Dubai to London 19 Mar 2017

The alarm went off at 0455. That beat the local mosque by five minutes at least! Most mornings in Dubai, we've been roused by the call to prayers at this time, but usually go straight back to sleep. Today was rather different as we had a flight to catch.

We were out of the flat a few minutes after 0530 and before we had really started to look, an eagle-eyed driver saw us and whizzed his taxi over to us and bundled into his car. As usual around here, we drove flat out all the way up Skeikh Zayed highway and up to airport and within 25 minutes were being dumped on the pavement outside Dubai International airport.

We found our check-in desk easily and completed formalities in a few moments before heading for the emigration desk to get our passports stamped. Security was next and within 15 minutes of arriving at the airport we were in departures, possibly one of the fastest times we've ever experienced!

We quickly found Le Clos and bought a couple of recommended bottles of South African wine before finding something drink and eat whilst we waited for our flight to be called.

We were travelling on QF9 a Qantas flight that originated in Melbourne and was bound for London Heathrow. There was a shortage of seats for passengers awaiting this flight, but once through the gate check-in, there was plenty of room. We really didn't wait long here either and were soon ensconced in row 76 on our Airbus A380.

Advertised flight time is well over 8 hours,,but the captain announced he was expecting to be just 7 1/2 hours. We should get the Heathrow by 1200 at that rate. Our flight route today took us out of Dubai and across the Straits of Hormuz and into Iranian airspace. Then heading generally north we head up to Qom in northern Iran before turning northwest parallel to the Armenian border and into Eastern Turkish airspace.

About an hour after take off, we were tucking into a dinner of chicken tikka salad accompanied, I have to confess, by a last taste of Tasmania, a can of James Boag beer.

The aircraft continued northeast to the Black Sea and crossed that into Romanian airspace. By 0900, UK time, we were passing north of Bucharest at 40,000 feet with three hours flying time to go. By 1000, we were crossing the Danube not far from Budapest, Hungary. 1100 saw us travelling through the skies of southern Germany having flown across Austria. Sadly, for most of the flight there was thick cloud, but I could clearly see the Danube in Hungary.

Despite arriving in the London area about 40 minutes early, we then sat in a holding pattern for 20 minutes before finally landing at Heathrow at around 1230. After leaving the plane and getting through immigration quite quickly, we stood and watched the baggage carousel for a long time before our bags finally appeared, most other passengers had left by then!

Stephanie met us at the short term parking and we paid £3.80 for roughly 5 minutes parking. We had a good journey back up to Lincoln arriving back home at around 1630.

It's been a good trip and we've certainly seen some wonderful places. I think in the past 9 weeks we've flown around 20,000 miles, driven the best part of 10,000 kilometres and visited 5 countries. The planning for the next trip starts now!

Abu Dhabi 18 Mar 2017

Today is our last day in the UAE, so to round off our trip here, Aaron kindly volunteered to drive us to Abu Dhabi the only one of seven Emirates that we hadn't visited on this trip. The journey from Dubai takes about an hour and a half down a huge highway.

Heading south from the Tecom area, we passed through Jebel Ali, the Port area and also home to huge desalination plants that service Dubai. The traffic eased off and soon the skyscrapers were left behind and scrubby desert returned both sides of the road. About 20 minutes after this, we leave Dubai and enter the emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Abu Dhabi is by far the largest of the Emirates and also the richest as it has vast oil reserves under its soil. For this reason, Abu Dhabi city is the capital of the UAE. Having said that, Dubai is far more commercial than Abu Dhabi, although to be fair it has had to bail out Dubai financially in the recent past. The Burj-al-Khalifa in Dubai is named after the ruler of Abu Dhabu for that reason.

As we started to see signs of the city on the horizon, we turned onto the Corniche road that runs along the shoreline of Abu Dhabi. It is a work of art, but increasingly difficult to access the footpath and cycle track at its northern as there is nowhere to park a car. We carried on almost into the city before finding a car park, pulled in and took to,our feet.

Abu Dhabi is a lot greener than Dubai and there is nowhere near as much construction work ongoing. That's not to say there are no tall buildings, but it all looks completed alongside tree-lined footpaths and gardens. The footpath on the corniche is nicely laid out with plenty of shade and places to do and have a picnic. It also has nice beaches, some you pay for but get sunbeds and parasols in return and others are free public beaches. We found a semi-circle of beach restaurants near a public beach and decided to have lunch. 

It was very pleasant as there was plenty of shade and a slight breeze. We were able to watch the comings and goings on the beach whilst we ate. The food prices were pretty  cheap considering the location.

After lunch, we walked a bit further along the corniche before returning to the car via an ice-cream vendor. Back in the car, we drove across a causeway on to an artificial island where we parked again and had another walk and took some pictures. They are building a new hotel on the island that looks remarkably similar to the Atlantis on the Palm at Jumeriah.

When it was time to leave, we took a route through the city that went past the most enormous mosques I've ever seen. A fairly new beautiful building constructed in white marble. Cue for more photographs!

On the way back to Dubai, we called at an Outlet Centre somewhat bizarrely modelled on St Gimignano in Tuscany. A short period of retail therapy took place here and coffee consumed before we headed back to Tecom in Dubai. 

After our day out, we were left with the feeling that Abu Dhabi is a nicer place than Dubai, greener, less frenetic and with a more relaxed feel to it.

Later in the evening after we'd done our packing ready for the morning, we took the Metro to Jumeriah Lakes Tower and went to a Vietnamese restaurant. It was a fairly simple affair in a shopping area, but the food was extremely tasty and very cheap.

It's certainly been interesting to see the Emirates and how things operate here in the UAE, but I'm not sure I'd want to live here for too long. That said, I'm sure we will be back again and will have to see what else the region has to offer spent from gigantic shopping malls!

Dubai 17 Mar 2017

It's back to the travelling again today, albeit only for a couple of hours. It's the first day of the weekend here and, as everywhere in the Muslim world, the mosques are full for Friday prayers. The roads seem to busy too as we head to Dragon Mart to the southeast of Dubai city. This mall is loosely built in the shape of a Dragon and contains hundreds of small shops selling anything from an industrial generator to chopsticks and anything in between. 

