My wife and I spent the weekend – Good Friday afternoon to Easter Sunday morning – in Oman to visit her mother who is under the sponsorship of my wife’s youngest brother. Last time I was in Oman, specifically in Muscat, was in March last year when my mother-in-law was rushed to the hospital. She is relatively in good health at 77 years old.
This column is about my trips across the Middle East due to work, CFC community activities and personal matters.
The infamous Kish Island was my first Middle East trip after arriving in Dubai in May 2001 with my wife and then three-year old son. The reason for that August 2001 trip was to exit and come back with another three-month visit visa as my employment documents were still being processed. My wife and son exited to the Philippines where they stayed for a month.
The second trip to Kish was in November 2001, this time for my employment visa. My wife and son also went to Kish for their residence’s visa in December of the same year. I am proud that they had also experienced the island because back then in the late 1990s to the mid-2000s Filipinos are labeled as ‘true-blue’ UAE residents if they had gone to Kish. It was sort of a baptism.
Kish Island is a holiday-destination island of the Iranians. It is a 91.5-square-kilometer resort island in the Arabian Gulf off the southern coast of Iran. However, Filipinos do not go there to enjoy. They stay in the island to wait for their visa back to the UAE whether it be visit, employment or residence. Some unfortunate Filipinos even had to stay for weeks and even months. So many sad stories back then.
My third trip in the region was to Qatar in April 2002. I took a day’s leave from the office to be interviewed by Qatar Airways for a possible marketing promotions position. I flew in the morning and returned in the evening. I did not get the job but I got to travel for free and tour Doha for a few hours.
I came back to Qatar in the first quarter of 2004 when I was with the UAE-based dealer of The Filipino Channel (TFC) called Mediacom. Yes, it is now the famous karaoke brand. I was tasked to follow up on our application with Q-Tel to offer the Kapamilya Channel to our kababayans. We got the permit through a third party which had a license to operate satellite TV subscriptions. My wife and I went to Qatar in November 2015 and in March 2017, both trips related to our CFC community.
In 2004, I went to Jeddah, Riyadh and Al Khobar to introduce the Mediacom karaoke machine with potential dealers like Skyfreight and the staff of ABS-CBN Middle East. The sales staff in all three provinces were very accommodating and really took care of me. I saw them a year after on my second trip to the Kingdom in 2005 when I was already the senior manager for sales and marketing of ABS-CBN Middle East.
My first trip to Bahrain was CFC community-related in the last quarter of 2003. I went there with my wife and a number of couples and single men and women for the annual Middle East Conference (MEC). We went back to Bahrain to attend the MEC editions in 2005 and 2008. The latter with our son who also attended a Kids Conference.
I went to Kuwait in June 2005 when I was already with ABS-CBN Middle East. The Kuwait visit was timely because the Filipino community there had a big event connected with the celebration of Philippine Independence Day. My second trip there was in 2006 for a meeting with our dealer.
My more than two years in promoting TFC – March 2005 to April 2007 – as senior manager for sales and marketing of ABS-CBN Middle East had me jet setting across the Middle East every three to four months. I tried to set up a dealership in Lebanon in July 2005, which was eventually formalized in 2008 with one of the contacts I had established. I saw Lebanon again in November 2016 when we had a planning conference with our CFC community together with leaders from the entire Middle East region and from the Philippines.
In my regular trips promoting TFC, I always wear the same clothes especially TFC-branded shirts. I don’t even do the packing anymore as my wife will simply ask me how many days and then prepares everything I need.
One of my favorite trips is the Jeddah-Riyadh-Al Khobar-Bahrain route. I start my sales and marketing work in Jeddah where the famous Al Baik broasted chicken is only found at that time. Then I fly to Riyadh and always visit the ‘Divisoria’ called ‘Batha’ and the Philippine Embassy in the Diplomatic Quarter. I take the bus or ride in a car going to the tri-city of Al Khobar-Dammam and Dhahran to meet the Filipino community leaders there. And finally, I proceed to Bahrain to visit our dealer and then take the plane back to Dubai the day after.
I cross the famous 25-kilometer long King Fahd Causeway where in the middle of the sea is the immigration border between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. So many Filipinos in the Eastern Province take their weekends and holidays like the Eid in Bahrain for entertainment – and for Crispy Pata, Lechon Kawali and San Miguel Beer.
In my current work with Tristar Group, I had travelled to Riyadh twice, in April 2019 and December last year. Riyadh is now an amazing city with cinemas and a more liberal environment where women can mix with men in public. There are Saudi women working at the international airport and hotels as front desk staff.
Oman is a regular destination related with my job responsibilities. I had visited our main office in the Industrial Area of Rusayl near the capital Muscat. I had been to Sohar thrice for special events and business presentations with our Group CEO and the management team of our Coastal Business. We took land trips as Sohar is about two hours from Dubai.
One more place we visited was the Holy Land in May 2022. It was my first time while my wife’s second. She first went there in March 2017.
Travelling is good as you have more time for yourself while at the airport and on the plane. It also gives you a broader perspective in life as you contemplate on your future while 25,000 to 35,000 feet up in the air. Happy traveling dear readers.