Нормальный отель Normal hotel

THESE ARE ALREADY OTHER EMIRATES.

I'll start with the cons:

Elevator. It is difficult for people to climb even to the second floor. And now there is a whole family of seals standing at the elevator, who are too lazy to drag their mortal carcasses one flight of stairs. By God, it's longer to wait for an elevator than to walk. But they are waiting. Out of principle. And when the sign lights up that there is an overweight in the cockpit, one member of such a family comes out and waits again. Looking at him, those who live on the third floor sigh sadly and wait for the seals to roll over.


Russians in a restaurant. They recruit as for 10 pigs, leaving behind half a table of half-eaten food. It's disgusting to watch. I look forward to the comments “well, don’t look”, “it’s none of your business. ” Yes, I'd be happy not to. But in the hall there is no escape from this. Tables all around. While you eat, you involuntarily stumble upon a look at all this. I understand that “everything is paid for”, that everything is “free”, a buffet, take as much as you want, eat from the belly and “walk, flaw”.
But our people in such cases completely turn off the sense of proportion. Come to breakfast and watch the circus. Here are two women of age scored 10 toasts (in Russian, toasts). How many toast do you need to eat? It feels like people are just having fun with the process of making them. After all, there is no such thing at home, at home a boring toaster at best. And here is the whole "toast oven". You load up a toast, wait sedately, and watch it go off somewhere far, far away, like the text at the beginning of Star Wars. Truly a "bewitching sight" that can be contemplated forever, like fire or water. At another table, they scored a whole plate, even with a small hill, of croissants. And I wish it all tasted really good. But no, in this particular case, no. Croissants are dry and empty inside. You can eat one or two, spreading them with orange / strawberry jam, honey. But not ten.
Here are some regular Russian grabbers who collected a plate of really tasty pastries in the form of shurikens. Well, if you scored - so eat! But no, how to leave - again there is a plate of bitten cakes. Like dogs in the manger, neither to themselves nor to others. The same story with ice cream, they serve it in the evenings in this hotel. They put out a bath of ice cream of one flavor (vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, mango) and, when it runs out, they carry a bath with another. So our people run running to pick up this very ice cream, as if they had never eaten it in their lives, or as if they were taking it away from them. That very moment when even a decent intelligent person MUST act like a redneck if he wants to eat ice cream at all. I liked all ice cream, but most of all I like chocolate.
And so, during dinner, the first thing I had to do was to run, like the rest, to collect ice cream, and then everything else, because if you click with your beak and don’t collect it in time, of course you won’t be left without ice cream, but they will bring something else. A couple of times they served something that vaguely resembles a Caesar salad. Very distant, because basically it was a bunch of lettuce in a Caesar dressing and shredded chicken. This happened only once, on other evenings the semblance of "Caesar" was even just without chicken. Our people smelled it and even sorted out these lettuce leaves. And everything would be fine, but absolutely the same garbage - people both for breakfast and for dinner, how to pick up this salad - like rabbits. And how to leave, and all this is lying around that no one needs. For several days, instead of pancakes, they gave something like Belgian waffles for breakfast. Too dry, they were also collected in tons and left on the tables. It's embarrassing even.

It's a shame when the waiters come up to clean the table for such gentlemen. And who are they, in essence? Savages from a hungry island or some kind of "lords"? No respect, no concepts. Horror. And then such people return home and write reviews “oh, food for a C grade, there was nothing to eat. ” Yeah. "Nothing". It is worth making a reservation - in every nation there are perhaps enough of them, but specifically here, in this hotel, 90% of the audience was Russian-speaking.

Forged tables and chairs in the restaurant and glass surfaces on the tables. Forged chairs are heavy, difficult to move and noisy. The tables are "shackled" so that you can't straighten your legs. Glass surfaces on the tables - it's cold to lean on the table with your hands. Yes, for them it is impractical - constantly rub these tables. But, apparently, the owner of the hotel likes this decor, what can you do.

The same barrel organ (guitar motifs) 24/7. Plays in the reception area and in the restaurant.
Yes, this is also a trifle, but if you paid for three meals a day or like to read something after dinner at the reception, then these are krants. Like it or not, you learn by heart, it will cease to be a background and begin to annoy. At the end of our stay, my prayers were answered and the hurdy-gurdy was changed, but the choice of melodies is small, although pleasant - Careless Whisper, Hotel California, Aux Deux Magots and something else.

