Greetings from London!

[blackdiamond]

I only have about a minute online left, but thought I should say Hi to the Marlin World from London!

[blackdiamond]

On to the UAE tomorrow night!

[*FFC*]

Wow! Have a great trip!

[abnormaltoy]

UAE? Surely this can't be a Get-Away weekend...what's the poop?

[unclejpl4x4]

hope yor having a good time

[79coyotefrg]

London??   as in Queen mum and Big Ben

[brainlessfool]

London??   as in Queen mum and Big Ben

The Queen mum has been gone for a while now. she pasted shorty after I was over there last.

and "Big Ben" realy anit all that big.

[unclejpl4x4]

o boy o boy

[blackdiamond]

London, England.  Big Ben is actually the bell in the clock tower so I can't say how big it really is.  The face on the clock is large enough to park two busses side by side so I'd say it's big enough to impress.

Last night we flew from London to Dubai, oddly enough I didn't sleep a wink until I arrive in Dubai.

The trip was planned to visit my sister, brother-in-law and new nephew that live in Dubai.  We were in London for most of four days, the airfare was the same with an extended layover on British Airways and we'll be in Dubai about six days before heading home.  Today we ate dinner in front of the tallest building in the world, it's not nearly as impressive as I would have guessed.  We'll be visiting Abu Daubi (spelling?) and a town on the opposite coast while we're here.  We may do a scuba trip if things work out.

I saw one Jeep Cherokee and one Jeep Wrangler in London, but no Toyota trucks.  I didn't see a single GM car unless you count a single Volvo.  There were tons of Fords and a few Chryster products.

I'm tired...

[germ]

I've been there years ago...are the taxi drivers still as nuts? Take your life in your hands over there. Almost got killled stepping out onto the road. forgot they drive on the wrong side.

Erik

[blackdiamond]

I've been there years ago...are the taxi drivers still as nuts? Take your life in your hands over there. Almost got killled stepping out onto the road. forgot they drive on the wrong side.

Erik

The taxi drivers seemed ok, but the traffic in general is crazy.  We noticed that even walking on the sidewalk was difficult at times because the different cultures that visit can't agree on which side to walk on.

We're getting ready for our first Dubai taxi adventure in a few minutes to go take a bus tour.  It's supposed to be 105 to 110 the next few days.  Thankfully, London was also hot, at least for them, so there was a little transition from Washington State.

Save your money if you want to visit London, the exchange rate is $1.6+ to 1 and prices are a little higher for things, I've heard that Dubai is expensive, but don't understand the currency conversion yet.  I think it's about 3 to $1.  My sister said that 50% off sales are getting close to reasonable prices, but you can generally beat the price back at home.  We visited the largest mall in the world yesterday, it has something like 1,200 stores and little or no duplicates.  Ski Dubai is part of another mall that we plan to visit to experience snow in Dubai.

Enjoy your days!  We're watching Letterman live with breakfast.

[kneedownnate]

If you watch 2 1/2 men enough you'll get it, but every time I see the thread title I think "greetings from faggy old london"...

I don't know if me and warm beer would get along either 

[brainlessfool]

I don't know if me and warm beer would get along either 

I never had a warm beer while I was there. and had lots of beer.  let me tell you, the alone is worth the trip. 

[BLACKDOG]

If you watch 2 1/2 men enough you'll get it, but every time I see the thread title I think "greetings from faggy old london"...

I don't know if me and warm beer would get along either 

I'm not the only one!!   


bd, I hope you're taking plenty of pics of the trip.

[blackdiamond]

I'm not the only one!!   


bd, I hope you're taking plenty of pics of the trip.

Funny you would mention pictures, mrsblackdiamond managed to delete a 4GB card of pictures that had everything from London and the first couple of days in the UAE.  We have purchase recovery software and should be able to piece them back together once we get home.  The card is a pain and doesn't register on all computers.  Thankfully only the registry gets deleted and not the actual files.



The other night we had dinner in a hotel overlooking the hotel that looks like a sailboat and then stopped in for drinks (I generally don't drink and hadn't had anything since September 2007 in Jamaica but felt bad not purchasing anything but dessert) and dessert in the sailboat hotel (this is the famous one that Tiger Woods hit a golf ball off of the heli-pad).  It's a pretty fancy place.

Today my brother-in-law and I did a dune buggy adventure that was great fun.  I wish the buggies were a tiny bit faster, but the sand flying made it difficult to see.  Thankfully, the heat wasn't horrible as it was over 110 earlier in the day.

This weekend we went to a resort on the east coast of the UAE, in Fujairah, and we took an afternoon scuba trip.  We saw a large turtle and two black tip sharks.  Mrsblackdiamond is the scuba diver and I just go along to be a good sport.  We opted to take a short class to refresh our memory since we hadn't been diving since Sept 2007, again in Jamaica, and this time they made me do skills that I didn't even do when I got my certification.  I'm not much of a fish so I wasn't very comfortable.  I think the skills were for a higher level certification than I have or ever want to have.

