I took a long journey, wishing to take the low profile me from the land of Siam out to somewhere in the vast and cosmic desert with a wish to become an A-grade alienated labor. I brought my dream…from a fertile country to somewhere deserted Anxieties reflected in my eye, how would I handle the money and the unfamiliar language? 

As my friends told me that buying liqueur here would be as rare as to find gold and Dubai would only allow you to buy just one liter per month per person and would require a request form.

So the duty free shop was a good chance to get some booze.

Still, the duty free shop only allowed a maximum of four bottles per person. I grabbed three bottles of vodka and I’ve been wondered when I’d manage to finish them all.

Over half an hour passed when I finished everything and dragged the trolley to find the company’s driver. I’d been told he’d be found very easily. The man came with a big colour-printed sign on a future board in his hands, so effectively made as something an advertising company would do. Nothing could be spot any easier than this.

It was Monday so he drove me to the office right away. It took only fifteen minutes because Dubai international airport was located in the heart of city. (think about our Suvarnnabhumi airport which is better, bigger but…) We got there around 4 pm. in local time but all staffs had gone home. So I met only my boss, Mr. Maher, the owner of the company, who was expecting my arrival.

After greeting and introducing each other, I learned that he had graduated in performance design from France and had worked as a stage director for Broadway and many fashion shows in France for about fourteen years before moving to Dubai and started this company. He was Lebanese; therefore his position in this country was not different from mine – a foreigner.

There were four partners in this company - my boss and other French partners. The office was rather small. The number of staffs altogether was sixteen and we worked on all sorts of work ranking from TVC, spot radio, presentation, event, website, graphic design and advertising. But our works didn’t cover research, marketing plan and agency. We were more of a media house than a brand creator.

After my boss had started the Shoe Real Presentation, our company got up to five clients from big asset groups (much bigger than Land and House as people here are bloody rich). The rest of our clients were government offices such as the whole Ras Al-Khaimah state whom we took the whole responsibility on.

United Arab Emirates comprises of seven states, each with its own governor that they call ‘king’. All seven kings are ruled by another king. So altogether there are eight kings. The capital state is Abu Dhabi which is around 100 km. from Dubai. The economic and the richest state is Dubai. The second richest is Abu Dhabi while Ras Al-Khaimah is the fourth in rank.

This is just kandykandoo’s first steps in Arab. We could be hearing more from her in ImmTipp’s coming issues.