Blogs from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Middle East - page 116

I arrived here @ 2am on the 23rd and it is truly a new world. After the age and stability that Istanbul represents Dubai is a city in motion...outward and upward. The population is growing everyday and the Shiek and administration of the emirate are planning for the future after oil .Tourism is the second largest industry and they are developping it rapidly. There is construction going on everywhere .Offices ,apartments ,hotels ,resorts each more spectacular than those built previously...last month. Today we attended a special Robbie Burns day meal and celebration at a friend of Lesley's. Their apartment ,on the 28th floor with an incredible view of the Persian Gulf 'is considered old . It was built in 2001! Lesley has a series of activities planned while I am here and I am looking forward ... read more

Arrived in Dubai at about 6:30am local time. Managed to overcome the shock I had at Brisbane airport... of being slugged just over 400 AUD for excess luggage. Twelve kilos over, mind you. Bloody heck. I'm taking up Mum's suggestion of looking into posting a few things over to the UK, because surely that'll have to be cheaper than paying the same again for the remainder of the flight. Crikey. The flight was good. Not too much turbulence, and there was enough to do to keep entertained. It was so weird to be flying over and out of Australia. Every now and again, I could see towns below, and tried to figure out which one it might be. Saw a few thunderstorms... flew through at least one. It was even more of a strange sensation flying ... read more

The Tricky Path to Dubai Traveling is Never Easy Today we left Germany, and Europe as a whole, for the Middle East. Our final destination for the day was the Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The UAE is one of the most liberal countries in the Middle East and therefore is very accepting of travelers from other cultures. Dubai has capitalized on this openness and has become one of the world’s top tourist destinations. This city, directly located on the Gulf, is rapidly building resorts and luxury style houses which attract the world’s rich and famous. We packed all of our stuff, mailed some postcards, and headed for the airport. Since we were staying close to the train station, the easiest way to the airport was the S-bahn underground. While we had some ... read more

So here we are,8 months of saving,working in a no hope job,no social life, all for this, to be back travelling again. I said my farewells which were quite strange when your saying "see you in 2 years" and 6 hours later im in my first port of call Dubai. Strangely I was devoid of emotion In the lead up,my brain feels dead.Wether it was the drinking and no sleep,stress and jetlag leading up to getting there or what I dunno ,but As soon as I landed I expected a wave of emotion and excitement to hit me "FREEDOM!!" but it never happened. I'd arranged to stay at my friends aunties who despite never really meeting me before treated me like gold. We started off with getting lost!! which was last thing I needed due to ... read more

Whenever we had an icy cold shower or no shower at all, or got leg cramps from using squat toilets, James and I would say just one word: ‘Jumeirah’. The hotel was intended to be our little slice of luxury on this trip. It turned out to be a massive wedge of indulgence! We left our hostel and headed for the airport (reason: free pickup by the hotel only available from the airport, and it was cheaper to get a taxi to the airport than to the hotel). Once there we met our driver who loaded our gear into our transfer car, a top of the line Mercedes van. We sat quite happily on our leather seats, adjusted our headrests and started reading the complimentary newspapers. It took us about 30 minutes to get to our ... read more