Monday 14 January 2013

12th Asia-Pacific Conference on Giftedness cum Children and Youth Summit Dubai International Conventions and Exhibitions Centre (Part 2)

13 July 2012, Friday

The next day after a quick breakfast, we set off for Ski Dubai at the Emirates Mall. On our way, the coach drove past the Sheik Zayed Palace for us to steal a peek at it on the coach because taking photos in front of the palace was forbidden. One interesting thing was that there were a number of peacocks roaming outside the palace. They were Sheik’s pets presented by India because peacock was his favourite animal.

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Soon we were at the door of the Emirates Mall. We headed straight to Ski Dubai, the world’s largest indoor ski resort. Having changed into the skiing clothing and the helmet, I hurried to the entrance which was a glinting ice cave. I touched the brilliant cold ice and smiled. Then I ran to the skiing ground and immediately felt excited at the sight of the manmade snow.

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I climbed around the wooden playground and had fun doing the swift toboggan ride on a snaky sliding track.  Also, there were single and duet rings in the sloping ring ride.  The single one would spin speedily when it slid and the duet one’s track was slightly steeper and wave- shaped.  Later on, Dad pulled Adrian and I on the sledge and ran as fast as his legs could carry him.  How interesting!  I also did a bit of snow fight.  Snow was a novel thing to me and I was delighted when leaving the fun place contentedly.

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After lunching at the mall and shopping cupcakes for breakfast in an enormous supermarket, Dad and I had a funny experience.  We went into a room which we were mistaken that it was the gents.  It was actually a praying room for Muslims.  While we were curious why people were required to take off their shoes in the gents, we didn’t think it a very good idea and didn’t follow the rule.  Very soon the cleaning person cued us to take off the shoes which made us realise that it was a praying room!

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Afterwards, there were some photo stops: a mosque, then Burj Al Arab -- the world’s only seven-star and tallest yacht-shaped hotel, and a small-scale mall which sold Arabic carpets and souvenirs. Then, we rode the monorail running on a high bridge to shot some photos of the amazing and beautiful Palm Island and the giant Atlantis Hotel.  Next, we paid a visit to the Dubai Museum.  The exhibits in the museum were so-so.  But the highlight of the day was to follow.

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A short coach ride took us to a pier by the Dubai creek. This was where we rode the famous Dubai water taxi to the spice and gold souks on the opposite bank.  The water taxi was a long wooden boat with two long benches for sitting passengers on both sides.  Interestingly, the helmsman sat in an opening in the middle of the benches.  The ride was smooth and the old district scenery along the creek was refreshing.  Disembarked from the taxi, we visited a spice shop before heading to the gold souk.

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The most memorable things were that I saw the world’s biggest gold ring stuffed with diamonds and gems which was not for sale, and I wore an Arabic head wrap in a garment shop.  When I was back to Hong Kong, Mum said that I looked like an Arab in the head wrap but I didn’t think so.  At the end of the day, we found ourselves having bought some chocolate-encased dates and a purple carpet with Arabic elephant patterns and shiny bits on it.  It was an eye-opening day!

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14-18 July 2012, Saturday to Wednesday

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When the sun arose on the Saturday morning, the learning part of our trip began.  It was the opening of the conference and the summit.  After listening to some speakers in the hall and taking refreshments in the other room, our group marched to the Modesh amusement world under the organiser’s arrangement only to find that the rides charged money and most looked boring.  So we stayed around the free video game stations but we only managed to play a few rounds. I even had no chance to play at all.  The reason was that a Korean boy jumped the line, played the video game and refused to leave.  Finally he hit Jameson in the stomach and the rest is our hidden secret.

An hour later, a fleet of coaches took all the students to start the learning journey.  For the following five days, I had lessons in a spacious college campus and stayed with three classmates in a hotel separated from our parents.  I saw a lot of novel things and learned some new knowledge.  I will recount the best part below.

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The second day, after breakfast and the morning drawing class, we set off by a coach for some visit. The visit was not just for the drawing class but almost half of the summit participants.  So off we went in a fleet of 4 to 5 coaches.  I thought that it was quite a scene.

However, the first destination was a bit of a disappointment because it was the Dubai Museum.  The reason was not that the museum was boring but that I already visited it with my Hong Kong group.  My Hong Kong classmates and I felt satisfied though for there was a chance to take photos of animal pictures and specimens in the museum for making our presentation to be given later.

After that the fleet of coaches headed to the Dubai Mall. Boredom was the first thing jumped to mind because my Hong Kong group had also visited it before. But I was proven wrong later. The summit teachers led us to the world famous aquarium inside the mall. It was really exciting to watch the fish, especially the sharks, while walking through the tunnel going beneath the big blue fish bowl. It was quite an experience!

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The sun set and rose and a new day came. We had the usual drawing class in the morning. I noticed a big thing going on once stepped inside the classroom building. There was a canvas in a long strap lying on the floor. Students were busying painting it. I wondered what it was and didn’t know the answer until in the afternoon when some reporters came. It was for painting the world’s longest banner to make a Guinness World’s Record.

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Another big thing of the day was my dad’s visit. I met him when my Hong Kong classmates and I walked into the school hall after the drawing class. We went there for a police dog’s show, which was not really good. Maybe it was because I didn’t understand what was going on. The good about the show was we had additional rest time to relax a bit before the coach drove us back to the hotel. I also made use of the time to show dad around the campus. It was a special day because of dad’s visit.

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Time flied and it was finally the last day of the trip. We went to school as usual but there were no classes. We were allowed to do our own drawings and mingle with one another. There was a closing cum prize presentation ceremony at noon where I was given a big surprise when I was announced the second runner-up for my works in the drawing class. My winning works included a drawing of a peaceful scenery done with melted crayons and the other of Dubai’s modern cityscape on a piece of old newspaper.

Leaving the campus, we headed back to the hotel where the parents stayed. After we arrived at the hotel, all the people were fussy packing up the luggage because the 4-wheel drives were waiting for us to whisk us to the desert for some fun. This was the first time my dad and I saw a real desert. It took the fleet of 4-wheel drives almost an hour to reach the hot desert. Once I got off the car, I roamed around the orange sandy land, kicking and throwing the sand. But the most exciting thing came later.  It was the sand surfing in the car.  Our 4-wheel drive speeded crazily across the sand dunes, bumping up and down and making the ladies in the car scream. However, I thought it was great fun and even better than a roller-coaster ride. The day ended with a barbecue meal in a tent site in the middle of the desert.

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It was a very worthy trip and I had learnt a lot during the trip. My mind was full of fond memories when waiting for the flight back home even though I was really exhausted for the departure was at around 3 in the morning. I can’t wait for the next summit!

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