We are headed back to India once again on another Overseas Adventure Travel excursion. This time we’ll see the southern part of the country, rather than the north, beginning with a brief stopover in Dubai, followed by a pre-trip to Sri Lanka.
After a good flight and some sleep on Emirates Air, we arrived in Dubai around 8 p.m. on Thursday evening. After a bit of trouble with the ATM, we were armed with plenty of Dirhams for the brief taxi ride to our hotel for the night.
The J5 Apartments were fine, and instead of buying their expensive breakfast, we paid 5.50 Dirhams for a box of three Danish roles at a supermarket down the street. We needn’t have bothered, because when we walked around the corner to Hyatt Place, the OAT hotel, we were told that since we would be leaving before breakfast for an early flight the next day, we could have our breakfast now. We made it our brunch for the day.
We had booked online a 7 hour city tour to begin at 1 p.m., but when they didn’t come to pick us up we called the number in our confirmation. The fellow who answered told us that, of course, there couldn’t be a tour today because it’s Friday. I asked why, then, his company had confirmed the reservation and accepted our payment. He responded that we could take tomorrow’s tour. I let him know we were flying out early the next morning, and that the Saturday tour would be impossible for us. He sounded as if that was the most absurd thing he had ever heard, but agreed to process a refund. We did receive an email that our refund was “in progress” so we hope for the best.
The hotel booked us on a 4 hour tour to begin mid-afternoon. It was barely adequate. The guide was from India, and he contributed little to our knowledge of the local culture. We were rushed through the Dubai Museum in 30 minutes (though there was probably only about 45 minutes worth of museum there to see). It was primarily propaganda for the royal family. We then drove by a number of locations where the driver would slow down to allow photos to be taken through the bus windows.
They did manage to carve out time to visit a rug factory so that we could get the sales pitch. Other than that, a brief visit to Jameira beach was the only other real stop. We were dropped back at our hotel about 8:30.
The evening adventure involved a hair dryer. There wasn’t one in the room where it was supposed to be, so after searching all closets and drawers we called Housekeeping. They would send one right up. After 40 minutes we still had not had a knock on the door, and with a 4 a.m. wake-up to catch an early flight, we wanted to get to bed. We called again and were told it would be there in 3 minutes. We waited 10, then called again. Housekeeping apologized. Finally, the guy woke us more than an hour after the original call, and getting back to sleep wasn’t easy.
After a good flight and some sleep on Emirates Air, we arrived in Dubai around 8 p.m. on Thursday evening. After a bit of trouble with the ATM, we were armed with plenty of Dirhams for the brief taxi ride to our hotel for the night.
The J5 Apartments were fine, and instead of buying their expensive breakfast, we paid 5.50 Dirhams for a box of three Danish roles at a supermarket down the street. We needn’t have bothered, because when we walked around the corner to Hyatt Place, the OAT hotel, we were told that since we would be leaving before breakfast for an early flight the next day, we could have our breakfast now. We made it our brunch for the day.
We had booked online a 7 hour city tour to begin at 1 p.m., but when they didn’t come to pick us up we called the number in our confirmation. The fellow who answered told us that, of course, there couldn’t be a tour today because it’s Friday. I asked why, then, his company had confirmed the reservation and accepted our payment. He responded that we could take tomorrow’s tour. I let him know we were flying out early the next morning, and that the Saturday tour would be impossible for us. He sounded as if that was the most absurd thing he had ever heard, but agreed to process a refund. We did receive an email that our refund was “in progress” so we hope for the best.
The hotel booked us on a 4 hour tour to begin mid-afternoon. It was barely adequate. The guide was from India, and he contributed little to our knowledge of the local culture. We were rushed through the Dubai Museum in 30 minutes (though there was probably only about 45 minutes worth of museum there to see). It was primarily propaganda for the royal family. We then drove by a number of locations where the driver would slow down to allow photos to be taken through the bus windows.
They did manage to carve out time to visit a rug factory so that we could get the sales pitch. Other than that, a brief visit to Jameira beach was the only other real stop. We were dropped back at our hotel about 8:30.
The evening adventure involved a hair dryer. There wasn’t one in the room where it was supposed to be, so after searching all closets and drawers we called Housekeeping. They would send one right up. After 40 minutes we still had not had a knock on the door, and with a 4 a.m. wake-up to catch an early flight, we wanted to get to bed. We called again and were told it would be there in 3 minutes. We waited 10, then called again. Housekeeping apologized. Finally, the guy woke us more than an hour after the original call, and getting back to sleep wasn’t easy.
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