Blogs from United Arab Emirates, Middle East - page 23

December 11 2015 Sailin into the gulf of Oman to the straight of Hermuz passing several tankers of oil. Oman produces more than 5% of the worlds oil. Sailing all night a south westerly route to Dubai. We continued in the Persian Gulf in a South Easterly route viewing numerous oil platforms. The Persian Gulf covers 233,000 kms. Viewing the Island of Palm Deira from the ship, we now leave for the amazing downtown of sky scrape f buildings and the artificial Palm Islands. The Old part of town goes back centuries with the small population that survived on the small population that lived on the coastline, living by means of trade in spices and fruits. Todays city 10-15 years old and magnificent. they produce their water from the sea 3.5 million gallons per day to ... read more

Geo: 24.4764, 54.3705En Abu Dhabi tomamos el tour de la mezquita, de hecho la Gran Mezquita Sheik Zayed, la sexta más grande del mundo. En esta mezquita tiene un puesto de seguridad con rayos x y todo, con entrada separada para hombres y mujeres. Cuando dicen Gran Mezquita no se andan con cuentos tiene una capacidad para 40000 personas, aunque 30000 van en el patio exterior. Luego recorrimos la zona nice de Al Bateen, y visitamos la Heritage Village, domde hicimos algunas compras en el souq. Al regresar morimos tras la comida.... read more

Our usual airline of choice (Korean Air) would have had us leaving Brisbane at the civilised time of 8:30am. Alas, not this time. We chose to fly Emirates, which had the unfortunate departure time of 2:30am. We were in for a long Sunday – 33 hours to be exact! Thankfully, check-in at Brisbane Airport was a breeze (not too many queues at that hour) and we were on our way. While I opted for a last minute kip on the comfy lounges, Kohen spotted our pilots and had a chat to them. To his delight, they offered for him to visit the cockpit once we were aboard. We had no sooner boarded, found our seats and dumped our gear before a hostess ushered us up to the pointy end of the plane. Kohen had a blast ... read more

General info: Currency: UAE Dirham Cost of Living: 500ml bottle of water 1Dh, Pack of arabic bread 2Dh, Meal in Dubai Marina 40Dh. Dubai is mix of nationalities, religions and cultures. Local authorities have high ambitions and never stop on expanding. The biggest shopping Mall- Dubai Mall, The tallest building in the world- Burj Khalifa, The most expensive hotel- Burj Al Arab, The biggest fleet of the biggest aircrafts- A380 in the best Airline- Emirates, are just begining of long list :) Architecture here is really immpresive, specially along Sheikh Zayed Road and Dubai Marina. There is also a lot of beautfil beaches, deserts where you can enjoy Safari and old district Deira with restaurants and souks along Creek river, where the boat ride cost you only 1 dirham. Local cuisine is first of all halal. ... read more

Geo: 25.27, 55.33Breakfast in the Colonnade, then waiting in Seabourn square until the ship was ready for folks to disembark. Said good-bye to a few people we had met on board and waited with Marilynn and Mike as the ship was readied to disembark the passengers for the last time. When our group was called, we left the ship with a pair of bright pink landing cards for the United Arab Emirates and instructions for where to find our luggage. The guide was waiting for us with a personalized sign when we emerged from the terminal. He was smiling and energetic and took us right to the car with our driver for the morning. Before leaving home, our travel agent arranged for someone to pick us up, take us on a tour of old Dubai, and ... read more