Blogs from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Middle East - page 95

Well we have been having a lot of very heavy fog recently. I had to drive up to Abu Dhabi on Sunday and had to drive through this fog and it was actually quite scary. I even thought about stopping and turning back as the fog was so thick that the fog lights did nothing and you couldn't see anything 5 metres ahead of you. Well today everything went very wrong for people in Dubai and there was a major crash on Sheikh Zayed Road on the boundary of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Apparently over 200 cars were involved and about 20 of them were on fire, with 6 confirmed dead and 40 injured. Not a good day. It has also been the most bizarre day for me. I have had a formal grievance laid against ... read more

Ahoy hoy! Well aren't you all lucky. It has been less than 3 weeks since I did this last which is well outside my norm of about 3 months. The reason for it being a few things have occured that are worth mentioning and more so worth your time to read it. Okay, for the second time I went offroading with Johann but this time we went to a few sand dunes called "Big Red". These dunes are out the back of Dubai on the way to Oman and I think these dunes are considered some of the biggest in the UAE so I was looking forward to the challenge. The morning started well and continued for a good while until the navigation ability of the lead car (Johann) took us through some pretty soft sand ... read more

On route to Oz on Emirates EK424 - 26/02/2008 The flight with Emirates from Dubai was half full and we managed to get a little shut eye on the way, albeit intermittent whilst the stewardesses persisted on bringing out plastic inedible food every 10 minutes. So we were constantly awoken to the clanking and banging of trolleys bludgeoning there way through the narrow aisles of the aircraft. Didn’t even try to get an upgrade to Business class at check-in as we were already, disheveled from the one hour heated discussion with Ali Baba when trying to get the baggage checked in earlier. The problem was……..that we had been living in hotels for the last month or so, and had quite a bit of luggage, including documentation, clothes, some HIFI bits, and more of Ang's shoes…….. This ... read more

Dubai - 23/02/2008 Now been in Dubai for nearly a week……….. Apart from turning into cooked lobsters with high temperatures in excess of 78 degrees, we have managed not to get heat stroke or lose any weight by going to the gym here, although we have passed it on the way once or twice whilst stuffing our faces with even more food. The food here is plentiful, and starting with breakfast (A full international buffet), in the hotel is a must……. Choices are from all five corners of the world, five because there seem to be some food on offer from continents which we obviously have never been to. You can eat as much as you like from sushi to good old full English (beans an’all), omelet’s to order, pastries, cereal with choice of cow milk, ... read more

XMAS AS IT SHOULD BE… Xmas time brought about the need for me to get back to NZ as I wasn’t doing what I did last year (not by choice) where I spent it offshore in Iran on one of the crappiest boats you can imagine. So I put leave in to make sure it happened this year, and what do you know, IT HAPPENED! So on the 20th Dec I trundled back to NZ to surprise the family in turning up, only to find someone had already informed the family that someone in fact was not working which I told them I was, so the surprise turned into a semi surprise. Anyway, my little bro picked me up at the airport and made the trip south to Cambridge. When I arrived the weather turned it ... read more