Le Meridien Grand Abu Dhabi

... one, trying to find where the hell the gate was that i have to wait at which, incidentally, was where i started off in the first place.<br><br>Also, it's worth noting that i had my first squat toilet experience within minutes of arriving here (yes, i had held it in for 15 hours-i've had bad experiences with plane toilets...). I didn't like it. I didn't like the fact that the floor was wet and i had no choice but to put my cushion on the floor only to ...

Here we are...Sash and I...waiting for our flight to Kathmandu, which is ONLY 9 hours away! The airport is dull here in Abu Dhabi, but the flight was really great! No food though...and Sash and I are probably going to start taking bites out of each other's limbs in the hope of something nutritious...then again, a lot of alcohol was consumed in Brisbane, so it might be slightly toxic! The excitement is ...

... t bore you with the details, but the course was really nice, I think it was PGA standard and the clubhouse was, yes you guessed it, built in the shape of a falcon.... how bizarre. Check out the pictures though, it's one of the most impressive clubhouses I have ever seen. The girls spent the day back at the Emperors Palace at the swimming pool complex which has a lazy river and some slides and stuff, from what Maud said, it was a really nice relaxing day for them all ...

... Westfields in Australia with two distinct exceptions. Ciggarettes and Berkha's. The cigarettes is easy to explain, you are allowed to smoke in the shopping malls in the UAE. Very civilised. The Berkha's are not so easy to explain. A Berkha (also known as a Chador) is the traditional total body covering worn by Muslim women. They mostly come in black and some, depending on how fundamentalist you are, even have a little flyscreen type space where the eyes are. No matter how ...

... blog by someone who quite unashamedly has no intention of fully exploring the place she is in, is unusual indeed. Although I like to think that the glimpses of Abu Dhabi that I do have to offer are real nuggets of experience and may even tell you a lot more about this place than an earnest description (even if interlaced with historical fact) about the Fort or erm....other tourist places which I haven´t discovered. The ...

... he paid $75 for eighteen holes and about $15 for the golf cart. I will make him walk next time. We have been to the races, again an experience. We sat over at the golf club side of the track, yes, there is a golf course in the middle of the race track, had a meal and waddled down to the rails to watch the horses go round. Very civilised as they are held at night, the first race starts about 6.00pm and ...

... t scrabble your way to the desk right now it'll go without you. I remained seated until it died down.<br><br>Our pilot turned out to be Scottish, not the easiest accent to understand, mild though it was. Then the safety instructions and announcements were made in English and Arabic. I get that English is one of India's official languages, but is it any surprise that all the Indian men stand up as we're coming into land? You are not speaking their language.<br><br>The Arabic ...

... was air-con but after all the dry air on the plane, I felt my eye balls had had enough. Unfortunately, to make conversation with my taxi dude, I had said, "Hot!" when I got in. Great dialogue huh? I meant outside, but he then whacked the air-con right up and pointed all the vents at me. To switch them off I had to be really furtive. The Golden Tulip is a really nice hotel. Like, wow! Not just a bedroom with a double bed, but an en-suite, walk-in wardrobe, living room with ...

... 20 minutes in the sun. It wasn't nearly as bad as India, in fact it felt like A/C compared to the scorching heat of Rajasthan...remember 120 degrees, well here it was like 100 and with the breeze it felt like 90 which was just like home sweet home. Once we got on the bus the bus driver kicked a man out of his seat and told Andrea to sit there since it was a Women only section. Which I think means women have priority. Anyways I stood at her side and behind me was a mob of men ...

... call 'Fabio'. I'm sure he only goes to the beach to check himself out in the reflection of the water while in bad DTs. Eeeek. We were having too much fun laughing at Fabio to realise we were running late for our overnight desert Safari tour. Lucky for us they waited and we, and our guide Jaffa, sped off to the desert in a sick Landcruiser to the melodic singing of our ol' fave Olivia Newton John. What more could you ask for? (I'm going to stab myself in ...