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Moving to Switzerland

Finally - after 3 years of distant relationship - my wife and her kids are moving to Switzerland!! I went to get her so we can move together. As it was June, I expected Japan to be quite... hot/humid/hellish? But I was lucky - weather was moderate and we could finish packing in two days.

Since my wife sent already quite a lot of stuff by ship - we only had some luggage to bring. Saying bye-bye to my mother-in-law and my wife's brother was not easy - but they were so nice and followed us to Kagoshima Airport to send us off.

There is a "foot-onsen" at Kagoshima Airport where you can relax and enjoy the hot spring water!

We then took the plane to Osaka in order to catch the international flight.

We decided to take Emirates in order to be able to do a stop-over in Dubai. As our flight left only around midnight, we had to kill some time. Hence, we decided to go to a little shopping area near Kansai Airport which - in hindsight - turned out to be a kinda bad idea. As I cannot resist buying clothes I don't need. But hey - you never know! It could be cold in Dubai. In June. Right? Right...

We stayed three days in Dubai - and since it was their first time in Dubai, we went to all the tier 1 tourist spots you can imagine ^^.

We booked an appartement in a hotel at Deira District. Deira is the true heart of Dubai - just near the creek and the spice- and gold-souk. If you ever go to Dubai - make sure you book your hotel around this area.

Here you can see a glimpse of the market in down town Deira. You should not miss out on going to the spice souk and get saffron. Saffron is imported from Iran and is sold at quite a good rate in Dubai. You need to "deal" with the traders - buying more will obviously net you a better price. Oh - and ask for "Saffron Number 1" - the top quality. There shall be no yellow parts - only dark red strings.

In order to cross over to the other riverbank of the creek, you could take a bridge. Or - you could take those wonderful little water taxis that exists since who-knows-for-how-long. Do yourself a favour and join the locals as they cross the creek.

At the other side of the creek you will find the Museum of Dubai and other attractions.

Not across the river - but a bit farther to the south you can find the "Ibn Battuta Mall". Now, there are many malls in Dubai - most of them look the same and you always get lost in there ok? And if you ask for the way - you will get any response but not the one you need. So - instead of going to the malls where everybody goes - you do the smart thing and go to the Ibn Battuta Mall. You will not regret it!

What you would regret however is, if you would go to Dubai during "Ramadan". You see - during Ramadan there is no food / drinks available during the day. And when you are lucky (as we were) and Ramadan is in summer - well - hooray! So, Starbucks was closed and every other restaurant, take away etc. as well. You do not want to be in an arabic country during Ramadan. Really.

Back to the mall: It is a medium sized themed mall. Every wing has another country or region as theme. In the Center you will find a beautiful hall (see above) which houses a - Starbucks"? Really? Well, it's Dubai after all - expect "Arabia a la Disney". But the work they put only into this part of the mall is amazing.

Yes - I know of the working conditions at the Emirates and I clearly deplore. But that doesn't mean that the work itself is not of great value.

Back on topic: Of course we had to go to Burj Khalifa. The view from there is amazing! If you plan to visit, do yourself a favour and book your tickets via internet prior arrival. You will get access at a lower price and you do not have to queue.

Last but not least we had our mandatory "Desert Trip". They fetch you around 15:00 at the hotel and drive you outside of Dubai to the desert. After quite a fun ride through the dunes with the SUV (fun for me and my son, the wife and daughter were less impressed - chikin' out ^^).

After some up's and downs and sliding here and oh look we can jump over that one too we finally arrived at the camp where we had dinner and a show.

Now, remember - it was June. So - in June the desert is at around cosy 49 degrees (in Dubai it's never 50 degrees as if it would be 50 degrees the workers would get a day off - so it's always max 49 degrees).

I was quite surprised to see that we could manage the heat quite well. Maybe because the car had a good Aircondition. Who knows...

Dinner was great and I wanted to have a shisha (hubbli babbli or water pipe) after dinner. But the time was too short (damn it ffs I really looked forward to that strawberry taste shisha ^^) we had to go back.

And that was it! After another 6 hours of flight to Zurich we immigrated (well - the wife and kids - I basically returned) to Switzerland smoothly. Because we prepared all the documents beforehand. Many documents. For months. But it paid off!

Switzerland - here we come!

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