Dirty sea and beach.
No, it's wonderful in and of itself. The water is transparent, the bottom can be seen perfectly, small fish swim at the very feet, that's all. But for the entire time of our vacation there were two or three days when there was some kind of invasion of vegetables and fruits. Eaten watermelons, bell peppers, onions, and lettuce floated in the sea. Feel like you're in a soup (especially with August water temperatures). We never understood what it was. Maybe they have such incidents happen one day a year, maybe once a month.
But it was still not cool to drive food away from you in the water. There were also algae, but these are trifles. Once, a dead squid, tortured by someone, swam by. But the impressions were more spoiled by cans (including glass ones), plastic bottles and other garbage that was brought from somewhere. If the hotel knows that you have a not very clean sea / beach, you can follow this, without fanaticism, but follow it.


The owner refuels the water scooter directly into the sea, in shallow water, although nothing prevents him from dragging it ashore for such manipulation. Naturally, when pumping, fuel sometimes leaks past the hole, and this is putting it mildly. If this is not an argument, then nothing will help here. Noise from riders on water scooters. It is incredibly annoying and sometimes there is a natural ringing in the ears when the rider only accelerates and rides at a certain speed.

Irresponsible rental of sea pleasure transport on the shore.
Two local guys rented a kayak. And it would be nice if they swam beyond the buoys where they send rented water scooters. These two naturally floated over their heads, at arm's length. To say that they interfered with vacationers is to say nothing. The owner of the kayak doesn't care. The rescuer, too, judging by the fact that he did not pay attention to it. Who will be responsible if they give a kumpol to someone with a paddle or go over someone with a kayak?

The beach itself is small. But no one forbids you to go swimming on the Grand or Carlton beach. Which is what we did. But you won’t be able to lie down on sunbeds there, they are watching for this. We just hung a bag with things under an umbrella and went to the sea.

Sun loungers, both on the beach and by the pool, are laid out just awful. It's nobody's fault, they bought these. But sometimes it is impossible to change the position while lying down.
You have to get up, go behind a sun lounger and perform some manipulations.
That is, the system is not elementary simple, as usual.

Umbrellas on the beach are unrealistically low. I myself beat my head against them more than once and saw how other people fought and complained.

Before leaving the beach, a recess was made in the tiled path. There is water. People are supposed to wash their feet there so as not to carry sand on them into the pool area. You do whatever you want, but this is a breeding ground for diseases, the same fungus. The whole beach rinses your feet in a 40 x 60 bath with slimy walls. At the same time, the water there is heated to the state of boiling water, it is not flowing and does not smell like bleach. Therefore, we refused to rinse our feet there categorically. Although the guard was vigilant for this and each time shouted something after us.


To wash our feet, we go to the shower by the pool, which I didn’t like because there was basically no cold water in it. Rolling around is completely unrealistic. If only boiling water.
Naturally with boiling water, even washing your feet after the beach was painful - it was so hot. Washed off the bulk quickly and happy. Nothing can be washed well. Although in the neighboring "Grand" there is no such problem. So, it is necessary to cover the pipes somehow from the sun.

Swimming pool.
There are only 2 ladders in the deep part of the pool. And at the same time, everyone, both adults and children, hang on them. Constantly. These ladders are located where the depth is 3 meters. Children who belong in a paddling pool with their skills constantly swim next to the ladders, or hang on them. Mothers see that their child prevents people from leaving, but they don’t care. Some adults are also not smart, and, as if they are alone in the pool, they cling to the ladders with their feet and lie on the water. If you want to get out, you'll get through.
The pool has terrible stretch awnings in the form of triangles. The sun has a tendency to move. Fig hide, even if you want. But there are more than enough places in the sun, of course.

"Local population.
The same hard workers, of whom there are many times more in this country than the indigenous "purebred" Arabs. Unfortunately, it just so happened that one of the days of our vacation fell on Eid al-Adha. For a couple of days, an unmeasured number of Indians / Pak / Arabs of all stripes with families (wives, sisters, children, in general, everything) settled in the hotel. And everything would be fine, I am absolutely calm about people of any nationality as long as they do not begin to interfere with others, including me. God, they are noisy. For their children, laws are not written at all. In a word, it is better not to fall on any local holidays.

There is no brush in the toilet room. I prefer to clean the toilet myself, rather than having someone scrub after me. A trifle, but still.


There are few Russian channels on TV and all are flawed. List available in the photo. Russia-24 is something in general. Every day the same stories are being chewed. However, as at home, of course, but here it is felt even more strongly.
Infuriates different volume levels when switching channels.

