Short trip to Dubai

Seems like I have to travel to Dubai every now and then. I will skip the work part as this is boring as shit for most people anyway. Actually it was quite informative trip workwise, but again, that's not interessting for people here.

I have never seen those cactus actually blooming, unfortunate their flowering only last likes 24h in Dubai heat. It was just extreme... For the BBQ in the evening I was spending 20 minutes at the BBQ itself for the excellent prime Australian beef from "Prime Gourmet" right off Sheik-Zayed-Rd... Excellent beef, best I ever had. Anyway, after the dinner I had to go for the swimming pool again. I was soaked like after an hour-long workout.

Else I have visited the Dubai Turtle Rehabilitation Project, a sanctuary for injured turtles or week hatched turtle babies. The pools are outdoors behind the Jumeirah Mina A'Salam Hotel and open to the public. They have feedings every Wednesday. At the moment the pools are almost empty as it is too hot for most of the turtles, only a few though species are outside. The other ones were moved to the chilled in-door pools which are not public.

Somehow we got ourself into the private part of the hotel and were able to roam amongst the typical Dubai brunch tables. We later found a way to the private hotel beach of the Mina A'Salama and took a golf cart taxi to the other end of the Jumeirah beach...

...where the famous Burj Al Arab Jumeirah and ...

...the Jumeirah Beach hotel are located.

I still don't get why people think that the Burj Al-Arab is the best, it looks so boring from the inside and outside. The much better choice is the Jumeirah Al Qasr Hotel.

 

Giza & Sakkara Pyramids

The day started early with some nice breakfast rolls at the BCA and a Sakara beer to get us into the right "mood" for the nasty trip in the hot mini bus.

With our professional guide it was a complete different experience. We learned a lot again about the history of the pyramids. Because it was the first day of Eid Adha festival in Egypt, a lot of locals were also at the pyramids which meant that we didn't get buggered that much compared to my last visit. It was scorching hot although we already left at 9am in the morning to visit the site.

I decided to see the chamber inside the great Pyramid... What a disappointment! It was a dark humid room with a noisy fan screaming in the corner. No relicts inside, just a very exhausting long climb inside the pyramid into the chamber.

Nice panorama.

Good old Sphinx, still there... Silently guarding the Giza plateau

That's the guide at the Sakkara site with us. Actually here you can see way cooler and more original things because there are virtually no tourists, it's an active excavation site and with the right guides...

...you are allowed to go "behind the scene" and see some stuff which is locked away.

The ride in the minibus was quite tough. Luckily there were cold drinks.

Group photo!