Dubai: Splash of Aquaventure

Ep.38

“Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt and dance like no one is watching.” = Randall G Leighton.

DXB – Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

6^th-9^th March 2012.

Me at Atlantis The Palm, Dubai.

As I am an Indonesian crew, middle east flights would be rostered to me at least once in two months (happy!). Last time I got my sweety ass to Dubai, due to the overflowing excitement (first timer syndrome), I was totally forgot that I got few of my fellow University’s friends working at world-class hotel in Dubai. So this time, I would go and find them (it was not like I forget about them at all).

Sun shine on me!

It was quite easy to find them, facebook group and blackberry messenger help you to connect to the world (thanks to the inventor!). This friend of mine named Ho Liong Fung was actually my senior during my study in University. We happened to take the same subject back at that time. I found out that another senior of mine was already moved to another hotel in Abu Dhabi (may be next time, I’ll go find her). So, I contacted Ho to ask him about what else to do in Dubai and whether he got a day off or not. He said everything could be arranged when I arrived Dubai.

The Lost Chamber Aquarium inside the hotel

Just before my flight that afternoon, my flatmate told me that there is a very famous new water park in Dubai. It was so “happening”, that’s what she said. Well then I grabbed my lappy and type “water park” in Google. That’s it! As soon as I saw the homepage of the water park, (Oh! It was called Aquaventure, by the way) I was like already decided that I would absolutely go there. I told Ho about my desire to go to the Aquaventure and guess what he said? “Well, actually I worked at the Hotel where Aquaventure located, and I got  free passes (staff benefit) that would be expired at the end of March, so let’s go!” How could I say that God isn’t favor of me? It was such perfect news! I am gonna swim, in Dubai, in he largest water park in UAE, and (most important part) it would be FREE of charge! I even jammed my swimsuit at the very last minute.

the private beach

I work on the flight enthusiastically. Every time we got something to do or looking forward we would fell it that way, don’t you think so? Long story short, 9 hours later, I arrived at Dubai already. I did ask another crew from my flight and offer her to join me to swim, and well, she said yes. It was 10 pm already and all I got was to rest my body well for the water park tomorrow. I confirmed the time with Ho, telling him that my friends would be joining us (of course no free pass for them), and we agreed to go to the water park at 11 the next day and our meeting point would be at Mall of Emirates. I woke up at around 6am the next morning and in order to kill some time, I went to the Spa for a quick steam and sauna (I just love the privileges), and Dubai’s hotel spa got free flow honey ginger tea and lemon water (just perfect!).

ready to swim!

At 10 am, I departed from the hotel to MoE, and the stupid things are, I was totally forgot that it was Friday (a sacred day in Moslem country, where most of the services starts a little bit late than usual). As expected, the shuttle bus would be late and the train service would be operating from 1pm onwards. (How could I forget about something that important?). We finally took a taxi to MoE from the financial district, which cost us AED 15. We met Ho at Starbucks and once again, I was a very dumb person. As we wont get the wi-fi connection outside the hotel, it was impossible for me to contact Ho, and yet I thought that Starbucks is a very good place to meet up. In fact, MoE got 3 Starbucks stores inside the mall. So, which one? I would say I put my luck on the line! Lucky enough, I was spotted the same Starbucks that came into Ho’s mind, so let the trip begins!

Artificial waterfall

Aquaventure Dubai is located in the Atlantis The Palm, Dubai. The Palm Islands are an artificial archipelago in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on which major commercial and residential infrastructures will be constructed. Atlantis itself is the majestic resort in Dubai, that is very famous for its uniqueness and luxury, called as one of the most luxurious hotel in the world. Aquaventure is set in 42 acres overflowing with fun including Master Blasters, speedslide, rivers, rapids, Splashers children’s play area, lush tropical landscapes and a private beach. Well, enough on the background of the place, it took us AED 30 to get from MoE to Atlantis by taxi (lucky, that Ho was the one who took care of the communication barrier here) and around 15-20 minutes.

splash of water

To enter the hotel itself, people (if they’re not staying in that hotel) should pay for about AED 100. Me? Just need Ho’s employee card and pass the guard. Ha-ha! The hotel interior was inexplicably luxurious. Majestic! It was like the only people that can afford to stay there are those with the uncountable digits in their account and holder of VVVVVVVVIP person. It was just too overwhelming and truly like a place that you look in Sex and the City Movie, where they spent their holidays in Middle East. Oh man! This country has serious amount of gold, and they’re so freaking rich! I couldn’t prevent my jaw from dropping time to time every time I saw another single attraction in just (read: just) a single hotel. They got an underwater aquarium called the Lost Chamber, Dolphin feeding pool, not to mention Aquaventure and private beaches. Ho even explained to me that the most expensive room was the one that stretches over what looks like the middle eastern arch in the middle of the building. I didn’t dare to ask for the room rate though, well I hope someday I could visit this hotel as a guest or may be own one hotel like this (PRAY HARD).

fish fish in the pool

At the Aquaventure entrance, my eyes were wide open due to the spacious and beautiful landscape that they created (after all, the whole hotel and things were built on an artificial land). And my eyes widened even more when I saw the entrance fee for the water park only, it was AED 260! And I suddenly felt really thankful to have a friend working here. The way we enter the water park was just showing Ho’s staff ID again, handed the free pass to the ticket counter, and listed his name and sign on a staff visitor book, done! AED 260 saved! Don’t even mention about the dolphin feeding, as soon as I realized that there were 4 digits on the entrance fee, I crossed it out of my mind immediately.

