The desert

Dubai is a HOT city!

As i was walking outside the hotel.. just to reach the nearest supermarket. It felt like I was walking inside a huge plastic bubble, with no fresh air to fill my lungs.
The wind was also hot and the sun was very strong.

It is a huge city and they really mean it to be huge. A lot of construction works are going on. everywhere you see there will be tall building and buildings. The streets are in good condition and neat. The street-side parks are clean with the real bushes and flower plants are struggling to survive under the hot sun. Artificial and automatic watering system is in place everywhere for the plants.

Another thing I notice here.. every people.. every time you asked for a location of a place or an ATM..
they will reply as .." Oh, its very near. Just turn right after the first junction.."

Ok, they maybe right... but one thing they forgot to mention: that the first junction that they talked about is very.. very far..:D.

The hotel is good, the name is Dhow palace hotel..
http://www.dhowpalacedubai.com/ not a very big hotel and located 15 min (if there is no traffic) to the city center.

And don't mentioned the food:D.. excellent!!! Although I mainly only ate the fruits. The food is mixture of Middle Estern + Indian + Western food.

First day I just went to the nearest supermarket and browsed to get some chips and fruit.
Then the next 2 days I was busy with the control sessions and dinner with people from the office, so only time I can start feel the real dubai city was the evening after the control finished.
I went to the 2nd biggest mall in the city called Emirates Mall.
This mall is sooo huge.. if there is any malls bigger than Jakarta malls, one among a few qould be malls in Dubai.
All the goods are branded stuffs.. which even dream about it also I wouldn't dare enough:p
The carrefor was huge.. with all the choice of food stuffs there made it is less than enough to wander around until my feet aches.
I bought a lot of dates, figs and almond.
On the way back, stopped at Hard Rock Cafe.. just to buy souvenir.



We took the desert safari.
We were picked up from the hotel at 4 o'clock afternoon with a four-wheel drive.. then picked up another 4 person and then drove for 1 hours to reach the desert.
The driver just went like a drunkedn driver in the desert, he hits the sand dome and drove round and round. Felt like trapped in a roller coster with a car-shaped.
It was nice and make me want to throw up at the same time:p

After 1 hours he kept doing the acrobatic things with the car.. then we went to a camel farm and took pictures in front of the camel.. not to be too near since they really stink!.

The after the sun set, we went to a bedouin camp. There was dinner (mainly kebabs) for us.. henna painting, beer, belly dancing, picture in traditional arabian outfit.
The dinner was good and the dancing was quite ok.

They retuned us around 10 at night back to hotel.. which then I just had time only for taking a bath and headed back to Jakarta directly.

A nice and new experience.