As it is Friday, quite a lot of the businesses are closed, but it was still busy. The range of goods for sale is immense. Some of the clothes and materials might not suit Western eyes, but clearly they are popular judging by the stock in the shops and the number of customers. Some items stretch the imagination, we found a shop selling mainly kitchen gadgets that you'd never have guessed existed. The range of electrical gadgets to attach to your phone was beyond belief, some of the iPhone and iPad covers had designs of eye catching colours and shapes.

We visited an electric light shop, perhaps the most colourful and ornate shop I've ever seen. Designs were primarily oriental and ranged from small desk lamps to huge barrel-sized brass ceiling lights. None were wildly expensive, but really were only suitable for houses here, they'd look out of place in Europe. That said, we bought a very attractive standard lamp that has 7 hanging lanterns of different length spiralling around a central column. After a roll or two of sellotape and yards of bubble-wrap were used, it all got packed away ready to go in the car.  This afternoon, Siobhan unwrapped it all and reassembled it. It looks very pretty and suits the flat well.

As it was lunchtime, we left the mall and headed to Jumeirah and The Palm. Once over the bridge and onto the 'trunk' of the Palm, we parked and walked to Bidi Bondi an Australian-themed sports bar to have lunch. By the time we arrived, 'Dubai brunch' was in full swing. Dubai brunch is apparently a Friday event for many expats here. Restaurants and bars offer an inclusive price for food and drink from late morning onwards. It's not a cheap experience, but if your aim is to eat, drink and make merry and basically spend your day in a pub, it's perhaps not a bad deal. Bidi Bondi was offering 4 drinks and a meal, or 5 drinks for 145 Dirhams, that's around £32. A pint of beer on the menu is £10, so perhaps it wasn't too expensive.

We only wanted lunch so ordered off the menu, the food was Australian/American style and was fine, but we left the revellers to enjoy the rest of their day whilst we headed for the supermarket. We really know how to live!

As it is Siobhan and Aaron's wedding anniversary, we bought some rather large prawns for dinner tonight. We won't eat until quite late as Aaron is working until 8 this evening and it takes an hour to get back by Metro afterwards. It's not so breezy tonight, so sitting outside on the balcony is possible tonight. To stave off the pangs of hunger, we purchased some olives to eat as a pre dinner snack!

It's time to say again, that I'm sorry I couldn't post pictures in my blog this time. Before we travel again, I will find a blogging platform that works specifically with an iPad. Photo service will resume next time! Meanwhile, I have posted photos on Facebook (FB) regularly and should you wish to few them, look me up on FB!

Dubai 16 Mar 2017

Not much to report today as we really haven't done much. To be fair, there's not been many days that we haven't been busy for the past seven weeks. Someone even said relaxing and doing nothing is part of being on holiday. That said, I don't think I could take a holiday that involved just lying on a sun lounger day after day. For me, part of the reason for travelling is to experience new places, people, food and a different way of life. I accept that not all experiences are positive, but unless you try, how can you judge what is good or bad in other countries.

Although whilst travelling you see things that wouldn't be acceptable in UK or indeed Europe, you have to accept that habits and practices are not the same as we are used to. We are quick to criticise those visitors to UK that wish to change our habits and customs, but then can't accept things are different overseas ourselves. Arabic customer, habits and lifestyles are very different to those in UK and can be difficult to understand, but as visitors, we have to accept their way of life. The alternative is not to travel and that is simply not an option for me.

I like to think I travel with an open mind, but confess I do see and hear some things that make me wince. I suppose, for some visitors to UK, it must be the same.

It's been overcast a lot of the day and late afternoon, the breeze suddenly picked up. I heard some bangs and crashes and looked over the balcony to see the parasol over the tables in the small restaurant had blown over. In fact, it had more than fallen over, the pole was snapped in half and the rest of it wrapped around the railings, tables and chairs were scattered around too. The security guard and a waiter attempted to move it, but the wind was too strong and the parasol got shredded as they tried to move it. As I write, it is still flapping around!

Being Thursday here in the UAE, the weekend starts here! 

Dubai 15 Mar 2017

The lot of a pedestrian in Dubai is not a happy one, apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan! In the haste to build a modern city and fill every space with new buildings, pedestrians seem sadly to have been forgotten. Much like the USA, cars and roads are king, pedestrians very much an afterthought.

As you may have guessed, we've been out for a walk today. It was supposed to be both for a purpose and pleasure, but the end, it was far from pleasurable. The first issue from the Tecom area is crossing Sheikh Zayed Road. Calling it a road is an injustice. There are at least 6 lanes in either direction and if you add in slip-roads, sometime 8 or 9! It's really an urban freeway. The only way of crossing it on foot is where there is a Metro station where there is a bridge and there is certainly at least a kilometre between stations. Luckily, Dubai Internet City station is only 300-400 metres away from the flat.

We managed that fairly easily this morning and arrived on the other side of the freeway in one piece. It wasn't too bad a walk to Knowledge City, an area of University campuses. Some effort has been made to build walkways in this area although at one stage, the path was interrupted by a 4 lane road with no crossing and a concrete barrier on the central reservation. This entailed a 200 metre diversion to nearby traffic lights.

The stroll through the University area was quite pleasant, there were lots of students taking a break, sitting on the benches and grass or in one of the fast-food outlets. We did our business at the Post Office although we were delayed whilst we waited for the lady who dealt with stamps to return from Subway! We followed the same route back to the Metro.

From here, we started to head towards Arrows and Sparrows a small lunch spot we've used several times. Initially, walking isn't too bad as there is a pavement, then then it's only possible to continue by walking in the road as a building site has fenced off the pavement. Next obstacle is crossing another highway. This entails taking your chances crossing two lanes of fast moving traffic, ducking under a bridge through a sandy central reservation and then another two lanes of traffic!

Lunch was very pleasant and relaxed and allowed us the pluck up courage for our return trip! We had to go via a small shopping centre to find a postbox. There is no sign of one at the Post Office! We also went to the small supermarket there for a few groceries. Then the assault course started!

After 300-400 metres we came to a main road 6 lanes wide. The only way to cross was at the traffic lights. All very sensible except there is no footpath. Dicing with death, we made it to the lights and safely crossed the road at the Pedestrian crossing. On the other side, due to incomplete building work, there was no footpath, just rough sand with a few boulders embedded in it. Next was a roundabout. Here, as they are doing work, they had netted off all access to the crossings which forced us back on the road as we walked around the roundabout!

