Almost every time I pay a hotel to handle my laundry, I inevitably get my bundle back minus a sock or two. To replenish supplies, I shopped around for the cheapest pack of socks that I could find. Little did I realise, until I got home, that I had actually bought “Excellent Men Cocks”. Here’s […]

(Warning: This is a long post. Feel free to skim.) For me, this is a touch nut to crack. I can’t claim to have widely travelled the seven emirates; in fact I’ve not been to most of them, so feel free to read this with a generous pinch of ignoramous-flavoured salt. Save for Abu Dhabi […]

Even on a quite reasonable budget, it’s not possible. Let’s just leave it at that, shall we? You want me to elaborate? If you want to get outside the cities, you really need to hire a car. Buses do exist, but will only take you so far. After that you’re either on foot in the […]

Eating has recently been quite a painful experience for me and anyone who knows me, knows how much I enjoy eating! Like any good travelling xenophobe, I checked myself into the local British Dental Surgery here in Abu Dhabi to get my mouth checked-out. Turns out that one of my wisdom teeth had developed a […]

We spent the day relaxing at LuLu Island, a man-made island just a hop, skip and a jump from the Corniche (coastal road) in Abu Dhabi. Whilst the ever-present property developers make up their minds with how much concrete and glass to throw onto the island, it’s been opened-up to the public to come and […]

We stayed at the YHA Youth Hostel in Fujairah last night. At 260Dhs (£40) a night it’s a darn site cheaper than any other hotel that we’ve come across in the UAE, but still a real rip-off compared with every other hostel at which I’ve stayed elsewhere on the globe — including a prime location […]

Full credit to the Indian embassy here; they processed our visa in just three days, instead of their usual seven and everything went without a hitch. No queuing either to drop-off or pick-up our passports. I’m impressed and just hope that the rest of India lives up to this standard; although I fear that it […]

Yesterday, a foot-long spanner was thrown into the works of our roadtrip: our passports are at the Indian embassy awaiting visa processing. The snag is, here in the UAE tourists must–by law–present their passports upon check-in to a hotel or hostel. Obviously this stopped the show for us yesterday, so we returned to the safe […]

My family have now left Abu Dhabi (sniff, sniff) and so the Squifter and I hired a car for a week to tour around the United Arab Emirates to see a bit more of this land, outside of the high-rise lifestyle. Before we left the city, we dropped our passports in at the Indian embassy […]

Sometimes, whilst Dave is computing in Sarah’s air-conditioned flat, I like to go out exploring by myself. At the moment it’s too hot to walk more than a block, so I generally take a taxi. Whilst cabs here are cheap, when it comes to the standard of driver and driving, it’s definitely a case of […]