Blogs from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Middle East - page 91

I arrived in Dubai at 11:45pm with the temperature being a balmy 39 degrees Celsius.... Thank goodness for air conditioning! I did not do much in terms of touristy stuff in Dubai - lots of sleeping, lots of catching up on world news (I actually had a TV in my room) and quite a bit of just wandering the streets. It took some time to re-adjust to being back in a Muslim country after so long in Western Europe but I can honestly say I liked the place more with each hour I was there - apart from the 45 degree temperatures during the day. I had a look at 'the' hotel (did not venture in), walked along the beach there, got a tour of the adjoining hotel by a young Indian engineer that I met ... read more

So we managed to board our plan in Calgary to London Heathrow on Thursday with no liquids (shampoos, gels, toothpaste, bottled water) in our hand luggage due to heightened security measures. It was quite the last mintue reshuffle in order to minimize our hand luggage. Surprisingly there were no line ups in Calgary and our trek had begun. We were retrieved by our uncle and cousins in London and arrived at home to see the rest of our family. Our stopover was only scheduled for 6 hours until we departed to the UAE (Dubai). We knew that flying out of Heathrow the day after this occurence would be some kind of mission. The Emirates check in line took over 1.5 hours and security another hour. There were roughly 600 people ahead of us in line. We ... read more

Ski Dubai were holding a five day freestyle course and we were lucky enough to have two professional snowboarders from Austria come out to give us instruction. They were Gigi Ruf and Sani Alibabic and both are sponsored by Burton. The first two days of our course was with the ski dubai instructors learning how to ride rainbow rails, boxes and tabletops. The next two days we had instruction from Gigi and Sani. We had about eight people in our group some of whom lived in Dubai and others who were living overseas. By the forth day every single one of us had injuries. I had twisted my knee, my elbow, bruised my coxic and to top it off I went over a tabletop and completely lost it and landed on my face and outstretched hand. ... read more

After 3 weeks in India, we were warmly welcomed by Dubai...and I do mean that literally...temperatures of 45C and higher! Though despite the heat, we were openly ready for clean bathrooms, orderly queues, and haggle-free shopping! You know you are a backpacker when... -You forget what it is like to visit a proper shopping mall. -You get extremely excited to work out at a gym (a largely foreign word to us these days). -Family or friends treating you to a nice, adult-like meal nearly brings a tear to your eye. (Thank you Uncle Talal and Auntie Jenni!) Maybe it was the euphoric feeling of being in the land of the "Palms," and our invitation to cocktail at the world's only 7-star Hotel that prompted us to toss out our backpacker rags and hit the Dubai shopping ... read more

After 8 very intensive weeks of training at Emirates Aviation College, I am now a fully certified Grade II Flight Attendant. Not only was I trained in the importance of proper grooming and how to apply red lipstick, but I can now restrain a passenger, save a life, deliver a baby, respond to a crisis, and of course... serve tea and coffee! I have thoroughly enjoyed learning new skills and practicing old ones, and have been very impressed with the level of responsibility the company places in us. When we are flying we have to be prepared for any situation as ultimately everyone’s safety and comfort is our priority. I graduated on July 19th, along with 80 other new Flight Attendants, most often referred to as 'Cabin Crew'. If you've followed the news over the last ... read more