To get across the next section, there is no traffic but a huge building site where extensive ground works are ongoing. This forced us, and lots of other pedestrians, to head through the excavations keeping a careful eye out for diggers etc. It's rather dusty here too, so to keep this in check, the contractors spray it with water which turns it into mud instead! Surrounding all this are huge curbs to negotiate or broken paving stones on which to twist your ankle. One day, perhaps, it might be finished and look quite nice! Currently, it almost counts as fell-running for the twists, turns and obstacles.

Rant over!

I tried the rooftop swimming pool out this afternoon. It's a nice little oval-shaped affair on the roof of a 14 storey block. It was quite a pleasant temperature too, but I felt rather like a goldfish in a bowl as the pool is mainly surrounded by other buildings far higher than this one. 

Advertising is interesting here too. They seem to have perfected the art of wrapping tall buildings in advertisements. Clearly, the occupants don't notice this film wrapped around their office or housing spaces. One building here that was made out to look like a giant water bottle when we were here in January is now 'naked' again, and a partially completed tower block we can see from the balcony was wrapped in advertising until today. Since this morning, it's all been removed. All clever stuff, I've no idea how they do it and have no interest in the products advertised but I'm impressed with the technology that permits it. OK, I'm a sad bunny!

Dubai 14 Mar 2017

Well, I discovered something tonight, China World is in Bangkok not Dubai! It might be in other places too, but it certainly isn't anywhere near here. I spent some time hunting for it on Google Maps and in the Dubai Street Atlas this morning. I was a bit surprised that I just couldn't locate it. Now, all has been revealed! 

We did go out to buy dress making material today. Not normally a male pastime I know, but my navigational skills were required to find the stores as researched on the internet. As noted earlier, even my skills were overstretched with China World! We did, however find Ratti, a very nice air-conditioned store in the old pasty of Dubai, Deidra. 

We took to the Dubai Metro again, and travelled from Internet City to Burjuman where we changed trains and ended up at Al Fahidi station. The area around here is full of clothes, textiles and jewellery stores predominantly owned by Indians.  After a short walk interrupted by touts intent on selling (fake) watches, handbags and other fashion accessories, we arrived at Ratti. The staff were very helpful, even providing water whilst Lynn browsed. Many bolts of material were unwrapped and draped over the tables before suitable material was selected. Everything got beautifully wrapped and the prices very reasonable.

We stopped after this for a drink and found a cafe that served us Lime and Soda. The lime juice was fresher prepared for us. It was delicious and extremely cheap.

Just across the road we went in another shop. They had exactly what Lynn was looking  for, but insisted on displaying a huge range of similar fabrics of differing quality. We even ventured upstairs to buy jersey material to make t-shirts. We had excellent customer service and our salesman insisted on making a 'very good price'! For us, it was a good price which is the important thing, but we could have haggled him down some more I guess.

Loaded with fabric, we headed for the Mall of the Emirates as we needed lunch and groceries. Lunch was taken in the food court, my Lebanese chicken kebab salad was very good and just right for a lunch snack. Lynn's Indian curry was on an entirely different scale. It would have fed a family of four for the entire day!

Carrefour feels odd in that we could be in France, but the fresh fish counter is a sight to behold. Some vegetables and fruits would never make it into the supermarket in France too.

This evening, Lynn and I (well mainly Lynn to be fair) attempted to replicate food we had cooked at the school in Bangkok. I think it worked pretty well really, there wasn't anything left at end. I guess that's the best endorsement of all.

Dubai and Fujairah 13 Mar 2017

The travel bug is still sending us to new places, and today is was to Fujairah, one of the Emirates we haven't visited. Fujairah lies on the eastern side of the UAE and has a coastline on the Gulf of Oman. It's about a two hour drive from Dubai.

We set off fairly early, but there was still heavy traffic as we passed through Sharjah. The queues of lorries has to be seen to be believed. As they are restricted to using the inside lane of the freeway, they end up in huge tail-backs. 

Although most animals are fenced in alongside the main roads, they do escape! Instead of looking out for Emus and Kangaroos, now it's Goats and Camels.

As we headed into Ras-al-Khaimah, the mountains started to appear through the haze of dust that seems to plague the UAE. In RAK, as it's known, we turned east to head for the Gulf of Oman coast. Initially, the road passes through sandy desert with just a few acacia trees surviving here and there. Then after a ridge of rock, the road crosses a huge gravel plain. There is quite a bit of greenery there too and I guess fruit and vegetables are grown here. After passing a huge cement works, which are a common sight in the UAE, we started climbing up into the mountains. Despite the fact it is dry and stony, there are still villages and farms dotted around. 

Somewhere in the mountains, we left RAK and entered Fujairah. Within the UAE, its difficult for visitors to know exactly which Emirate they are in. I think we've been to six out the seven Emirates this trip. I don't think we will go to Abu Dhabi, the missing Emirate, on this trip!

Our destination today was Snoopy Island. The name? The island resembles the classic 'Snoopy' pose of him lying on his back on top of this kennel! We were lucky enough to be able to use the Sandy Bay Hotel by the island. Business contacts of Siobhan got us a deal to use the facilities for the day. Thank you!

Once settled on our sun-loungers, Aaron and I went to investigate the Dive Shop. They had no boat available, but offered us kit to dive around Snoopy Island. We quickly sorted ourselves out and abandoned Lynn on the sun-lounger and went for an hours dive. Although the visibility wasn't too good, we did see a lot of colourful fish and corals. After some hunting around, I managed to find some Rays too. It wasn't the deepest dive I've ever done clocking a maximum depth of 6.8 metres!

Back on shore, we cleaned out kit and returned it to the Dive Shop and went to find some lunch at the pool bar. The menu wasn't very adventurous, all burgers and pizzas, but I got a free beer with my burger! 

The hotel itself is quite nice, I'd like to stay there, but it's almost empty, lots of sun loungers and no guests. In all honesty, if we saw 20 guests today I'd be surprised. It must also cater for Russian guests as all signage is in Arabic, English and Russian. In fact the family in front of us were Russian.

