Blogs from United Arab Emirates, Middle East - page 16

Geo: 25.27, 55.33... read more

Days 3 - 5 of 165 After the joys of travel to Abu Dhabi we allowed ourselves a small nightcap in the hotel's top floor bar before a good night's sleep. Well, we say 'bar' but it was more reminiscent of the type of pick up joint we both imagine you get in the back streets of the Philippines. So after a small Fosters and a lemonade - £9! - we turned in. Abu Dhabi, one of the United Arab Emirates, is a very wealthy place, not surprisingly given the petroleum reserves. AD has 95% of the UAE's oil and 92% of its gas. This has clearly been substantially spent on infrastructure, new skyscrapers, roads etc. The main town is crosshatched by 8 lane highways. The default language, at least in the presence of non AD's, ... read more

Campervan woes? Fellow postees on TripAdvisor, especially those in Australia, are constantly warning against the supposed 'romantic ' notion of freedom campervanning along Oz's highways. Citing excessive distances, costs, absence of actual free camping, unpleasantness of living in a tin can in the heat and the rain, unreliability and especially dodgy van hire companies. So, imagine our concerns when a week before we left we received an email from the campervan middleman agents saying that our van wouldn't be available until 27 Oct, 2 days later than our booking for 2 5 Oct. There have been great storms in southern Aus - Victoria, NSW, ACT - the worst for 50 years, with parts of the Great Ocean Road blocked by landslides, and our van has been relocated for safety . Our plans for the first 2 ... read more

Overnight, Theresa has come down with the same as George has had for the last couple of days. As tomorrow is a long travelling day, we decided to cancel our planned visit to the Green Planet and concentrate on some relaxation and slow packing. At lunch time, we got the metro and bus and went to Ravi´s in Satwa. We visited a Ravi´s restaurant whilst in Malaysia last year and had hoped we would get to visit here during this holiday. We have really been looking forward to this as we know maximum quality is assured. The taste buds were destined to be left very much positively tingling. Ravi´s is a typical localised Indian restaurant and has a good reputation in Dubai with both visitors and locals alike. The food was all freshly cooked and very ... read more

Today is the start of another weekend, so we have another brunch booked. This time we are at the Glasshouse in the Hilton on the Creek. It’s an intense Mediterranean themed meal. The map shows the metro station is close by to the hotel, so we are getting off at Union Station where we will start our walk in the direction of the Hilton. Unfortunately, it looks like the map is not quite right, and we start off heading in the wrong direction. After stopping at the Radisson and the Sheraton for directions, we eventually make it to the Hilton. Being outside walking for a prolonged period of time at lunchtime was not on our agenda for today so we arrive at the hotel rather hot and bothered. At least they have air conditioning to help ... read more