind of) and I get to ride around in fancy cars all day. They have a Lexus with a built in seat massager and BMW whose seats move to take the shape of your body (sweeeeet).

About Curiosity.

Ever wondered what your small intestines look like? I know I haven’t.

But here’s a photo of them anyways, courtesy of kNadja Ring.

About Lithium.

You have no idea how much i hate brocoli. I ate chicken jerk, jerky? jerk chicken? jerky chicken? one of those last night. Cooked by my very own jamaican. Then of course I spent the rest of the night dying from my frying stomach. Intestine flambé anyone? Ok, so next time I eat spicy stuff in moderation. but it was sooooooooooo good.

So I woke up dead this morning (yes, 1pm is still morning for me), turned on the devil TV that tempts me from my bed and ordered a big ass Hardees burger for lunch... all without leaving my bed.

Two hours and a bucket of curly fries later I had melted even further into my bed, and decided it was probably healthy to leave the mattress at least once every 24 hours. So I peeled myself off of the sheets and took the elevator downstairs, crossed the street and stretched myself out onto the hotel's white beach chairs. I put my sunglasses on, pulled out my magazine, and dug my toes into the sand. Yep, this intern life is a tough one... but someone's gotta do it.

About to put me to sleep.



Today was my first day at work. I started in guest relations, which is exactly as it sounds… you spend 9 hours a day relating to guests. Well, ok, so there’s 2 parts to this. One is where you stand outside in the lobby all day and greet people, talk to them, help then check in, etc. and the second part is guest recognition. This is where I was put. This basically consists of inputting data into one program, then transferring it to another program and re-entering it all cuz that stupid program won’t get along with the 1st one. And then repeating. Day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day.

Oh the exciting life of an intern.

Isn’t it Ironic.

Its flooding outside now. That’s right, flooding. Torrential Rains... hasn’t stopped all day, and this just HAS TO HAPPEN ON MY ONE DAY OFF. Grrr. They say that today is the most rain we’ve had here in 15 years. Yea, well that’s just great. The one day I can go into town and do stuff, my one day to be outside and I’m stuck watching the rain. And in Bahrain they don’t have drains on the roads, cuz usually it rains about 4 cm a year. So, today the roads are like rivers, the desert is overflowing and not one person in this country owns an umbrella.

And you know what else is strange… usually the rain has this nice musty smell of the wet dirt, and when it stops you get a fresh scent in the air. Well since here there is no dirt, everything smells like fish. The whole area where the hotel and our accommodation and pretty much half of the new Bahrain is build on is reclaimed land. In fact, if I look down while I’m walking to work in the mornings I can see little sea shells scattered everywhere on the ground. So, when this stuff gets wet it smells like the sea, and the whole area ends up having a salty beach smell.

About Mother Teresa.

The Eyes of Mother Teresa, originally uploaded by Stuck in Customs.

That’s right people… apparently I’m the Mother Teresa of the hospitality industry… so you better show some respect. See, today was orientation day. The day they tell you how great you are and how much your company loves you before throwing you into the deep end with just a Popsicle to keep you afloat. Not that I dislike popsicles…

Oh, and by the way, I’m also the Kofi Annan, Bono, Neil Armstrong and David Bowie of the hospitality industry. They had a fancy powerpoint filled with inspiring music and all kinds of slides and uuh… well, I get the fact that they’re meant to motivate us and all… but Mother Teresa? Really?

About Allah.



On my first day in Dubai I was walking by some recreations of old buildings, and there was one with a sign outside saying ‘free entrance’, so I said to myself, what the hell, I get to see the inside of one of these things, and maybe some interesting stuff too. Well, I walked out of the place 5 hours later. It turns out it was an Islamic learning institute, with lots of funky posters talking about why Islam so cool. And that took 20 min. Then, I started talking to this Filipino guy who was working there, which lead to talking to this Indian guy (both ex-christians) who was also working there. Then, he found out that I was an atheist, and that lead to 4 more hours of arguing, sweet tea and dates.

I now have a lot more respect for the Muslim people than I used to. My views have not changed so much on the religion itself, but more on those that worship it. I mean, you’re either 100% in or 100% out of this. In fact, its not so much a religion, as a complete way of life. These people have strict rules on how to dress, act, how to wash themselves, how to eat, and how to conduct business. Their whole lives are basically dictated by this 3000 year old book. Now that takes devotion.

He kept emphasizing that the first thing the Quran teaches you is to question your faith, that you shouldn’t believe in Allah unless you’re 100% sure, yet to have your questions answered you must believe. And so far, all Muslims I’ve talked to about Islam are very intelligent, rational, and introspective people, which is everything that I don’t find religion to be. So, I’m thinking, there’s really gotta be something to this Islam thing if these kind of people are willing to follow it. Especially cuz Islam is the most intense religion to follow.

