The United Arab Emirates are said to be moving ahead as they are attempting to stand still. That is Dubai in a nutshell. This Las Vegas on steroids has the biggest, newest, flashiest of everything except for the dancing showgirls. As we approached Port Rashid we could see the tall buildings glowing in the early light of sunrise. The iconic Burj Al Arab, which is modeled after the sail of a dhow, is purportedly the only seven star hotel in the world. The Burj Dubai, the tallest building on earth, is nearing completion. The three Palm developments are manmade islands rising [View Full Entry]

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Day 2 - Wednesday, April 2 2008 Immersion suits are fun. If they had a sheep-skin outer covering I’d bring one home for Bob, knowing Aberdonians would find that completely irresistible. They look like the kind of blow-up girlfriend he’s always fancied, except in pre-inflation mode and much better-looking than his usual live selections. The difference with an immersion suit is that it’s not inflatable. You have to climb inside and then it adapts to the contours of the wearer. It’s like a one-piece frogman’s outfit with a big zip-up shawl collar that you pull [View Full Entry]

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Salalah, Oman Sultanate Oman is located northeast of Yemen and south of Saudi Arabia and U.A.E. Its shores are on the Arabian Sea and go north toward the Persian Gulf, but end before the Straits of Hormuz, at the U.A.E. border. Evidence shows settlement back 5,000 years, but until merchants began to sell frankincense, it was a relatively isolated country. Frankincense was thought to have divine curative powers and was widely sought after during the time of Christ, and was more precious than gold because it was only found here. It is a resin derived from the scraggly Boswellia tree, and [View Full Entry]

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We've got some work over in Oman and I needed to see the client on site as well as our agent in Muscat so I had a bit of a road trip on my hands. It's only about 210km from Abu Dhabi to the Oman border just past Al Ain, and then head south east another 130 to the town of Ibri. Once there you have to head West for another 130km to the Safah Oil Field. Due to security reasons you are not allowed to take any photos, in fact I'm not even supposed to describe the scenery, so I'm [View Full Entry]

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The Sultanate of Oman,is in my opinion,the jewel of Arabia and a perfect tonic to escape the cold wet European winter for a while. I found this beautiful country to be a five-star experience in a region sadly dominated for so long by violence and intolerance. It has been ruled by the same family for over 250 years and is a glimpse into an old kingdom as it once was before the wider region discovered oil riches and was developed out of all recognition. Thankfully Oman is a total contrast to it's brash big brother next door, Dubai, the current infashion [View Full Entry]

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I had the pleasure this week of heading over to Oman to visit our offices over there. In particular I was there to deliver sustainability training to our staff over there. And luckily while I was there I was taken out onto one of our sites out there. The Oman Botanic Gardens site. [View Full Entry]

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Well Oman this time around. About four hours drive with a lot of stops for photos. Hotel was good and so were the people. Did a dhow tour, lil bit of trekking and getting wet in the rain. Saw lots of dolphins swimmin around, birds walkin around and people fooling around. It was freezing cold though and it was raining cats and dogs. We were waiting with our cameras for a bit of sunshine to get some good shots!! It kinda paid off, all the slogging in the mud and gettin drenched. BTW no booze in Oman so please be [View Full Entry]

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This had to be one of our most boring days on the road so far. We set off from Sur early in the morning again, after a lovely complimentary breakfast at the hotel. Mum and dad spied some packed lunches being made and decided that it would be a great idea to get some of those for the trip as we weren’t so sure how long we would be on the road today. However I declined the honour of one of these lunches, quite rightly assuming that it wouldn’t really be to my liking. Our travels today took us only on [View Full Entry]

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Well today was a HUGE day. We got started really early as we couldn’t wait to get out of the horrible hotel that we were staying in. I have to say that it was probably the worst hotel that I have ever stayed in (and I have stayed in plenty), in terms of the overall impression of the place. So if you are ever in Muscat STAY AWAY from the Majan Continental Hotel. Go somewhere else. So we were all up nice and early (5:30am for Chelle and a little earlier for the elder Ade’s) and managed to get out of [View Full Entry]

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Today we hopped back into the car to visit some of the beaches near to Muscat. In particular we were heading towards Yiti and As Sifah. The route we needed to take took us very close to Muttrah where we were yesterday. After navigating our way through the Muscat road system we found ourselves at the start of the route. For some reason I had thought that the start of the route would be a peaceful little turn off, something akin to a turnoff to a beach in Christchurch. However as a complete contradiction the start of the route actually turned [View Full Entry]

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