After lunch, we decided to snorkel on the island and all three of us got kitted up and walked down to,the water. I thought there was a bit of seaweed washing up onto the beach, but as I got closer I could see it was heavy oil. I think about half the frontage of the hotel was affected. Staff later told us it happens regularly, it is due to ships flushing their tanks out in the Gulf of Oman. Absolutely criminal behaviour in my eyes. As we left the hotel, staff were out scraping sand into bags to dispose of it.

We managed, largely, to avoid the oil whilst we snorkelled. Once again, there was plenty to see underwater. I don't think I'd dive here again, there are better dive sites off shore. Snorkelling is probably the best way of seeing Snoopy Island.

After a two hour trip, we arrived back in Dubai along with the mad traffic!

Dubai 12 Mar 2017

Today has largely been about relaxing, but has involved the Palm Jumeriah, Penguins, Ski slopes and Carrefour supermarket.

We had a slow start to the day and didn't leave the flat until 1100. Aaron very kindly offered to drive us to the Palm at Jumeirah to have a look at the feat of engineering. The islands, in the shape of a palm tree surrounded by a crescent are entirely artificial. They have be constructed by dredging sand and creating a series of man-made islands. At the furthest point from the coast is the Jumeirah Palms hotel. Other parts of the tree shape have luxury apartments and houses on them. There are several luxury hotels on the outer crescent too.

Quite frankly, we can admire it as a feat of engineering, but found little else to attract us. Much of the Palm is taken up with huge construction sites and it all looks very scruffy. Tourists in the hotels must largely be stranded there as there is little else to do on the Palm. It's a monorail journey back to the mainland followed by a tram ride to the metro system. Definitely not our sort of place.

We continued on to a small nearby Marina where we had a very pleasant lunch sitting right by the water. We had a wander up the jetty to admire some of the luxury motor yachts moored there. From here, we headed to the Mall of the Emirates.

The main reason for our mall visit was to do the grocery shopping at a large branch of Carrefour. Having parked, we just happened to pass an ice cream outlet so felt obliged to test their wares. Having collected our ice creams we walked across the mall to Dubai Ski. Here there is a ski slope complete with ski lifts and toboggan runs. As we stood there looking through the glass whilst wearing shorts and tshirts, it was rather odd seeing people wrapped up in parkas, hats and gloves and the thermometer showing -4C. As we watched, some penguins were lead out into an icy pond area so people could interact with them. Only in Dubai!

Now it's time for a beer on the balcony! The penguins made me feel cold.

Oman 11 Mar 2017

After a peaceful night in the Atana Khasab Hotel, we woke to a blue sky and flat sea. However, we discovered that not everyone had a peaceful night! Apparently the fire alarm went off at some stage, it was a false alarm, but we slept through it. We must have been tired.

Breakfast was included and we sat on the terrace overlooking the sea and worked our way through the extensive breakfast buffet. Suitably fortified, we grabbed our bags and headed to reception to check out. Here, we stood in a queue for quite some time whilst absolutely nothing happened. Eventually, we grabbed a staff member and explained we had an appointment at 0930! We managed to escape shortly after that. As a footnote, should you ever be in this neck of the woods, this is the better located of the two Atana hotels in Khasab.the other one is down in the Port area.

We had booked a dhow cruise for the morning and we therefore followed a man, who'd been sent up to guide us to the dhow, down in the Port. Khasab is small town but has a fairly busy port. It also has a fort built by the Portuguese in an attempt to control access to the Straits of Hormuz. They didn't last long! It's possible to catch a ferry from here for the five hour journey down to Muscat. Our craft was somewhat smaller and was an open dhow, a bit similar to the one taken by Michael Palin when he was travelling from Oman to Pakistan in his 'Around the World in 80 Days' adventure.

Our dhow wasn't an authentic wooden vessel though, it was a modern fibreglass look-alike, probably built in Dubai. Nonetheless, it looked good and had carpets spread out on the deck and large comfy cushions to sit or lounge around on. It also had a canvas shade over the entire deck area. It was crewed by two Omanis, one was the captain the other, who spoke English, our guide. We had the whole boat for the four of us. We were served sweet tea, water and 'Turkish' coffee throughout the trip too.

Once on board, we soon untied and set off put of the Port. As I said earlier, the sea was flat calm and we motored along following the coastline. The scenery is dramatic. Initially, the coastline was low hills with an occasional deserted sandy beach between low headlands. Then, as we turned into the nearest fjord-like inlet, the barren mountains rose almost vertically from the sea. It's very stark scenery and the only form of transport is by boat.

There were several other dhow cruises following a similar route to ours, but most of the time we were well separated from them. After about 30 minutes, our captain told us that a couple of other dhows had spotted dolphins so we headed over to see if we could spot them too. There was a pod of about 20 Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins around the boats and we managed to take a few good pictures of them. Lynn had been hoping to see dolphins the whole time we've been away. Today was her day!

After enjoying the company of the dolphins for a while, we motored on further up the fjord. There are several very small fishing villages here, the only access is by water. They do have electricity and water is delivered by tanker every week. A very remote existence.

The British left their mark here too on Telegraph Island. They built a 'repeater' station on the island which serviced the underwater cable that was laid from here to India. It must have been a bleak job as the island is very small. Allegedly, they spent their time yearning to go around the top end of the Peninsular back to the comforts of Colonial India and therefore coined the phrase 'Going round the bend'! I don't know if this is true, but it sounds plausible!

Not long after passing the island, we found a sheltered bay to anchor in and we all jumped of the boat and went snorkelling. Visibility wasn't wonderful, but we all saw coral, spiny urchins and a wide variety of fish. We got so engrossed that we didn't notice the time and eventually the dhow moved and came to pick us up. Although the water was colder than we had recently experienced in Australia, it was still plenty warm enough for us.

Our trip lasted three and a half hours and was very relaxing and enjoyable, I'd highly recommend it. It's possible to do a whole day trip and you go a lot further up the fjord and get to land on Telegraph Island.

Back at the port, we visited the 'Lulu' supermarket to buy some nibbles for lunch and were amazed at how cheap it was compared to Dubai. We took our lunch and drove a few kilometres out of town and found a place to park high above the sea. We ate lunch here and took a few photos of the scenery too.

We drove back to Sha'am, the border crossing. We were only a few minutes on the Omani side, but the UAE side was busy and took considerably longer. Once through the border, it was a couple of hours drive back to Dubai. Traffic was quite heavy as we got closer into the city. All in all, a great overnight trip to the Musandam Peninsular.