One of the resturants had the best beef steak I have ever had, including a Gordon Ramsey beef wellington that we had in London.  It was the type of beef used for Kobe beef, was cook perfectly in small pieces and came with a garlic-soy dipping sauce.  It was cook with butter so it was similar in taste and a Ruth's Chris steak, only better.

It's been a fun trip.  Tomorrow is a tour of the Grand Mosque in Abu Dabi (spell?) and then home the following morning...your Monday night.

[blackdiamond]

Oh...there are only two off road rigs to be seen around here.  Toyota Landcruisers and Nissan Patrols.  All of the adventure tours that offer "sand bashing" rides use Landcruisers that are fairly new and very nice.  We got a short ride today in one that had a factory looking roll bar in the back, didn't know that was an options.

A late model landcruiser with a manual transmission and a roll bar is difficult to beat.  They run large tires that are almost smooth other than longitudinal grooves.

[Bazzi]

make sure you wave when you fly ower me on your way back

[blackdiamond]

make sure you wave when you fly ower me on your way back

I'm going to try and be awake for the flight from London to Seattle, but we'll see how it goes.  I'll probably be awake on the Dubai to London flight which will ensure that I'll be tired on the second flight and arrive in the U.S. 11 hours off.

Today we visited the Grand Mosque in Abu Dahubi and it was really impressive.  The entire thing is marble and has a lot of semi precious stones in the pillars on the exterior, but the interior is nearly all done with various colors of marble.  The interior columns have an inlay of mother-of-pearls that is a 1st.  The marble they use on the floors stays cool even in the 120 degree heat, I was amazed that it felt ok when the air temperature was extreme.  The guide said it was used so that their prayers didn't turn into a dance group.  The place was in the design phase for 10 years and has been under construction for the past 13 years.  It should be done very soon for a project cost of over 3 billion duhrams or close to 1 billion US dollars.  It was funded by one man and the explaination was that it wouldn't be right to build god a house that was less than that of the builders.

We got some insight into the religion and it really sounded more Christian than many "Christian" religions.  One thing that was clearly pointed out is that they don't bow during a funeral prayer to make sure that nobody confuses it with worship of the dead person.  The part of the prayer that we all hear, the chanting, was explained, as well as, the parts of the prayer that were specific to the individual.  Obviously there is a lot of ritual, but that can be said of a lot of religions/denominations.

We also visited the palace and it was very nice as well.

[blackdiamond]

I'm going to try and be awake for the flight from London to Seattle, but we'll see how it goes.  I'll probably be awake on the Dubai to London flight which will ensure that I'll be tired on the second flight and arrive in the U.S. 11 hours off.

Today we visited the Grand Mosque in Abu Dahubi and it was really impressive.  The entire thing is marble and has a lot of semi precious stones in the pillars on the exterior, but the interior is nearly all done with various colors of marble.  The interior columns have an inlay of mother-of-pearls that is a 1st.  The marble they use on the floors stays cool even in the 120 degree heat, I was amazed that it felt ok when the air temperature was extreme.  The guide said it was used so that their prayers didn't turn into a dance group.  The place was in the design phase for 10 years and has been under construction for the past 13 years.  It should be done very soon for a project cost of over 3 billion duhrams or close to 1 billion US dollars.  It was funded by one man and the explaination was that it wouldn't be right to build god a house that was less than that of the builders.

We got some insight into the religion and it really sounded more Christian than many "Christian" religions.  One thing that was clearly pointed out is that they don't bow during a funeral prayer to make sure that nobody confuses it with worship of the dead person.  The part of the prayer that we all hear, the chanting, was explained, as well as, the parts of the prayer that were specific to the individual.  Obviously there is a lot of ritual, but that can be said of a lot of religions/denominations.

We also visited the palace and it was very nice as well.

[blackdiamond]

We also learned a little bit about Muslim names.  There are 99 names for God (Alah being the equivalent of the general name of God) and the other 98 are essentially characteristics of God.  An example would be "mercy."  When you hear a name that begins with "Ab" such as Abdula it means servant of "dula" and dula is one of the traits/names of God.  I thought it was pretty cool.  The would never use a name of God without attaching the prefix.  I think I'm correct on the "Ab" part, but it's the general concept that I'm trying to convey.

[unclejpl4x4]

so thats why they all seem to have the same name

[blackdiamond]

make sure you wave when you fly ower me on your way back

I waved and we even took a picture out the window as we crossed the coast over Greenland.  Is Greenland and Iceland essentially the same thing?

[Bazzi]

hmm... nobe sorry I was woundering why I ditn´t see you....  Greenland is a litle north of iceland.  a litle bigger and a litle more covered with snow