0. Coming down the escalator, the queues for the passport control were so long that people were blocking the way out of the moving staircase - i almost tipped over to others in front of me.
1. i was referred to as ’sir’ by a sheikh(?) working at thomas cook (thought i acqired more feminine look by getting fat since i was 15). on the other hand, haven’t seen any ladies with short hair and no makeup, wearing glasses.
2. as soon as spotted the driver who came to pick me up from the airport, this poor guy was swarmed by hustlers trying to trick me into taking their cabs. while no one cared to talk to me or explain anything to me, problems solved after some agitated monologs, and i was finally ‘allowed’ to share the same car with a colleague who arrived with me at the same time.
3. the driver from hotel wore a uniform, driving a clean car with air conditioning. very polite (yet incomprehensible english). as soon as we started moving, the car almost hit a small girl (or the small girl hit the moving car). her mother was obviously crossing the street DANGEROUSLY guiding her daughter to follow suit.
4. thought driving in my hometown was crazy. compared to streets here, it’s a safe heaven. had a strong urge to wear the seat belt, but the seemingly clean new car did not have a properly working seat belt. yet i could not dare to bother the driver who was honking at the 30-sec interval.
5. as soon as the car stopped at the final destination, it conjured some fast hands out of thin air who opened the door, took our luggage out, and already guided us to walk into the hotel even before i noticed it myself. there was a lady waiting for each of us, already knowing our names. instead of going to the reception desk, we were guided directly into our rooms.
6. at the room, while i was still not given a 1-sec to breathe, i was asked to be seated in one of many chairs in my room. she then poured out the seemingly well memorized sequence of sentences on me (without much breathing inbetween). she then asked for my passport and credit card. A ready-filled form came back to me sitting stupid only for requiring my signature.
7. view from the hotel - i thought things would be densed everywhere here; while hotel is supposedly in the middle of the city center, the view from the hotel dominatly offers - TREES (taj mahal hotel).
8. the notion of hospitality or service seems to differ from that of my home country. back there, empathy is very important: true hospitality is making the person who is being served feel comfortable. here, i constantly feel like i dont deserve all the services offered to me. a tiny factor is that they are so service-minded that they sometimes don’t notice that it is intrusive to the person being served (e.g., interrupting an ongoing conversation abruptly).
9. moving from a point to another, haven’t seen much of the locals except the taxi drivers and waiters at the conference venue. i cant wait for going out to experience the real city.
10. i forgot to bring my name cards (again). bummer. it is very rare indeed to meet so many people that you really want to give your name cards.