Blogs from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Middle East - page 97

To be honest, I was dreading the flight. Previous to this, the longest I'd been on a plane was 2 hours. We had no problems at Brisbane airport and managed to get four seats between the three of us (thanks Les!). We watched the takeoff through a camera on the front of the plane, and then we were off to Singapore. I found out something important at this point: I can't sleep on planes. There's too much noise. A couple of movies and some Top Gear later, we landed in Singapore at 1am, local time. No hiccups through security, and we were on the plane again. After jumping through a few more timezones we landed in Dubai around 6am local time. We couldn't see much due to the heavy fog/haze, but the airport is HUGE. It ... read more

Yesterday the company that I work for held a community day. Community Day is where employees get out from behind their desks and go out into the community and volunteer their time for a good cause. The cause that we were involved in yesterday was a clean up of the Hatta Pools area. The arab culture over here in Dubai is rather different to that back home. They certainly do not subscribe to the 'be a tidy kiwi' attitude and it is really quite common to see them just throwing their rubbish away on the ground. So when they go out camping to places like the hattta pools they just leave all of their rubbish behind them when they leave. The place was just gross. We drove up there first thing in the morning and met ... read more

Well the girls and I tripped off to another spa on Firday to continue our spa tour of Dubai. This time we were visiting the Talise Spa at Madinet Jumeirah, courtesy of some Sirius Awards that I had earned through all the money that I had previously spent at Jumeirah restaurants and hotels. Our first impressions of the Spa were fantastic. The girls arrived there a little earlier than I did as they were shopping for the morning, but I had to go into the office to supervise the office refurbishment that I was undertaking on the weekend. The entrance to the spa is just lovely. It took a little bit too long to get through the welcome process at the spa, but the staff were very friendly and polite. After answering all the required questions ... read more

Mum and Dad headed over for a week!!! Was so excited for them to come and see where i'm living! Plus i'd saved some of the things to do in Dubai for their arrival! My auntie and Uncle were also over for 5 days- I was their tour guide!!!! Not going to write much about it as loads of photos that explain........................................ read more

In Germany they have the "Hitzefrei" - if the indoor temperature is over 32 degrees C then schools and offices close. In America they have "Snowdays", the same sort of deal only with a certain level of snow. In Dubai, if George Dubya Bush wants to drive through town, or if there is four inches of rain, you get the day off, even if you don't want it. On Monday, as the US President (and his entourage of 750 people) travelled from Abu Dhabi to Dubai, the Sheik Zayed Road, Garhoud Bridge and Maktoum Bridge were shut, as well as every road to and from them. This effectively shut down Dubai and the Northern Emirates. We had a few closures around Abu Dhabi but nothing too serious - well, as light-hearted as a Humvee with a ... read more