Al Raha Beach (Deluxe Gulf) Abu Dhabi

... and had obviously no internet access. I ended up leaving a message to my parents so they could text me the address.

The plane journey was only 7 hours and I met Nyika, a Doctor from Zimbabwe, who had the Swedish surgeon I met in Gaborone as a lecturer - small world! Nyaka was on his way to a conference in Abu Dhabi He was a ...

... and stuff. I watched Boiler Room 3 times, played a few video games and took full advantage of the free food and drinks. Sometime around 4 AM EST I decided that I should get some sleep and took a few Nyquil's to knock me out, but they didn't work. I was already really tired and the pills made it just about impossible to keep my eyes open, but everytime I started to doze off I would have a dream that the plane was crashing and snap awake, it was awful. I ...

... and I must recommend them. The food and service were great, and the in-flight entertainment really made it enjoyable. They had hundreds of movies and TV shows on-demand. You get your on personal screen on the back of the seat in front of you, and you can start it and pause it whenever you like. We slept as well as can be expected, and arrived in NYC on a brisk February morning.

The next morning we were up in the morning to pack up and get to the airport on the metro, after that it was a 3 hour flight to Bahrain, followed by a 1 hour flight to Abu Dhabi to meet up with old friends Bellie and Stu. On arrival it was quite clear there wouldn't be any weather issues in this part of the world as even at 10pm at night it was about 35 degrees. Very kindly Bellie was picking us up at the airport to take us back to their place which would soon be renamed ...

... follow her. If you imagine being inside a giant doughnut lined with white, blue and gold tiles, you have some idea what the international terminal of Abu Dhabi airport looks like. The hours around midnight are a busy time for the airport as aircraft that have left the Far East in the evening, and Europe in the morning, both arrive for connecting flights. The gate area of my Beijing flight was shared with a ...

... perfect. Mafiz is a taxi driver and just finished ferrying some Germans to Abu Dhabi, he says they are too serious and they didn't like his bhangra, I tell him he just got his next fare..He tells me his particulars and asks me a barrage of usuals, why am I here, where am I going, am I married..blah, blah..I get back to Dubai in time for the bazaars, which are pretty mellow on fridays, many people take a half day on friday ...

A few photos from our trip to the Abu Dhabi Festival 2007. They had several stages lined up along the beach with a broad range of entertainment including the Shenzo Stunt Orchestra from Australia, Beat of the Drum, Puppets Parade, paragliders that dropped flowers on the audience, other paragliders that flew in formations with pyrotechnics streaming behind them, Chicken Comic Music ...

... I was exhausted and I don't think acclimated to the time yet. Tomorrow should be a pretty busy day... Before I close, my Dad and step mom has been burning what's called Bakhoor throughout the day. Somewhat similar to incense, but it's not. Instead of burning the actual stick, you burn the coal underneath and it in turns burns a lump of parfume. It's kept the house smelling mighty beautiful. I'm going to look for one before I leave.

... NY. Yet another location to add to the JOSE looks like he's from _________...fill in the blank. I feel I should have stationary made that says where do YOU think I'm from please circle one or select other and fill in the blank. How funny would that be!!! Anyways, before dune bashing (I'll explain in a minute) we stopped at a touristy convenience store. I decided to test my local look and so I took water and went to the counter and handed them 2 dirham for it. I didn't ask how much ...

... a good tip for all his yapping because I was thoroughly entertained even though we ended up loosing to the mustang...after all we were in an "Alleeeteema", I replied "Altima" he said "NO...Alleeeteema" at that point I gave up and said "ohh an Alleeeteema" and he nodded in acceptance. Once back at the hotel Andrea told me how she really wants to go to the museum, beach and shopping at the local souks (which is similar to a bazaar), which our driver informed us has anything and ...