How Things Went. Over There.

So, this is the entry where I post my pix and talk about them.


December 19th. Mom and I took two flights to reach Dubai.


Same day evening. Mom (who won a bingo game aboard the ship) and I embarked Costa Luminosa, along with eighty other Manila-based holiday travelers.


First couple of days we went seeing places around Oman & Fujairah. It was basically mosques, museums, and local marketplace aka "souq". Surprisingly, Oman is where you could find the largest Toyota service center. Ever. In the whole wide world.


Then we went to see Bahrain, photo above. Lovely place. I expected R2D2 to pop up in front of me any second, haha. Crazy. Obviously still the same stuff pretty much. Except for the newly-opened big-deal highway that connects Saudi Arabia & Bahrain. It is amazing to know that the Saudi Arabia locals would actually flee their homeland every weekend and enjoy Bahrain just for some beers. Really, really odd. Why don't they just flee permanently, hehe.


Loved the camel farm, but hated the flies. Here's a male camel playing dead. Oh you know how boys are sometimes.


Abu Dhabi was fun. Seeing an 8-star hotel Emirates Palace was fun. Staying outside the fences (cos we were not registered guests) hurt a little. But generally, quite relieved to see all the modernity after maybe three days of seeing too much historical sites. I felt really old for a moment. And the museums were pretty much little armalites museums, haha.


Dubai. Oh man. Before my first-ever dune-bashing, I have never EVER been into a very overly expensive automobile like a Toyota Land Cruiser. With a very handsome (I repeat, very handsome) Bulgarian dune-basher. But just like a great parking lot, too bad he is already taken.


And oh I caught some movie filming somewhere I dunno where it was. I dunno the actors/actress either. I went up to them during makeup break but the actress was frantically waving her hand "no pictures PLEASE." So no picture.


Little-known fact, Fujairah is known for underground spring water. Yup. So odd isn't it.


And then there was this holy-cow-whatta-mosque mosque. I donned a black veil & a black dress to enter. So did every single female visitor. World's single largest and most expensive carpet. My toes (and my socks) were practically screaming with Muslim ecstasy. It was the most glorious mosque ever.


The Filipino chefs aboard Costa Luminosa are the greatest. Never have I imagined it is actually possible to enjoy the following food aboard an Italian ship: adobo, goto, arroz caldo, lechon, lechon kawali, longganisa, bistek. The only thing I was ashamed to ask for was ginataan. You see, I do not know how to swim.


Trivia: my dream destinations list was the following- Xian, Terracotta Army. Amanpulo, the heated pool. Burj Al Arab, the helipad. This is inside Burj Al Arab's Junsui Asian cuisine buffet room's... bathroom where they serve... Hermes lotion. I do not have any helipad experience, as I am not a helicopter.


I do not know and cannot explain why I have this fixation with road signs, especially the STOP sign.


I never knew he could be this cool. The dad, I meant.


Snow in Dubai? Ski Dubai.


Rich people's playground and residence, The Palm Jumeirah. I cannot for the life of me cannot remember my reaction when the tour guide said something like "Problem of Dubai? Not much coastline. So? The Palm. Now increased coastline. Everywhere coastlines." It took me a while to overcome shock. Maybe I'm overreacting. Okay I was very impressed. Funny it made me think something like "Problem? No money. So. Counterfeit. Money everywhere."


The monorail ride was soooooo cool.

In my next entry I will post FOOD PIX. Grab a Coke.