Blogs from Jebel Dhanna, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Middle East

Good Morning! I apologize for not writing sooner. There was an immensely long plane ride and then I found tourist stuff to do and a lot of sleeping. So, we arrive in Dubai, I got to see the Palm from the plane. It's even on google maps. the palm is a man made palm tree looking shaped beach here in Abu Dhabi. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/united-arab-emirates/dubai/images/marina-dubai$26294-21#content My mother and I checked into the hotel (around 16:40) and walked around to find a grocery store. They had mostly American food items and chips. It was cool seeing Doritos and "Cheez balls" written in Arabic. We had dinner at this little restaurant next to the hotel called Coco's, which turned out to have the entire menu of TGIFriday's. Fried green beans and all. * I must men... read more

Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. is the home of the 3rd largest mosque –the Grand Mosque – which took 12 years to build, has largest chandelier in the world weighing 9 tons with 1 million pieces of crystal, the largest single piece carpet in the world with a floral design to signify paradise, 41,000 people attend Friday prayer services, silver and gold inlays in opulence and Italian Moreno glass in the windows. While the Christian calendar has 365 days plus leap year the Islamic calendar is a lunar one with 354 days. The government has planted 100 million trees which are watered daily with recycled water. Day time temps range from 95 degrees in the Spring to 120 degrees in July and August in the shade. Gasoline is $1/gal. with no taxes. Heritage Village has recreation of an ... read more

First leg of our journey into the wide world is complete....and completed in Business Class style too! I don't think I have ever slept so well and for soooooooo long on long haul flight. I think I can safely say I won't be going back to cattle class....well I can dream anyway. The view from the plane window was amazing...sand as far as the eye can see with small patches of green scattered here and there. The houses looked like sand castles (from where I was sitting anyway) with power.... read more

Sunday 24 June, 2012 Milan to Hobart, via Abu Dhabi, UAE I was able to sleep in as I didn’t need to leave for the airport until 10.30 am, so a relaxed breakfast without rushing. It was good. Then full on again once at the airport – luggage drop – security checks – waiting for flights – and waiting some more. It was a good, easy 9-hour flight though, and not too cramped, I had two seats to myself, so I wasn’t forced to make conversation with anyone which I thought was a bonus and prayed the next sector from Abu Dhabi to Melbourne would be just as good! Once in Abu Dhabi though things changed. The connecting flight was late, so instead of waiting 2 ½ hours the wait dragged out ... read more

Happy Weekend! Hope you have some fun stuff planned for yourself! I had a great day (weekend here). I attended the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship and had the opportunity to watch both Rory McIlroy AND Tiger Woods in the same threesome. What are the odds of that? How lucky was I? We started off at 7:40 a.m. thinking we were gonna see Tiger, Rory and Luke tee off (so read the schedule online), but we get to the course only to find that they didn't tee-off until noon. Funny thing is Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer, and Lee Westwood were set to tee off at 7:50 a.m. so we decided to follow them for the first nine instead. Terri and I followed Sergio last year in Dubai, so that was a weird coincidence. Okay, I'll admit ... read more