Blogs from United Arab Emirates, Middle East - page 151

Well today we finally managed to go up in the hot air balloon at Ibn Battuta Mall. You may remember that about a month ago the first attempt ended in tears with the lady telling us that it was too hot to flyy. Well we found out the reason behind that comment (we think). The balloon is helium and if it is too hot outside then the balloon can't rise. Anyway the view from the balloon was pretty darn cool. We did it at nightime and could see the construction on the palm all lit up. It would be nice to do it again during the day time in the winter and see everything again. A few other random photos that I have managed to pick up are of the most enormous queue of workers outside ... read more

I've briefly mentioned the state of the traffic in Dubai a couple of times, it is horrendous on a global scale. It's up there with London, Rome and Athens except it seems worse in Dubai because there is no excuse. The likes of London are old, sprawling cities, grown from small settlements and organically expanded over the centuries with streets never designed to have hundreds and thousands of cars, trucks and buses clogging their narrow byways. Dubai on the other hand has had a clean slate to start with. 60 years ago while we we rectifying the modifications made to London by the Luftwaffe, Dubai had little more than creek-side village and miles of bugger all apart from sand. Now, as well from the world's tallest building and the world's mentalist housing estates they've jumped right ... read more

There is a few ways to describe the Emirates. Can be Arab Disney, the new Las Vegas, or anything else that would indicate a place with lots of money invested to create an artificial environment. I'm not saying it's not beautiful, is only artificial!! After getting lots of trouble to get the visa, we discovered that the incredible advanced E-visa could be only used at the airport. This made us take a plane to cover a distance under 300 km from Muscat to Dubai. I love technology, but sometimes.... Our stay in the Emirates was basically in Abu Dhabi, sitting on the Fullers kitchen chatting the hole day over a beer or a glass of wine and cheese (How much we missed this simple things! Thanks Nikita and family for the great time). The few escapes ... read more

We went out to Festival City today and had a bit of a shop at Ikea. Not the most interesting thing I know but the interesting thing is that I finally managed to get a photo of myself with Modhesh. I tried to get a photo of Jeremy with Modhesh, but he flatly refused. So it was left to be a photo of me with Modhesh. We had to try twice as the first time I was snaked by a three year and his mother! Festival City mall is pretty amazing. Most of the shops aren't open yet but when they are this will be one of the places to shop. The have a lovely array of water features and fountains and on saturday they actually had a concert pionist playing outside Costa Coffee. Other random ... read more

Don't you just hate it when something comes to an end?! Yes, I'm back and believe it or not but it was me who dragged that sun over here! Anyways, I'm back in London and found myself straight in the middle of a whirlwind - it couldn't be any other way, could it? Flat hunting, revising for the approaching cima course, catching up with friends - that's already quite busy and I want it to be over! A new job is stressful enough, at least I deserve a place to live, right? OK, before I get on a rant, let me tell you about my last stop on the way here: Dubai. You know how people say Dubai is a building site? Well, IT IS one! You have to admire the Arabic entrepreneurship: all that advertising ... read more