DJ Trava

Posts Tagged ‘business hotels’

Okay, so I’m stay at one of the Luxury Singapore Business Hotels which my company booked for a month. A month isn’t enough time to really get to know Singapore and the locals at all, but it is enough time to make some interesting acquaintances and possibly a love interest. I’ve only been here for two weeks when the bartender of my favorite bar mentioned that I should participate in the Theemidhi Festival. He told me then I need to participate in the Deepavali, the Festival of Lights. He told me, I’d get a better taste of Singapore and the people here.

I don’t know, I mean, I am only here for a month, do I really want to know Singapore better? But, then all he has to mention was how many beautiful single women participate in both festivals. Well, this peeked my interest. So, I asked him what the Theemidhi Festivals all about. He told me that it a Hindu Festival were they walk barefoot across white-hot embers at the Sri Mariamman Temple. It’s in honor of the Hindu goddess Draupadi. My bartender is Hindi, so he elaborated about who the goddess Draupadi is.

She’s a heroine of the epic poem Mahabharata. She was a princess who was the subject of her husband’s wager in a risky game of dice. Her husband played with his cousin, Duryodhana and her husband lost. She was then the property of Duryodhana. That wasn’t her only hardship; she was the epitome of harsh treatment of all women by men. So, the festival is in honor of Draupadi’s courage that devotees subject themselves to a test of faith by walking barefoot across of 4 meter pit or red hot coals. Deifying the intense heat, these devotees, these firewalkers focus and deep concentration to complete the challenge come out miraculously unscathed. But, not only unscathed, the devotees regard it as a test of purity. So, basically, it’s said that if a devotee is not pure, he or she will fail the test and be burnt.

I only have to watch, I don’t have to participate, which I wouldn’t anyway. My bartender said he’d be glad to go along with me, he figures if he’s seen with an American businessman, he’d have a better chance of getting a date with either one of the devotees or one of the visitors. That sounded good to me. Getting to know Singapore better.

I’ve noticed the people of Dubai have a tendency to be derisive about its calmer and more gentler neighbour Oman. But, I will say that all of the people I did meet during my 3 month stay at one of the Business Hotels Dubai has plenty of, not one person was able to leave Dubai with out a least one backward glance, wondering if they made the right move. Where as all the people I’ve talked to who have left Dubai have no compunction about leaving Oman.

I find it easy to convey to those whom worship the gleaming towers and all the fantastic nightclubs and night life, the understanding of time and substance which Dubai offers just as well as Oman offers. I’ve seen, through my business trips, that people in Oman work just as hard and as long as those in Dubai, but for some reason, I aways see that in Dubai, these hard workers have time to do more. I think everyone in Oman should at least give Dubai a chance.

I saw some tourists being approached while they wondered through Bastakiya with leaflets to go visit Oman. I got one of those leaflets and it does it’s best to lure the unassuming tourist to come see the real Arabia. Breath in the Frankincense. But, the real Arabia is no longer. Everything has changed, not just Dubai, but all the UAE has changed. Modernity has won over. About the only way to experience the old Arabia is to take a Camel Caravan Tour, but that’s all fake, it’s not a real caravan of old, just a tourist trap. The leaflet even boast about snorkeling in their waters compared to Dubai that one will actually see tons of coloured fish swimming among the coral reefs. This is farthest from the truth, all of the water and the water-life surrounding the UAE is in bad shape. The pristine waters are no longer pristine, too much development has caused all waters to be polluted and damaged.

I can understand why Oman wants to believe they still have held on to the traditions of Arabia, and denounce the opulence of Dubai, but to be perfectly honest, I like progress, and Dubai is working on correcting the environmental issues caused by it’s phenomenal growth. I just hope Oman will open its eyes too and begin to see that it too has grown as fast as Dubai.