As-salaam aleikum, Mr. Junior!
Moving on to Doha, Qatar, tonight after my whirlwind tour of Oman and the Emirates. There really are camels on the back of trucks!!! Hiked all over Muscat, visiting the sultan's palace area in the old walled city and having afternoon tea at the mundane Al Bustan Palace Hotel. Crossed overland into the Emirates - nothing but gorgeous rock and orange sand deserts everywhere. Dubai is something else... glitz and glam everywhere, shopping with no end in sight, and people rich beyond my wildest dreams driving all sorts of nowhere-else-to-be-seen cars. For one day I got to experience how The Other Half lives: I managed to get an invitation into the Burj-al-Arab, the monumental sail-shaped seven-star offshore hotel on Jumeirah Beach. Wealth is measured by the size of your snow-white Rolls Royce here, with the occasional Lamborghini or Ferrari thrown in. A bar visit at its top-of-the-seas Al Muntaha restaurant and bar on the top level, that little glass appendix opposite the helipad, almost broke my bank account and made me cancel the rest of my trip. It was awesome, though, baby!!!
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Hello KJ -
I didn't get lost in the Bermuda Triangle! (But plenty of money did.) It's one of those check-off-the-list destinations: Pretty nice and entertaining for a few days but way overpriced for what it's worth, in my humble opinion. I explored the entire rock from end to end, from its naval dockyard to historic St. George, from Hamilton to the southern shoreline of Horseshoe Bay and Ellbow Beach. A short overnight hop to London, where I missed my connection coming from Gatwick to Heathrow, so I got stuck here for 24 hours and wandered the always nice-to-look-at new embankment area on the river, strolling across the Millenum Bridge past the London Eye back to Westminster, not to mention the obligatory loop from Oxford Circus via Trafalgar Square and Leicester Square back to Centre Point. Same story here, though: Everything has gotten extremely overpriced now; even the YH charges a cool 50 bucks per night now. So I am happy to finally jet to new frontiers today - I am in a lounge at Heathrow awaiting my flight via Abu Dhabi to Muscat. Arabia, here I come!
I didn't get lost in the Bermuda Triangle! (But plenty of money did.) It's one of those check-off-the-list destinations: Pretty nice and entertaining for a few days but way overpriced for what it's worth, in my humble opinion. I explored the entire rock from end to end, from its naval dockyard to historic St. George, from Hamilton to the southern shoreline of Horseshoe Bay and Ellbow Beach. A short overnight hop to London, where I missed my connection coming from Gatwick to Heathrow, so I got stuck here for 24 hours and wandered the always nice-to-look-at new embankment area on the river, strolling across the Millenum Bridge past the London Eye back to Westminster, not to mention the obligatory loop from Oxford Circus via Trafalgar Square and Leicester Square back to Centre Point. Same story here, though: Everything has gotten extremely overpriced now; even the YH charges a cool 50 bucks per night now. So I am happy to finally jet to new frontiers today - I am in a lounge at Heathrow awaiting my flight via Abu Dhabi to Muscat. Arabia, here I come!
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Frog!!!
I suck, I know. Sorry for being such a pathetic blogger these days. And I can't even say that there hasn't been anything to blog about! My Europe trip was nice as always, except for the fact that the airlines lost all my luggage and I had to do some extra shopping for myself. My god-daughter had a great time, as she first received all the hastily purchased replacement gifts for x-mas, then two weeks later all her original gifts (the luggage did eventually arrive, after all). A great sight-seeing day in Berlin with friends, then it was off to Canada, oh Canada! A cloudy and rainy day in Montreal, then for the big prize: Toronto and my beloved CN Tower. I kind of enjoyed a super-icy day at Niagara Falls on New Year's Eve, then froze off my ass in Toronto's central square for the midnight festivities. The trip back home, via Chicago in winter (!!!), would fill yet another book - let's just say that I got my new dose of anti-O'Hare medication. Now it's finally the second week of January and I am ready for my next spin around the globe... T-1 days! Tomorrow night I'll red-eye to JFK, then I'll venture over to the magic triangle of Bermuda.
I suck, I know. Sorry for being such a pathetic blogger these days. And I can't even say that there hasn't been anything to blog about! My Europe trip was nice as always, except for the fact that the airlines lost all my luggage and I had to do some extra shopping for myself. My god-daughter had a great time, as she first received all the hastily purchased replacement gifts for x-mas, then two weeks later all her original gifts (the luggage did eventually arrive, after all). A great sight-seeing day in Berlin with friends, then it was off to Canada, oh Canada! A cloudy and rainy day in Montreal, then for the big prize: Toronto and my beloved CN Tower. I kind of enjoyed a super-icy day at Niagara Falls on New Year's Eve, then froze off my ass in Toronto's central square for the midnight festivities. The trip back home, via Chicago in winter (!!!), would fill yet another book - let's just say that I got my new dose of anti-O'Hare medication. Now it's finally the second week of January and I am ready for my next spin around the globe... T-1 days! Tomorrow night I'll red-eye to JFK, then I'll venture over to the magic triangle of Bermuda.
- 01/14 British-Atlantic Luxury:
Stop-over in New York City for a day, then getting lost in the Bermuda Triangle while buying those shorts and having Tetley Tea. - 01/19 Cruising the Arabian Peninsula:
Discovering the Muslim first world of Oman, the Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain. - 02/01 Recharging batteries in Europe:
Two days in Rome, just because. - 02/04 Indian Ocean island hopping:
More of what I love to do most - sunshine and turquoise waters for beaches and diving in Sri Lanka and the Maldives. - 02/16 Western Pacific explorations:
Did I mention my preference for blue waters and secluded island beaches? Adventures in Palau and the Philippines. - 03/01 Caribbean Delights:
A week in the southern West Indies to relax from all these exhausting travels.