Day One

After the emotional goodbyes at the airport, Sara and I headed through the gates. It was a scary thought, but I was so excited. We purchased a gift pack of wine for eri in duty free before hopping onto the plane. The plane left earlier then the time on the boarding pass... but that was a relief as we were worried about how long it would take to go through customs in Dubai, and we had a bus to catch to Abu Dhabi to meet up with Eri.

The plane took 11 long hrs, and by the last hr I was starting to get fidgety, which I think was annoying Sara just a little bit. But I think it was more excitement, and the fact that they took away our ear phones with still half an hr left which meant I didn't have much to do. The movies on the plane weren't current releases at the cinemas. But I didn't mind that, as I still haven't seen much lately. So I watched Blades of glory and Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I also watched Demolition Man in the classic film section. Anyway enough about the boring plane ride.

We arrived at Dubai airport earlier than expected and picked up our luggage and went through customs. This was all pretty quick, minus the time it took for Sara's fragile framed art to appear on the conveyor belt. But we still got out early and realised the directions to the bus weren't that great. A taxi driver tried to convince us that no buses come in the afternoon, and for him to take us on the hour and half drive to Abu Dhabi. We just smiled and went back inside to wait in the a/c until it got closer to the time the bus would arrive. It did come... so that was a relief.

The bus ride was fascinating just to see how much was being built. Every km or so, another dozen high rise buildings were being built. Once we were out of Dubai there was almost nothing. It was crazy how baron it was. We finally get into Abu Dhabi and meet eri at the Sheraton, as it was close to her house. By the time we got inside the house, it was around 5:30pm (10:30pm Perth time). We unpacked a bit had showers and headed off to the Abu Dhabi mall and had burgers... very authentic. :P After that we walked home and went to bed... it was about 10pm, which is 3am Perth time. This is 23 hrs after we got up that morning to get ready for the airport. We did sleep on the plane though, as we had 4 middle seats between the 2 of us. The only issue it was at the back of the plane, which meant it was a little more bumpy... but hey, do u see me complaining? :P

Day Two

We got up at 11am, and had breakfast and bummed around the house for a bit before going to the Marina Mall. We didn't really look around the mall, but eri was saying that they were building a snow park in it, but it wasnt ready yet (but I hopefully will get enough snow soon enough anyways). Anyways, we went down stairs to change some money into Durham's and then walked to a jetty where we caught a boat to Al Lulu Island (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Lulu_Island), a manmade island just off the marina. The boat took about 5 minutes to get from point A to point B. We had to pay to get on the island, but the boat ride was free... and it was only 15 durhams each (about $5ish). We decided to pay 5 durham more each to catch the "train" (a tractor designed to look like a kiddy train with 2 carriages). I can't believe we paid 5 durhams to catch something, when we could have caught the a/c buses for free. Oh well... it was still cool. We got off at the other side of the island which was a protected man made lagoon (which meant no sharks) We sun baked, swam and read for a long time. (Sara says... long time for me... pfft). After that we went to the cafe to have lunch... guess what, burgers again! We wanted club sandwiches... but they were unavailable... I got curious, and wanted to try something on the menu I didn't know, but I asked about a few things, and they were all unavailable. Dam!!!

After lunch we went to the fresh water pool which was pretty cool.. more swimming and a bit more sun baking. We left the island and headed back to Eri's to get changed and decide what to do for dinner.

We decided to go to the Hilton, as there was a Mediterranean buffet with free house wine and beer (fosters, lol) for 105 durhams each ($32, AWESOME!!) I had a beer, and the gals started on house white wine (which was an Australian chardonnay). Before the girls could finish 3/4 of their glasses of wine, the waiter came back and topped them up. I decided that beer wasnt going to cut it after that, and after the fosters, I went to white wine. By the end of the meal, cakes, and about 3-4 more tops up before we left... You could imagine how rosy my cheeks ended up. :P We went to Hemmingway's (a club at the hotel) as it was meant to be ladies night, which meant a few complimentary drinks for the gals, but when we got there, we found out they weren't doing it.. so we decided just to go home. When I got home, had a few glasses of water and went to bed. Sara and I both passed out seconds after our heads hit the pillow.