We were allowed to have a sleep in this morning. Delicious. We didn’t have to get going until 10am this morning. So mum and dad got me out of the room at 7:15am to have breakfast. I still can’t work out how this is a sleep in. Breakfast was another interesting array of food. We had cucumber, tomatoes, cheese, bread and boiled eggs and omelettes. After breakfast we took a brief stroll down the corniche of Tartus. The cornniche of Tartus wasn’t exactly a glory spot. They are in the process of constructing a series of breakwaters and mini ports around [View Full Entry]

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Well this morning’s shower in Palmyra was very interesting. I couldn’t get the water to turn on first of all, and bearing in mind that this is meant to be a 5 star hotel one would expect that the water would turn on. Of course it is the low season and we were the only guests in the hotel so maybe they haven’t been keeping the maintenance up. When I finally managed to coax some water out of the shower nozzle, then wall started making this noise like a sub machine gun, and then shower nozzle started jumping and leaping around. [View Full Entry]

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Day 3 of the trip was cool. Literally. It is freezing here. So unbelievably cold. I can’t believe how cold it has been here. Much colder than home in NZ. Day 3 saw us get up in Damascus bright and early. Mum and Dad were up at 6:30am for breakfast at the restaurant. I managed to get down there for 7:00am. Abdul picked us up at 8:00am and off we set for Palmyra. The first stop for the day was actually at Palmyra. Just before lunch we went to see some old tombs. In particular we saw the tomb towers and [View Full Entry]

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Our day started bright and early at 7:30am in the Safran restaurant where mum proceeded to eat the entire buffet. The breakfast was lovely however so I couldn’t really blame her. Abdul met us in the reception of the hotel at 9:30am and we wandered off to start our city tour of Damascus. First stop was the museum were we got to freeze our little fingers and toes off. Mum made the comment that museums are always freezing and you know what, she is right. What is it about museums. Why do they always have to be so cold. Is there [View Full Entry]

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Well the xmas trip Syria didn’t start brilliantly. The limousine from Emirates arrived at 4:45am! That seemed frightfully early at the time. Because I was flying Emirates I got to go to the new terminal 3. However my small hitch in the joy of this new terminal was that my brilliant little bright pink beneton carry on bag, that has gone so many places with me, broke its handle…… again. This it the extendable handle that allows you to wheel it through airports etc and is also the handle that I broke in Boston and that Dave had spent an hour [View Full Entry]

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We went to the Mall of the Emirates yesterday to do some stuff and they had the Dubai regional contest of the Red Bull Art of Can exhibition. Know I went to this in Chicago last year and it was absolutely amazing! The winning entry was a dragon (which is probably why I liked it). However these entries were not really as good. There was an enormous scuplture of the Burj Al Arab however which was interesting. [View Full Entry]

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We finally went to see the flamingoes again yesterday. We made an attempt a very long time ago, but went on a Friday so it was shut (and we didn't realise that it was actually open at other times as the nice friendly sign giving you the opening times was actually not around.) But our Dubai guru Leanne told us that it was open during the week and on Saturdays (apparently it just isn't open on Fridays) we decided to go again and take another look. The reserve is actually pretty cool and is right in the heart of town. It [View Full Entry]

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Well the new Dubai Mall has opened and it is really rather cool. I went there for a weeny visit with ma and pa when they were in town, and then again yesterday with Mr David. The aquarium that they have there is stunning. It is 3 storeys high and probably 100m long and just filled with all the coolest fishes you ever did see. The mall itself is collosal with so many shops in it! However at present most of the shops are still not open. But when they are......watch out credit cards. Did I mention that I have had [View Full Entry]

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The Green Build Conference was held in Boston this year. The exhibition hall this year was amazing. There were so many stalls, and all of them were in relation to sustainability. Amazing! This year arch Bishop Desmond Tutu was the key note speaker who opened the conference. And he was hilarious! A real crack up. It was a truely fabulous speech that he gave which had the entire audience in stitches at times. [View Full Entry]

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Well after a quite frankly painful flight on United Airlines for 15 hours, a 2 hour queue through US Immigration that made me miss my next flight, and then a second plane ride on a plane that was smaller than the flight we took to Zanzibar I finally arrived in Boston. I was so exhausted by the time I got to Boston that even though it was only 1pm in the afternoon that I crawled into bed and didn't wake up again (except for a brief moment at 1am) until 4am! The company has put us all up at the Intercontinental, [View Full Entry]

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