Dubai Garden Center is always worth a visit for me as I can somehow enjoy all the nice stuff you could buy there but then I am always reminded that there is no way I can bring this stuff back home... Ever tried to fit some railway sleepers in your carry-on? :-)
And for 75€, it is actually one of the cheaper long-time souvenirs you can get... Just joking... :-) Wish I had a garden here in Cairo to put all the nice stuff you can buy in the Dubai Garden Center... We also went exploring in the industrial or more commercial areas of Dubai and have found a lot more garden centers and even the new Dubai Pet Market. The official mall-like experience where you can buy all your pet and the needs.... I was hoping to see some pet-lioness, monkeys or other crazy stuff. But they only have this normal animals plus a few weird ones like small emus. Anyway... I guess the authorities are not so cool about those pet lions... After all you read in the newspaper...
They also had a lot of birds... And with a lot I mean a crap-load... Sizes ranged from hummingbird-size to those big parrrots... Everything...
I am not going to bore you with my work stuff, but I will show you some pictures from my trip to Oman. Omani Indian Ocean shore line is not so thrilling, mostly just brownish black rocky beach front.
The hotel, Sohar Beach Hotel, was really nice. But as usual with business trips you don't have the time to enjoy the pool and all the nice facilities... There was enough time for a few beers in the night at their various bars... yes... But there is always time for a beer ;-)
But you can't have too much, with 8€ a beer (3.500 OMR) they don#t come cheap. But that's the same in UAE as well. The alcoholic drinks are sometime more expsensive than the food if you dine out.
Interessting side fact, the OMR (Omani Rial) is divide into 1000 baisas. So 100 baisas is only 0.1 rial. A bit confusing in the beginning.
Sunrise comes in nice at this hotel. Morning prayer in this mosque is probably mucher nicer than in a cramped Cairo one.
Somewhere in this direction is India. Crazy stuff actually. Talking about crazy stuff... The most amazing thing happened on my way back through the mountains to UAE. We hit a thunder storm with hail so bad my Omani driver was to afraid to go on. And also I would have parked the car and waited. After it calmed down a bit all the roads were flooeded and the motorway was unpassable for quite a time.
Only the though guys in there 4x4 went on... We were sitting in a Toyota Yaris.. So wrong model I guess... With my old Pajero from Australia this would have been interessting... But those times are passed... *sigh*... the memories...
Eventually the wadi (usually dry river bed) transformed from a raging torrent into a normal stream through which any car could ford...
So we continued our journey and passed through some other area which was battered by the hail... Somehow someone decided that all the hail should accumulate here... Maybe God was particular angry about this few square meters of land and dumped a huge load there... Whatever the reasons are, the locals enjoyed it.
My trip to Dubai/Oman concluded in the early morning EK927 and a puzzled stewardess serving wine to my breakfast. I love Emirates :-D
