Al Buraimi Hotel Sohar

... SE Asia and typhoons, earthquakes, and tsunamis have really turned my plans upside down. Right now I am scrambling to see if I can get into some of the places I have planned to visit. I know right now Padang is a no go since the entire city is leveled with thousand of deaths. I was supposed to fly a bright orange ATR 72 into there on Firefly Airlines. <br><br>I missed all the destruction by less than a week and am thankful for that. Java and Sumatra and the ...

... close enough :) The mountain was cool, it was rocky like what I saw in Hatta last year, and the view from the top is worth the annoying drive. The oasis is weird too, and there's a running hot spring in it, but the plants were all irrigated which I thought was cheating. :(<br><br>Then back home! One more rest day tomorrow then Bahrainnn!<br>

... 8217;Allah&#8221;. Or, one could say to an employer, &#8220;I&#8217;ll have that report on your desk by tomorrow morning, Insha&#8217;Allah.&#8221; Basically, it is a very relaxed culture and what doesn&#8217;t happen today, will surely happen tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the next. As is the case with our housing accommodations. We were informed today that our accommodations would not be ...

... is 31 degrees, for those of you who were curious). After a swim we sat in the sun for a while and, nerd that I am, passed out for a couple of hours. The girls I went with had a hard time waking me up and I was disoriented and dizzy when I was finally able to peel myself off my deck chair. I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening asleep in one of my girlfriend's bed. <br><br>Mostly everyone in Al Ain speaks English. There are a few people that speak no English, or only know a ...

... for people to survive here. During the dry months, water from high up is funneled down through man made water courses called 'falaj', irrigating each village and farm on the descent in turn. This is the way it has been done for hundreds of years, and is still as effective now. At this stage the track was fairly good so Natalie decided it was time for her first off-road driving experience. Nervous at first, she soon got into the swing of things and by mile 2 she was ...

... flight from Dubai to Joh'burg was not great, managed to get about an hours kip during quantum of solace, but had a big fat guy taking up my arm rest :-( Any way, here are a couple of photos of the flight.

... 20s centigrade (at this time of year) to nearly 45 centigrade in summer. Rainfall is negligible during the year. The weather during our visit was probably in the 90's with bright sun. We spent quite a bit of time visiting all 9 islands by boat and foot to become more familiar with the reserve. We also did daily turtle surveys, walking the beaches looking for tracks of turtles who came up to nest the previous night. Once we counted and ...

Ajman to Sharjah by minibus, it leaves right in front of the Ajman museum and goes to the Sharjah bus station, very practical for my bus change to the emirate of Fujarah that lies on the east coast of the UAE, so the highway goes across the desert, and ...

... de leurs accents respectifs qui induisait souvent les autres en erreur sur leurs origines (notamment un ozzie que les autres prenaient pour un kiwi, la haine... personnellement mon accent anglais trahit immanquablement mon origine...) et pour finir une petite halte culturelle dans un fort converti en musée sur la culture locale.

... force d'irrigation. Al Ain est une ville très clairsemée : les pavillons sont tous individuels et les lotissements sont séparés par des étendues désertiques, sortes de terrains vagues sans clôture ni dépotoire. A la périphérie de la ville se trouve effectivement l'oasis. Elle est divisée en parcelle de culture individuelles, un peu comme des petits ...