Day 1 - Arrival
After the help of a few drinks and a couple of sleeping pills i managed to get my head down and sleep for most of the 8.5 hour flight. Standard of the flight was pretty poor, flying cattle class with Thomson is not advisable i assure you!
We arrive at the airport and already I'm gobsmacked at how different everything is, the heat, the people, the general way of life. After getting through immigration i was stopped by an excited looking security guard. He asked me to buy 4 bottles of Sheridans liqour for him from the duty free. I was somewhat confused but agreed sceptically to it anyway! Pass through customs and you have never seen anything like it. Taxi drivers begging you for your business.If only these guys could give me a taxi at 3am every bloody Saturday night outside my local nightclub, they would make a killing! All the poker players were going on a coach to the hotel, which is 1.5 hours from the airport, All of us decided in order to escape the rush at the hotel then we would jump in the taxis. 1.5 hour taxi - £6!!!
The drive to there was something which i will remember forever,driving through shanty towns with seemingly endless poverty, Cows wandering in the middle of the road, A tractor driver driving the wrong way up the motorway. It was pretty crazy!
Get to hotel, Check into rooms, which are amazing by the way. We all have our own room and they are the size of a flat with a nice sized balcony looking over the golf course, which i will probably have a crack at sometime during the holiday as long as its not with Marc Goodwin lol! Sorry Marc couldn't resist ;-)
Load of us meet for dinner and Dubai keeps his style by announcing that he isnt eating at the free 'peasant' BBQ on the beach for poker players and we end up in an a' la carte. The food was pretty cheap, not the greatest,but certainly worth the money (Around £10 per meal). I managed to sneak away and join up with Barny and Ross Boatman in the bar for a beer and watching these gorgeous Thai singers, watch this space
. Also, on that note, the air hostesses have checked into the same hotel and are staying a few rooms away from me, Bonus!
The night ends with Nick Slade organising a killer tournament on the snooker table in the bar, i busted out about midway,it was won by Mr Cool who is so golden its untrue! I then played Nick for £100 in a standard game of snooker and brushed past him with ease lol ;-)
Dubai obviously couldn't resist ram raiding the champagne fridge and we sunk 2 bottles of Dom before heading up to our rooms about 2am. The main event starts tomorrow and im looking forward to it. Im due a win, but then again i guess everybody is due their 'big break'. I fancy my chances though.
Be Lucky,
Ben
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