Going to Dubai after India was like going from one extreme to another. I don't think we could've asked for more contrast than this. Dubai is the land of materialistic bliss and superfluous extravaganza! It was from rags to riches in reverse. Where Dan and I repeatedly were assumed to be "cash cows" in India we are now among the poorer, less fortunate people here in Dubai. We got less than sympathetic stares when we walked into the hotel lobby in our sweaty gear....'cause of course we walked the last km with our bags in 35 degree (Celsius) heat rather than spending a budget-breaking amount on a taxi, which for most people here would be spending only loose change! You may ask yourselves, why then are we staying in hotels? Well, there are really no alternatives. Budget accomodation here on the Arabian peninsula is unheard of and may explain the lack of cheap backpackers like ourselves! Despite this we did feel that this was a nice change and treat for us and we have resorted to using expedia to get pretty decent hotel deals.
On our arrival to Dubai, we reached our expedia-booked hotel late, with our only goal to check out the washing machine. The only reason we actually chose this hotel was because they offered washing machine with dryer in each room. We were in desperate need of clothes washing. For the past week/s we've been accumulating laundry in anticipation of this one massive washing-session that would revive our slightly soggy and sad-looking outfits and hopefully get rid of some of the worst dirt, dust and smell. The first thing we did was in the room was to load a machine full with clothes. We thought we should save time and run one machine-load overnight. Hmm, the machine wouldn't start no matter which buttons we pressed. Either we were slightly technically challenged at this late hour or the machine was broken. After a while we had to concede and just deal with the fact that no laundry was being done that night. The next day, we had a busy schedule. Apart for laundry we were going to the bus station to organize our tickets for our onward trip to Oman, we were going to check out the biggest mall in the world AND we were going to IKEA to buy some salty liqorice. Ridiculous maybe, but I had a craving for turkish pepper = yummy salty candy (fellow Swedes will understand this) and with the concidence that there was an IKEA here, the opportunity of eating good old meatballs and pick up some supplies was too good to pass up:).
However, first on the list was the laundry. We got up early and I stopped a room-service guy in the hallway and asked him to have a look at the washing machine. He did as we had the night previously, pressed random buttons and turned the dials back and forth. Nothing! Damn it! He called for back-up and by the look of this guy he may know a bit more (he had a repair-guy outfit and tools). After over an hour and a lot of mess, still no progress. We were patiently waiting for something to happen and with the time ticking away, I was a bit frustrated. Finally, they decided to roll in a "new" washing machine. They got this "new" machine running, but on the program setting for "cold wash of wollen clothes". Of course we did not have any wollen clothes, but was just happy that it was running and thanked them profusely. However, this "new" machine seemed to be a bit NQR (not quite right) since the wash setting was set for cold wash, but our clothes were in boiling hot water. Fearing that we would end up with clothes only big enough for smurfs, we tried to stop the washing and set it for something else. Turns out that "the wollen program" was the only one that worked or we could manually turn it to rinse, spin etc. Also this machine had no dryer, but we figured that after a good spin the clothes would be dry enough to air-dry. After manually wash-rinse-and spin we were happy and went to retrive our clothes! Oh-oh the door wouldn't open! This was not good! Dan tried too. Nope, it was a fact! Our clothes were no longer dirty but trapped!!! That really sucked! We had to go and get help. I found the room-service guy again, explained that the door was stuck. He pulls the door several times, puts more water in (so much for the spin-dried clothes) and had absolutely no clue what he was doing. He calls the repair guy again. He turns up and pulls the door even more! Concludes that the door is broken. He calls the manager who asks if we pulled the door. Well of course, otherwise we wouldn't know it was stuck!!! The manager pretty much claims that we broke the door since this machine was new. I'm not willing to pay for a machine, that I'm thinking must be a pretty shitty machine if it breaks that easily. I explain that I have 15 years experience with machine washing and that I know that we did not break it. After all, it is hard to pin-point who broke the machine with so many people pulling the door. The repair-guy eventually manages to open the door. It's been 4 hours since this whole thing started and the result is soaking wet clothes. We end up dodging any payment for the machine, but have to bring the clothes to professional laundry service for drying. Severly delayed, we still managed to get our bus-tickets, eat 15 meatballs and buy salty fish (no turkish pepper available) and be amazed by the mall all in the space of 10 hrs!
