south africa to egypt • 9 comments • The flight from Johannesburg to Dubai to Cairo was one of the strangest ones we've ever been on. We passed our time in the Dubai airport by amusing ourselves with the foreign McDonalds Menu (i.e. fancy ketchup?!). Having had visited the UAE previously, we decided to relax during our short layover rather than run around the city. A fight broke out on one of the planes between a Russian man and an Egyptian man. They were shouting to each other in Russian and Arabic so we had no idea what they were arguing about. It was predominately men on the flight and they all rushed over like it was a playground scuffle. The female flight attendants were too busy putting on their red lipstick to do anything, so this went on for quite awhile. Finally, some soldiers boarded the plane to remove the men. After a (seemingly needless) prolonged argument, they slowly removed the troublemakers. We still have no idea what happened. We arrived in Cairo on an Emirates flight to be greeted by a wall of muggy heat immediately upon exiting the airplane. That heat didn't let up during the days to come in Egypt. Our time there was interesting, to say the least. We had been to Luxor before, but were definitely surprised by Cairo.
abu dhabi • 8 comments • We had visited Dubai last year (where we got engaged!), and it has a lot more to offer in terms of tourist attractions than Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi has ambitious plans to become the "cultural capital" of the middle east. With satellite branches of the Louvre and the Guggenheim set to open in the next few years, they just might succeed. Whereas Dubai's economy is based primarily on trade and tourism, Abu Dhabi is oil rich and recently had to provide Dubai with a financial bailout. Right now it seems that Abu Dhabi is better suited as a business destination, rather than a tourist destination. The on-going rivalry with Dubai will ensure that the tourism infrastructure will be quickly developed though, so that they aren't left behind. After visiting Ski Dubai, we thought that the skating rink at the Marina Mall would be quite the sight. We were sadly disappointed, as it was comically pathetic: Our jet lag may have kept us from researching all of our options as tourists, but it didn't seem like there was any obvious sights or activities apart from visiting the Emirates Palace Hotel: Our primary goal during our short stay in Abu Dhabi was just to relax before taking on South Africa. The city provided us with warm weather and plenty of camel racing on TV. We're looking forward to going back, one day, when all of their plans come to fruition.
nyc > abu dhabi • 8 comments • The flight on Eithad was as awesome as a long haul flight could be. They had gourmet menus to choose from (still plane food, but pretty good!) and really courteous flight attendants - new favourite airline. The the jet lag was brutal though and we were both still sick. We used some of our Delta Points to get a room and slept for a ridiculous amount of time before venturing out into the city.
where are you going? • 18 comments • Before we went on our trips to Tokyo and Dubai, the question we’d get most often from people was “Why?”. We got the sense that a few of them seemed to be asking “Why (bother)?” Our responses generally included the fact that we had always wanted to visit these places and that we expected it to be a great experience. I understand that not everyone enjoys traveling, but it seemed like a strange reaction. The worst was a (non-Canadian) customs agent we spoke to on our way to Dubai. He wondered why we wanted to visit Dubai when "that's where the terrorists come from". I bit my tongue and chose not to tell him that his country is both a trading partner and military ally with the U.A.E. Since announcing our upcoming trip the question we get most often is “where are you going?”. This is harder to answer. When we say “everywhere” it might sound naive, but our tentative plan is to visit all of the continents and as many countries as our patience and pocketbooks will allow. There are, of course, places we can't go. Afghanistan is obviously not the safest travel destination at the moment, and unfortunately Pakistan seems a little too risky right now as well. Hopefully things change while we're on the road because I've heard that they're beautiful countries. We're interested in seeing both Burma and North Korea, but both countries come with ethical dilemmas. Traveling in these countries means providing financial support to the military regimes (in the form of visas or government owned hotels). I've heard that in Burma if you avoid the resorts you can support the locals directly by staying in guesthouses. North Korea, on the other hand, requires you to be accompanied by a handler at all times and your visit will only support the government. I think we'll have some time to make that decision. I have a feeling that our best bet is going to be to start in Mexico rather than Asia (as we previously thought). If we don't leave until late September we're hoping to travel through China and South East Asia in the fall, which might not be the best time. I'm thinking that going to Mexico and working our way through Central and South America might be the best way to start. I guess we'll have to wait and see where life takes us. photos from our trip to Dubai, where we got engaged