There are laws, but they don't care. It is not clear why there are signs by the pool “Do not jump”, if everyone jumps and no one forbids them to do so. One Russian came up to the edge of the pool, looked at me and jumped almost on my head. That is, a person saw that I was swimming close, but he did not care either that after his bombing, at such a distance, to put it mildly, “dove” me, or that jumps on my head. And these are trifles. We have read on the Internet fairy tales about the "ideal" country - the Emirates, plus Sharjah is considered the emirate with the most severe morals and laws. And when some pimp stuck to us on the street, we did not expect this at all. At 9 pm we went to CO-OP (Sharjah cooperative as vacationers call it) to stock up on water and fruit. Some "local" man was leaving by car from the gates of a private villa.
He stopped at the turn, expressed his “you are very, very beautiful” out the window. Yeah. In the dark, without makeup and all sweaty from stuffiness and humidity. We went further. And everything would be fine, but the man, as it turned out, parked on the opposite side of the road (since he left), ran across it, caught up with us and trudged along behind us for some time, weaving typical compliments and begging for a phone number. We managed to reach the CO-OP while he was following us. We went to the store, and he went to his open car, which was already far enough away. While we were shopping, we calmed down, left the store, went back, on the way we fed the local cats with the pre-purchased Whiskas (pity them, they are so skinny). And a little before reaching our hotel, he again “caught up” with us. That is, the person was waiting for us on purpose. This not normal. I had to yell at the security guard to call the police. Only then did he leave us.

We did not expect this from this country, and even more so, from the strictest emirate. After this incident, there was no particular desire to walk the streets.

Free transport to shopping centers.
People crowd into the free buses from the hotel like crazy, although there is enough space for everyone. With us, there was not a single case when someone would have to stand while moving. Yes, it is forbidden for them, apparently, because everyone standing was asked to sit down. Yes, the buses run on time.
There are especially smart vacationers who come from neighboring Grant. They get on the free bus near our hotel to get comfortable seats. At the same time, while they are waiting for the bus, they look at us with mournful muzzles and say: “You have such poor food, according to rumors, how do you only relax here, poor people? And we are standing, eaten “from the belly” at lunch in our restaurant and thinking: “Why did you come to our bad hotel for landing?
Go to your Grand and when we get to you, sit down in the seats that remain. 7 minutes you can drive absolutely anywhere. » We got into such wise men once. Then there were more people and the bus did not drive up to the Grand and Carlton.

During our stay, the lights were turned off once, and not for 5 minutes. When turned on, the condo stopped cooling throughout the hotel. The room has a sauna. At the reception they said they would send a repairman to us. And that's with central air conditioning. They lied without blinking.

Early breakfast is nothing. We had a flight at 9 am, we were picked up from the hotel at 5, despite the fact that the airport is naturally 20 minutes away. This is done to avoid traffic jams. OK. We asked in advance if we were supposed to have any lunch boxes. The hotel staff said that they don't have lunch boxes, that they have our regular breakfast instead, just name the time you leave.

Do you believe that someone will make borscht at 4 am for you? Here I am too. Overwhelmed by vague doubts, we arrived at the canteen at 4 am. The doors were closed and, surprisingly, there was a guy there. We spoke to him our mantra about a pre-staken breakfast that night, to which he replied to us: "Sit down. " As a result, there was no point in sitting too much, and I didn’t even understand why he said this, because no one was going to serve us personally, of course. He simply brought the toast oven out of the kitchen, in fact, toast and jams with honey. And all of our (and not only ours - then a couple more pulled up) early breakfast consisted of toast with tea / coffee. Not seriously. You involuntarily think: “Maybe a lunch box is better? ".

Pros:

We were lucky, they gave us a room with a view of the sea and the pool at no extra charge. Although it was paid for with a view of the road.
The furniture in the room is good. The chandelier is a bit old, but who really cares?
There is no Wi-Fi, but I consider this to be a plus. Our knowledgeable citizens found such a way out - we go across the road to the Kazan restaurant, where the Internet is free. We order a cup of tea and register in the system. Once is enough to stand on the sidewalk in front of Kazan the next day and get stuck in the heat on the phone, if you really feel like uploading a selfie.

Food. Products are ordinary, but cooking is beyond praise. Everything looked and smelled so appetizing, I wanted to taste everything. And this despite the fact that there is only one “glutton row”. One row with first and second courses, one row with salads and desserts. Everything. I was in hotels where there were more rows with food, where it was possible for 15 minutes only to bypass all these rows and pick up something along the way. I was in a hotel where there were a lot of rows, but from the edible there were naturally only macaroni and cheese, which I had to eat all the time I was there.
And with all this, in no other hotel did they feed as tasty as in this one. What is curious is that even after mixing a little bit of everything that you wanted to try, you leave the dining room without a “pregnant” belly. That is, apparently, the food is cooked so well that no swelling and heaviness occurs. This, of course, is somewhat individual, but I was not the only one who did not feel heaviness.


