First GULFOOD experience!!!

I woke up at 5.00 am Dubai time (9.00 am in Malaysia) which was pretty unusual. My biological clock usually woke me up at 7.00 am or 7.30 am in Malaysia time. However, it was fine as we still need to do some preparation for the event tomorrow (20th Feb 2018). I helped out my colleague in her room until 7.30 am and go back to my room, took a bath and then headed to the breakfast. The breakfast in the hotel was AED 59 (WHAT?!!!) which was around MYR 65.

There choices were very limited for the price! However, it was charged in my room already, so... nothing I could do but to have my breakfast here (By the way, it's more like lunch for my stomach as it was like 12.00 pm in Malaysia).

I just took some of the food as I was not sure excited with the food they served. It tasted good but they were just not the kind of food I loved. I also took some Chapati with come curry.(forgot to take photo :P). Then, I went to have a short briefing in my colleague's room about tomorrow's event. We then headed out at 10.00 am to the World Trade Centre where Gulfood was.

We were staying in Raviz Centre Point Hotel which was less than 5 minutes walk from Burjuman Station. So, we decided to take metro to World Trade Centre which is only 3 station from Burjuman. We were getting Nol Card (basically like Touch N' Go) to be used for these 3 days here in Dubai. It costed AED 25 with value of AED 19 in it for the commuting charge. AED 6 was charged for the card and not refundable and there must be at least AED 7 in the card for commuting. Every trip in Zone 1 costed 3 AED no matter how many station apart.

I also noticed that there was a Gold Nol card for the Gold Cabin. I was not sure about the difference but I guessed it charged more than the Silver Nol Card and less crowded in the Gold cabin. At Burjuman station, it gave me a feeling like I was visiting the Underwater World. It was like bluish with blue lights.

Like the MRT in Malaysia, they also had cabin for women and children only. Any men in the cabin will be penalized by paying the penalty of AED 100.

 

The station was very crowded. Many of them were like us, heading towards the World Trade Centre for Gulfood. We could not get into the first train as it was too crowded, however, the second train arrived after 5 minutes which was quite fast. When we reached the World Trade Centre, there was a huge crowd. As it was my first time here, I just follow the crowd to the exhibition. I happened to then noticed there were also signage telling us which was to go to Gulfood exhibition.

When we finally reach there, there was even a bigger crowd. We had already registered ourselves before we came to Dubai and paid AED 250 per person during the early bird registration. You can also register yourself on-site with the cost of AED 400 there. Since we were registered, we just bring along the proof of registration and headed to the fast lane. There were many screens prepared for us to print out our own tag. We just need to scan our registered code, then, our tag would be printed out automatically. It was super efficient and took only 2 minutes for that.

There were many hall in the exhibition, we only managed to visit 2 halls before 3.00 pm as we were going to meet up the event manager to look at the seminar hall we booked for the event. It was so crowded in the World Trade Centre that we could not find a seat in the restaurant around that so we took metro to Emirates Tower and had Burger King for lunch (Dinner for Malaysian stomach). I ordered a chicken fillet burger for AED 33. The burger was the size of my face!! It would last me till dinner.

We then headed back to out hotel to get some rest and prepared for tomorrow's event. I did not join my colleagues for dinner as I was still full after having the huge burger. I had a little walk around and bought something from the store beside our hotel. Things sold here were mostly made in China. I bought a small sling bag and a decorative camel as souvenir.

Again, I ended my day with another small glass of wine and hope to get enough energy for tomorrow's event. Gambateh!!!!