Dubai and Oman 10 Mar 2017

Having spent less than 12 hours in Dubai, we've briefly moved to Oman. We are in a hotel that is perched on rocks right by the Arabian Gulf. Our room looks out over the swimming pool to the sea which is rather like a millpond.

This is an odd part of Oman. It is separated from the rest of Oman by a large chunk of the UAE. To the Northeast of us is the coast of Iran, allegedly this is prime smuggling territory between the two countries. To get here, we drove along the coast of the UAE to the small border crossing post at Sha'am. Here, we had to pay 40 Dirhams each to exit the UAE and then 20 Rials to enter Oman. Stamps all over over our passports!

The day started with Aaron returning from night shift at Dubai airport and Siobhan, Lynn and I going out for breakfast at Arrows and Sparrows, a small cafe/restaurant near Siobhan and Aaron's flat. After a leisurely meal, we wandered back to the flat after buying a slab of water for our desert journey.

Aaron got up not long after we got back and we loaded the car and headed northeast up the coast. Not far outside the city, the desert starts to reassert itself and camels, goats and even cows can be seen wandering around close to the roads. We made good time, although border formalities added about 30 minutes to the journey.

Since arriving, we had a small Arab mezze and a beer as we were hungry and thirsty. Having satisfied the inner soul, Aaron and I took our snorkelling kit and headed for the sea whilst Siobhan and Lynn decided the swimming pool was a better option.

We had to scramble down the rocks to get in the sea and I certainly noticed it was cooler than our last swim in Australia! There is lots of healthy coral here and I saw a large school of Trevally and some bigger wrasse whilst Aaron spotted a scorpion fish.

Now, with the light fading and lighting the cliffs in a pink glow, we are sitting outside and considering our dinner options! In the end, we chose to eat local Omani dishes and ate fish with rice. Its certainly a beautiful spot here.

Bangkok to Dubai 09 Mar 2017

Our final day in Bangkok and we have to check out at noon. Rather than sit around the hotel, we headed out to Lumphini Park, a green oasis in the middle of the city. It was only a couple of stops along the BTS Skytrain route and a short walk along an elevated walkway. Accidentally, we managed to visit the Metro station when we went down too far down in a lift, but eventually made it to the park.

The park is named after the birthplace of Buddha in the Himalayas and has acres of grass and trees and several large lakes. The park is also home to a variety of urban wildlife. We saw several types of Myhnar birds, Herons, Egrets and Ravens,  but also a couple of birds we couldn't identify readily. Probably, the largest, and perhaps most unusual, animal life in the park are Monitor Lizards which certainly grow to well over a metre long. They seem quite unfazed by everyone else in the park and wander around the grass, doze where they feel like it and swim in the lakes.

We walked around one part of the lake and back to entrance and then thought it was time to head back to the hotel and pack before our check out time.  After checking out, we walked down street by the hotel to restaurant we'd visited before, Nalim Cafe where we had a light and cheap lunch. Back at the hotel, the only cool place to sit was in the lobby, so we stayed there for an hour or two.

We took a taxi to airport, once again, it was pretty cheap at around £10. That included paying to use the freeway. The freeway was anything but! It was nose-to-tail traffic nearly all the way so it took a hour to make the 26km journey. Lynn told me afterwards that the driver, who I couldn't really see, was struggling to stay awake. Scary really.

Survarnabhumi airport is huge, as I said the other day, so the check-in areas seems to go on for miles. We had a minor delay when the agent couldn't find our flight booking! I had all the details on my iPad, so all was resolved fairly quickly. Once through security and emigration, we had a brief wander around and had a drink before settling down to wait for our flight to be called. We are travelling on an Emirates A380 aircraft today. It will be interesting to compare it with the Qantas flights.

Our route this evening is taking us from Bangkok out over the Andaman Sea passing south of Myanmar/Burma. Then we will cross the Bay of Bengal before flying over central and northern India and then pass south of a Pakistan, over the Arabian Sea and descend over Oman and into Dubai. Flight time tonight is 6 hours and 33 minutes and the distance 3184km. Our menu says we have a choice of Thai Green Chicken Curry or Stir-fried Red Snapper as a main course. The starter is Smoked Chicken and the sweet, Mocha Mousse. Sounds like a bottle of white wine might fit the bill!

The music library on the aircraft is impressive although trying to select a particular artist or group has defeated me! There is a guide with a four figure number next to each artist and on the screen is a key pad which you'd think you could use to input your chosen number. Not a chance! I've reverted to randomly pressing g the up and down keys until I find something I like! To be fair, I found Genesis by chance and got nearly two hours of their music. ELO kept me amused for a while too. Now I've chanced on Deep Purple, what a blast from the past!

We are on final approach to Dubai at 0025 in the morning, it's 24C on the ground. We were quickly off the aircraft, but any optimism we might have had for a quick escape from the airport were quickly dashed when we saw the queues at immigration. We also collected some pre-ordered wine from Le Clos.  After over an hour in the queue, we made it to baggage reclaim where out bags were already on the carousel. We were assigned a pink taxi driven by a women. We were only permitted to because Lynn was with me! Finally, at 0230, we made it to Tecom and bed. A bit of a long day really!

Bangkok 08 Mar 17

Today was cookery day! We decided before we came here that we'd like to try a cookery school for a half day. It's a chance to learn how to cook Thai food which we both like. Cookery schools are quite popular in Asian countries.

We got up rather earlier than we had been and ate in the hotel dining room and beat the rush today and got a window seat!

Initially, we were going to catch a taxi to the school, but our meeting point was at a BTS station just down the road from us. As a result, we walked to Susurak station and caught the train to Chong Nonsi where we were met at the station by a member of the school staff wearing a red apron!

After a few minutes, we were bundled into a pick-up truck and driven a couple of hundred metres to Silom Road and then walked down Soi 13 to the Sompong Thai Cooking School. After removing our shoes we were taken inside and offered water or iced-tea.

At 0930, our group of 12 headed off with our chef to the local market just off the Silom Rd. Here, we got a lesson about vegetables used in Thai cooking at a roadside stall before moving into the market hall where we learned how coconut cream and milk is produced. We also got a run down on Thai spices at another stall. After this sensory overload, we were left to wander round the market by ourselves. The market also sells meat, fish and fruit. We chose not buy any chicken feet which are considered a delicacy here.