a "hello" from the tunnel

We changed into our bathing suits right after and every thing inside this water park were just so tropical and really gave us the sense of holiday and made us forget about anything we were about to do or have to do before and after we came in. It was just like we’re entering the whole new dimension of different world. We put our belongings on one of the sunbathing bed by the pool, grab each of us the floatation device, and jumped ourselves into the pool right away. Now, I feel like a very BIG kid (yes I am! Indeed!). I went through all the slides, and all the route of the pools that they provided, including the pool with the sharks, well, we swam through a tunnel for that pool. At least we tried one slide for more than 1 time (so typical of me). 

my Leap of Faith

The slides in Dubai are none like others, it was thrilling, fast, long, and it has the combination of going up and down (not only the typical sliding down from the top kind of things). For some types of slides, we don’t even have to climb up the stairs just to get ourselves at the very top of the slides, they provided a special ramp to just let us lie down in our floating devices and get up there in less than 2 minutes. See how they really spoiled their guests! After exploring some times with the slides, that was enough for the warming up. Now it’s the time for the real deal. The first thing that made my mind as soon as I saw the homepage of the Aquaventure was the appearance of a thrilling slide called The Leap of Faith. It was located in a pyramid kinda things look alike in the heart of the water park. It’s called the Ziggurat. Ziggurat itself holds 7 different slides and The Leap of Faith is on the very top of the pyramid. 27.5m tall and 61m long, from the top of the Ziggurat the Leap of Faith catapults riders into a transparent tunnel and through a shark-filled lagoon, where guitar sharks, bow mouth sharks, white tip, black tip and grey reef sharks all reside. After riding all of the other rides and slides, I put myself at the queue of The Leap of Faith. When I looked around, there was none of my comrades; they’re all waiting at the bottom of the slides for me. Too bad!

The Ziggurat

Just like the other water park provided, they will take our picture when we’re on the slides and sell them to us on the exit. I spotted where the camera is and tried my best to get a good shots. Scared? Nope! It was more like exciting just like my whole body was asking for adventure. I slide my ass on the slide and whoooffffttttt! It was truly thrilling. I kept my eyes open, looking down to the shark lagoon. The feeling was indescribable. I would say that my heart stops for a split second when I came down the slide. My group was at the bottom of the slides and clapping their hands as I came out from the end of it. Having my feeling that the picture would not be that good, I played safe by riding it 2 more times to provide myself a better choices of which picture I would like to by at the exit. Ha-ha! I was surely got a problem with adrenaline.

"i survived" certificate

The Leap of Faith was just like a climax of the water park and as the water park will be closed by the sunset (funny how they determine the operational hour by sun), we took a bath and before we leave the water park, we took pictures at the private beach. Just beyond beautiful! At the exit, I chose my picture to be printed, cost me AED 75, and I got a certificate to be dare to slide down from The Leap of Faith itself, titled “I SURVIVED”. Happy and extremely (still) excited, we went out from the hotel and took a picture with the famous exterior of the hotel, The Atlantis at The Palm, Dubai. We also took the sunset picture of course! Then we hail a taxi to get us back to MoE (the nearest mall).

after swimming pose

Ho said that after he worked for almost 2 years in Dubai now, he still couldn’t adapt with the local cuisine. That is why, he asked me if I want to eat Indonesian cuisine in Dubai. Hell yeaaahh! I miss my hometown’s food. This area is called Al Karama, few stops from MoE train services, the other crew were just follow where I decided to go. For them, it might be a new experience to explore Dubai like they never before. There, along the street, lots of convenient store and all around the world cuisine restaurant stood still. It was not a very luxurious place, or I may say it was a little bit slump area. Never mind as long as we got a male in our group. As Ho is a bartender, we made a stop in a bartending supplies shop and he bought two pourers. After that, we aim for the restaurant that Ho claimed as the most popular in the area: Betawi Restaurant.

ketoprak from Dubai

As soon as I enter the restaurant, I felt like home. They even put RCTI, Indonesian channel on the TV, and it was the TV drama showing on air at that time. The waiter and waitresses even the cooks were all talking in Indonesian, but most of the guests were foreigner. At that moment, I became proud of my hometown’s cuisine all of sudden. The next thing was even more exciting. As soon as I opened the menu, it was like I want to order everything! Laksa, Pempek, Ketoprak, Gado-gado, Ayam Kremes, Tempe Bacem, Es Cendol, Es Campur, etc. The only thing is, the prices were 4x more than in Indonesia. Ha-ha! Worth the journey! I was like a very indecisive little kid that couldn’t make up my mind over the food, not to mention the other crew that came from HK. They absolutely have no idea of what kind of food were those. They just relied on the picture. I finally decided to have a portion of Ketoprak with The Hangat Manis (AED 27 in total).

sun almost set

When the foods arrived, I couldn’t expect more. It was really taste like those in Indonesia (of course, the one that make those food were those hands of Indonesian!). I finished my plate and ready to go back to the Hotel. We bid Ho a farewell and promised him that next time when I visit Dubai, if I need anything, I will ask him. As the next day I go to operate to Bahrain at the very early morning. I spent my 5-hour stay in Bahrain a full-time nap and I just do a little window-shopping at my last day staying in Dubai.

and here's the sunset

Having friends in outport is something that is really gonna make your day if you work in this industry. Travel around the globe is surely an exciting thing to do, but it would be better when you got someone who live in the particular place to show you the best pick from the local point of view. PLUS it was also nice to be able to talk in your own mother tongue whenever you got a chance. Ha-ha! I was extremely grateful that I got few friends that lived in CX port of destinations, which means, I got something else to do rather than just work. Wont you be agree if I said it was nice to keep you and your friend updated each other when you catch up each other in a very good places (read: ouport)?

“It does feel like home when you can eat hometown foods along with hometown TV drama in a foreign land.” – Me.