Welcome to the last blog of our trip, from Abu Dhabi where we're spending three days before returning home. We are actually writing this while sat on our first sunbed on the beach!

After the cooler climate of north India we're back in the heat again although it's not as hot as when we stayed here overnight on the way to Nepal back in September.

We caught a late train from Jalandhar down to Delhi and then went straight to the airport for our 4am flight to Abu Dhabi. It's a four hour flight so we arrived early morning and didn't expect our room to be ready; but it was, our bags were in the room by the time we got there (and no one was hanging around waiting for a tip!) so we were able to rest and have a shower.

We'd booked and paid for the hotel, Traders, part of the Shangri-la group, back in March when we were earning so we could look forward to some 5 star luxury at the end of the trip. The hotel didn't disappoint and was a good base from which to explore the city.

We used the hotel shuttle bus to take us to the Sheikh Zayed mosque which was absolutely stunning. It was only finished in 2003 but has been built in a traditional style with no expense spared. We learned that the mosque has 84 domes, all topped with gold and each with a massive chandelier suspended from the ceiling (the chandelier in the main prayer hall weighed 10 tons!) The mosque also has the largest one piece carpet in the world which is as big as a couple of football pitches, took two years and 1200 people to make. It's all hand made and the final finishing and fitting around the pillars in the hall took another two months. The area covered by the carpet can hold up to 7000 people! As we left the mosque the illuminations were being turned on and we were told that it changes colour depending on the fullness of the moon. All women had to wear a full length black abaya so Linda now knows what one of these feels like.

We also visited one of the many impressive shopping malls in Abu Dhabi, where everything is for sale at a price. We have got out of shopping and unfortunately don't have much room left in our backpacks so we went to see a film at the cinema, only the second we have seen in four months. Sadly we didn't have time to get out into the desert and so missed the annual Beautiful Camel Competition which was being held while we were here!

Everything is available here but is very expensive with prices generally higher than at home so we took advantage of the free drinks and food buffet on offer for two hours every evening at the 'club lounge' on the top floor of the hotel. We just expected a few crisps and nuts and maybe a beer or cocktail but found that there was a huge range, which changed every day, of hot and cold snacks from all over the world to choose from along with every drink you could imagine. Here we rediscovered flavours that we hadn't tasted for more than three months and probably have put back on some of the weight we had lost while we've been away.

So, that's it for this year's trip. We'll be home tomorrow and are looking forward to catching up with family and friends over Christmas. We hope you've enjoyed the blogs and photos and wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Love from Linda and Tony xx

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Comments

Yvonne Towers

Lovely to finish your trip with some luxury. The mosque looks absolutely stunning and it is hard to imagine how big it must be to have one area that holds 7000 people! The idea of two hours of free food and drinks in the evening sounds very appealing. Have a great Christmas. Von x

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Janet Berry

Another fantastic voyage but Tony you'd better get your apron on coz I'm coming over early in the new year for a meal and few glasses of red :-) Have a safe trip home - a lovely Christmas as see you both soon. xxxx

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Mary & Barry

Happy New Year to you both, sorry its a bit late as you will be now safely back home in different weather conditions to those that you´ve experience over the past few months! We would just like to add that the weather over here in Los Gigantes is very good! Hope 2012 is a good one for you both. We´ve really enjoyed your blog. Love Mary & Barry xxx