Blogs from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Middle East - page 25

A bright early start saw us at the airport well in time for kick off and leaving the bright sunny shores of New Zealand for the eastern city of Dubai. As is usual with us, leaving home is never without its dramas be they small or large. This time we scored some very cheap duty free booze at DFS, one bottle of scotch I took with us for those little night caps so important on any trip, leaving the other three bottles (not all scotch by the way) to collect on our way home. Arriving for our short stopover in Melbourne the anal retentive Aussie customs would not let me take through my bottle as they said it was not in a sealed bag, duh, how daft are they, we were not even going in to ... read more

18/19thApril Dubai, UAE We had planned to do a city tour in the afternoon but it was the World Voyage Gala Dinner that evening (early). The dinner was at the Madinet Jumeirah in Dubai (next to the Burj Al Arab) and was for all world travellers about 500 of us. Dubai, another fastest growing city (so the blurb says), a real city of contrasts. Its evolution from a collection of Bedouin settlements around Dubai creek to a city of skyscrapers, Burj Khalifa is currently the tallest building in the world. Dubai is the second largest of the Emirates, but unlike the others is not over dependent on oil revenue. After the pearl industry collapsed, gold became a dominant influence (legal & illegal) with some countries. It has a huge re-export trade, a flourishing trade particularly with ... read more

Due to the long flight I had planned and my much needed real vacation time, I looked into flying Business Class... just on a whim. Lo and behold! I saw great deals on Emirates! Not only that, the deals were on the A380 - the largest passenger jet in the world! The price was just a little more than twice the price of Economy, so I went for it - 16 hour flight on Emirates in business? Yep - made total sense! (I've been unable to find the same deal for any time recently - I'd love to fly my parents in, but I can only splurge so much!) Can I just say - wow! Wow. Wow. WOW! Was it totally worth it! From beginning to end. I was able to check in pretty quickly and ... read more

A beautiful day in Dubai with 30 C temps and the warmest wind you will come across. The day was planned as a chill out ready for the next phase of the trip. After a leisurely breakfast we headed to the pool / beach for a relaxing few hours interspersed with the usual jogs, frisbee and swims. Another recent development is the kids announcing that they are off to the gym for a workout!!! As usual we were last out of the pool in the evening and then it was a rapid turnaround before heading into town for supper. We were picked up by Tim Bingham an old Air BP colleague of mine to go downtown to the Burj Khalifa area. There we met with his wife Norma for an amazing meal. This was Michele, Alex ... read more

Well folks, Thursday turned out to be so different to Wednesday. The sun shone all day, we started the day spending time by the pool, we dont do that for long but we need to make the most of this March sunshine. Quite a relaxing day, although I did have a drive out with Martyn and got to see some of the less attractive parts of Dubai, part of the industrial part, yes its full of warehouses. Later on we visited the new development down by the Marina, this area as only been open a month or so, as everything in Dubai its a fantastic development, the design of the buildings are incredible. After a lovely meal in a Italian/Chinese we walked round the Marina itself, a very busy place even at ten o clock at ... read more