While you are free to drink at a hotel bar in the U.A.E. (provided you aren’t a Muslim), purchasing liquor at a package store is illegal without a liquor license. In theory, if you were caught with alcohol in your car or home without a license, you could be heavily fined or even arrested. However,…
Month: March 2011
Without An Address
The Emirates Post Office doesn’t offer direct home or office mail delivery; mail goes to PO Boxes. Because this system isn’t set up, there’s no desire to formalize actual addresses. Businesses, apartment buildings, government agencies etc. are near landmarks or cross streets; restaurants and bars in or near hotels. It seems we have gotten used…
Taking the Train to Dubai
Sorry for the delay in postings – it’s been busy, busy, busy! One of the more memorable moments from February came with a trip to Dubai for Jazzfest – which, oddly, didn’t have a ton of jazz acts as the three-day festival continued on. It was still a great time with our favorite live band…
Racing for a Dream
What happens when you head 30 minutes outside of Abu Dhabi for a 20-minute zip around a Formula One race track? Living a dream, of course. Mike was one of the most recent students from the Yas Marina Circuit Driving School, spending some quality time in a real F1 race car…
Just call me Aquaman!
Following in Megan’s footsteps, I completed my PADI scuba certification over the weekend. The certification itself was broken into three parts that took a few weeks to complete….6 hours of online courses/exams….about 8 hours of hands-on learning in a pool…followed by 4 dives in the open water, which is like the final exam where all…
The Palace – No Comparisons
Abu Dhabi has two true landmarks – the Grand Mosque and Emirates Palace. With the week almost wrapped up, we still had to hit the Palace. It was just a short stay for dinner and drinks, but it was a pretty magical setting along the beach outside and surrounded by opulent decorations inside. The pictures…
The Pohorylos go to Dubai
To sum up Dubai in a single post is difficult, but at least you’ll get a flavor of our adventures. The sun finally came out for good as we hit the road for an hour and fifteen minute trek to Dubai. We went up the tallest building in the world, from the largest mall in…
Hitting the Dunes
One of the traditional “touristy” yet fun things to do in the UAE is a desert safari – where you basically get taken bashing through sand dunes by a local driver on a mission to elicit screams and set up home base at a makeshift bedouin camp with food and activities such as camel riding….
Pohorylo Highlight #1: Grand Mosque
An exciting day visiting Abu Dhabi’s main event – the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the third largest mosque in the world. We donned our abayas and took in a little UAE culture in the process…check it out!