Blogs from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Middle East - page 3

Geo: 24.4667, 54.3667... 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

Today, we have breakfast in the Emirates Palace. This is another 7 star hotel, so it is nice to go in and have another look around. The coffee and cakes we had were all sprinkled with real edible gold. Although it was not cheap, it made us feel kind of special. We had a cappuccino each and then a blueberry cheesecake and a mango cake that we shared between us. Both were truly delicious. We were then able to have a completely unhindered walk around the hotel and take in all the gold around. There is a serious amount of gold on display everywhere. Staying here is definitely out of our budget, but it is nice to have a good mooch around to see how the rich and famous live. Back at the Southern Sun Hotel, ... read more

At lunchtime today, we headed to Galleria Mall which is on Al Maryah Island. It is just round the back of our hotel, but after getting lost a couple of times (again) it took us a good 30 minutes to get there. The Mall is a bit too high end for our tastes, but some of the food outlets looked just up our street. We may have a return visit here for dinner before we leave Abu Dhabi. As we are really early, we head to Cafe Nero first for coffees and a slice of their red velvet cake to share. At 3.00pm, we go to the 5 star Rosewood Hotel which is joined to the Mall. We have a lavish afternoon tea booked here. This is in memory of George’s mother who passed away last ... read more