Today, 26 March (Yaumus Sabt - Saturday), was our day for an adventure to Muscat. We decided to go after reading that the main demonstrations in Oman were over labor issues like wages, work hours. We obtained our tickets the previous day at Galler.
It was an early flight, leaving Dubai (DXB) at 0715. We arrived at the airport to Terminal 2, only to be told by a FlyDubai agent that our flight was cancelled. We walked over to the Information Center to be told that the flight was not cancelled but delayed due to bad weather in the area even though it was hot and sunny in Dubai. I couldn’t believe this so I went in search of a computer and a weather check. I found an Iran Aseman Airlines representative with a computer and she checked CNN to find clear weather with modest winds in Muscat. I guess that 3mph ENE winds were blowing up dust storms that grounded all aircraft (although later I found out that Muscat has foggy weather).
We continued to wait, watching the number of people heading for flights all over the region. One incident stuck out. I have always believed that, no matter how far down the totem pole one is, that person finds someone lower until there is no place to go. Like in slavery, there was a pecking order, the house slaves picking on the field hands; like in India’s caste system with the ultimate picked on being the Untouchables. This woman with her strict Muslim requirements especially the very visible dress code entered the lobby and snapped her fingers. An Indian working for Al Jaber, the maintenance group, finished up his task and ran to her side to push her luggage cart. Unbelievable!!!
Our flight was finally called so we checked in and headed for gate 5 which was populated by the nations of India/Pakistan. This could have been one of the reasons for the delay, transferring the Indians to Terminal 2. When they called the flight, the Indians got up as one and crowded the gate. They don’t believe in personal space so I had to fight for my little piece of the earth.
We boarded FZ 043 and took up our seat in 15A, and we finally left at 1000.
We landed just before 1100 and passed through immigration. We checked the departure board and saw that FlyDubai canceled its 1630 flight which left us the flight at 2030 as our only option.
After a snack at Costa Coffee (the first cup of Costa coffee was poured in 1971 at 9 Newport Street, London, by Sergio and Bruno Costa. Today, just a few meters away from where they first set up, the Costa Roastery produces the same unique Mocha Italia blend that the Costa brothers worked so hard to create), we purchased a ticket from Oman Air as insurance.
We were told that the nearest hotel where we could gather our thoughts and plan for the day was the Golden Tulip SEEB. We headed for the hotel and made arrangements for a taxi tour of Muscat. Our first stop was Jumeirah Mosque which unfortunately closes down at 1100. In 1992 Sultan Qaboo directed that his country of Oman should have a Grand Mosque. A competition for its design took place in 1993 and after a site was chosen at Bausher construction commenced in 1995. Building work, which was undertaken by Carillion Alawi LLC took six years and four months. The Mosque is built from 300,000 tons of Indian sandstone. The main musalla (prayer hall) is square (external dimensions 74.4 x 74.4 meters) with a central dome rising to a height of fifty meters above the floor. The dome and the main minaret (90 meters) and four flanking minarets
(45.5 meters) are the mosque’s chief visual features. The main musalla can hold over 6,500 worshipers, while the women’s musalla can accommodate 750 worshipers. The outer paved ground can hold 8,000 worshipers, and there is additional space available in the interior courtyard and the passageways, making a total capacity of up to 20,000 worshipers. The mosque included some stunning landscape.
We then headed for the Muttrah Souk along the corniche. We spotted the royal yacht, the Al Said, aka Qaboos’s caboose, my terminology. The souk was traditional with spice markets, clothing stalls, silver stores, and toys. I practiced my look ahead with no eye contact, thus avoiding any solicitations from the merchants.
After the souk, we headed for the Palace surrounded by the Jalali and Mirani Forts built by Portuguese traders and entered through Kebir Gate. The Palace is named "Al Alam" meaning "The Flag" in Arabic. The palace was built in 1972. It has a facade of gold and blue. Unfortunately the Sheik was not home to host us or maybe it’s that visitors are not allowed inside the palace. It is not the only residence of His Majesty who normally lives elsewhere in Oman. It is reported to have a bowling alley in the basement.
We continued into the mountains, passing boat harbors, fishing villages, and the Scuba Club. We returned to Golden Tulip and had lunch in its dining room, Le Jardin. I had the beef sandwich with the mango smoothie. I finished it up with a mango cake. We returned to the airport and waited for the 2105 flight on FlyDubai. We found out while waiting outside the souk that we had tickets on FlyDubai’s FZ 048 flight so we would catch whichever flight left first. The Oman Air had been delayed an hour until 2130 so we caught the FlyDubai FZ 048 which left at 2105. I had 4E for the outbound flight.
