Goodbye to December 2010

Goodbye to December 2010

December 2010 was the second month in a row during which most time of the time month was spend outside of Koh Samui, just like November 2010. Still I managed to update this blog daily with Samui weather impressions, thanks to a hotline with my wife!

I must admit that I'm contemplating changing the frequency of the blog posts, to once or twice updating per week but I can't seem to solve that puzzle yet. Possibly later this year..........

Motorbike samlor, a typical sight on Koh Lanta

The first part of December I spent on the lovely island of Koh Lanta, where in short succession I conducted a second PADI IDC.

After Lanta it was off to Phuket for a couple of days to assist my IDC candidates during their PADI IE in Phuket.

Than at last I got a couple of days to spend on Samui before I took off for a short holiday trip to the United Arab Emirates.

A traditional breakfast in a very traditional Bedouin tent, the coffee drinking part with one of my hosts and friends Bader

This holiday was definitely the highlight of the month and the first couple of days were spent in Umm al-Quwain, a a quiet and more residential Emirate where both my friends Imad and Bader live.

All 4 of my hosts together, Sunil, Bader, Imad and Anup.

Thanks guys for taking care of me and showing me around in grand style, it was amazing!

Dubai skyline

The second part of my stay was spent in Dubai, probably the most well known Emirate. It was a great time and I'm looking forward to a next visit.

It's now almost a week since I'm back on Samui and it's great to spend time with the family together and wait for the New Year to start, recharging the batteries!

The weather on Samui during December wasn't that great, early on in the month there was plenty of rain and flooding occurred again all over the island, the 6th being a very wet day.

Later during the the month, rather typical is around the middle of the month the rain subsided and sunshine became part of the scenery again.

Happy New Year to all of you out there, reading my blog!

Camille

Dubai Museum, United Arab Emirates

Dubai Museum, United Arab Emirates

As already mentioned in an earlier post this week, during a visit to Bur Dubai, we didn't have time to visit the Dubai Museum, but yesterday I went back and did visit the museum.

The museum was opened by the ruler of Dubai in 1971, with the aim of presenting the traditional way of life in the Emirate of Dubai. It includes local antiquities as well as artifacts from African and Asian countries that traded with Dubai. It also includes several dioramas showing life in the emirate before the advent of oil. In addition to artifacts from recent discoveries as old as 3000 B.C.

An old style water tank, needed to survive in this desert climate.

Al Fahidi Fort, where the museum is located, was built in several phases. The oldest tower was built around 1787 and believed to be the oldest building in Dubai that still exists today. The fort was used to guard the landward approaches to the town from the raids of neighbouring tribes. It has also served, at various times throughout history as the ruler's palace, a garrison, and a prison.

The dioramas are the nice touch to this museum, just as shown above, a diorama about traditional clothing. You would expect a very hyper technical and digital museum, just like the rest of the city but instead this museum is very 'old fashioned' with it's dioramas which make for a great break and change of pace.

Outside of the museum is a dhow, a traditional Arab sailing vessel, with a mosque's minaret in the background.

Ski Dubai

After the museum visit we went to the Mall of the Emirates by local subway, this is one of the bigger malls in Dubai and very impressive. It hosts Ski Dubai, an indoor ski resort! Just so it's set apart from other malls in Dubai.

Later today I'll be back on the plane to Thailand and Samui. Thanks for checking into my Dubai updates and see you soon on Samui again.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 24th December, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui is sunny again with a nice blue sky! The forecast for the Christmas weekend are excellent with plenty of sunshine and no rain. Current temp at 1pm is 28.7C

Yesterday saw plenty of rain all day long and many flooded roads due to the fact that all surface is saturated with water. Max temp reached 28.7C

Dubai street scene with a metro station in the background

Dubai weather hasn't changed one little bit during my stay and none of the yearly 122mm of rain has come down yet. A visit to the Dubai Museum was done yesterday, see for a report here!

Camille

Burj Khalifa, Dubai, UAE

Burj Khalifa, Dubai, UAE

After a daytime visit to the Deira City Centre Mall, the oldest mall in Dubai, where we had a grand shopping experience, including a shop with 75% discount on clothing, which afterwards it turned out that this discount hasn't changed since the opening of the shop, it was time to visit the Burj Khalifa. This is the tallest tower in the world at 828 meters!

