Blogs from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Middle East - page 19

Desperate now for both food and replenishment of our water we wondered what to do. Once more we looked at the map and saw a station called 'Dubai Mall'. We hadn't particularly wanted to enter one of the Temples of Consumerism so early in the day but we didn't really have a choice as there was nowhere else on the map we could rely upon meeting our needs. We emerged from the metro about 15 stations later and the first thing we noticed was that the people around us were a much more diverse mixture. Some people were even wearing quite liberal dress. We walked down an extremely long tube which offered us views of the city. We were walking for about quarter of an hour before we saw our first shop. It was just after ... read more

Spent the night at the Novotel St Kilda. Got about 4 or 5 hours sleep. Woke up and got on phone to travel agent. She has the day off so Kelly is the poor bunny to get my tale of woe. Connections to Hvar all gone. Finally decide to cancel that part altogether. We do our own organised cancellations while Kelly tries to get us to Dubrovnik where our first tour starts from. Never knew it could be so hard to get somewhere in Europe. Now I know. On the bus at 1100 back to Tulla for a re-scheduled flight at 1500. Lots of chatter on the bus about flights and also the untimely murder of PHIL Walsh (football coach for those who don't know his name). Kelly rings and tells us we now have a ... read more

We're very happy that our flight today was scheduled for a very civilised 1400 hours. I'm sure that Kath and Albert were also relieved that they didn't have to get up at a ridiculous hour to drive their house guests to Manchester Airport! After the beautiful weather yesterday, today dawned wet and overcast which made it easier to be leaving ... even though it was to head back home to winter in Melbourne. As always Bernie wanted to be at the airport nice and early so Kath and Albert dropped us off just before 11.00am. There is a really handy undercover short-term drop-off area which was a blessing with the wet weather. We unloaded quickly, said our farewells to Kath and Albert and then towed our bags into the terminal. We checked in and then had ... read more

I am currently moving out of my apartment and still suffering from jet lag, but I had to go see Addi one last time before he returns to Iceland. So, Friday morning, I took a flight to Dubai for just the day. I met him and some other friends for brunch at Prime 68 - a restaurant on the 68th floor of one of my favorite buildings in Dubai - JW Marriott Marquis. It is currently the tallest hotel in the world (as a building designated solely as a hotel) but will soon be surpassed by a hotel in Mecca. Anyway, I always loved the architecture of this building - you can probably remember back to one of my very early blogs when I discuss it, well before it was open. "It" being two towers, one ... read more

DUBAI AND THE UAE While living and working in Kuwait I have had the opportunity to travel to Dubai and the rest of the UAE on several occasions. I usually rent a Harley and ride thru the emirates. In fact if you go to YouTube and search (henry rides a Harley in Dubai.) you will see a very well made video of me riding that a friend of mine who owns a touring company made. I do have several videos that I did but not near as good as his. This blog will include stuff that I did while on all the trips to the UAE. The first trip to Dubai was specifically for a 2-day motorcycle ride. I got into Dubai late in the afternoon; I went straight to my hotel. I had asked several ... read more