Holiday Inn Dubai-Al Barsha

... to go to Dubai Ski. It was absolutely surreal to find myself skiing by -8˚C when moments earlier I was outside by the beach with temperatures over 40.

After skiing I went to Carrefour (A French supermarket chain) - I could not believe they had Carrefour here. The aisles are exactly the same and basically I had the impression of being back home in Fougeres for a second. I bought myself a baguette and some Vache qui rit - So French!

On ...

I was up by about 10 am and the weather was absolutely beautiful - once again too hot though. I went for a walk around the neighbourhood and found a little shopping centre.

I then wanted to get to Wild Wadi - the water park. I could not get on a bus as I had no card and I couldn't buy one anywhere as no bus stop in the area had a ticket machine. It was just too hot to walk around so I grabbed a cab. He wasn’t sure where I wanted to go but I managed to explain ...

... guy called Sameer and originally from Bangladesh. The security guard was trying to make me pay 10Dhs (£1.70) for my bag being there - dream on!

I got a cab, after being approached by a Russian couple who were on holiday and looked like they fancied a chat with a fellow European. I was told the journey should be around 20Dhs (£3.40). There were a few taxi drivers around but they did not seem to know where it was. I gave ...

... shower and get dressed, but made it there eventually. Mike had decided to take a few members of his team out to dinner at Atlantis and invited me along too. We hung out at the hotel bar and had a few beers while we waited for the others. The bar was filled with Americans and Europeans, which was honestly a refreshing change from the Arabs and Asians I was normally surrounded by. I can't say I felt at home, since it was more of a British pub (with cricket on ...

... really awesome and I took some nice pics. The view was outstanding and they had a great place to just chill outside. Chris and Ahmed stayed outside and had some food and Shisha while Hassan, Ayman, and I went to a bar called Bar Zar. Now this is the type of place I liked! Great music and the atmosphere was a little cluby. I had two Fosters that I paid 10 bucks each for and talked to a group from Britain. One of the girls actually lived on the Palm which costs about 60 grand a year ...

... direction, just a few people in front of me. It was Julia who Lars and I travelled with through Thailand and Malaysia almost 3 years ago! The odds of the 3 of us being in this small area must have been enormous, probably more chance of winning the lottery considering Lars lives in Sweden and Julia lives in Sydney! After a quite surreal couple of minutes catching up we went our separate ways and were soon on a plane to Doha, Qatar. Our flight ...

Die 5 ure op Dubai was ietwat van 'n nagmerrie. Teen 38 grade celcius en letterlik duisende mense was dit moeilik om inkopies te doen. Om 14:00 land die vlug vanaf Dubai in "Wien" Na 'n seepgladde verloop. Eerste KRISIS!!! Drie instrumente, agt tasse en 'n loopraam is in Dubai en nie in Wene nie!!

... before the big boom is being lost. I believe that locals make up only 20% of the population here. They are taken care of very well by the government but many are upset that their culture is disappearing. Every place I went there would be men and women in traditional dress (men wearing white robes with a white headdress and women in black dresses with a black hijab). I love that they do that because it keeps some of the culture alive. Ferris told ...

... our map and got lost. After 40 solid minutes we finally got to one of the buses after receiving directions from a number of passer-bys. Our intention was then to get to a stop further along the route and catch a Dhow (boat) for a hour long trip which was included in the ticket price, however that left at 1.30pm. Traffic conditions where were was holding us up so we decided to get off the bus and take a short cut through the town or get a taxi if need be ...

... t like. For such a diverse group of people, they seemed to have one common preoccupation--Facebook. So--most of what we discussed was about what they were going to put on Facebook, what was already on Facebook, inside jokes from Facebook, people they know from Facebook...I'm starting to feel a generational gap here! I get it, I get it: I should just start using Facebook already, rather write inane little stories in this blog.