We arrived back in Dubai and returned through immigration’s and the official who knew about Hawaii. He said he would love to go but it was so far away. I told him how jet travel made it easy to be with the hula girls, to be on the sandy beaches. He said maybe. We now had to rush to get back to the hotel to refresh, collect luggage, check out, and return to the airport.
We then returned to the airport and checked in with Lufthansa and got caught behind two problematic traveling group. Once checked in, we headed for Marhaba Lounge, meaning hello. The lounge was crowded but served up some good food like spaghetti, curry, and chicken.
I left the lounge to spend the last of my dirhams, buying Duty Free stuffs like bags, stuffed animals. We checked in for our 0220 departure and I got my seat 48H, but all the seats were comfortable.
They served up an English breakfast with cheese omelette, meat “bacon,” hash brown, and tomato. I continued reading James Patterson’s Private. We finished the flight with a turkey and cheese sandwich.
We landed at Frankfurt at 0705 and worked our way through immigration, got into the outside area, so we had to enter Frankfurt through immigration again, just because some flunky forced us into the immigration line. What a joke! We found the Star Alliance Business Lounge which was super crowded, but the food was plentiful and good. I headed for the pancake maker and had a pancake with nutella. I enjoyed a beer, some sandwiches, and some sleep time. I also continued to read Private.
We headed for gate A59 to catch our continuing flight on UA 0901 in seat 25H. We had to go through a Q&A with a gate agent and received an OK on our ticket. I sat in seat 25H. We had two meals, a chicken with risotto (creamed rice instead) and a coffee cake dessert and later a turkey-cheese sandwich, all washed down with ginger ale. I finished Private and left it behind.
We headed for Red Carpet after we landed at 1614 and went through immigration and customs. The lounge was fairly empty since most families were home after spring break. The usual fare of crudites, trail mixes, an assortment of drinks was most welcomed as this would be the last food before I got home.
I had completed my novel and was fairly rested when we boarded flight 79 at gate 86. I wanted to rest but knew I wouldn’t be able to.
Since I didn’t have anything to do, I watched The King’s Speech. It’s a film that gets better with each viewing. We got in a few minutes before our 2140 landing time. We headed for H2 to get our luggage which was fairly late in coming out on the carousel.
It was an early flight, leaving Dubai (DXB) at 0715. We arrived at the airport to Terminal 2, only to be told by a FlyDubai agent that our flight was cancelled. We walked over to the Information Center to be told that the flight was not cancelled but delayed due to bad weather in the area even though it was hot and sunny in Dubai. I couldn’t believe this so I went in search of a computer and a weather check. I found an Iran Aseman Airlines representative with a computer and she checked CNN to find clear weather with modest winds in Muscat. I guess that 3mph ENE winds were blowing up dust storms that grounded all aircraft (although later I found out that Muscat has foggy weather).
We continued to wait, watching the number of people heading for flights all over the region. One incident stuck out. I have always believed that, no matter how far down the totem pole one is, that person finds someone lower until there is no place to go. Like in slavery, there was a pecking order, the house slaves picking on the field hands; like in India’s caste system with the ultimate picked on being the Untouchables. This woman with her strict Muslim requirements especially the very visible dress code entered the lobby and snapped her fingers. An Indian working for Al Jaber, the maintenance group, finished up his task and ran to her side to push her luggage cart. Unbelievable!!!
Our flight was finally called so we checked in and headed for gate 5 which was populated by the nations of India/Pakistan. This could have been one of the reasons for the delay, transferring the Indians to Terminal 2. When they called the flight, the Indians got up as one and crowded the gate. They don’t believe in personal space so I had to fight for my little piece of the earth.
We boarded FZ 043 and took up our seat in 15A, and we finally left at 1000.
We landed just before 1100 and passed through immigration. We checked the departure board and saw that FlyDubai canceled its 1630 flight which left us the flight at 2030 as our only option.
After a snack at Costa Coffee (the first cup of Costa coffee was poured in 1971 at 9 Newport Street, London, by Sergio and Bruno Costa. Today, just a few meters away from where they first set up, the Costa Roastery produces the same unique Mocha Italia blend that the Costa brothers worked so hard to create), we purchased a ticket from Oman Air as insurance.
