Holiday in Dubai – Day 1

Reading time: 2 minutes...

By the time we checked into the Le Meridien at the Mina Seyari Beach Resort in Dubai last night, it was nearly 2am -so we slept well! I didn’t wake until 9am, which is really unusual for me!

We went for breakfast at around 10.30 and it was packed – we had to wait for a table. The food was varied from the traditional egg and sausages to more exotic dishes plus zillions of pastries.

After breakfast we took a stroll round the area. The sunbathing area looks fab and so does the beach.

We did a bit of reading on the Beach and then moved ‘inland’ because of the cold breeze. Relocating nearer to the front of the hotel still gave us a great view – but it was warmer!

I spent as bit of time trying to sort out my Internet connection, but it was a disaster – there was a network cable in the room, but Reception said the whole hotel couldn’t connect. They then advised me to try the wireless option available in the lobby. That was broken too! Doh! In addition, I couldn’t connect using the NetBook because it couldn’t find a network. Arghhh! So, a quick call to those nice people at Vodafone pointed out that I’d forgotten to set up the SIM card for international travel. A couple of minutes later after a few button presses at their end, and I was up-and-running!

At some point in amongst all of this, Ann managed to lose her glasses. Reception got onto it, let’s hope they have more success than connecting to the Internet. Update 8.30pm…no sign of Ann’s glasses!

We headed back to the room about 2.30 as it became a lot cooler outside and carried on with our reading.

4.00pm. Time to try out the Gym!! Shit! But actually it wasn’t too bad although I didn’t do much. I tried out the high-tech walking machine and burned 300 calories whilst Ann did it all properly and stayed for much longer!

We booked a table in the Hotel’s restaurant for 6.30. Each night has a ‘theme’ – tonight is Asian Food.

5.00pm. Time for a shower, a read and a bit of TV (The selection was awful, but we did find ‘BBC Prime’ and ‘BBC News’).

6.30pm. We headed for the restaurant where they had no record of our reservation. They put us in a poky corner where it was cold and we had the luxury of a wobbly table! We asked them to move us, which they quickly did. We were now closer to the buffet table where they swapped the wobbly table for a wobbly chair!!!

The food was fantastic! Ann went for the fish, whilst I attacked the stir-fry chicken (twice!). We also had starters, and quite a few desserts. Ann also had cheese.

Suitably stuffed, we headed for the Hotel Lounge where they had a live violinist and pianist playing (so much better than dead ones!). They were good.

8.00pm We finished off the evening with coffee and then headed for our room to catch up on our reading.

It’s been a great first-day and it passed really quickly. Strangely, we’re now feeling knackered and we have the big Shopping Mall to explore tomorrow, so I feel an early-ish night coming on!