Desert Safari

It was so nice to have Gillian, and Greg and Andreja visiting us, and we celebrated by taking them out on a desert safari. We had heard it was good fun, but had no idea what we were in for. Our driver Akbar was the number 1 driver for the company and we were in the lead as we headed through the desert. We sped up and down sand dunes, went sideways along some and continued to marvel at how we didn't flip over. Akbar assured us that he had never rolled the car in ten years of driving in the desert. The adrenalin rush was great and we laughed and screamed (at least the girls screamed) all the way to our dinner spot. Under the stars we then enjoyed some traditional arabic food, went for a camel ride and enjoyed watching some traditional belly dancing.

The Sheik Zayed Mosque Abu Dhabi

We had three friends from Australia visiting on the first weekend in May and this is always a great excuse to get out and about and sightsee. One of our trips was to Abu Dhabi where we were able to tour the newly opened Sheik Zayed Mosque. What an absolutley amazing building. It is credited with having the worlds largest carpet, the worlds largest chandelier and the largest dome of its type. It is so beautiful and the decorations inside and out need to be seen to be believed. It can hold up to 40000 worshippers at any one time, which includes the large area outside, but inside can also hold several thousand. There are very few mosques in the UAE that non muslims can visit so we were very privelaged to be able to tour the mosque. To do so we had to wear a traditional abeya and hijab which the kids thought was pretty interesting. They didn't have to wear one but would have liked to have for the novelty factor. It has taken 12 years to build the mosque and when you see the grandness of it you can understand why. It is definately worth visiting if you are ever in the UAE