We were told that the nearest hotel where we could gather our thoughts and plan for the day was the Golden Tulip SEEB. We headed for the hotel and made arrangements for a taxi tour of Muscat. Our first stop was Jumeirah Mosque which unfortunately closes down at 1100. In 1992 Sultan Qaboo directed that his country of Oman should have a Grand Mosque. A competition for its design took place in 1993 and after a site was chosen at Bausher construction commenced in 1995. Building work, which was undertaken by Carillion Alawi LLC took six years and four months. The Mosque is built from 300,000 tons of Indian sandstone. The main musalla (prayer hall) is square (external dimensions 74.4 x 74.4 meters) with a central dome rising to a height of fifty meters above the floor. The dome and the main minaret (90 meters) and four flanking minarets
(45.5 meters) are the mosque’s chief visual features. The main musalla can hold over 6,500 worshipers, while the women’s musalla can accommodate 750 worshipers. The outer paved ground can hold 8,000 worshipers, and there is additional space available in the interior courtyard and the passageways, making a total capacity of up to 20,000 worshipers. The mosque included some stunning landscape.
We then headed for the Muttrah Souk along the corniche. We spotted the royal yacht, the Al Said, aka Qaboos’s caboose, my terminology. The souk was traditional with spice markets, clothing stalls, silver stores, and toys. I practiced my look ahead with no eye contact, thus avoiding any solicitations from the merchants.
We continued into the mountains, passing boat harbors, fishing villages, and the Scuba Club. We returned to Golden Tulip and had lunch in its dining room, Le Jardin. I had the beef sandwich with the mango smoothie. I finished it up with a mango cake. We returned to the airport and waited for the 2105 flight on FlyDubai. We found out while waiting outside the souk that we had tickets on FlyDubai’s FZ 048 flight so we would catch whichever flight left first. The Oman Air had been delayed an hour until 2130 so we caught the FlyDubai FZ 048 which left at 2105. I had 4E for the outbound flight.
We arrived back in Dubai and returned through immigration’s and the official who knew about Hawaii. He said he would love to go but it was so far away. I told him how jet travel made it easy to be with the hula girls, to be on the sandy beaches. He said maybe. We now had to rush to get back to the hotel to refresh, collect luggage, check out, and return to the airport.
We then returned to the airport and checked in with Lufthansa and got caught behind two problematic traveling group. Once checked in, we headed for Marhaba Lounge, meaning hello. The lounge was crowded but served up some good food like spaghetti, curry, and chicken.
I left the lounge to spend the last of my dirhams, buying Duty Free stuffs like bags, stuffed animals. We checked in for our 0220 departure and I got my seat 48H, but all the seats were comfortable.
They served up an English breakfast with cheese omelette, meat “bacon,” hash brown, and tomato. I continued reading James Patterson’s Private. We finished the flight with a turkey and cheese sandwich.
We landed at Frankfurt at 0705 and worked our way through immigration, got into the outside area, so we had to enter Frankfurt through immigration again, just because some flunky forced us into the immigration line. What a joke! We found the Star Alliance Business Lounge which was super crowded, but the food was plentiful and good. I headed for the pancake maker and had a pancake with nutella. I enjoyed a beer, some sandwiches, and some sleep time. I also continued to read Private.
We headed for gate A59 to catch our continuing flight on UA 0901 in seat 25H. We had to go through a Q&A with a gate agent and received an OK on our ticket. I sat in seat 25H. We had two meals, a chicken with risotto (creamed rice instead) and a coffee cake dessert and later a turkey-cheese sandwich, all washed down with ginger ale. I finished Private and left it behind.
We headed for Red Carpet after we landed at 1614 and went through immigration and customs. The lounge was fairly empty since most families were home after spring break. The usual fare of crudites, trail mixes, an assortment of drinks was most welcomed as this would be the last food before I got home.
I had completed my novel and was fairly rested when we boarded flight 79 at gate 86. I wanted to rest but knew I wouldn’t be able to.
Since I didn’t have anything to do, I watched The King’s Speech. It’s a film that gets better with each viewing. We got in a few minutes before our 2140 landing time. We headed for H2 to get our luggage which was fairly late in coming out on the carousel.