The guy gave me like, a dozen pamphlets, 3 audio tapes and an English Quran…so I think I’ll be ok for a while…

About Dubai.

As if I wasn’t confused enough I decided to throw some salt in the proverbial melting pot that would have been my brain if it hadn’t already melted and then hardened and then melted again into a giant green puddle with the consistency of clam chowder.

Let me make it a bit clearer: Confusion x Dubai = Confusion2

But, at the end of the day, I’m glad I did it, cuz this is probably gonna be my only chance to see an uncooked Dubai- one which is still raw in places. But its heating up hella quickly.

Surprisingly, I liked ‘old’ Dubai a lot more than new Dubai. This is most probably because nothing in new Dubai actually exists yet. Hmm, lets see: No palms yet, no world yet, no Dubailand, no Motor City, no lost city, no tallest building in the world, and not even the Dubai Healthcare city (whose TV ads mention everything except for this tiny detail) exists. Oh, and rule out the beach cuz its too cold to swim (yes, deserts have winter too, and it would have been nice to know that before arriving with 1 sweater and 30 short sleeve shirts).

So, I guess in the end I had no choice except to see the ‘old’ Dubai. And by ‘old’ Dubai I mean of course, the artificially built recreations of traditional buildings that were probably torn down to make space for that damned Healthcare city.

But apart from the recreated buildings (which, ive gotta say, are really well done) there’s still a lot of original old-ish dubai in the form of all the souks (bazaars, markets, little shops- same difference). And that would be great if I was into shopping and all… especially cuz I was lucky enough to arrive during the Dubai shopping festival (excitement was just oozing out of my pores) which meant that all hotel prices doubled.

Ok, I know I’m complaining a lot, but the truth is that it was lots of fun to get to see the Dubai that everyone is talking about, and interesting to know that the best part of it is the culture, which nobody seems to talk about.

About Arriving and Globalization.

Gucci, originally uploaded by aLEX 11.

I have only been to one other country in the Middle East, the nightmarish zombie town of Abu Dhabi. It made me want to gouge my eyes out and play ping pong with my retinas just to keep me from literally dying of boredom. So, naturally, when I decided to move to the Middle East my first thought was to strengthen my eyeball muscles.

And so, for the past 4 months I’ve been gearing up to the biggest culture shock in my life. I’d hardly been to the Middle East, I knew practically nothing of its culture, the language, religion, or people. But that’s nothing new, because really, I don’t know much about most places I go to. But I think the key difference was that I knew just enough to put me on edge. I knew all the wrong things. I knew where my hotel was, but not where my house was; I knew that Bahrain had a lot of sand but no beaches, I knew it was Arabic, but not how strict and serious they were about it.

So with all these uncertainties I jumped on the plane and tried not to think about my next 6 months of life. And here is what was waiting for me:

My first day in Bahrain:

6:00 am: Plane lands and I wearily walk out towards customs

6:10 am: I’m afraid customs guy will give me a hard time cuz I’ll be staying for 6 months and my visa allows 2 weeks. I speak to him really fast, he looks confused, he raises eyebrows and stamps my tourist visa

6:30 am: I am supposed to be picked up by the hotel. Of course, nobody’s there. I think about panicking, then I see a Cinnabon and think about breakfast.

7:00 am: I see a moustached (yes, it’s a word now) man walking around with a sign saying ‘Alex PO’

7:30 am: I arrive at my accommodation, shower, unpack and get a quick tour of the premises

10:00 am: Meet new [pirate] roommate (more about him later)

11:30 am: Walk to the mall and have lunch at Hardees with new [pirate] roommate

12:30 pm: Go for a movie with new [pirate] roommate (déjà vu- denzel Washington stuff… not bad but kinda tacky movie about bending time and space and falling in love with some dead girl then him dying and she not being dead – more confusion to add on to my jetlag)

3:00 pm: Walked around the mall (kinda reminds me of Glorietta except not)

6:00 pm: Dinner at Burger King (Mmmmm.. healthy)
8:00 pm: Watched the end of an Arsenal vs Crap Team soccer match

9:00 pm: Went for a drink and some live music

12:00 mn: Sat in my bed wondering exactly what country I was in and why everything smelled so much of globalization.

Out with the new.



New Internship, new Life, new Blog, so here it is.

Here's the link to my Bora Bora Blog: http://www.internshipinbora.blogspot.com/



And here's where I keep my photos:

Arty Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexpio/

All Photos: http://alexpio11.spaces.live.com/photos/

Spaghetti: http://www.venganza.org/