The circle of life!

I have been back in the UAE for a few days now, and given enough time to recover from my jet lag, I already have a few stories. First off, I know I always complain about hot jet lag is a bitch, but it sooo is! I have woken up every day at 5am and today I had a 6 hour nap mid-day. Wtf. Hence why I am writing this blog at almost 1am.

I am back to the world of traffic accidents (saw two today), back to the world of hot (it's sooooo hot) and back to the world of black market exotic animals-kept as pets. Yes, that is normal in the UAE. Today I went to the vet to take my bunny in and whilst in the waiting room I look around to see a few Emiratis with their falcons. Falcons are very popular pets here and the vet's office even had a special astro-turf perch for them to set their falcons on while they paid. One guy also had a parrot, which he was just casually holding on his finger while waiting (like seriously, get a bird cage bud). The most jarring was when the examining room door opened and a young Emirati guy walked out being led by his lion on a chain. You did not read that wrong. This was all Nala, all the way (she was a girl- we asked). I had a small heart attack thinking "SHE'S GONNA EAT ME!!!" (please see the Lion King clip below to illustrate)

But really, the dude just lead his lion over toward the counter and it sat down like a dog. Just casually. It didn't seem fazed by any of us in the waiting room, nor did it seem to want to eat me or my cute little fluffy bunny. I think the guy kind of enjoyed my gaping mouth reaction, because he decided it was time to "play" and got the lion all riled up and on two legs bear (make that lion-)hugging him and biting at his legs. I really really wanted to ask for a picture of the lion, or of me with the lion but I was so dumbstruck I didn't do it. Luckily, the internets can provide us with almost anything nowadays. It looked something similar to this size wise and type:

So yeah. What you're thinking is totally true. This place is fucked up, yo.