Blogs from United Arab Emirates, Middle East - page 2

I typically don’t include travel to the Emirates as part of my travel blog. It has always been more of a visiting family destination than a holiday one. Despite its sunshine and heat, cleanliness and safety, good food and nice hotels; it’s not a place that I like to visit. Give me raw, rugged, real and Nature any week of the annual holiday season. That said, I can see why some people like it. And the week I visited my sister with my mum was a relaxing one. We ate, shopped, walked, relaxed on clean beaches with very overpriced umbrellas. My favourite meal had to be one at sunset on the beach, toes in sand, sipping cocktails as the sun went down. We don’t get to do things like that very often. I also enjoyed the ... read more

I decided to spend my last full day in UAE visiting Abu Dhabi. It is about a 1.5 hour drive from Dubai. The roads were great and the traffic was pretty light. Abu Dhabi is the political capital and makes up 87% of the land area of UAE. Their population is 2.2 million. No surprise that oil is over 50% of their GDP followed by construction. Our first stop was the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.The mosque is large enough to accommodate over 40,100 worshippers at one time. The carpet in the hall is considered to be the world's largest carpet. It took 1200 carpet knotters 2 years to complete it and it weights 35 tons. All of the white marble and the inlaid jewels for the flowers definitely reminded me of the Taj Mahal. Though it ... read more

I was up early on Monday to explore the city. I started in the historic district with breakfast at a picturesque cafe and then wandered the streets and souks. Walking down the narrow streets that lead to mosques as well a small markets was lovely to explore. It was a short time that you didn't feel you were in a huge city. I was able to find the metro to head to the worlds biggest mall. I quickly explored the gigantic mall complete with 1200 stores and an aquarium that you can scuba dive in. It is something to be seen, but talk about over the top compared to Uganda. Just outside is the world’s tallest building; It’s so tall that it gets hazy at the top. I opted to not go to the top as ... read more

Dubai Expo 2020 opened in October.... 2021. So, a year later, we were finally able to enjoy what has been advertised since I returned to Dubai in 2018. My friend does a lot of work there and in the months leading up to it, she was extremely busy and had canceled a lot of our usual meet ups - cycling, drinks, hikes, etc. So, to make up for it, she got me a season pass! Yay! I told her I would get her a spa day for when she finally had the time... Anyway, my friend and I made a few trips early on after the opening before he took his sabbatical to Central America and took delight in "judging" the pavilions. I think we went twice together and I went twice on my own. So, ... read more

Le moment tant attendu est arrivé... Nous passerons une pemière journée à l'Exposition... Comprendre l’Expo Nous avons tous le pouvoir de construire un monde meilleur et de façonner l’avenir. Découvrez ce qui rend l’Expo 2020 Dubai unique en son genre, et la manière dont nous sommes en train de « Connecter les esprits » et de « Construire le futur » grâce à la durabilité, à la mobilité et aux opportunités. Durabilité Chaque jour, nous sommes de plus en plus nombreux à emprunter un chemin durable vers un avenir où nous vivons tous en équilibre avec notre seule maison : la planète Terre. En unissant nos forces, des petites actions deviennent des mouvements mondiaux positifs qui aideront les communautés à protéger et à préserver le monde qui nous entoure. Mobilité Nous vivons dans un monde de ... read more