We ended up at our hotel Rotana Rose Rayhaan, one of the tallest in the world. We checked in for room 5003. We had a direct view of Burj Kalifa. Our bell person said, if we wanted to have dinner, there was a good Lebanese food (aka Mideastern) restaurant called Al Safadi down the block. We had dinner there, and I ordered a chicken kebab with tabbouli. But the most amazing part of the meal was the plate of vegetables served us. It included a large bell pepper, cucumber, watercress, lemon, and tomato. Everything was served whole. We ended the evening by walking back to the hotel. I was finishing up The Lion. One of the lines in the book was “Yob vas” which means F$#@ you! in Russian.
I had the English breakfast which was fixed at the grill next door. I had scrambled eggs, tomato, turkey bacon, and hash browns with coffee. I’ve decoded that there is an international coffeehouse subculture after seeing what happened to Paris where Starbucks has multiplied like rabid rabbits. The customer that makes up this subculture is the young professional (or professional-in-training) who is international in outlook, in jobs, and in attitudes. They’re the ones who will keep places like Dubai secular.
After breakfast, we headed for Emirates Towers and found out we were about 45 minutes early so we headed for the Towers and found a Starbucks where I had a second cup of coffee.
We passed Za`abeel Park with its palaces and children’s play areas. We passed Lamacy Mall, one of the first shopping malls in Dubai. It is modeled after the Tower of London. We finally reached Wafi, Egyptian themed mall, which was the starting point for blue and red lines. We were joined by Holland America cruise passengers on the Grand World Tour 2011. We left the mall and passed through some major road construction with highways and a metro line being built in the Oud Metha area. We were told that the metro was inaugurated on September 9, 2009 at 0909.09 and that the city had a red and a green line. Many ex-pats have their clubs and unions here like the Iranian Club, Indian Association, Pakistani Club. The area also has many schools especially English schools, and hospitals. We stopped at Burjiman, another mall in the city of malls aka modern day souks. We also passed through Bur Dubai, one of the original areas of the city. We were told that UAE had created tax free development zones called media, internet, and knowledge villages. These free zones were attracting major companies to develop research centers and regional headquarters.
We passed an unusual monument/sculpture. On one side of the roundabout is a fishing vessel, a dhow. On the other side of the roundabout is a water fountain, reflecting the dhow on the opposite side of the roundabout.
During dull spots, we were told that Dubai started back in 1833 as a fishing and pearling community. Moreso, the earliest recorded mention of Dubai is in 1095, in the "Book of Geography" by the Andalusian-Arab geographer Abu Abdullah al-Bakri. The Venetian pearl merchant Gaspero Balbi visited the area in 1580 and mentioned Dubai (Dibei) for its pearling industry. Since 1799, there has been a settlement known as Dubai town. In the early 19th century, the Al Abu Falasa clan (House of Al-Falasi) of Bani Yas clan established Dubai, which remained a dependent of Abu Dhabi until 1833. On 8 January 1820, the sheikh of Dubai and other sheikhs in the region signed the "General Maritime Peace Treaty" with the British government. In 1833, following tribal feuding, the Al Maktoum dynasty (also descendants of the House of Al-Falasi) of the Bani Yas tribe left their ancestral home of the Liwa Oasis, South-west of the settlement of Abu Dhabi and quickly took over Dubai from the Abu Fasala clan without resistance. Dubai came under the protection of the United Kingdom by the "Exclusive Agreement" of 1892, in which the UK agreed to protect Dubai against the Ottoman Empire. Two catastrophes struck the town during the 1800s. First, in 1841, a smallpox epidemic broke out in the Bur Dubai locality, forcing residents to relocate east to Deira. Then, in 1894, fire swept through Deira, burning down most homes. However, the town's geographical location continued to attract traders and merchants from around the region. The emir of Dubai was keen to attract foreign traders and lowered trade tax brackets, which lured traders away from Sharjah and Bandar Lengeh which were the region's main trade hubs at the time. Dubai's geographical proximity to Iran made it an important trade location. We passed a very nationalistic display, one of the world’s tallest flagpole.We passed the Dubai Zoo which started as a private zoo. H. H. Sheikh Rashid bin Maktoum, the late Ruler of Dubai, permitted Otto J. Bulart to build the Zoo on a two hectacre plot in Jumeirah.Jumeirah is the site of the best public beaches in Dubai and houses many businesses like Mercato Mall (Italian renaissance themed), the royal palaces are located by the shore near the marina area as are many foreign consulates. Many of the areas are green, nicely manicured lawns. UAE depends on desalinated water (97% of all water). We then passed Al Qasr Hotel, noted for being one of the more reasonably priced hotels in the region and being in the design of a sultan’s palace. We drove by the Burj al Arab designed by Tom Wright who was the architect and designer. The Burj Al Arab (Tower of the Arabs) was conceived in October 1993 and completed on site in 1999. The brief to the architect was to create an icon for Dubai, a building that would become synonymous with the place, as Sydney has its opera house and Paris the Eiffel Tower so Dubai was to have the Burj al Arab. Tom Wright lived in Dubai during the design and construction of the project working as the project Design Director for Atkins one of the world's leading multi discipline design consultancies.
