Greetings!
Here I am doing what a Travelling Uncle should, sat in a Delhi hotel, travelling.
My trip started with a full 15 hour stop-over in the UAE. Although I flew into Abu Dhabi Airport, I've decided to save that city for the way back and so I bussed off to Al-Ain, the only major inland city in the UAE.
If I'm perfectly honest, I expected more. Al-Ain's Oasis is a UNESCO World Heritage Site which should be a guarantee of a degree of interest, but the oasis was naught more than some well-irrigated plantations whilst the town itself was largely modern and nothing spectacular. Still, it was low-key and friendly which my next stop certainly was not.
I visited Dubai in 2005 on a stop-over from Malaysia to Manchester with the Ex and rather enjoyed the place. Ok, so it's not somewhere I'd like to be stuck for any great length of time, but for a short visit, it's got a hintof old Arabia with absolute dollops and dollops of new. Put it like this, I went back on this trip because in the eight years since my last visit they built an entire new metro system, a map of the world made out of islands in the sea, two palm trees also made out of islands that can be seen by satellite and if all that wasn't enough, the world's tallest building, almost twice the height of the 2nd tallest. Yep, worth going back I suppose.
Yet whilst all that was very... 'Wow!' I must confess that my favourite Dubai experience is still sitting by the creek watching the very Third World abras, (dhow-type boats but with motors), chug past drinking tea. as I said, there is a hint of the old there too.
But now I'm somewhere very different, somewhere dirty, loud, chaotic, mad... and a million other choice adjectives. Don't know if I like India yet, it's very much like Ho Chi Minh City which I still have mixed feelings about but spending the evening sat in the gurdwara on the spot where the Ninth Guru was martyred after a tasty langar was an experience that I'll never forget.
And there's more of that coming as I'm booked on the train to Amritsar tomorrow, off to see the Golden Temple...
Keep travelling!
Uncle Travelling Matt
Here I am doing what a Travelling Uncle should, sat in a Delhi hotel, travelling.
My trip started with a full 15 hour stop-over in the UAE. Although I flew into Abu Dhabi Airport, I've decided to save that city for the way back and so I bussed off to Al-Ain, the only major inland city in the UAE.
If I'm perfectly honest, I expected more. Al-Ain's Oasis is a UNESCO World Heritage Site which should be a guarantee of a degree of interest, but the oasis was naught more than some well-irrigated plantations whilst the town itself was largely modern and nothing spectacular. Still, it was low-key and friendly which my next stop certainly was not.
V-log from Al-Ain Oasis
I visited Dubai in 2005 on a stop-over from Malaysia to Manchester with the Ex and rather enjoyed the place. Ok, so it's not somewhere I'd like to be stuck for any great length of time, but for a short visit, it's got a hintof old Arabia with absolute dollops and dollops of new. Put it like this, I went back on this trip because in the eight years since my last visit they built an entire new metro system, a map of the world made out of islands in the sea, two palm trees also made out of islands that can be seen by satellite and if all that wasn't enough, the world's tallest building, almost twice the height of the 2nd tallest. Yep, worth going back I suppose.
V-log from the Burj Khalifa
Yet whilst all that was very... 'Wow!' I must confess that my favourite Dubai experience is still sitting by the creek watching the very Third World abras, (dhow-type boats but with motors), chug past drinking tea. as I said, there is a hint of the old there too.
V-log of trip: Dubai Creek
And there's more of that coming as I'm booked on the train to Amritsar tomorrow, off to see the Golden Temple...
Keep travelling!
Uncle Travelling Matt
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