Blogs from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Middle East - page 125

There seems to be a mosque behind every hotel and hostel so again no need for my $2 Chinese alarm clock this morning. Breakfast was typically Middle Eastern, flat bread, hommus, tea, cheese triangles and jam, quite satisfying really. Then it was pack up, check out and head for the bus stop out the front. It was hot damn hot and I was sweating buckets long before the bus arrived, a friendly bloke from Gujarat (India) missed a couple of his own buses while he waited to make sure I caught the right one. It was of course packed with Indian expats and space was limited, with a huge pack on my back but eventually I took up a couple of seats for the trip into Deira. It was quite long and I saw a fair ... read more

Arrived into Dubai last night about 1am. They had a little trouble with our (Jen's bag), we waited over an hour for it to arrive. It was the last article of luggage off of the plane. Oh well, the flight over was amazing. It lasted a little over 6 hours. We got to drink whatever and whenever we wanted. He had a four course meal. We chose what movies that we wanted to watch from our own personal TV sets (or Sports events, or World News, or TV, or Video games) imbedded in the seats infront of us. We each watched two movies and read the rest of the way. The flight only felt like one or two hours, it went by so fast. We arrived, hopped on a bus and went straight to the hotel. ... read more

Dubai... Home to the world's only 7* hotel, an ever-increasing number of skyscrapers, and what must surely be the only ski-slope in the desert! These attractions will soon be joined by the world's tallest building, the world's largest mall, and the world's first underwater hotel. From start to finish, it is clear that Dubai is a city of extremes. The discovery of oil in the 1960s has caused a transformation to what must surely be one of the most modern cities on the planet. We arrived here on Saturday evening on a Singapore Airlines flight from Istanbul. After clearing customs and finding our luggage, we took a taxi to the Panorama Deira, where we were allocated a room which was bigger and nicer than we had dared to hope for. Unfortunately, as soon as we switched ... read more

As I disembark from the aircraft, I feel like an ice cream cone quickly melting in the intense heat - and this is at twelve o'clock midnight without the sun shining! Arriving from Amsterdam, where the temperature was minus 3 degrees celcius, and finally landing in Dubai where the sweltering heat is 30 degrees celcius on the midnight hour really shocked my body. Apparently it's not as hot right now as it can get from June through August. Nevertheless, I hop onto a taxi, which only cost 35Dhms ($10 Cdn) to my hotel. The first thoughts that came to my mind: Where are the Arab Emiraties? The population consists of an overwhelming majority of Indians, Pakistanis, Philipinos, Lebanese and of course, Europeans (not as many as the aforementioned nationalities though). I hired a private driver, who ... read more

Sand on the dunes slithers like smooth silk...until it gets in your eyeballs! Earlier, we studiously applied suncreen (SPF 30) from head to toe, only to discover later on that we would become human sheets of sandpaper. The previous days desert safaris had been cancelled due to sandstorms. The sand blows so strongly that trucks have difficulty navigating the roads...and nevermind the dunes. The sand shifts in the dunes so you cannot stop and admire the view. If you do...which we did... you must be extremely careful to pay attention to the dunes shifting. I was taking video and all of a sudden I felt the truck creeping closer to me. But...we hadn't been briefed about the shifting...so I thought I was imagining it...then full force, the truck was headed right for me...think Toyota Land Cruiser ... read more