We took 3 meals a day and did not regret it. I didn’t want to go to the store, buy groceries and dry-fed them in the room. And going through the 40-degree heat to some cafe for lunch or dinner is not our option. Yes, Kazan is almost opposite. To Sinobar go much further. But it's not cheap there. For your money, they will give you only what you ordered: one or two dishes, and that's it. And leave a tip too. And again, go on foot in the heat back and even drag small children screaming in the heat with you.
And if you have paid for lunch or dinner at your hotel, then you can endlessly come up and put it on a plate. And at the same time they also prove that it is cheaper to eat by yourself. Why is this? There is nothing cheap or free there, it's all fairy tales.

Warm sea. Even hotter in August-September. But that's exactly what we love. They followed him. Cool, invigorating, illuminating water (underline as appropriate) is not for us. This is enough at home, in the river, for free.

The territory of the hotel is small, there is almost no greenery, but this is compensated by the greenery of the neighboring Grand, plus the birds sing awesome - you forget that you are in the desert. You can hear it even with a closed balcony. Whoever takes a skein of scourging with him will not lose. Pull on the balcony and wet swimwear and towels will be dry in 20-30 minutes. I always do this.

The hotel has bookcrossing. True, there are few Russian books, but a lot in German and Dutch. Left there a couple of those that they took with them.
Nice grocery store Sharjah CO-OP Society. Big store, everything is very civilized. From the hotel to the left 10-15 minutes along the sidewalk, then cross the road, it will be in the alley. In principle, from the porch of the hotel during the day you can even see the building in which it is located.
There is also a network of Carrefour stores. Like our Auchan, Tape, Globe. Everything's there. But, unlike CO-OP and due to the scale of the store's assortment, you will hang there for a long time. As the saying goes, “you can’t just take it” and go in to buy water. Buying water/fruits is CO-OP. And to look, look and buy is Carrefour. They are probably in all shopping centers. An interesting case came out - here, it seems, such a serious store with a cash register, and the change of 25 fils (kopecks) was squeezed once.

It was a pleasant surprise when at the checkout at Carrefour we did not have enough dirhams and it turned out to be possible to pay extra in dollars.

Delicious Masafi brand juices. I would drink them all my life, they won’t get bored. Sold in local stores. Be sure to try.
This is not diluted water with sugar, which is in Russia. Here they know a lot about juices. I especially recommend the mango.

Free shuttle bus from the hotel to the city and back. Timetables and city maps can be borrowed free of charge at the reception.
Sharjah City Center is a 7-minute drive. The drop off point is also the starting point back. Opposite Sharjah City Center there is a one-story building with the inscription Gift Shop. This is the local equivalent of "Fix Price". Everything is up to 10 dirhams. Really convenient place to pick up souvenirs cheaper than in the shop at the hotel.

In Sharjah City Center, everything is like in a regular shopping center, there are a lot of exchangers. The course is equally fixed everywhere, a commission is charged for the exchange - 3 dirhams. They didn’t take more than three from us anywhere, so it feels like even the commission does not depend on the amount. Therefore, where it is better to change can be determined by the parameter "which cashier is more pleasant. " On the ground floor there is an exchanger "Al Rostamani", there is a Filipino named Richard John Zamora - the spitting image of Mike Shinoda)
On the second floor there is a food court. We tried the local KFC (for comparison) and realized that we need to value our own, Russian, more. And not only because we are cheaper. Here you can not order only one boxmaster, for example. In fact, you can't take just one. Only combo offers, which is sad. But the Cole Slow salad is still preserved here, while for some reason it was liquidated in our country a long time ago. Well, here "original" means "sharp" by default. Had a bite at KFC twice, asked for original flavor twice, got spicy twice. Either "luck", or really so.


There are "dancing fountains" in Sharjah, although I would call them "illuminated fountains". They differ from Dubai ones, but as entertainment in the evening - a good option. It's about 10 minutes walk from Sharjah City Center towards a small lake, there is a park next to it and Al Noor Mosk. Not far to go, but stuffy (depending, of course, on the time of year). Surprised beggars in the underpass.
In the alleys, as you walk to the park, shemans trash cans and urine. Together with stuffiness - simply unforgettable.
Also in Sharjah there is a Ferris wheel "Eye of the Emirates", a height of 60 meters. Adult ticket for one - 30 dirhams. Roll 5 laps, 5 minutes. Alas, they won’t give a surplus, since the wheel is turned on for clients, it doesn’t spin all the time. Cabins are closed, air-conditioned, clean. The workers themselves open and close them, no haste, everything is worthy. We really liked the views of the surroundings from above. You can't see it from the ground. It would be great to ride there for 30 minutes - that would be great. Start of work from 16.00. I advise you to go by this time in order to see at least something at sunset, instead of lights in the dark. Although who cares.
Next to the wheel is a small amusement park and a canal. There are boat trips. In one desk 50 dirhams "from one to three people" (that is, almost an individual tour for 50 dirhams).
In the other (on the opposite bank) - 100 dirhams for an individual tour or 15 per person, but sail with a company of other people.