Our target for the evening

A scaled down version at the basement of the building

When visiting, book in advance since it seems to be very hard to get tickets at the spur of a moment and try to book them at the Dubai Mall since they're a lot cheaper than!

At the 124th floor (out 0f 160), 452 meters above ground, looking at the very top of the tower!

Dubai downtown by night

Full moon over Dubai downtown

The visit is well worth it and very interesting to see how it was designed and constructed. Thanks Imad for taking me here!

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 23rd December, 2010

Today's weather;

The weather on Samui has changed once more and it's raining today accompanied by a very cloudy sky. Current temp at 10am is 27.4C

Yesterday saw nice weather and sunny skies over Samui. Max temp reached 28.8C

Dubai is still rocking and a visit to the Burj Khalifa was scheduled.

Camille

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, day 5

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, day 5

Yesterday saw a visit to the old part of Dubai, Bur Dubai. There's a Dubai Museum which we unfortunately didn't have time for to visit, this time around. What I didn't know at the time being is that Anup and me would return for a visit later that week.

The old streets of Bur Dubai with all it's small shops and Souks.

A mosque with intricate mosaic work in Bur Dubai.

Dubai Creek where we had dinner

Dubai Mall

A visit to the Dubai Mall was on the menu later in the evening and this was pretty impressive. If you want to buy something here, make sure it doesn't spring your bank!

The Dubai Mall is the world's largest shopping mall based on total area and sixth largest by gross leasable area, it is part of the 20-billion-dollar Burj Khalifa complex, and includes 1,200 shops.

The shops are all op designer shops.

We saw a water fountain show and visited the Aquarium with it's 10 million liter tank.

After that it was off to the Atlantis Hotel on the Palm Jumeirah which hosts an even bigger Aquarium. A post on the visit to the two aquariums is on my dive blog.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 22nd December, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui's weather is improving and today is another great day in the making with some sunshine. It's partly cloudy and a current temp at 13.00 of 28.7C

Yesterday saw a nice day as well, no rain with some sunshine and a max temp of 30.2C

The United Arab Emirates are still good and interesting, the weather is constant and the action keeps going on! Yesterday was Dubai Aquarium time and I visited two different, massively big Aquariums, one at the Dubai Mall and one at the Atlantis Hotel at the Palm Jumeira, see my dive blog for an update on these visits.

Today a visit to the Burj Kalifa, the tallest tower in the world is on the menu.

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 21st December, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui is enjoying more nice weather, however now the European flight carriers can't bring anybody in to enjoy it due to the massive amounts of snow. Current temp is 29.5C at 13.00

Yesterday saw a nice and sunny day on Samui with a max temp of 29.3C

Marina at downtown Dubai, near the Palm

Dubai is interesting, early morning and nights are very nice even a bit cold at times. The daytime is hot and warm though.

Camille

United Arab Emirates, day 3

United Arab Emirates, day 3

The fun and action packed days keep following up!

Yesterday saw me having lunch at an Iranian restaurant , pictured above where the kebabs are barbecued outside. Once more an excellent meal was had!

In between our trips and adventures, there's always time for me mint tea for me and some hubbly bubbly for Imad and/or Baader. Imad is enjoying his sheesha at the local sheesha shop.

Baader, me and Imad at the Thai pavillion

During the early evening we went off to Global Village, located in Dubailand, it's the region’s first premier cultural, entertainment and shopping destination, celebrating diverse cultures, art, theater, commerce and cuisine from around the world and welcomes more than four million guests per year. Each season, Global Village delivers a wide variety of pioneering new shows and attractions in the heart of Dubailand. Covering an area of 17,200,000 sq ft (1,600,000 m2). The construction of this project was started in 2003 and is now almost complete with two or three projects that are expected to be completed by 2011.

Powdered spices towers in the Yemen pavilion

The Global Village is immensely popular, and it was busy during our visit, with a great mix of local people, many neighboring Arab local visitors and the occasional Western person. It's a great way of getting a glimpse from other cultures, I really enjoyed various pavilions and the stuff on offer. Especially the Afghan pavilion had some very colorful local clothes on display.

Outside the Moroccan pavilion a few of these drink sellers were following their trade.

