Dubai trip

Dear blog,

just got back to my workstation after a week long break. Left for Dubai on the 26th May. Water Congress was on till the 29th May. Went for drinks with the team. The non drinkers left shortly after for dinner and a trip on the 'Abra' - a river boat which is their form of transport from one area to the other. I wasn't keen on the idea of gettin onto one, really so i stayed back and ended up chattin wit Em since we won't be physically meeting for the next 5 months or so.

Checked out frm Hyatt that night into this dingy looking Picaddily hotel. Extremely regrettable decision, very deceiving web-site description of the hotel coz it wasn't even close to the given description. Anyways, by the time we reached this hotel, it was past midnight so we dumped our bags and slept in our rooms for a fresher day out. Good thing about the trip ths time was tat we extended for another 2 days to walk around, which we did the very next morning. We had a distasteful breakfast at their coffee house. Left after a quick bite of the only thing edible - cold fried chicken.

Walked around Nasr square, this is near the Gold Souk, an area filled with gold shops. The entire street was full of nothing else but shops selling gold!! Gold is apparently very much cheaper in this part of the world. I ended up with Hobsons choice ere. Couldn't find the earrings my mum requested for, they were either too expensive or not the size i wanted. But i was giddy with too many choices. I didn't like having too many choices. Anyways, we walked into another street and ended up buying nuts i.e almonds, cashews, pashminas, hand woven cushion covers etc.

It was noon by then so we walked into this iranian restaurant nearby and had chicken and mutton briyani. Wat a wonderful meal tat was... yummy...
Then we split into two groups. The ones going for the night safari and the other going for a city tour around Dubai city.

Me, Chees, Foow attempted to stop a cab and to no avail, crossed the road, in the middle of the blazing hot sun and walked back to the streets of Nasr to look for more souveniers instead. Ended up in this little shop in an alley selling all kinds of souvenirs, the kinds we were looking for and ended there for about 3o mins or so. There, we decided to go to the City Centre, Carrefoure to get the chocolates since we figured that there won't be enough time to do so the next day or wen we get back from the safari at night. We flagged a cab and went to city centre, which is actually the name of the shopping mall. At this point, it was already 4 pm and our pick up frm the hotel to the safari site was supposed to be at 430pm. After a quick supermarket sweep, we ran out to queue for a cab in a snaking long line. I thought to myself, no, we are not going to make it thru this line so i quickly called the hotel and requested for a pick up from the city centre itself.
After another quick phone call, that was arranged and they arrived shortly. There were about 4 other men in the 4 wheel drive. They were from all over the middle east. We drove for about 1 hour to the desert and for once in my life, i saw the desert for real.

it was a breathtaking view, the layers of sand that formed different patterns was simply beautiful... Look out for the next entry, there's more details to the story