Having passed the Burj al Arab, we drove onto The Palm and onto the grounds of The Atlantis The Palm which is a resort at Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is a joint venture between Kerzner International Limited and Istithmar PSJC and was opened on 24 September 2008. The resort is modeled after the Atlantis, Paradise Island resort in Nassau, Bahamas. The resort consists of two towers linked by a bridge, with a total of 1539 rooms. There are two monorail stations connecting the resort to the main section of the Palm Jumeirah islands. The five star resort also includes a water Aquaventure theme park (160,000 square meters), a conference center, and 20,000 square feet (1,900 m2) of retail space.
Before returning to Wafi to transfer to red line, we were told that the date palm which provides shelter, food, and clothing for Arabs is the national tree. We got off the blue line at the Mall of the Emirates for lunch. Since I thought we were on a tight schedule, I just stopped at Dairy Queen for a chili dog. Ah, to gobble down American fast food! Ooh, the heart burn!!
The cruise took us down the Creek toward the harbor where I could see some of the cruise ships like HAL. Dubai Creek or Khor Dubai, Khawr Dubayy, is a saltwater creek located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). It ends at Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary. Some sources say that the creek extended as far inland as Al Ain, and that the Ancient Greeks called it River Zara. Historically, the creek divided the city into two main sections – Deira and Bur Dubai. The importance of the creek as a site of commercial activity was a justification to introduce improvements to allow larger vessels to transit, as well as to facilitate loading and unloading activities. Although the importance of the creek as a port has diminished with the development of the Jebel Ali Port, smaller facilities, such as Port Saeed, continue to exist along the creek, providing porting to traders from the region and the subcontinent. Some of the more remarkable buildings along the Deira side of the Creek are the Deira Twin Towers, Dubai Creek Tower, Sheraton Dubai Creek, National Bank and Chamber of Commerce. The creek's initial inlet into mainland Dubai is along the Deira Corniche and Al Ras areas of eastern Dubai and along the Al Shindagha area of western Dubai. The traditional form of transport between the eastern and western sections of Dubai via the creek was through abras, which continue to operate in Dubai. In addition, the eastern and western sections are linked via four bridges (Al Maktoum Bridge, Al Garhoud Bridge, Business Bay Crossing and Floating Bridge) and one tunnel (Al Shindagha Tunnel).
We returned to the pier and, since we were running out of time, we decided to catch a taxi to Dubai Mall to enter Burj Kalifa. We had some time to kill so we walked through the mall to Bloomingdale's, which I visited when I was in NYC back in 1976, having a coffee break with white chocolate bar at Bloomie’s Café.
We finally headed for the entry to Burj Kalifa. We planned our trip to the top to coincide with sunset. The honor of designing the world's tallest tower was awarded the global leader in creating ultra-tall structures, the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) with Adrian Smith FAIA, RIBA, consulting design Partner. The basics of the building include the design. The architecture features a triple-lobed footprint, an abstraction of the Hymenocallis flower. The tower is composed of three elements arranged around a central core. The modular, Y-shaped structure, with setbacks along each of its three wings provides an inherently stable configuration for the structure and provides good floor plates for residential. Twenty-six helical levels decrease the cross section of the tower incrementally as it spirals skyward. The central core emerges at the top and culminates in a sculpted spire. A Y-shaped floor plan maximizes views of the Arabian Gulf. Viewed from the base or the air, Burj Khalifa is evocative of the onion domes prevalent in Islamic architecture. The interior design of Burj Khalifa public areas was also done by the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP and was led by award-winning designer Nada Andric. It features glass, stainless steel and polished dark stones, together with silver travertine flooring, Venetian stucco walls, handmade rugs and stone flooring. The interior were inspired by local cultural while staying mindful of the building's status as a global icon and residence.
conglomerate that had to be bailed out of debts put at around $25 billion at the end of 2009. The Dubai World Tribunal was set up to hear cases arising out of the restructuring and separation of the companies involved.)
