Author archive
24 May 2003
We woke at 0500 and were in the courtesy shuttle at 0600 for the short ride to Dubai airport. Check-in was swift and we used up our remaining dirhams before boarding the Emirates B777-300. We departed about 30 mins late due to having to offload the bags for people who were turned away at the […]
23 May 2003
Today we have a daytrip, with a pick-up at 0830, to Buraimi Oasis and Al Ain via Hatta and Hajar Mountains. Our driver James, from Karnataka drove us through sandy dunes on the side of the motorway before entering more rugged territory. At Hatta Fort, it was a brief stop as it was closed being […]
22 May 2003
We rose around 0600. The sky seemed quite light way before the actual sunrise time. After breakfast, we set off in our Land Cruiser to Camel Rock where the sand was redder and there was no vegetation. We were taken back to our hotel around 0930 and were fortunate enough to be given a room […]
21 May 2003
The real Dubai After a simple of breakfast of items from the supermarket we took the hotel shuttle to Deira for the Gold Souk. The traffic was a shocker, just like yesterday evening. It was already hot when we wandered around, despite in largely sheltered alleys. The gold necklaces and adornments of various types were […]
20 May 2003
We ate a simple breakfast of cereal, mango juice and some cake in our room. Our hotel is in the same group as the Jumeirah Beach Hotel and we used their free shuttle to get there. The water in the sea by the hotel was just stunning. It was a gorgeous turquoise to look at […]
19 May 2003
Leaving Iran We woke at 0445 as we have a morning flight from Esfahan to Tehran to connect on to Dubai. Kim had a bad night sleep and had been fighting a cold. We collected our passports at reception and set off for the airport at 0530, arriving there at 0600. It was another half […]
18 May 2003
Above: Abbasi Hotel courtyard. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons. Shaking Minarets Kim didn’t sleep well due to the traffic noise. We changed room after breakfast to a quieter one. Kim also had a cold, so wasn’t particularly happy. We took a taxi to Chehel Sotoun, a pavilion with forty columns set within a park, but it […]
17 May 2003
Around the Square Kim’s mum, Fiona, rang and woke us up. She had got the time wrong by an hour and rang too early as a result. We decided to look for alternative hotel. We didn’t have to go far, in fact, just across the road to Persia Hotel. We got a room with a […]
16 May 2003
We had breakfast with Daniel and took it easy this morning. We’re flying from Shiraz to Esfahan in the evening and are just absorbing the experience of being in Kerman, having done the must-sees of the area. About 1100 we went for a walk to find the Church of St Simon the Zealot but we […]
15 May 2003
The hotel buffet breakfast was similar to those we’ve had so far on this trip, plus crispy dried cake-bread and biscuits. Last night, we had organised with the hotel receptionist Hussein for a driver to take us to Persepolis. He said he knew a good driver which he had known for 34 years that had […]