The Eclipse Hotel Apartment Abu Dhabi

Hi everyone

On Friday, we visited the amazing Burj al Arab hotel for lunch. The only way you can get in is if you are a guest (it costs $1000's a night) or if you make a booking for lunch or dinner.

This hotel is the only 7-star hotel in the world, and unless we win lotto I don't think that I'll ever be able to stay a night ...

... or even chew gum in public. Despite this challenge, Ramadan has some perks. Once the sun sets, huge Iftar tents open up across the city. Chad and I had the opportunity to go to an authentic Iftar dinner where we had the most awesome Lebanese food of our lives! Shisha is smoked at Sohour, the celebration time after Iftar and before dawn. For Abby and Marshall…the Shisha here costs less than $3 and is so smooth compared to the Nice Ash. :)

On September 4th Chad celebrated ...

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 !!!

... I walked around the village for a while, but nothing special to see. Probably I should have taken a tour at Dubai to enjoy sightseeing there, because the pictures of Hatta Mountain Safari looked fun. Anyway, I strolled around the village for a while and then went back to Dubai. On the way back to Dubai, my bus had a trouble and stopped by the road. It was completely out of order and the bus driver told me to take another bus. There ...

... in a double bed that did not require acrobatics to enter. It also didn't have an extremely loud air-conditioning module right next to it. Lastly, and probably most important, it allowed me to escape my sailors and I only needed to be responsible for deciding what channel to watch and where I was having dinner. In the end I can safely say that it was bliss. I didn't get out and about much in Abu Dhabi, but I did walk to the local shopping mall. It was very much like any ...

I tried to cross the border between Fujairah (VAE) and Shinas in Oman. The goal would have been to drive to Hatta an oasis back in VAE. I would have had to pay 240 dirham (about USD 80.-) for a 10 day car insurance althoug I would only have passet through Oman for about 50km. This was too expepnsive and I turned on the border... was for a few minutes 10m in the country of Oman :-) and have 4 more stamps in my passport...

... was burning up.

The aircon finally started working and we were off. I managed until the middle of the night, but then I had to go to the bathroom, where I had a choice and picked the wrong one. Sink or toilet? Toilet! The sink has a fine plug and wow, doesn't drain well. It took a while (the other passengers must've thought I had fallen asleep in there) but I finally got the room back to presentable and fragrant. Then I asked for a toothbrush and something really plain ...

Border crossing has never been so cheap! If you are a US national in the Emirates on a tourist visa, you have 60 days to stay; after that, you pay a fine each day you violate this. You can buy and extension for 500 Dhs, but most people prefer to fly to a neighboring country for a few days or a few hours for approximately the same price. You can also rent a car and drive to the border, or you can take a bus to ...

This was only a day trip into the Sultanate of Oman, from it's next door neighbour the United Arab Emirates. We had two destinations, Hatta (still part of UAE) and the Hajar Mountains in Oman itself. Hatta is quite popular with some tourists, due mostly to its famous rock pools up in the mountains, with crystal clear water where you can swim and relax all day. Not knowing this, we didn't take any swim wear so we didn't stay too long up there. Instead we looked ...