Hatta Fort Hotel

We popped up to Hatta in the mountains last weekend for some R and R.

DIdn't take too many photos actually, I was far too busy as you can see!

It was a lovely weekend. Cant wait to get busy doing some more of this over the next few weeks, just 5 days of school to go!

Up the Mountain

We've just had a short holiday for the end of term 2. Zadok took a week off and due to visa issues (no problems, just being renewed) we were UAE bound, so we headed off to Al Ain for a few nights. We stayed up the mountain at the Mecure which was quite nice.

The hotel was not quite as posh as we are used to swanning round in in Dubai... but still lovely. Here's me enjoying the sunset on the balcony, and the same view by night looking down over the city. It was so peaceful!

We played mini golf, the score sheet said I won.

And spent A LOT of time at the pool...

It's a hard life!

Term 3 is here, 12 weeks to go before the summer break! The countdown is on!

Al Ain

Zadok's new company has recently given all their managers a two day weekend every second weekend, as apposed to every third weekend. This makes a huge difference to our leisure time and we are really enjoying it. The Other Weekend (you know what I mean....) we decided to head to Al Ain, a city in the Emirate Abu Dhabi. Al Ain is about 130kms inland from Dubai, it is famed for cool temperatures in summer due to it's high altitude and having the UAE's second tallest mountain, often mistaken as the tallest (the tallest is Jebal Yibir in the Hajar Mountains, at 1527 meters.)

Zadok loves animals and Dubai has only an extremely embarassing zoo that we have never been to.... The zoo at Al ain however was a very pleasant suprise! Maybe not world standard but large enclosures and very active animals.

Zadok looking at the Mere cats, and the Mere cats lookin back, thats what they do!

Mixed African exhibit, giraffes, zebras and other things against the stunning back drop of the Hajar Mountains.

This ape looked like he belonged in prehistoric times. The sign said 'Greater Ape' but I cant find it on the web. Any ideas anyone?

This was my favourite shot of the day. Neither the little boy nor the lion seemed fazed by their close proximity to each other!

There were lots of other animals and we thought it was well worth the drive and the 10 dhs (AUD 3!) entry fee.

After a few hours at the zoo we drove off up the mountain. There are hot springs round the bottom, you can see the suprising amount of grass down the bottom, known as Green Mubazarrah.

The road up is excellent and siad to be one of the great driving roads in the world, I dont think I did it justice!

The view was really good, the weather freezing... (everything's relative).

It was a thouroughly enjoyable day out, we dont get to do a lot of sightseeing usually! Highly recommended if you haven't ventured to Al Ain yet.

Deep Sea Fishing

The other week we headed off to Jebel Ali Resort to go Deep Sea Fishing. I'd never been before so it was quite exciting. 6 of us went, Kat, Iain, Kat's sister Jill and her fiance Rod. We had a driver and a man to help us fish.

Iain was very proud of catching this monster.... It's a barracuda.

Shortly after Rod pulled this big hamour onto the boat.

Zadok made a great show about landing this titchy little fellow, he kissed it and threw it back, maybe we'll get it next time.

We girls all had an attempt, it was really hard!

I had a HUGE one on the line but unfortunately it got away, as did Kat's and Jill's. I think we might need some more practise.

And so, as the sun set over the Jebel Ali Palm (obviously still under construction), we headed back to dry land. One of the cleaners cleaned the fish and we took it back to Kat's and had a BBQ.

Delicious!

Le Meridien Al Aqah

So it's officially summer in Dubai. Temperatures are above 30 at ALL times (even at night) and humidity is often bad.

A group of us decided to celebrate the end of the school year and escape the heat and booked into the Le Meridien Al Aqah on the East Coast, in Fujeirah.

It takes about 1 1/2 hours to get there, depending on how many exits you check along the way... It's well known for it's stunning backdrop, the Hajar Mountains and it's location on the Indian Ocean.

Here we are enjoying the swim up bar, Me, Mel, Muriel and Julia. We spent most of our time in the pool and why not when it looks like this!

We spent pretty much the rest of the time eating/drinking.

Chilling in the room before dinner.

Delicious dinner in 'Taste' the Thai restaurant.

We were VERY sorry to have to leave! Back to Australia on Sunday. See you soon!

An afternoon of leisure

One of my friends and her husband have recently bought a 30ft pleasure boat, and with a few (a lot of?) lessons under their belt they are happily cruising up and down the coast of Dubai.

Last Friday they kindly invited us along to experience their new baby. Here are Julia and Graham in the back of this shot.

Below is the famous Burj Al Arab, and the Jumeirah Beach Hotel. You don't normally get this view of them! We also went right round the Palm Jumeirah which is the most developed, there are hundreds of villas that look like they might be nearlly ready for occupation.

Here we are in the life raft..... Spot the odd one out!

A late lunch and a few glasses of wine were much appreciated after a hard afternoon of boating.... He he.

Zadok was quite green on the way out but picked up once the boat had stopped moving.

A very good time had by all!

This weekend I have had my good friend Jen visiting. She is currently living in London and popped over to visit me. Hopefully she is on the way to the airport as I type. I have a stack of photos, I'll post some of them next. Then I promise I'll post about our apartment's progress and a few of the other many, many projects that are going on here in Dubai. That will take me up to the summer holidays I think, just 5 weeks to go! Zadok and i are both coming back to Australia to catch up with family and friends. Cant wait!

Sharjah Equestrian Show

Anyone who knows Zadok's Mum, Lesa, will know that she is a bit crazy about horses. She has a number of her own and has started breeding. Before she came over she got wind of this Equestrian show held in Sharjah (they arrived just after the Dubai one had finished.) So Zadok called up and got us an official invitation an off we went to Sharjah.

First of all we were treated to some Arabic dancing, not the most vigorous of dances....

Then we got to see the Arabians, parading...

And on show.... (quite similar to going to Mall of the Emirates on a Friday evening really)

The most entertaining/amusing/disturbing thing about the whole performance was that all around the edge of the arena people were standing with plastic bags tied to the end of sticks, shaking them like crazy to get the horses razzed up, caring them so they were bucking, prancing and leaping all over the place.

Lesa was suitably horrified by all this.... The other thing was the securtiy, there were police everywhere! I guess there was a lot of pricey horseflesh around!

SMOKE ON!!!

You may recall last year we headed off to Abu Dhabi to watch the Red Bull Air Race, but it didn't go ahead due to the VERY gusty winds. This year Zadok and I headed down again and thankfully it was a glorious day.

We got a great spot sitting on the beach with our toes in the sand with a perfect view of all but one of the chicannes (gate things the planes fly through).

The planes fly round a course attempting to fly through the middle of the chicannes. The blue they fly through horizontally and the red ones they have to be vertical. If they clip them on the way throught they get penalty seconds and also if they fly too high through.

The photos don't really do it any justice as the planes were right overhead and coming straight towards it, it was really worth going to see.

Check out the website for a better look

Red Bull Air Race

We walked under this pedestrian underpass and it had these beautiful intricate mosaics. Dubai has similar things in the underpasses but nowhere near as detailed.

Jack and Lesa (the inlaws) have arrived safe and sound after a very long trip! We are just about to head out to start the sightseeing!