Do Drop Inn

The muted view from his second-floor window leading to the balcony, as he drew back the heavy dusty drapes, and the lace curtains, was eerily comparable to a scene from the movie Twin Peaks. Like a complimentary picture postcard from the reception desk of Black Lodge, Snoqualmie, Washington, except he had just arrived at the Do Drop Inn, Al Shahamah, United Arab Emirates with a vastly different outside temperature. Only the strange foreboding ambiance was the same. Frozen in time, the still picture which would remain pronounced in his memory banks. A scene forever retrieved and visualized; imprinted in the brain for many years to come, easily accessible by a simple cheat code – a flashback.  Nowadays we would label the scene AI generated, because it didn’t look real, or life like. It looked manipulated, contrived, even dreamlike, a strange world like the movie world of Twin Peaks. Outside was a courtyard, with a swimming pool and a crude outdoor stage, three musicians were playing, one on drums and two on electric guitars. He guessed they were Pilipino in nationality; it was normal in this part of the world to have session artists employed from the Philippines.

The strangeness of the unreal scene; the musicians were playing in front of an audience of attentive cats. Two cats sat sentry like as cats do when entranced, facing the stage, like feline groupies. The entire courtyard was empty except for the musicians; no humans, only an audience of two cats. The cats may have been humming or swaying in time with the music, he was too far away to judge. The two cats watching the musicians intently gave credibility to the myth of reincarnation. Truly, this two music loving cats were kindred spirits trapped in an in-between world, certainly in different bodies.

He felt the same. He could easily empathize with music loving cats after the last hours or had it been days.

The scene became part of strange twenty-four hours or more where he felt he had been living on the threshold of a new world order with different galactic rules. Or in another body in a parallel world. His old world, which before seemed cozy and real, was now evaporating before his eyes, replaced with a new world and body experience. Unquestionably strange and different. What was now unfolding was transforming into a liminal space, where his previous reality had been taken hostage.

The strangeness started when he boarded the flight to Abu Dhabi from London, an overnight flight. Walking along the air bridge or connecting jetty, you never get the feeling of the ambiance of the flight, not until you enter through the doorway, and are greeted by the crew. The interior of aircraft feels artificial compared to the outside, especially at night. He thought to himself - normal people might refer to him as an airline geek. He had worked in the industry for many years, sometimes very intimately with the aircraft themselves, he was familiar with the process, he knew his way around the technology. He didn’t know what to expect that night, as the flight to Abu Dhabi was onboard a newly formed airline.

Although the check-in and preboarding process displayed all the presence of a modern airline from the middle east region, as soon as he stepped into the interior of the aircraft his expectations changed. The crew were certainly not Arabic in their navy-blue uniforms, speaking Portuguese. The interior signs in the aircraft were all in Portuguese. Before he sat down, he had to check he was on the right flight, and not traveling to Rio de Janeiro. It was slightly bizarre, and unsettling. The flight announcement from the cockpit was reassuring, their destination was Abu Dhabi, but the empty seats surrounding him made him feel uneasy. The flight was empty of passengers; there were more crew on board the flight to Abu Dhabi than passengers. It made for a pleasant flight, with attentive crew, but no airline in the world flies’ empty aircraft without passengers. By entering the aircraft in London that night, he walked over a threshold into another bizarre world.

The strange feeling never left him. He sleepwalked through the airport arrival process, and as instructed took a taxi, a short ride to the large Engineering area on the perimeter of the vast airport in the middle of the desert. The sun was in its early stages of ferociousness, the working hours in that part of the world reflect a respectful attitude to the harsh weather conditions. Starting times were early when most people would be shaking sand from their head, after a heavy night’s sleep, and coming to terms with the morning basics of eating breakfast.

The taxi driver knew the location which was scribbled on a note, and they arrived outside huge aircraft hangers, where a smaller temporary building stood like an afterthought. The prefabricated building looked like it had been lifted to the ground via a huge crane. A building suitable for architects; planners poured over blueprints as new building complexes were assembled. This was the headquarters building of the new airline of Abu Dhabi – from little acorns do great oak trees grow, he thought to himself.

He entered the building carrying his suitcase, it was straight to the assignment from the overnight travel which now added to a feeling of jadedness from his lack of sleep. Another opening of a door, another walking over the threshold, and into a world of chaos of a new international airline. The scene inside could easily be mistaken for a view of construction planners, it was completely open plan with scattered partitions, which did nothing to isolate noise or heated conversation.

The meeting room was several free-standing partitions haphazardly placed to corral a bunch of chairs and a table into a semblance of a meeting room. Navigating the feisty chairs on roller castors required more effort; more sense than he possessed after his overnight lack of sleep. There were too many chairs in the confined space between the partition and the meeting table, getting seated in front of the unruly chairs made more difficult by slick moving castors which presented anybody entering the meeting space a challenge. A deft touch was needed, and good night’s sleep. He was disadvantaged on both counts and was thankful when his buttocks found a landing area on one of the runaway chairs. Unfortunately, the chairs were so tightly packed into the small space that when all the chairs were occupied, the slightest movement from one of the occupants sent a ripple effect to the others seated in the room. Everyone seated spent more time concentrating on keeping their active mobile chairs rigid and under control than the contents of the meeting. When anybody had to leave the meeting, which was often, as the entire floor was open plan; no one could ever disappear to a meeting. There were continuous interruptions, with people getting up from the runaway chairs, that would send shockwaves to all the others, and sometimes the chairs with those runaway castors escaped and flew outside the partitions and bounced off walls or anything or anybody that was in its path.

