Kati's Travel Adventures: Dubai, UAE February 22-27, 2008

As many of you will be aware, I have just recently gotten back from my big trip to the Middle East. As I have taken so many pictures, and I know that you are all going to want some captions, I figured it was about time to try this blogging thing that I have done such a good job avoiding for over 2 years now!

I've picked out some of the best or most important photos to share with you (and even mostly in chronological order)

Starting with my arrival in the Desert on Friday morning....

I was visiting a friend from grad school, Jen. Upon my arrival, Jen picked me up at the airport, we went and dropped my stuff off at her place, changed and hit the public beach in an area called Jumeriah (notice it's really close to one of the more famous buildings in Dubai, the 7 star hotel shaped like a sail). We caught some sun, and watched the waves of the Persian Gulf crash in...

Jen also took me down to the Dubai Creek, which we crossed on an Abra (water taxi)...

Took a walk around the Gold Souk (markets)... that was unreal!

On Sunday, I took part in a tour to Hatta. We stopped on our way to prepare the SUV for driving through the sand dunes when I saw this...

Here's a pic of another SUV driving through the dunes...

Just when we were all really into it... ooops... tire trouble!

So, the time was used exploring the dunes on foot (and some had a go at boarding down the dune)...

Then we drove for about 100km (into Oman, back into UAE, before ending at the Mountains in Hatta (Oman)...

Me at the mountains.... thanks to Naveed (the Pakistani tour guide) for taking these pictures

After Jen got off work on Sunday we headed over to Mall of the Emirates (a shopping mall) that is home of Ski Dubai. Neither Jen or I had ever been skiing before, but somehow thought that this was the place to try it for the first time.