Hanging out in Dubai for 3 weeks is an expensive undertaking, particularly on a tight cycle tourer’s budget. We hadn’t had much luck with finding free accommodation through Couchsurfing or Warmshowers, so we were staying in a hotel. That’s why we were quite excited when Chris contacted us from South Africa via Twitter and suggested we could stay with his daughter Melanie, who lives in Abu Dhabi. || A few days later we gathered our belongings, leaving the boxed bicycles in our hotel in Dubai. There is a regular bus…
UAE
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas from sunny Mumbai! May peace, health and happiness be with you. Today, we were invited by a local woman to attend Christmas carols in a cathedral in the south of Mumbai, but as most people in Mumbai are Hindus or Muslims, we don’t see too much Christmas activity in the streets. || As usual we will celebrate twice: first comes the German Christmas, which is celebrated on the 24th, and then the Australian Christmas on the 25th. Freddie’s family in Hamburg is enjoying a white Christmas with plenty of snow for the first time in…
Dubai: Air Conditioned Perfection
Walking into our glitzy hotel foyer it felt as if we had entered another world. Polished floors, a glistening chandelier, a serene ambience. Everyone looked so well fed, so well groomed. Catching our reflection in the lift mirrors as we went up to our room we couldn’t help but laugh: we were grubby, our clothes faded and grease stained, hair ruffled, it was clear we were in need of a good wash if we were ever going to cut it in this town. || Scrubbed and trimmed we ventured outside in search of a grocery store to buy…
Obtaining an Indian Visa in Dubai
This post is for the benefit of other travellers who are considering their options about obtaining a visa for India. We have met several people in this situation, and as there doesn’t seem to be much information about this on the internet, we decided to post our experiences. This information is current as of December 2010 and obviously only reflects our own experiences. || When we planned our bike trip from London to Melbourne, we had hoped to get our Indian visa in Turkey, but this turned out not to be feasible. As of summer 2010, new regulations…