Le Royal Meridien Abu Dhabi

... China.<br><br>I miss everyone already. I am secretly counting down the days until i get back even though i haven't even really started the trip yet. It'll be fine once i actually have something to do...i'm hungry and i need to eat but i can't be bothered exchanging money to get something. I don't even know what the currency is here. I should google it.<br><br>Any way, i don't know how often i will be able to get to a computer in Egypt so until next time...

Hana is sleepy and as such has lost successive games of battleships and checkers (thanksto the onboard entertainment system of Etihad Airways). as the victor susan will now regale you with today's tales we are incredibly impressed with etihad airways, primarily because it's like a miss world contest - the air hostesses are goregous!! Also we were provided with cute travel kits including free socks. we like this. they are comfortable. Also arabic ...

... we were expecting. And it was great to see Sally and Little Al again after what had been too long a break and catch up with our friends, plus be able to celebrate the two birthdays abroad for the second year - who knows where for the next. Oh also congrats to Bellie for getting a job on the Formula 1 management team that will be holding a race in Abu Dhabi next year, that is if you decided to take it ?? So will we be visiting again ? "Enshallah" - (which means God Willing in Arabic). I think so !!!

... at least have the common decency to give the girls dressed like this a life jacket. But this brings its own amusing side effects. Imagine this Berkha clad bird with her life jacket who has drifted down the deep end of the pool. She can't swim because of the size of the jacket so she just splashes around ineffectually until the husband has finished dying with laughter and decides to go and grab her and drag her back to the shallow end. Golden moments. Apart from the ...

... her fine form alongside three noisy children when there was at least a hundred other empty sunbeds to choose from. She smiled her pretty smile a lot at me, so I concluded that she had mistaken me for someone famous and smiled back. My companion and I had the burkha/hijab conversation again. She was very convincing and won the argument on her use of "dogma", but I always feel pleased at being able to articulate at least the ...

... into a joystick),and you can create your own playlist out of the music albums they have stored...our flight was supposed to lst 7 hrs, but it lasted a good 12 hours... there was too much fog in abu dhabi so we waited and waited, and then had to go to al ain to refuel nd come bck to bu dhbi.. When we checked into our hotel, I think it was the first time they saw backpacks..there is always someone trying to help you,they're always knocking at your door ...

... Dhabi I had a frustrating experience with the airport staff. It wouldn't have been nearly as frustrating had I not started to really feel ****. All I wanted to do was sleep and they were disturbing me. Abu Dhabi airport is a central building with 5 spoke corridors radiating out with two or more gates situated at the end of each. There is a shocking lack of seating in the main area, but plenty in the gate areas. As such, I headed to my gate and promptly attempted to sleep ...

... was even able to eat from the buffet at 10pm. I ate with a woman from Toronto, though originally from Afghanistan. She and I couldn't find any bread, so we were forced to eat chocolate cake. It's a hard life. I tried to drink water all day, but inevitably I got a headache. Eee! I'm in Abu Dhabi! Highlight of the day: watching a woman at the airport arguing with a security guard. She was determined to take the big metal luggage trolley through the metal detector. The stupid, it burns.

... the woman next to Andrea left and the man standing next to her tried to sit down but the bus driver VETOED!!! He then motioned to me to sit next to her but I couldn't understand him so it took a few minutes till I realized what was going on. Since I was her companion (aka husband) I was the only person allowed to sit next to her even though I was in the middle of the bus...HOW COOL IS THAT!!! I like these rules. I think we should implement them in the US but ohh wait...women and ...

... Mandy's fingers dug into my thighs as we gripped on for the ride of a life (not unlike a taxi ride in Abu Dhabi really). We saw camels and amazing sunsets. Then Shane nearly puked. Seems the big man couldn't handle it, so we had to give up the prime front seat for him. Shane wasn't alone, on the way to our camp 3-4 other landcruisers were stopping for their barfing passengers. Which brings us to dinner... We cruised on into the camp and made ...