Our chef had collected a variety of vegetables, spices and oils and we helped carry it back to the cookery school. Our classroom was on the top floor of the building and was equipped with 12 mini gas rings and woks as well as every other cooking utensil we would need.

We first peeled some bananas so they could soak in sugar water for a while before we were given a demonstration of how to make the curry paste for our first dish. There was of of grinding and pounding in a very heavy pestle and mortar. After making the paste, the chef said you could always buy it ready made. Our next job was to prepare everything we needed to cook Panaeng Gai or Penaeng chicken curry. We learned some new techniques for preparing chilli and chopping various other vegetables. Then the chef demonstrated how to cook the fish which really only took 4-5 minutes in a wok. Next it was our turn, we all cooked our own version of the dish. We both thought ours turned out very well!

The next dish we did was Som Tum Thai or Papaya Salad. Before getting into the cooking, we were shown how to make a 'rose' by peeling a tomato! There were varying degrees of success with doing that, but was happy with my effort. Once again there was a fair amount of chopping, grinding and stirring ingredients before we ended up with a rather nice salad to eat with our next dish.

Phad Thai is probably the signature dish of Thailand so it was appropriate that we should learn how to make it today. It's full name is Guam Tiew Phad Thai, or stir fried noodles. We had to try some different techniques for this including cooking the curry paste and adding a couple of uncooked prawns in the wok and with those still in it, make room to break an egg into the wok and cook that, then move it all to one side so we could put noodles and a tiny bit of water into the wok. Quite complicated, but I think we all succeeded pretty well. 

We all sat down to eat dinner then, the salad accompanying the Phad Thai followed by our poached bananas with coconut cream! I have to say that time really flew past and before we knew it, it was 2-o-clock! We both really enjoyed the experience and would thoroughly recommend trying the school.

We decided to walk back to the hotel, so walked down Silom Rd surrounded by cars, taxis, Tuk-Tuks , motor scooters and other odd motorised vehicles that fill the streets. We got briefly diverted by a couple of material shops and a small bar where it seemed it was 'happy hour' so we had a couple beers to cool down.

As it was our last night here in Bangkok, we went upstairs to the bar on the roof next to the pool and had cocktails. Watching the traffic and trains hurtling around below us whilst we sipped our drinks was quite relaxing. We then headed out of the hotel and onto the neighbouring street and found a tiny curbside place for a few  nibbles for dinner. Here, we watched people packing up their businesses at the end of the day.  

Bangkok 07 Mar 2017

Well, what can I write about today! It's been a day of mainly staying inside air conditioned buildings! Just once in a while, it's nice not to spend the day getting hotter and hotter!

We did go out though and experience the Bangkok Transport System (BTS) by walking to Sathorn Taksin Station and catching the train to National Stadium. Of note is the fact there are no lifts or escalators up to the platform, clearly not an option for those with mobility issues. Tickets can only be bought from machines and these only take coins. Luckily, the information office carries plenty of small change. Our destination cost 37 Baht each.

The BTS has been built since I was last here and consists of overhead rail lines installed over the streets, so the trains wind around between buildings. The National Stadium is the terminus for the line we were on, so it was easy to work out where we were. As we don't read or understand spoken Thai, it's quite difficult to know where you are unless you can glimpse the station name between the crowds of commuters.

Our aim was to visit Mahboonkrong or as it's known locally MBK! This is a seven storey Thai shopping mall. No big name stores here, just lots of small ones selling almost anything you can think of. There is lots of clothing and shoes mixed in with electronics, watches, phones and souvenirs. Furniture can also be bought here and there is a huge local food court here too. Many the items are copies of more expensive brand name articles too.

MBK also has a huge food court, mainly used, it seems, by locals on their lunch break. We joined in and had Tom Yung, a spicy broth with noodles and in my case crab claws. I can tell you that the roasted chilli was quite hot. The food was freshly prepared and cooked and very tasty.

We headed back to the hotel after this and cooled down in the pool again. It was rather busier than yesterday too.

This evening, we headed out in the tiny streets behind the hotel again and chose to eat at Odds Rock Steak, mainly for the location. We had an outside seat on the corner of the street and passing traffic and people provided us with entertainment throughout the meal. The food was a bit bland and perhaps touristy too, but it was pretty cheap at about £12 for two including drinks.

Last night, being Monday, many of the street stalls were closed, or indeed not even there. Tonight, the streets and what passes for pavement were absolutely heaving. Clothes seem to be the main thing on sale, but small food stalls were set up everywhere, I only regret not having some satay as I walked through the melee of people. Maybe tomorrow night we will repeat the experience!

Bangkok 06 Mar 2017

Bangkok is a manic place! A city that never sleeps, horrendous traffic, thousands of tourists and steamy hot; I love It! The constant buzz of tuk-tuks, car horns, police sirens and people buying and selling on the streets is overwhelming, but it doesn't take long before the whole experience wraps around you and you become part of the scene.

We had a slightly late start and took breakfast at the hotel. After the prices in Australia, we didn't turn a hair at paying £7 for all you could eat breakfast this morning. Suitably fortified, we headed down to Sathorn Taksin pier to catch a ferry. At the pier we were briefly distracted by someone persuading us to catch the tourist boat up river. Tickets were 40 Baht, about £1, but we bought tickets for the local boat for 15 Baht instead. The boat was crowded, but we got a seat and enjoyed our trip. There is plenty to see on the Chao Phraya River. Ferries, tourist boats, rice barges and 'long-tail' boats. The local boats call at all the landing points and people clamber on and off at each one.

We got off at Tha Chang and fought our way through the hawkers to the entrance to the Royal Palace. The crowds here, were amazing. Initially, we thought it was just tourist groups, but then it dawned on us that there were a lot of local people there all dressed in black. King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand died at the age of 88, on 13 October 2016, after a long illness and the country is still in mourning and will be for at least another 6 months. Hordes of people come daily to pay their respects to the dead monarch.

As a result, it was extremely difficult to visit all the temples in the Royal Palace, some were closed and others so full of either tourists or mourners it was impossible to get inside. Added to this, it was extremely hot. We did see as much as we could of these extraordinary buildings, but eventually gave up and found the exit. We managed to walk around the outside of the Palace and get to Wat Phro, the temple of the reclining Buddha. This was much more peaceful and we paid our respects to the largest statue of Buddha in the reclining position. He is huge and covered in gold leaf.

