Arabian Adventure - Part 1

We planned this trip to the middle east simply because the whole of the northern hemisphere was experiencing winter.So our places of where to go were quite limited.Also the middle east especially the U.A.E  was also experiencing winter so the temp was around 12C at night to around 22C during  the day.

Perfect riding weather.....and it was  :-)

First we have to get there.....

** Due to almost 900 pics i have to break this up into 3 parts 

Day 1

Mountainous along the east coast

And dry

Sandy as we travel west..

OOOooooooooooooooooo.....    :-)

Soon we reached Dubai

Nice city...

Slow immigration...soon we were picked up....

Vibrant city...

My first arabic signs.....

Pyramids....

After the paperwork.....

Its time to get my bike...

Since i've never ridden a Goldwing and since my wife was along....

why not try it out .... in comfort... :-)

After riding a Harley in Bali...its not to my taste..

Saw this Japanese Hummer wannabe...

Rode the bike to the hotel ,about 20km away.Will expand on the bike later.In one word..Awesome.

View from our room window

Will meet the real thing soon

Soon..  :-)

Nice hotel.

One side..

And the other...is beeeeeeg

Heated pools...yes plural  :-)

How do you get to the piano ?

our view everywhere....

Nice...

We took a walk to the beach.  

And the hotels marina..

If only   :-(

Big isn't she...

After dinner i found the worlds smallest canned drink in my room  :-)  

Day 2

Good morning UAE

Today we were supposed to ride around Dubai

After breakfast...

We decided to walk to the nearby building...

A 3 minute walk along the beach...

To here....

get on the hop on and hop off bus...

And play tourist...

Besides if we were riding...

in a city...

I riding would not get to see anything...

Due to having to concentrate on the road..

Sights along the way...

Passed through a souk...

Lovely detail...

First proper view of Arabia...

View from the open top upper deck...

As we headed to the Palm Jumeirah

All of this on part of the man made islands...

Amazing huh.....

Some houses along the way...

Really love the architecture

Reached the end of the palm

What a view...

Heading back..

See the spiral tower ?

Thats my hotel in front of the Burj

This was the hotel at the end of the Palm

Soon we reached this...

We took a circuit around it

Beautiful...

Coming from Malaysia with our twin towers....

this still dwarfs it...

Hit the pyramid

Guess what motif they are using ?  :-)

Nice huh

Lady with the stick

nice grounds

 heiroglyphics .

OOOooooooooooooooo

Arabic lights..

Camel pizza........really.......Thats what it says  :-P..

Nice Roman columns

Soon we reached the heart of old Dubai

The Dubai creek

Lets go for a cruise...our boat..

Don.t know how they call it a creek

Its big..

But probably extended a lot...

Tour on a Dhow..

Old fishing boats

Old and new

At the prow

Passing an Abra

AKA a water taxi

Sights

Again,  the old and new coexist

See the old fort

Closer...

Now...this is the real old city

Who knows what those sticky out things are ?

More Abras

Weathered...

further along the creek

An old palace

With more sticky out things...

These...they are actually ancient Arabic A/Cs ...Celling mounted not split level... :-)

All too soon the cruise ended

Next we visited the Dubai Fort, now its the Dubai museum

Cool huh

At the entrance

Interior...

Mud bricks ??

Another old A/C...

Here you go

inside of the house

This is how the air gets in

Ramparts

Nice solid door

life in the fast lane ????

old Italian map of Arabia. I saw the exact same map in Venice..

Chiefs boat

Depictions of life in those days

Still have this in many parts of the world

An actual grave at this site

And an old ship in the backyard....cool.

Soon its souk time

Note to self..don't bring wife here again  :-(

look at the size of that thing

The Gold souk

yup...all that glitters IS gold...

Seriously ???????????????

Imagine hundreds of meters of just gold displays

Not a clear pic but just to show a whole dress made of gold ??????

And this ...WOW

After spending time there i only had enough cash for ice cream  :-(

She looks happy though  :-(  :-(

Sitting and watching people with food go by  :-(

We visited another souk

Nice architecture

Lots and lots of hookahs

Nice huh..

Feels like on the set of Arabian nights...

A real traditional Arabian souk

And once the lights came on...

Very nice..

WOW...

Even my hotel was lit up

Dumped stuff here...

There is 5 kinds of meat there ...........yum

What a day.

Tomorrow we ride  :-)

**To be continued.