Another great day was had and in the evening we hooked up with Sunil and his friend Anup, who's visiting from India. Now I'm staying at Sunil's place and this is located in Dubai.

Catch you later,

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 20th December, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui sees nice blue skies with plenty of sun again. Current temp at 13.00 is 29.1C

Yesterday I moved to a new location in into Dubai and there's no internet connection at home, so I need to visit internet cafes right now and updates may be sporadic over the next few days.

Yesterday saw also nice weather on Samui with a max temp of 29C

Sunset in Dubai in the desert

Dubai is still a lot of fun and action packed days are the rule rather than the exception so far. It's nice winter weather here, meaning cool nights and mornings and nice day time temperatures of a maximum around 30C

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 19th December, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui has nice weather again and the blue sky and sunshine is back again. Current temp at 10am is 28C (due to a 3 hour time difference between the UAE and Samui, the daily updates are delayed in time).

Yesterday saw almost all day long rain on Samui and due to the fact that the ground is saturated with water, flooding happened rather easily at some parts of the island. Max temp reached 25.1C

The United Arab Emirates are fresh during the night and early morning, around 15 to 16C and during the day time we just cracked 30C yesterday. For yesterdays UAE adventures, check here.

Camille

United Arab Emirates, day 2

United Arab Emirates, day 2

My adventures in the United Arab Emirates continue and yesterday saw another action packed and fun day.

The day started out with an invitation by our mutual friend Baader, to have traditional breakfast at his place, in a Bedouin style tent, nowadays these tents are air conditioned! It also involved coffee drinking after breakfast and burning a special wood in a small holder and the smoke can be used to 'perfume' your clothes. The food was great, once more.

After some sight seeing around Umm al-Quwain, where Bader and Imad live, it was time for lunch and we went to this very outstanding local Umm al-Quwaini sea food restaurant 'Wadi Al Neel', which is famous around the UAE for it's great food. The place is small but was packed all the time we were there and the food was just great!

Dubai city skyline

After lunch it was time to head direction Abu Dhabi, one of the 7 Emirates and the capital of the UAE. There was a visit to the Ferrari World amusement park and the finals of the FIFA Club World Cup in the plans.

At Ferrari world we were all 3 impressed by the sheer size and beautiful design of the place. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to visit the amusement park but the current fastest roller coaster in the world, the Formula Rossa is located here.

We were off to the finals of the FIFA Club World Cup finals between Inter Milan from Italy and TP Mazember from Congo at the Sheik Zayed Stadium. It had been a while since I saw a live football match and it was great to be at the stadium. Inter won easily with 3-0 and we were off back to Umm al-Quwain again were we got home by 1am.

In between each event and during all of the day, I had a decent amount of cups of mint tea, during which occasion Imad and Bader smoked a sheesha.

By visiting Abu Dhabi yesterday, I've been to all 7 Emirates just withing 2 days!

Camille

Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 18th December, 2010

Today's weather;

Samui has some overcast to show for this morning. Current temp at 10am is 24.4C

Dubai has just woken up and the mornings during their current 'winter' are around 16C, it's about 8.30 right now and it's slightly warmer, around 20C.

Yesterday saw some rain again on Samui and the max temp reached 29.9C

Max temps in Dubai reached around 28 to 29C this time of the year which is really nice and agreeable.

Am having an absolute blast here! Yesterday morning we went diving, the afternoon we hung out in the desert where modified cars were supposed to drive up against a very steep sand dune. Greta fun and all local visitors were showing off their sand driving skill in their SUV's, big cars or quad bikes. A short tour on a quad bike was arranged for me as well, as a passenger and a couple of wheelies were performed. Just hold and!

So far we've only eaten Lebanese food and I'm enjoying it tremendously, Last night I saw Dubai by night, that also an experience!

In front of the Burj Al Arab hotel, the only 7 Star hotel in the world

The skyline is amazing and breath taking and build up more or less over the last 15 years only.

Today's we're off to see the final game of the world championships football for club teams. Inter Milan and TP Mazember, the first African team ever to qualify for the finals.

Dubai is part of the United Arab Emirates and there are 7 of these Emirates, today I will visit the 7th Emirate and within two days I've been to all 7! Currently I'm staying at Umm al-Quwain with my friend Imad and tomorrow I'll be moving over to Dubai and stay at Sunil's place.

Camille