He can’t remember when, but someone handed him a note with the address of his hotel stay for the visit. He was too busy concentrating on his precarious balanced seating posture, and the never-ending sea sway of the active chairs to read the note. In fact, he never read the hotel address and gave it to the taxi driver at the end of the working day. Completely exhausted from a day experiencing a never-ending version of musical chairs, where chairs were never taken away, only added and there was no music.

At this point, we need to explain about the geography and geology of Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi comprises of a bunch of islands and marshlands. Abu Dhabi in geographical terms is one of the islands like Manhattan, which is dissected by rivers and sometimes the sea. Abu Dhabi island, together with a number of neighbouring islands are natural swamplands that have been drained and artificially managed with modern techniques to create stable land for building and housing. Abu Dhabi airport is situated on the mainland, miles away from the downtown area. Before the recent growth of the hotel district of Yas Island and the formula one racetrack which has a closer proximity to the airport, hotels could only be found on the island of Abu Dhabi which is a drive of between 30 minutes to one hour depending on the time of day. In comparison, the drive to the outskirts of Dubai on the connecting six lane highway named Shiekh Zayeed Road would take the same time around one hour.

Sitting in the back of the taxi with an expectation of a drive from the airport into the downtown area of Abu Dhabi, after handing the note to driver with the hotel name, was the first time I looked at the note myself.

Do Drop Inn?

Where is that? What sort of hotel is that? He thought to himself.

He was equally perplexed when the taxi driver took the road headed for Dubai instead of Abu Dhabi.

“Where are we going?” He asked the driver.

“Do Drop Inn, Al Shahamah – sir”

Where’s Al Shahamah, he thought. He was about to find out, as the taxi headed along the six-lane highway to Dubai. It seemed bizarre to be headed in the opposite direction to downtown Abu Dhabi, as finally the taxi exited the highway, and suddenly the geography changed into profiles of palm trees. It was dark outside, and the surroundings were only illuminated by streetlights, but the barren desert landscape had been replaced by hundreds of palm trees, a farm of palm trees, all neatly spaced out.

Not far into this strange world of palm trees to the left of him, and palm trees to the right of him, another side road appeared. With a long winding entranceway, and out of the forest of palm trees appeared a two-story building, shaped like the bud of a tulip. It was the entrance of the Do Drop Inn, the taxi pulled up outside, the door opened and the only sound he heard was the pulley ropes of the flagpoles as they endlessly rattled in the breeze. Complete silence, and long way from humanity.

The taxi driver wore a smile which only appeared on the anticipation of payment. His mind was focused on the next fare, as soon as the cash notes were folded safely in his grasp. The taxi pulled away, and he was left standing alone with only the background sound of humming flags fluttering in the night breeze, his luggage placed loyally beside him awaiting its final journey into the hotel. He waited for someone to appear – no one. Annoyingly, the Do Drop Inn had not recognized him, and the dimly lit entrance felt unwelcome, no one rushed out to greet him.

He picked up his bag and entered the hotel. The small reception desk was directly in front of the door, the area was empty, corridors in darkness appeared to the left and to the right. The only lighting came from behind the desk, and a brighter light from a door with a circular window leading into the back of the reception, and a destination and place unknown. There was no sound. There was no bell to ring to bring people to reception, absolute quiet. The local time wasn’t late, and the only feeling of reassurance and comfort was the front door was accessibly unlocked.

After standing waiting for human life to appear, he realized he was required to find human life, rather than human life discovering there was a guest waiting. He went behind the reception desk, and looked through the window of the door, inside looked like a kitchen. He pushed open the door and wandered into the brightly lit preparation room of a kitchen. Empty; no one to be seen.

He started walking down a passageway, but the entire area was empty. It was around 9pm local time, and he was beginning to feel like being in a different parallel world, or being invisible to others in another body was the only possible explanation. Out of nowhere a person appeared.

“Who are you, what are you doing here?” Before he had time to answer.

“We don’t serve food until breakfast time.”  

Basil Fawlty was alive in Al Shahamah, he thought. Plus, there is life in this world, and more importantly he was visible to others.

“I just want to check-in.” He pleaded.

“Oh – we didn’t expect anybody tonight. Did you book?” The person replied.

He added with a feeling of reluctance verging on annoyance. “Wait outside I will find someone.”

When he returned to the right side of reception, he felt like an intruder at Do Drop Inn.

A small woman appeared with a vastly improved mannerisms, and a rare smile. The feeling of intrusion and being unwelcome at the Do Drop Inn started to seep away, as the feeling of tiredness and exhaustion with this new parallel world experience started to return.

“You are on the second floor, room 313, there’s no elevator, just walk to end of the corridor, and you will find the stairs. We don’t do wake-up calls, breakfast is served at 4am, and there is no room service.”

And as an afterthought.

“Call us if you need something but have some patience for someone to pick-up.”

His luggage felt like he was carrying rocks the longer the walk continued. First the entire length of the lower corridor, and then the stairs, and then the upper corridor was carefully navigated. Mostly in darkness or under dimly lit lights, where the shadows were sleeping, just like the rest of Do Drop Inn. He eventually found room 313 and because it was so badly lit, he had to trace the numbers with his thumb and fingers to make sure it was the right door number. Finally, the key clicked open the lock and he heaved open the door into even more darkness, but without clean air. It was stifling hot and the musty smell of damp carpet, stale cigarettes and cleaning products greeted his fragile senses.

He found light switches, and he found thankfully the switch to the air conditioning which thundered into a noisy greeting. But it worked, and the sweating humidity of his endless journey into this strange new world in this strange new body was quenched for a moment.

For a brief moment. That was until he opened the heavy drapes and the second layer of lace curtains and looked outside.