By now, both of us were hungry, thirsty and hot so we found a small local eatery near the temple and dived inside and found a fan to sit beside! We both had a rice and meat dish with a beer it came to 220 Baht. A very tasty bargain meal.

All templed out, we hiked back to Tha Chang pier and caught another local ferry back down the river to Sathorn Taksin. 

Our hotel has a roof-top swimming pool, it didn't take us too long to get changed and head up there. It is rather pleasurable to be swimming on top of a tall building looking down on the crazy traffic, an oasis of cool and calm! The pool is surrounded by garden, plants and trees too. Whilst we dried off, we sat in the shade and had a drink.

This evening, we headed around the corner from our hotel into the lanes surrounding it. We saw several tempting places, but settled on Nalin Kitchen, a small cafe serving local food. After some chicken and prawn starters we had chicken, sticky rice, cashews and noodles for main course. We rather like both the quality and tastiness of the food and the very reasonable prices.

Perth to Bangkok 05 Mar 2017

After almost 5 weeks it's time to leave Australia and return to the Northern Hemisphere! The first leg of our journey will take us from Perth to Singapore.

We had already packed, so it didn't take too long to get up and get going this morning. We abandoned our 'eski' and surplus supplies! We bought 48 bottles of water when we arrived in WA two weeks ago and used all but three bottles. With the bags in the car, we headed for the airport about 30 minutes drive away. Traffic was very light and we were quickly at the Car Rental Returns at Terminal 1 at Perth Airport. Our car was rather dirty, but undamaged and full of fuel, so formalities didn't take too long.

The airport was very quiet, perhaps that's because it was Sunday morning. Check-in was completed quickly and we made our way to departures, where we had to complete a departures form. Security was amazingly quiet but they managed to find a packet of paper handkerchiefs in my pocket when I got the full body scanner treatment. Somehow, Lynn got through the metal detector without her knee joint sounding the alarms! To add insult to injury, the bag scanner took exception to my brolly which was stored in my backpack! Oh well, better safe than sorry.

Our flight route today initially took us from Perth up the coast of WA and out over the Indian Ocean towards Java. In little over an hour, we had flown up to just off the coast at Exmouth, a journey that had occupied three days by car! I managed to take a few photos of Geraldton and Shark Bay. 

About an hour out of Singapore we crossed the very northern end of Java and then flew across the western edge of Sumatra. Sadly, it was too cloudy to get more than the odd glimpse of Indonesia today. Then it's just a hop over the Singapore Strait into Changi Airport.

We had less than a two hour lay-over at Singapore, but it was quite a hike across the airport for our flight, luckily, there are lots of moving pavements! For this leg of our journey we will travel by Jetstar, a subsidiary airline of Qantas. 

Now on board our Jetstar A320, we are bound for Bangkok, it's about a two and a half hour flight and an hour behind Singapore. It is a sort of budget airline with none of the frills of Qantas. No in-seat monitors or charging ports, and if you want food or drink you have to pay for it!

How wrong I was! Not long after we took off we were presented with a cooked dinner for free! It seems a bit odd eating Chicken with carrots, green beans and potatoes, albeit peppered chicken, when most people around us are getting nothing! We also got a bottle of water and an after dinner cup of coffee!

Less than two hours after leaving we started our descent into Bangkok Airport, Suvarnabhumi. This airport, apparently, has the largest passenger terminal in the world. Despite this, the queues at Immigration were short and we didn't have to wait too long for our bags. Lynn changed some US dollars we had into Baht and got more than she expected.   After a brief misunderstanding where we almost engaged a limo service into town and visiting the ATM, we found the public taxi rank. The driver looked a bit bemused by the address and had to phone the hotel to find where it was! Whilst this was going on, the guy from the bureau de change appeared and explained he counted the dollars wrongly and politely asked for Lynn to return 700 Baht! 

The taxi ride was somewhat hairy! The cab had no seat belts and the driver drove hell for leather all the way. He spent a lot of time driving in between lanes so he could le his options open until the last minute. Minute? I think second was more accurate!

He eventually found our hotel, the Grand Sathorn not far off the Silom Road. Our taxi cost us 350 Baht as opposed to the limo fee of 1150! We have a huge room with a massive settee and dining table, very posh, but the hotel has seen better days! Nonetheless, it is absolutely fine for us! After getting our bags delivered, room service was engaged to provide two large Chang beers! Sawadee Bangkok!

Perth 04 Mar 2017

Our final full day in Australia on this trip and the weather forecasters have promised 39C. We've had a brief look around Fremantle, but haven't really been to Perth, so today we aimed to do something about that!

We were very domesticated to start the day, we threw any dirty clothes we had in the washing machine and waited half an hour for it to do and hung it all up outside. We will leave Australia with clean clothes!

After that, we drove into Perth and found a spot to park for free at the DNA tower in Kings Park. The park is huge and lies on the northern side of Perth Water, some of it has been left as natural forest/scrub whilst part of it has become the Western Australia Botanical Gardens. It was rather warm, but we slowly wandered through the gardens looking at plants and birds. At the main entrance to the Gardens we found the Botanical Cafe and stopped for a snack and coffee and lots of water.

As we wandered back to the car, we walked over the Glass Bridge which gave us beautiful views over the water and into the middle of the Central Business District. The city looks beautiful as it is right alongside the Swan River and Perth Water. It's an amazing watersports haven so close to the city.

The car was absolutely roasting when we got back in and it took some time for it to cool down as we drove into the middle of Perth. We found another parking spot down by the harbour and took a walk to Elizabeth Quay. They are in the process of redeveloping it and building a new Doubletree hotel there. Lots of tour boats depart from here, so it's a busy place. We found a small cafe where we got freshly made sandwiches for lunch and watched several Hen and Stag parties congregating. Some were clearly heading for Rottnest Island. I predict some sore heads tomorrow.