When we got to the ground level, we stopped to listen to pianist George playing some symphonic arrangements of traditional Arabic music. We stopped for coffee at Fauchon Café. We returned to the hotel and decided to have dinner at Petals, the hotel’s dining room. Our choices off the buffet included chicken salad (sweet and spicy), beef, hummus with bread, creole rice, broccoli, and tempura of shrimp, hamour, scallops (it was seafood night after all). Overall it was a great meal and a great way to end the day.
On 25 March (Yaumul Jumuah - Friday), knowing it is Islam’s holyday, we knew that nothing will open until 2:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon, after all that we read and were told. After nixing visiting the museums in Sharjah because of questionable transportation to and fro, we decided to have a slow start to the morning. I enjoyed a hotel-room-brewed cup of coffee with the leftover white chocolate bar and chocolate chip cookie from Oasis Hotel. We then headed for the Mall of the Emirates. We walked through Via Rodeo and had a cup of cappucino at Armani Cafe. We then met one of the great characters of any trip I have ever taken. His name was Heddy, shortened from a very long Dutch name. He has a Ph.D. in something, but he started out with his uncle Baldessarini and helped develop a eau de toilette for Hugo Boss. He then, after a misspent youth, turned to more intellectual pursuits. Some of his misspent youth was spent on Maui where he did tons of wind surfing. While in Hawaii he met many local people, one of which was Joey from Campbell HS. He went into a whole pronunciation lesson, using rounded sounds to pronounce. Imagine telling someone from Hawaii about the rounded vowel sound. I asked him to pronounce Vincent Van Gogh’s name, and he did so only as a Dutchman can.
We walked over to Harvey Nichols where items were on sale 2 for the price of 1. So I bought grapefruit marmalade, pickled tomatoes, and a container of Cornish sea salt. We then walked over to I ♡ Dubai where I was able to purchase a modest-sized Burj Khalifa (compared to the huge monstrosities at the top of Burj) and other souvenirs. We continued over to the entry area, purchased tickets and then some caps. SkiDubai was quite mind blowing. Its temperature of 0◦ was COLD, and it provided a great opportunity to walk around and enjoy the snow and watch the people riding toboggans, rubber tires, and skiing down the gentle slope. There were many photo ops by pine trees, by ski lifts and many opportunities to slip and slide. We got so cold we had to stop for a cup of hot chocolate. Perfect!!!
After the visit to SkiDubai and change back to non-snow wear, we had lunch at Galler. Jean Galler was born into a luxury dessert environment. He liked working in the family confectioner’s shop founded by his grandfather in 1930 and he has kept this passion since then. At 16 years old, inspired by chocolate, he experimented this living material that fascinated him. To develop his knowledge and discover new flavors, he studied in Basel (Switzerland), then with Gaston Lenôtre in Paris. At 21 years old, he launched his own enterprise. 30 years later, the foundations of the company remain the same: passion for chocolate; pride in perfection; constant creativity.We entered the metro that had a very symbolic beginning with the start-up time of 09/09/2009 at 0909.09. The pricing is deceptive and not as cheap as foretold. It has a screwy price structure like the cheapest fare being for a short ride of two stops. I thought I had moved to New Delhi, the ridership being decidedly Indian. We couldn’t exit the metro stop at Financial Centre because we had the wrong ticket so we had to purchase a second ticket.
I still hadn’t given up on the idea of hunting down Hard Rock so we headed to Festival Centre, City. Now this was my kind of mall with shops like Hush Puppy, Diesel, Guess, and Hang Ten. The food court was badly laid out with limited walking space and crowded seating. But there was no Hard Rock. I kept searching and found an area called Marina Restaurants and that reminded me of something I saw on the website.
The Marina is a marvelous eating area placed along a mockup of a canal, similar to San Antonio. Restaurants include Scoozi, Tony Roma’s, but still no Hard Rock. I walked over to the Taste Pavilion and found Chocologie, but still no Hard Rock. In my continued search, I found out from a clerk in Marks and Spencer that Hard Rock in Dubai is no more. So we returned to Chocologie for dinner of glazed scallops served on a bed of rocket and fennel tips (albeit a bit manini). The dish was OK with the scallops well cooked (bed of salad could have been more), but the dessert ranked up there with others. It was a deconstructed molten chocolate cake. The cake was excellent, the ganache was superb though not as hot as it could have been.
No comments:
Post a Comment