UAE adventures

hey peeps, coming to you all the way from muscat in oman right now on a very snazzy computer in my hotel lobby! the ambiance music in the lobby here is enough to make you vomit but there you go, this is oman!
but wait... what have i been up to in the meantime in the UAE? well now children its quite simple. I arrived in the morning of the 11th and got through dubai passport stuff pretty easily, i mean this irish passport thing is gold! so then the taxi fiasco started.... the guy was a dubai taxi so he didnt know sharjah that well (where i was headed to stay with kerryanne) but finally after a number of phone calls and confused directions we made our way to the cricket stadium in sharjah to meet kerryanne in her school! yes kerryanne is ateacher out there in sharjah! now this is not some underprivildged thing, these kids pay big bucks to be taught by unqualified irish teachers ! she lives on campus so it was like being in a summer camp with the weather and the lovely little houses that they live in (for free!). so since kerryanne was working from sunday to thursday i took myself off to the UAE captial for a few days staying with a friend of kerryanne's for the duration. this is where paddy enters the story! he too is a teacher, but his kids run wild! i spent my days in abu dhabi checking out the very few sights and tanning on the beach! paddy took meout one night with all the school teachers (mid week i ask you!) we ended up in some place called rock bottoms (apparently its a chain) but i had such a laugh i couldnt care where i was! and par for the course paddy tried his luck... uh oh...but luckily i was on to his game early on and faked extreme drunkeness and feel asleep (solo) on the couch, we never talked of the incidednt so i thought he had forgotten it but no he texted Kerryanne about it! ah well! i bussed itback to sharjah, that was an experience, being the only white person on a bus.... but ihad no major incident until the bus nearly crashed into some crappy driver! but arrived safe and sound at the school... then it was the weekend, this was all about and all you can eat dinner, oh and the dinrks wer included (think back to the discription of the brunch and be very afriad) so wee annoyed the waitors for ages about drinks and suddenly we were all pissed as farts and full from random food and heading to the nighclub, which we had to pay into cos we werwe too late :( god i felt so ill! so much so that i headed into the loo and forced my fingers down my throat! but to no avail... so i tried the next best thing.. danvcing! i headed into the mass of puksing bodies near the dj adn started giving it socks!~ i soon gathered a crowd of men, and not in the sleasy way. it was awesome.. cos we were having a dance off! for about 3 hours! i sweated all the bad alcohol out of me and the best bit was that at the end of the night they all left me standing in the club without so much of sleasy word between them! the next week was a whirlwind of desert safari, waterparking and skiing! oh yeah you ski in the desert!
xx

Bahrain!!

so peeps i have arrived, marvelled at, and left the kingdom of bahrain. yes it was sweet, hot and humid but also a teeny bit boring (sorry locals!) so what went down??? arrived at 5.30 in the morning and was collected by the delicious rory skinner who really has only gotten better with age ;) a former model and trinity student (although he only managed to attempt trinity for 2 years) i met rory through tom murphy and he has been always asking me over. so he brought me for a trip around the island with the sun rising and the mist clearing, all the while trying to avoid damage to his wonderful bmw from crazy saudi drivers.for those of you who are not aware saudi is joined to bahrain by a giant bridge thing so over Eid (the holiday after ramadam) the place was over run by saudis hanging out, men and women together!!! this is not allowed in any shape way or form in saudi, we're talking no cinema together, no beaches,restaurants,queues..etc the list just goes on an on, but the result being that in bahrain they can be together so the place was jammed with them when i arrived and the bahraini's no like them! adn i can concur that they are just crazy on the roads but to be fair, the ex pat brats werent much beter with their driving under the influence etc! but thats another story. so i arrived and promptly fell asleep on the couch, it was a long trip! when i finally joined the world the rest of the house was up, rory lives with caroline and george, all english and lovely and kate, george's girlfriend is pretty much a constant guest as well. they have a pool and had set up a pullout bed in rory's room for me, but he mentioned that if i wasnt comfortable staying there that his parents were down the road, no such worries for me!!! although i was slightly grossed out by the amount of black ants about the place, i was told that they dont bite (a lie!!) so be warned! so my first night there was a bar bq at one of the guy's houses, and we all went and gorged ourselves and i met loads of people and managed to hold my own in a drinking game! the next day rory brought me around the new large mall that just opened... arabs do love to shop! it was just awesome, but shock shock horror horror im just notinterested in shopping right now!then the next night we all went out to this top class cocktail place called trader vics.. its a chain i think, well i was welcomed to bahrain with a rainbow shot.. i was quite scared as it involved many layers of alcolhol and a lighter... bu i finished it in one with a straw as required and didnt puke.. bonus! that was the beginning of the end for me there.. the night progresed with me meeting some reallynice people, mainly guys (the ratio is so in our favour ladies...) doing some midnight swimming in a pool with some of them, getting a lift (along witht the rest of the party) with 2 local bahrainis to a house party and then waking up at 11am!!! wasnt even that hungover till i got to the rugby club (an ex pat hangou that serves booze) spent the day there but had to head to bed early that night to pass out!!!

this was all well and good until on monday morning rory had to leave for dubai for work until thursday, now this was not as bad as it sounds because in the time that he was gone the others were working anyway so i hung out with Dave, his parents live in bahrain but he was just visiting, handy cos he drove me places during the day, like the portugese fort, the malls and passed the tree of life buti didnt see it.then it transpired rory intended to stay in dubai until sat night!! but didnt tell anyone!! just put it on facebook... so everyone was shocked and appaled for me and ralley around me even more. there was this rugby tournement on and i was taken to it and then to dinner another night and even to brunch.. so in the end he did me a favour! brunch was on my last day and it consisted of getting really dressed up and heading to the diplomat for an all you can eat 12-4 experience, with unlimited champers!!! Stef brought me there, lovely girl. then there was a bit of drama cos the guy she had been seeing for 2 months, who hadnt returned her calls for about 4/5 days turned up with a barbi look-a-like and didnt really talk to her! it was like being in the hills! after the brunch we all drunkenly meanderd down to the irish bar where i got to talking to this navy man, delicious but way to conservative for my tastes, so i just enjoyed myself shocking him! then there was more drinking adn about 8pm i headed back to traders for a birthday party! i managed to stay until about 11.30 before the tiredness took me and i got a cab home! quite impressed with myself to be honest, was even sober when i got into bed at midnight... got a cab at 5am to the airport for my 7am flight to dubai... gross... although bahrain air really dont understand the concept of low cost = no frills, it was very comfy. got out to Sharjah to kerryanne's ok where i spent the day hanging out by the pool at the english club, learning about what she does in her teaching role, its really fascinating....i might try it (although me.. teach??) then cos she works from sunday to thursday i have headed and arrive in abu dhabi to stay with a friend of hers! its exhausting but fun!

will be here til thursday being a tourist, then back to dubai.... then oman, then india with wally, phew am tired thinking about it! but will endevour to update this more...

xx