Blogs from United Arab Emirates, Middle East - page 13

Geo: 25.1154, 55.2013Managed to sleep most of the night but woke early, so by just after 6am we were down eating yummy omelet and chocolate bread and butter pudding for brekkie, what other countries consider acceptable breakfast choices is always interesting! We had originally planned to do a dinner safari later on In the day today but swapped it for a city tour after my wee accident. We will still do the safari but on the way home in 8 weeks hopefully my rib and shoulder will be camel riding ready by then. We were to be picked up for our tour at 8.45am after 9 we were still waiting.....we had just got the concierge to ring the tour place for us when our pick up arrived. The same tour company who provided our airport transfer ... read more

Friday 7 February 2014 United Arab Emirates has rich history and is full of archaeological treasures. Interesting sites spread across all Emirates, some as old as 150BC. Accustomed to today's easy style of living, visiting such site always makes one wonder how those people managed to live in such harsh environment. This time I managed to steal away my good friend Yasir Bilal (YB) from his home ministry for half day and explore some of the appealing sites spread across Al Ain. Al Ain (literally The Spring) is a peaceful green city of Emirates of Abu Dhabi and has many interesting reasons to visit. It is located approximately 120 KM south of Dubai. 1. Bida Bint Saud Alternative Name Qarn/Garn Bint Saud Location: N 24 22 58.72 E 55 43 06.26 I set off early morning ... read more

Geo: 25.27, 55.33Fantasia docks back in Dubai a little after 8am today. Luckily we don't have to get off until tomorrow. True our coach pick up time is 4am on Saturday morning for our 7.30 flight to Manchester but we won't worry about that now.We have an excursion planned for this morning and so we shower breakfast and head down to the theatre. Tickets in hand we head outside to meet our coach and tour guide Miriam. She is slightly bonkers but a great guide nonetheless. We leave the port and head southwards to the Jumeriah area (Jumeriah means flame in Arabic). Our first stop is the worlds first 7 star hotel the Burj Al Arab with its iconic and world famous sail design. Miriam regales with details of its construction and other gems of information. ... read more

Geo: 24.316, 52.6015Fantasia is still at sea when we awake. She is due to reach Sir Bani Yas Island around 9am and it's now 7.30. I try a continental breakfast this morning as fancied something lighter. The buffet is very busy although we always manage to find a seat. After returning to our cabin Fantasia has reached the island and drops anchor about 1/2 mile offshore. From our balcony we can see a flurry of activity as staff load provisions into the tender boats ready to go ashore. The tenders take about 5mins to make the short trip to the island.As Black Card members we have priority tender tickets which means we can turn up at anytime to go ashore. Other people have dedicated times in which they can board the small boats. We head down ... read more

Tuesday March 7 – Today we took advantage of a lot of the free extras that came with our Big Bus tour, namely three additional tours. They all left from the WAFI mall, which was not so far from out place by metro, and they were timed so you could do them all in one day. First up was a quick wander through the mall, and then the 10:30am tour to Sharjah, another emirate. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are each also one of the seven emirates that makes up the country of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Sharjah is the most conservative of all seven, and the only one is which you cannot get any alcohol. Like the night tour, this tour came with a tour guide, and it was quite nice to have that interaction. ... read more