Taxi
There are a lot of taxis in general, you just have to wave your hand or even just make eye contact with the driver of a taxi passing by. Money is taken in dirhams, in dollars reluctantly. They definitely won't give you change from dollars. Once we lacked literally a couple of dirhams, but there were dollars. Uncle took a couple of dollars, but complained that he now had to go to the exchanger. In fact, he did not understand that with dollars it turned out even a little more than it was necessary. The counter starts counting from 3 dirhams. At the end of the trip, the driver presses the magic button and suddenly the amount of the trip increases by about 3-5 dirhams. How, what, why - a mystery shrouded in darkness. The average cost of a trip is from 12 to 16 dirhams. We managed to get from the fountains in Sharjah to the hotel for 12 dirhams.

At the same time, each trip to the Ferris wheel and back also cost us 12 dirhams, although the distance is less than from the fountains. In general, why it happens, in what way the same distance costs differently, we did not understand. And no one really could explain. It's just some kind of magic. It is better not to take a taxi from Sharjah to Dubai - a fee of 20 dirhams is taken for crossing the invisible border of the emirates. Who says what. We heard such a figure, maybe more.

Tours.
We didn't take them. In the overview of Dubai were already on the last visit.
I wanted to go to Al_Ain, but the guide herself dissuaded me, because it was very hot. In general, the hotel guide from Natalie Tours, Nargiza, is a very sweet and charming woman, completely unobtrusive. If you want excursions - go, if you don’t want - don’t go, you won’t persuade. Also downstairs, near the reception, there is a tour office and a Russian-speaking guy, Alexei, is sitting there.
He will also tell you everything, where and how to go, organize everything. Prices are the same, you can buy from him. Also unobtrusive. Immediately opposite the hotel, across the road, there is also a tour office - so you won’t be left without excursions if you need it.
In this hotel, even souvenir sellers are unobtrusive, which is unexpected and pleasant.

Dubai

There is no free bus from the hotel to Dubai Mall, as this shopping center is quite popular unlike the others. Therefore, we took a free bus to Deira City Center, went down to the metro station of the same name, bought round-trip tickets to Dubai Mall (you must name the specific station where you are going when buying such a single ticket). The cost of one round-trip ticket in our case was 14 dirhams. Again, what surprised me was that the subway has special carriages for women and children. It is written on the walls that men who have forgotten something in these cars are fined 100 dirhams.
Personally, I have nothing against men, I was simply struck by the fact that again there is a law - there is no enforcement, as men calmly enter the women's carriage.
In general, stories about the "special" subway in Dubai are greatly exaggerated. Well, the metro, well, wagons with guest workers and those who cannot afford to travel by car around the city. Everything is like ours. There is no garbage lying around at stations and crossings - yes, it’s even stupid to compare.

Who knows English at the level “Do you speak English? Yes, I blow a troch ”- it’s better not to ride the subway. Ticket and then buy the wrong one and not there. There are many different types of them, and the Pakistani at the box office does not care, specifying how it is better for you to be and advising is not part of his duties.

The transition from the metro to the Dubai Mall itself is very, very, ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo t to tiring walking. I timed it: with a quick, elastic step, it took 20 minutes. If you hurry to a certain hour, calculate your time, it’s easy to be late.
The famous fountains carry urine from the construction site.
Another disappointment or pattern break. The last time we were here was in 2011, and they are still building or remodeling something next to them.
The fountains themselves are magnificent, it has already been written about without me. We watched the performance, then went to the Dubai Mall. There they waited for half a hour, near the entrance on the benches, then they went out again and looked. And so 3 times in a row.

At the airport, the presence of water in hand luggage is not particularly checked. We got through easily.
The remaining dirhams were immediately exchanged for rubles. Very comfortably. In Turkey or Egypt, I somehow did not notice such a service.

Conclusion: I will not go to Sharjah again. Only to Fujairah. Yes, it's more expensive, but you get what you pay for. Compared to 2011, the changes are not for the better, alas.