Mercure Grand Jebel Hafeet

 

 

 

 

Mercure Grand Jebel Hafeet Al Ain Hotel

One thing I can say don’t go on a road trip in the middle of UAE summer, here, where temperatures can soar up to near 50 centigrade, it takes away all the fun.

But who’s to stop us when hotels go on a discount like nothing you’ve seen. So you pack the overnight trolley, slather copious amount of sunscreen, plan the route via Google map and pray that those year-old tyres do not explode in the middle of nowhere.  

It’s a nice hotel perched on top of a hill and getting there deserves a separate post on its own. During winter, the temperature drops as expected for a place with close to 1,400 m height and beware of the strong winds both seasons. When we were there, the place was quite (middle of July and during Ramadan), with only a handful of patrons. If you like peace and quiet this is the place for you.

Food: Nothing out of the ordinary

Room: Clean

Bathroom: Clean with piped-in sound system 

WIFI: Paid

One thing I noticed, for a hotel, it should be up and running 24 hours, but some hallway access are closed. That maybe because of Ramadan?

my erstwhile mobile phone wallpaper

Dubai on A Friday

I just noticed that for the past three years I post only one post and I do it every August. So, to break that inclination, I will try to begin posting more than one, starting today….

Dubai driving on a Friday

If you go out on a street in Dubai on a weekday, the streets are not empty and it is never empty up to the wee hours of the morning. But on Friday mornings, it is a different story. You can actually count with your ten fingers the cars that you can see.

Filipino FM

If you’ve been out of the country for more than five years, and going home takes one a year, all things seem to start to fade and you feel out of the loop: the latest fashion-both hip and tacky, the latest food fad, the habitual evolution of the Tagalog language peppered with the gay lingo –swardspeak according to some, the yearly (?) installment of Shake Rattle and Roll, the ubiquitous pop songs blazing from Jeepneys and almost everything Filipino.

That is why it is a welcome change that TagFM started broadcasting around here. Much to my delight, they play old OPM songs on Friday mornings!