Al Manzel Hotel Apartments Abu Dhabi

... asleep on my shoulder for much of the 14 hour epic journey.<br><br>The airport itself was lavishly decorated, and really not that much of a culture shock despite being in the UAE. We didn't even bother looking around to much until a smoking lounge was located. Aside from some food and coffee, the stopover was uneventful, being less than two hours after early boarding was taken into account.<br><br>Stay Cool.,. More to follow in the UK!<br>

... which took around an hour and a half. Slept most of it but opened my eyes for long enough to catch a quick glance at the Burj Al Arab, which, at over 300m high is apparently the world's highest hotel. Didn't ask them to stop - cheap rooms there are about $2000 a night. Caught a taxi from the bus stop. Taxis in the UAE are run by the RTA there, so they're pretty good and legit. My driver was a bloke ...

... they still use the old British system (everyone says my hotel is on Electra Street, but you won't see that written on any sign or map!). And just to top it off, no-one actually seems to use any street name but just describes places in reference to landmarks ("the office is opposite the Crown Plaza"). All good fun! Well, I think it is time to head to the beach before getting a Biryani or maybe I'll diversify to some felafel...mmmm

... into a coffee container and I thought to myself, "Why didn't she just pour it down the garbage disposal?" Well, 5 minutes later I answered my own question when the disposal stopped working and began spitting up water and food. Luckily, the building's handiman extracted a 2 inch hunk of congealed fat from the pipe and the dinner party was saved! Just a typical Abu Dhabi day.

... but once we found them I was not so happy to see them baby sharks all dead and... really dead. Anyway, it was important that the girls could try out the interesting bit: touching shark skin, in one way, and then in the other. Nina could not help but touch all kind of dead fish, and I even found her poking into a big fish eye with her finger. For lunch we went to a "small simple restaurant" on the harbour, which had in fact turned into a classy outlet. It was really a nice ...

... bewildered - the moon peeping through a halo haze. The other thing that really threw me was bird song. My friend said it may be night jays. They were making a hell of a racket, even though I told them to go to bed, because it was the middle of the night. Not an unpleasant sound, more like a sweet warble. Clever birds, must have realised the gap in the market and filled it quickly with their nocturnal habits. I wonder if ...

... sure if I would have felt the same way if it had gone awry, but it did make me feel good about the safety of our Embassy over here, especially since the guards were definitely not Americans. All that ended up happening is the deletion of my precious photos on my camera... Life is never boring. Is it? Our safe, no thrills errand ride turned into a much laughed about event. We have not stopped laughing about it! I couldn ...

... my pictures and videos in order - there are over 900 so I want to make sure you see them in order and in a way that isn't boring. I will relay the website adress(es) when I have them on this blog. It has been brutally hot in Dubai...It is not at all an exaggeration to say that this is exactly like a sauna. It hasn't been less then 100F since we arrived, and on average I would say at least 111F during the day, plus humidity. It is not usually so humid here, but ...

... I wondered. Once I got to the lift area I sat down as if resting and eyed other snowboarders to see what they did. Behind me was a girl also learning only she had an instructor. I figured I'd learn the cheap way at the school of HARD knock or should I say thumps because I sure did thump every time I hit the ground!!! Anyways, my first attempt was from the middle (green section), but I fell coming off the lift. Did you know you only have one foot attached until you get to the ledge ...

... Think of the UAE like the US, each Emirate is a different state. Just as you have Penn, NJ, and NY, here you have 7 Emirates, Sharjah, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi being the most prominent. So we hoped on a bus bound for Abu Dhabi, it cost only 15 Dirhams!($4) Which is an incredible deal since the city is about an hour away. We went across the street to this hole in the wall restaurant. Although, restaurant was a stretch, the place was obviously designed for take ...