Looking back over the past 5 weeks here, we've enjoyed our visit, seen some amazing places and animals and stayed at some nice hotels. Overall, we've certainly got a feel for just how huge Australia is and appreciate the difficulties faced by the original European settlers. We've read and seen a fair bit about the Aboriginal people too, but not met very many. For British Visitors, I think Australia is an expensive destination, whether that is due to just weak Sterling or its just more expensive anyway is difficult to tell. We've met some wonderfully friendly Australians and maybe one day we will return.

Today finished, as I suppose it should, with a seafood dinner sitting by the fishing port of Fremantle. We have returned to the hotel and repacked our bags ready for tomorrow. It should only take us 35 minutes to get to the airport where we need to return our trusty Hyundai Tucson, after driving close to 4000km in Western Australia.

Rottnest Island 03 Mar 2017

Rottnest means Quokkas! Actually, that is factually incorrect! Rottnest is Dutch for Rats Nest, named by early seafarers as they, incorrectly, thought Quokkas were rats. Quokka, on the other hand, is Aboriginal for 'food'! What is beyond doubt is that if you go to Rottnest Island you will see Quokkas! These small marsupials are somewhat like miniature Kangaroos, and are fearless. So far as I'm aware, they have no predators to fear. 

We had a minor issue this morning and that was one other travellers must have encountered! If you book something whilst you are travelling and you need a copy of the confirmation, how do you print it? On one hand, we'd booked tickets on the boat service but knew we could pick up the tickets at the Harbour 30 minutes before departure, easy! On the other hand, we had also booked a parking space at the harbour with Wilsons, who appear to be like NCP in UK. Their confirmation email needed to be printed and left visible in the car window. This hotel does not have a manned reception so there was no help there. Luckily, the cafe next to the hotel was open, and the guy there kindly printed it off after I emailed it to him!

Our ferry left Shed B on Victoria Quay at 0925 and was very full. The journey takes about 25-30 minutes. Once at the island, visitors have to option to walk, cycle or take a hop-on hop-off circular bus service. Most people cycle. It's also possible to stay on the island, but being Labour Day Weekend, prices were too much for us when were originally booking. We took the bus service.

Quokkas are everywhere. Almost anywhere you stop, they will appear on the hope they will get some food. That is forbidden of course, but it doesn't stop them trying. We travelled all over the island and in addition to Quokkas, saw a pair of Ospreys on their nest, enjoyed watching New Zealand Fur Seals 'fin-sailing' in the sea, King Skinks and Honeyeaters!

Originally, we were going to take our snorkelling kit, but decided we wanted to see wildlife. It was a case of one thing or the other really, but the snorkelling looked fabulous! The island was an important part of Australian Defence against Japanese incursions to the important port of Freemantle, during WW2. The remains of forts, searchlights, a light railway system and gun batteries are still to be seen.

We effectively circumnavigated the island by bus. We walked some parts and ride other bits. Most of the coast is achingly beautiful with spotless sandy coves and rocky headlands. We also walked up to Wadjemup lighthouse, the highest point of the island, before returning to Thomson Bay, the only town and ferry terminal.

We arrived back in Fremantle just after 5 and decided to explore the old part of the town. Most of it was built at the turn of the 20th century and is in good shape. The northern part of South Terrace is alive with bars and restaurants but we ended up heading to the Port area where seafood is really the only choice! We ate at Kaili's and enjoyed BBQ'd baby Squid and scallops. I can see us returning tomorrow to explore the 'Little Creatures' brewery!

Kalbarri to Fremantle 02 Mar 2017

As mentioned in yesterday's episode, our aim today was to get to Freemantle and settle for the next few days. We knew it would be a long drive, but had a couple of places we wanted to visit on the way to break up the journey. With that in mind, we left our lovely house before 8am.

The first leg of our journey was to follow the coast south to Port Gregory and then turn inland to Northampton before rejoining the Brand Highway and heading for Geraldton. The road was quite pretty initially, but we ended up in miles of scrubland as we headed south. By around 0930 we were arriving in Geraldton 160km into our journey.

We had a brief refuelling stop at there and were pleased to find that prices are lower back in semi-civilisation! From Geraldton, it was about another 130km south to a turn-off to join the Indian Ocean Drive. We'd avoided this road on the way north as we thought it would be a slow road. Wrong! We stopped at the first place of any size, Leeman. When I say size, I mean there was a fuel station, a shop, a cafe and a caravan park! We stopped at the cafe for a drink and the loo, but found the owner to be fairly unwelcoming. When she brought my coffee, we asked if we could use the loos, she said no, the public ones are on the foreshore! Lynn went to investigate and found they were out of order! It's the first time since we've been here that we have experienced unhelpful and unfriendly people.

Back on the road, we continued to hurtle south down the coast through Jurien Bay and on to Cervantes, a town that uses Don Quixote as its emblem. We thought we'd have a cafe lunch here, but no such luck. The IGA mini supermarket sold us a couple of cheese and bacon rolls instead!

A few kilometres south of Cervantes is the entrance to Pinnacles NP. We both wanted to see this weird desert landscape. After paying our A$12 entry fee, we took a 4km long sandy loop road through part of the desert. Those looking at my FB page will see the strange rocks standing upright in the desert, there are tens of thousands of them. No-one is entirely sure how the feature formed, there are several competing scientific theories behind it. I just wandered around some of the stones considering the strange, and sometimes inexplicable, planet we inhabit.

The visitors centre reminded us that our entrance ticket was valid at Yanchep NP, 150km south, too. Back in the car, we continued south through Lancelin to Yanchep. This park is only 59km north of Perth and is home to lots of native Australian animals.

Once parked up, we found that we were in a grove of Eucalyptus trees that had several Koalas feeding on the leaves. It's difficult to avoid taking lots of pictures of them as they are rather cute! We also saw a few birds before turning our attention to the front lawn of the Tudor-styled, Yanchep Hotel. Grazing the wide expanse of green were about 30 Kangaroos. They don't seem to bothered by humans and we stood and watched them for a while. Some of the 'Joeys' stay and use their Mums pouch when they are way too big, leaving legs and tails hanging out! One family group I watched, had a Male a Female and a fairly small Joey. This Joey was quite keen on feed from his Mum still but she wasn't so keen as she had another Joey in her pouch! We also photographed a very large spider in the middle of its web.

From Yanchep is was about 70km into northern Freemantle and then over the river into Freemantle itself. We are staying for three nights at the Gallery Hotel near Bibra Lake in the suburbs of the city.