Sands Hotel Abu Dhabi

... the<br>buying of Manchester City FC, and thereby a stake in the most<br>commercially successful football league in the world, was ambitious<br>then I think that there is much, much more to come. The ethos seems<br>to go - why waste the time and effort crafting your own image when<br>you can simply build a collage of what you want the outside world to<br>see by buying, appropriating, and importing logos galore? <br>

... Then i went into a stall and noticed that there was a little toilet, no toilet paper and a hose. I stood there for about 3 minutes debating waht I should do and ended up just leaving the bathroom to get food instead.<br><br> I went to this buffet line that looked really good and got some arab pasta which wasn't bad, except the guy behind the counter kept insisting that I take 5 packets of ketchup and put atleast 2 of them on my pasta before I could pay ...

... a really hot Spring season back home, and I knew it would be one of the last times I would experience natural warmth for quite a while... When we got of the plane in Abu Dhabi, I realised I was wrong.. I felt an extreme, knock in the face heat when I walked through the corridor to get into the airport. A kind of heat I have never experienced before, a really uncomfortable heat, a heat that I can't really explain at all. I ...

... started running when you stepped on them. Bellie and Stu had joined the beach club here so assured us we'd be back later in the week for a few laps of the lazy river. After a hard day in the office for Stu (without any food), we had a game of tennis at dusk and then headed out to one of the hotels for a tasty Chinese. The next morning it was off to see one of this Emirates most amazing sites the 15 billion dirham (GBP 2.3 billion) Grand Mosque. Driving up to it really ...

... enough to walk back. I get a taxi to a nearby mall. The temperature readout on the dashboard flicks between 43.5 and 44C. In the evening I take a trip into the centre of town to have a look through the gold shops. I offend the owner of one of them. I am browsing around when he spots my white forehead with mug written across it from the other side of the shop and he immediately comes over to talk. He has in front of him a tray of ...

... splendid array of tower blocks and mosque domes all in silver, blue and black. The same to the right. And in another direction the landscaped gardens of the Al Manhal (palace?) surprisingly situated on Al Manhal street. And there is no shortage of private gardens (nor it seems water to quench them, buckets of the stuff being mismanaged all over the street). Bougainvillea, perhaps my favourite of plants-not-to-be-found-in-England (though I attempted to ...

... or the long shirts and pants... Our goal was to get an outfit for my Dad, so we went in and lo and behold there were three good looking Arabic men running the store. What are the chances of three good looking Arabic men running a men's store?! Smile, sigh... I know they thought we were crazy coming in that store, but my Dad really wanted one of those outfits, so we were on a mission. It took ...

So here I am after a hellacious trip across the USA on Delta (Never ever fly with them if you can aviod it), and a absolutely magical trip across the atlantic and europe in Emirates. Let me tell you something about Emirates; then are the best airline I have ever flown with! Their aircraft are not only well organized on the ...

... flying out the window. Seriously, the ride was awesome!!! Better than a lot of theme park rides I've been on. Not to mention we were at the mercy of our driver, which by the way didn't wear a seatbelt!!! Why would he want one of those??? After Dune bashing we go to a random location....sand as far as we could see and as far as I was concerned we hadn't moved an inch. We could have been going around in circles for all I knew. Here is where Andrea and I conquered sand boarding. Ok ...

Arrived in Dubai after a 14hr flight from Melbourne, it was 0600 and 32 degrees already!! Cleared customs quickly and met Wendy (Joels partner) who took us to their apartment. The heat wave after walking out of the airport was incredible. Due to the heat decided to spend most of the day at Wild Wadi Water Park. Most shops and markets didnt open until 1600 anyway. Awesome park, there was a body boarding wave pool that Hayden had ...