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Thursday, November 23, 2006

Maldives

The second part of our holidays was the Maldives. It's a place we both been wanting to go to for ages, because it is beautiful and romantic, and also because it apparently has the best diving in the world.

We left Dubai at 2am on Monday and boarded an Emirates flight. The flight passed by Colombo before it went to Male. While we were approaching Male, we could already see the islands underneath. Just seeing that was an amazing sight already. We landed in Male, went through customs and then boarded a speedboat to go to the resort. The ride was only 45 minutes and a little bit rough in the beginning.

The resort is just very nice. Exactly what you expect from a 4-star resort. Staff were nice, food is great, room is good, view is amazing, and not too expensive either.

We spend 10 days there, just sitting by the pool and diving. It's so relaxing just sitting by the pool in the sun. When bored we just walked in the sea, then lay about more, have a drink, lay more, swam a bit, etc. Basically the ideal holiday.

I highly recommend the Maldives. You should definitely go there if you haven't been. And don't go there with your mate, go with your loved one. Otherwise you'll be like the two chaps we met there who had to explain to everybody that they weren't together.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Dubai

A quick recap on our travels:

We left home Friday at 6pm, took a quick flight to Zurich (only a 30 minute flight) and then waited there for about 2 hours before boarding a plane to Dubai. We got in at 6am local time, but our watches was saying 3am. That is pretty early, topped with a bad night sleep on a plane.

Dubai in one word is SURREAL. It seems to be building everything imaginable. They already have a ski resort set in a HUUUGGGEEE mall. The main road is 7 lanes (and still have traffic jams), the workers seems to be building 24/7 non-stop, the hotels are amazing and they are constructing "the world". Very good food (we had a lovely Lebanese meal and a nice Spanish one).

The Burj has dominated my camera, since it's such a photogenic building. One hotel has a marble driveway (yes, marble for cars to drive on). And plenty more things.

We definitely enjoyed our time in Dubai, although we were hit with a bad case of jetlag and my girlfriend had a cold as well. We will try to come again, to try the Wild Wadi, to go skiing, to shop at the Mall, and to enjoy all the hotels.

Even though it's is the Middle East, Dubai is very moderate. You can party and drink at hotels, although finding alcohol outside hotels is difficult. People are walking in any kind of clothing, from the cover-it-all to the almost-covers-nothing.

We left Monday at 2am and I was surprised to see the airport full of people at that time. It's like these people don't know what time it is, like a city that never sleeps. Maybe it will become the new New York, the new city that never sleeps.

Friday, November 03, 2006

Off on holiday

Today I'm off for a well deserved vacation.

We'll be going here:

and here:

See you all in two weeks time!