Blogs from United Arab Emirates, Middle East - page 10

I’m not sure about this flying out at 9.15pm. It makes for a long, long day of anticipation! Since Bernie had decided to work a half day I ‘worked’ too at Fitzroy Gardens as per my usual Thursday morning shift. After a quick lunch with Loren I headed off home to freshen up and change into travel clothes in time to do the handover with our housesitters at 4.00pm. Kerry arrived about 4.30pm and with the handover with Fabian and Sarah complete we hugged Finbar and set off to the airport. We had planned to arrive about 6.00pm to check in for our flight, but we had a pretty good run on the Tullamarine Freeway and arrived at the airport just on 5.30pm. Even so we were not first in the queue that was already lining ... read more

Tuesday 11 September 2018 On the eve of departure for the next rip to Dubai - with our friends Kathy and Graeme. Having sold the house, downsizing and moved into rental accommodation in a two week period, life has been a bit hectic and we are looking forward to the break. Fly at 10:50pm tomorrow night and arrive Dubai 7am on Thursday morning. Will see how I go with the blog this time around. Wednesday 12 September 2018 - Brisbane Megs drove us to the airport and had us there in plenty of time at 8pm for our 10:50pm departure. Met Graeme and Kathy as we were checking in. After a glass of celebratory wine, we boarded at 10:0pm taking up our seats neaer the rear of the B777 aircraft. We paid extra to get seats ... read more

We have heard a lot about the Mosque in Abu Dhabi and wanted to ensure that we saw this amazing place while we here. We booked a group tour (last minute naturally)) and started what would end up being a very long day at 7:30. Abu Dhabi is in a different Emerites than Dubai 120k away, there are 7 Emirates all together. When Oil was discovered in the region 96% of it was is Abu Dhabi. Once the money started rolling in the Prince gave every family a house and 20,000 AED about 7000 Canadian dollars. The region was mostly Bedouin people and this was a real lottery win for them as you can imagine They also shared the wealth with Dubai and really kick started the growth there. Our bus starting filling soon after we ... read more

Up early walking around the decks and we could see the skyline of Dubai in the distance covered in low cloud. The huge skyscapers were seen peaking through the clouds. We got off @10.45am and we were nearly the last, obviously customs were speedy as compared to India. We cleared customs quickly and entered the pier building, there was free wi-fi so we sat and caught up on the things we needed to download/update etc. We eventually ventured outside and found the Hop On Hop Off bus that was to take us to the Dubai Shopping Mall, in order to take another route (green or blue). Many photos later and marvelling at this city we arrived at the huge Dubai Shopping Mall. We then boarded another bus and travelled the red route around the souks and ... read more

I'm celebrating my 50th birthday with 50 new experiences. My husband and I love to travel and have visited many places. So when choosing new experiences, I chose the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - an Arabian Peninsula nation settled mainly along the Persian (Arabian) Gulf. The country is a federation of 7 emirates. Jose Gomez, from the dept. of tourism was our guide. He is very passionate and has a pluthera of information that makes touring the city enjoyable and fun. Look him up on Facebook! With Dubai, size matters. Dubai is the site of ultramodern Burj Khalifa tower - the tallest building in the world. Very impressive - at over 828 metres (2,716.5 feet) and more than 160 stories. A must see! On the 123rd floor is a restaurant and lounge. Very pricey. At.mosphere lounge ... read more