On our arrival to Dubai, we reached our expedia-booked hotel late, with our only goal to check out the washing machine. The only reason we actually chose this hotel was because they offered washing machine with dryer in each room. We were in desperate need of clothes washing. For the past week/s we've been accumulating laundry in anticipation of this one massive washing-session that would revive our slightly soggy and sad-looking outfits and hopefully get rid of some of the worst dirt, dust and smell. The first thing we did was in the room was to load a machine full with clothes. We thought we should save time and run one machine-load overnight. Hmm, the machine wouldn't start no matter which buttons we pressed. Either we were slightly technically challenged at this late hour or the machine was broken. After a while we had to concede and just deal with the fact that no laundry was being done that night. The next day, we had a busy schedule. Apart for laundry we were going to the bus station to organize our tickets for our onward trip to Oman, we were going to check out the biggest mall in the world AND we were going to IKEA to buy some salty liqorice. Ridiculous maybe, but I had a craving for turkish pepper = yummy salty candy (fellow Swedes will understand this) and with the concidence that there was an IKEA here, the opportunity of eating good old meatballs and pick up some supplies was too good to pass up:).
However, first on the list was the laundry. We got up early and I stopped a room-service guy in the hallway and asked him to have a look at the washing machine. He did as we had the night previously, pressed random buttons and turned the dials back and forth. Nothing! Damn it! He called for back-up and by the look of this guy he may know a bit more (he had a repair-guy outfit and tools). After over an hour and a lot of mess, still no progress. We were patiently waiting for something to happen and with the time ticking away, I was a bit frustrated. Finally, they decided to roll in a "new" washing machine. They got this "new" machine running, but on the program setting for "cold wash of wollen clothes". Of course we did not have any wollen clothes, but was just happy that it was running and thanked them profusely. However, this "new" machine seemed to be a bit NQR (not quite right) since the wash setting was set for cold wash, but our clothes were in boiling hot water. Fearing that we would end up with clothes only big enough for smurfs, we tried to stop the washing and set it for something else. Turns out that "the wollen program" was the only one that worked or we could manually turn it to rinse, spin etc. Also this machine had no dryer, but we figured that after a good spin the clothes would be dry enough to air-dry. After manually wash-rinse-and spin we were happy and went to retrive our clothes! Oh-oh the door wouldn't open! This was not good! Dan tried too. Nope, it was a fact! Our clothes were no longer dirty but trapped!!! That really sucked! We had to go and get help. I found the room-service guy again, explained that the door was stuck. He pulls the door several times, puts more water in (so much for the spin-dried clothes) and had absolutely no clue what he was doing. He calls the repair guy again. He turns up and pulls the door even more! Concludes that the door is broken. He calls the manager who asks if we pulled the door. Well of course, otherwise we wouldn't know it was stuck!!! The manager pretty much claims that we broke the door since this machine was new. I'm not willing to pay for a machine, that I'm thinking must be a pretty shitty machine if it breaks that easily. I explain that I have 15 years experience with machine washing and that I know that we did not break it. After all, it is hard to pin-point who broke the machine with so many people pulling the door. The repair-guy eventually manages to open the door. It's been 4 hours since this whole thing started and the result is soaking wet clothes. We end up dodging any payment for the machine, but have to bring the clothes to professional laundry service for drying. Severly delayed, we still managed to get our bus-tickets, eat 15 meatballs and buy salty fish (no turkish pepper available) and be amazed by the mall all in the space of 10 hrs!
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