Well here's my belated post about one tiny little country on the tip of the Arabian peninsula. Zemanta's being a bit of a bitch and isn't showing me any pictures as yet, so I have to get my picture from WIKIPEDIA.
So, that's the UAE. Wow. I thought it was that tiny thing right next to it.
So the United Arab Emirates is made up of five (or seven, I can never remember) emirates, which are essentially states controlled by different members of the royal family, called sheiks. The word 'emirate' comes from 'emir', which I don't remember what it means but it sounds cool. The biggest emirate is Abu Dhabi, the capital, which makes up about 85% of the country. We also visited the emirates of Al Ain and Dubai.
The flights to and from Dubai Airport were really great - we went with Emirates and they're all really nice. They have adjustable flatscreens in the back of the seats with software in it so you can watch whatever you want: episodes of TV series, movies, and even listen to a little music. I watched WALL-E again and listened to Metallica and Kraftwerk. I also thoroughly enjoyed the documentaries available. There are cameras in the tail, head and bottom of the airbus so you can view what's going on while listening to music. Watching yourself take off from an airport while blaring Enter Sandman is an amazing experience. We also got a fantastic view on the way out - we got to see the World Islands and the Palm Jumeira; although we missed the photo opportunity we got some great shots of other things. The first couple of days there we took about a hundred photos a day. No, really.
The first night after landing I didn't really do anything but sleep, jet lag I guess. The airport was magnificent though, there was a lot of very interesting architecture including a black waterfall. We drove the 2-3 hours from Dubai to Al Ain, where my mum's friend we were staying with lives. Her house is huge. Her husband trains the royal family's military, so he's filthy rich.
Al Ain is really interesting. It's a bit hard to remember you're in the desert except for all the palm trees. On the way there, there was a petrol station in the middle of the desert. Petrol station one side, the rest, all sand for kilometres...no, really...
On our first day in Al Ain we visited the Al Ain Zoo, which was really something. In our opinion it was much better than the Perth Zoo, and had some amazing animals you won't see anywhere else: the ever-cute jerboa and at least ten species of oryx, one of which is extinct in the wild. (missed the penguins though.)
We then went to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Emirates. It was quite the mix between modern skyscrapers and traditional houses. We first went to see the Grand Mosque, which was magnificent, followed by a mall filled with designer label clothes. They even had Faberge eggs. We ate KFC there, which was actually made fresh and not like the junk we have. I cannot stress how fucking awesome this KFC is.
We then visited the Emirates Palace Hotel, which is apparentl 7-star, and really fucking fancy. Gold was everywhere...even in the toilets. No, really.
The next day we went to Jebel Hafeet, which is a mountain in Al Ain with fantastic views, and a hotel on top which is interesting. They even have a water park up there. Picture that. A water park. On top of a fucking mountain. In the middle of the fucking desert. In our last day in Dubai we took a bus tour around and had dinner at Planet Hollywood.
And that was about all I remember. Derp.
I'm uploading all my photos onto the 'Bucket (Flickr has draconian monthly limits) very, very slowly.
So far only Al Ain subfolder has stuff in it, and don't forget to check the Al Ain Zoo subfolder.
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