Blogs from United Arab Emirates, Middle East - page 22

We left our home in North Cowton in Yorkshire excited as we started our long journey to Perth, Australia. The sun was shining but we soon encountered storm Imogen with gale force winds and heavy rain on our train journey to Manchester Airport. Our Etihad flight from Manchester to Abu Dhabi was full and our Etihad experience was not very good. The seats were comfortable but overall the passenger space was cramped with limited leg room and width. After an early morning next day arrival in Abu Dhabi we took a 30 minute taxi drive to The Premier Inn and were very pleased to be given an early check in at 9am! After a rest and freshen up we went to visit the Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque, one of the worlds largest mosques and a very ... read more

Friday 15 January: at sea. Basically nothing to report except eating and watching the world go by. We departed Port Qaboos Muscat on the Thursday evening and sailed, very slowly through the night north towards the Strait of Homuz before entering the Arabian Gulf and sailing on to Abu Dhabi. The first land we saw before Abu Dhabi was when we passed between some islands just off the tip of the Musandam Peninsula: and even then it was so hazy as to make it difficult to figure out where we were. However, when we turned parallel with the Oman coast the coastline was sufficiently clear for me to recognise the cliffs near Bukha where I had driven to from Khasab three days previously. Saturday 16th January. We docked at Port Zayed in Abu Dhabi around 7.30am ... read more

Geo: 25.27, 55.33Aquí usamos también el Hop on Hop off, primero nos llevó al Dubai Mall, ahí tomamos otra línea para ir al Mall of the Emirates. Ahí estuvimos hasta las 3, para luego ir al Dubai Mall donde compramos los boletos para el lunes ver The Force Awakens y de regreso al barco. Tomamos taxi para ir del puerto al hotel, costó 26.5Dhs salir del puerto, y otros 5Dhs llegar al hotel. Luego tomamos el metro para ir al Dubai Mall y sucedió "El Incidente". Vimos Star Wars en la sala Platinum y regresamos al hotel.Recorrimos una parte de Dubai en camión, y fuimos al Dubai Mall.Fuimos al Marina Mall, bit disappointing. Preparar maletas de regreso.... read more

This log is posted out of chronological order. The dilemma was, Dubai or not Dubai, it was only an hour and a half away and taxis here are cheap, is it worth going or not? The trouble was someone had told me that it was the place to go for a little shopping - added to which a fellow traveller had recommended a place to us. My mother's gene kicked in and I was hooked but I have been left feeling guilty about wasting the time on a little retail rather than a Dubai experience. Oh well perhaps another time and we did at least see Dubai from the taxi! Determined not to miss the Grand Mosque experience in Abu Dhabi, we stopped off on the way home and then remember that my naked shoulders and ... read more

Prosecco please I replied when asked if I would like a drink. Sorry Madam we only have champagne! This is so bloody posh, I feel like a gatecrasher at a strangers party. I wonder if everyone around me travels like this all of the time? I bet they know how to get the headphones working. As it happens, even in business class you sometimes get duff headphones but they are soon replaced. If we hadn't given ourselves away as first timers already we soon did as Martin tried out every position on the seat, forwards, backwards, tilted slightly, completely and then proceeded to press the privacy button to move a screen between us up and down - seriously the kids would have played less! Eventually he settles down and we both enjoy a film and dinner ... read more