The trade scheme was won by a total of 57 dealers who are based across Pakistan. Brazil was chosen due to its large cultural heritage, and its vibrant atmosphere. The cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, two of the largest cities in the world were both on the itinerary.
Our tour began in Sao Paulo, the financial hub of Brazil, with a tour of Ibirapuera Park, whose scenery was dominated by Brazil’s second largest Christmas tree, the natural scenery was a welcome sight after a 14hr flight from Dubai. From the park we went on to visit the Pacaembu Stadium, which is Brazils National Football stadium and also a museum. The museum is a wonder as it showcases one of Brazil’s greatest pastimes, football. With world famous stars such as Pele, Ronaldo, and Ronaldinhio to name but a few, the Brazilians having won the most number of football World Cups are understandably crazy about the sport. After Sao Paulo we moved onto Rio…
Rio de Janeiro has some of the most beautiful and famous beaches in the world. Names such as Copacabana and Ipanema have become household names across the globe over the past decades due to the popularity of songs such as ‘Girl from Ipanema’ by Frank Sinatra in the 1950’s. Free concerts are regularly held on Copacabana beach with the line-up including The Rolling Stones, Black Eyed Peas, and U2 to name a few. Then not forgetting the annual New Year’s Eve’ party held on Copacabana beach which this year attracted over 2 million people, and most famous of all the Rio Carnival, which is held each year in February, and is the largest gathering of its kind in the world.
Our tour of Rio, started with a tour of a Yamaha’s showroom very kindly arranged for us by Yamaha Brazil, from which we went with our Yamaha colleagues’ to a performance of Brazilian samba dancing, Capoeira fighting, and a whole host of famous Brazilians songs known as Bossa Nova. With the closing of the show, the host of the show asked around the theatre if any of the nations represented would like to sing a song from their country. In such a large and cosmopolitan city, where tourists are abundant, the theatre had people from all four corners of the world singing their nation’s most popular songs. Chinese songs, Turkish songs, Swedish songs, all were sung, but none of them could have compared to the moving rendition of ‘Dil Dil Pakistan’ by Zaheer Abbas our Autocity dealer in Rahim Yar Khan, which understandably had the Pakistani crowd at its feet, but amazingly, his passion was so invigoration it made the entire theatre join in unison as the chorus was sang, followed by a deserving standing ovation.  And that was just our second day in Brazil.
During the six day trip we also went up to Corcovado Mountain, the home of the ‘Christ the Redeemer” statue, which stands at 130ft tall, and is an icon of Rio and Brazil. We went on a boat tour of Guanabara Bay, and also paid a visit to Sugar Loaf Mountain.
The revelry did not stop in Brazil however, as after another gruelling 14hour flight we landed in Dubai, where we met up with our second tour group. While we recovered from our flight they went on a tour of Abu Dhabi, and a visit to the gigantic Dubai Mall. We joined them for a desert safari and traditional Bedouin dinner. The tour was not all fun though, DYL Motorcycle then had its Annual Sales Dealer Convention in Dubai, which included an Awards Ceremony with prizes being distributed by our C.E.O Yunus Dawood, and G.M. Jawaid Yakoob.
The trip ended with a relaxing river tour on a Dhow, with mesmerising views of the Burj Dubai which was recently inaugurated as the tallest building in the world. A fantastic trip overall, one which will live on in our memories.