Details are good, but time consuming!

Hey everyone!

I'm trying my best to make this blog as current as possible and as detailed as possible also. I'm glad to say that the blog is coming together a lot more now, and the photographs I've been using are easier to upload also (as they have already been formatted for facebook). We are sadly leaving Thailand on 31st January to go to our next destination Australia, and to avoid the whole writing-about-stuff-that's-happened-already scenario happening again when we're in Oz, I'm going to make sure the Asia section is done and dusted by then. Also, my dad requested that I put some dates on the blog too, so he can tell where I've been at certain points of the calender so I'm slowly doing that too.

Hope you're enjoying reading about our adventures, please post a comment if you want xxx

Playing Catch Up!

Sorry to anyone who's checked the blog to find nothing...it's hard work finding a computer that will let me type nevermind upload photos. I've managed to get a little bit more up to date now (only 2 weeks behind haha) but I have everything already typed up on my phone, so over the new week it should be a bit more organised on here. Thanks for taking an interest too xxx

"Goodbye" Dubai and "Sawatdee" Bangkok

We really enjoyed Dubai in the end. We experienced the glitz and the glamour of Dubai Mall; with its majestic skyscrapers, dancing fountains and haute couture shops. 

The 360 bar; set out on the Arabian Gulf, overlooking the full skyline of Dubai, happy hour meant we could have 3 cocktails instead of one! 

Then there was Dubai Creek's chilled and ambient Boardwalk Bar, lovely atmosphere where you can chill out to the funky house beats whilst puffing on your shisha.

Then there were the cultural parts of Dubai, most of which we saw when we got our Big Bus Tours ticket. Until we got out ticket we felt as though there was no way we were going to get to see all of Dubai. We had no car and using the metro was proving to be time consuming. The 48 hour ticket was the best option too! 

Cultural highlights were: 

1) Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum's house, probably not the house itself (which is the pinnacle of Arabian architecture) but the museums and historical areas that surround it. We ate Awamats, which are crispy doughnut balls with date honey and sesame seeds...delicious! 

2) The Souks (gold, spice and old) were great, definitely have cash when you're there though or you will miss out on some bargains. Allan didn't like the Old Souk, one guy put a Ghutra on his head as we passed by and he wasn't pleased. The key is to ignore people unless really interested. 

Souk Madinat was nice though, designed to look like a traditional souk, sell what a traditional souk would sell (with the exception of the odd branded shop) and without the confrontations of a traditional souk. 

3) Dubai Museum was pretty good too. We had to rush off to catch the next bus, halfway through walking around, and we could have easily stayed another half hour. Plenty of things to read about Dubai's development and history. I loved seeing the typical palm house in the courtyard area. It showed how The people developed their own air conditioning before electricity was introduced. 

4) The desert safari was brilliant! We went with Arabian Nights Tours. Worth the money for what you get. The camel ride wasn't up to much though, and I found myself feeling really sorry for the camels. What a boring life they must lead: sit down, stand up, walk for a minute, sit down.... Other than that, the food was great, I got a henna tattoo, loads of photographs and a thrilling dune bashing experience. 

Thanks to our wonderful couch surfing host Hamish! We couldn't have done half of these things if it wasn't for him. He kindly let us use his Dubai Entertainer vouchers to do a lot of the activities as buy-one-get-one-free. This saved us a lot of money. These voucher are worth the investment if you are going to be in Dubai for a few weeks or longer. 

Our first experience of couch surfing has set the bar for our future hosts. I hope they won't mind having my ginger hair all over the floor, and Allan sleeping in until late afternoon haha. 

Dubai, or not Dubai? That is the question...the answer is up to you. I'm glad we chose Dubai though, I now have an opinion. 

The Last Supper...for a while

It's always sad to say goodbye to people you will miss. I suppose the best way to look at it is, I said goodbye not long ago when I went to Dunfermline. We had a great night in Hayley's restaurant, Ego; the food was gorgeous! I had (what I had last time) the halloumi kebab. I must have ate a whole bar of halloumi in the process, which I don't mind and Allan had the sirloin steak...which was huge! We had copious amounts of wine, and stayed at Ego until we were literally being kicked out.

It was such a fun night, and I'm (we're) so pleased people came along to send us off. Thanks guys! xx

Finally!

Our departure day is looming, and after weeks of umm-ing and ah-ing we have booked a hotel for the first night in Dubai. When people have spoken about Dubai to me, it's always been portrayed as a place of luxury and exclusivity, somewhere I'd never really desired to go (mainly because I've been a student for almost all of my adult life). However, our round-the-world flight plan involves a stop over in Dubai, so we thought it was worth staying for a few days.

So far we've booked: a hotel for 1 night, couchsurfing for the rest of the time (4 nights) with a host we met through the site and a trip up the Burj Khalifa to watch the sunset. Our host advised us that there are plenty of 2-4-1 vouchers available for food, drink and entertainment throughout the city. He has some spare ones we can use, but they can be purchased before arrival too. This is going to save us so much money!

Just over a week...

This sounds really lazy but, I woke up today at 1:30pm, to the melodic sound of rain on the window. Yes, it's been raining all night and all morning here in Dunfermline (and probably also in Liverpool). This is not unusual for Scotland (or England) in October, or at any other time of year. Not being employed really messes with my one's body clock: you stay awake to all hours and get up when most normal people are having their lunch. However, It's a nice luxury for the time being.

I've spent a lot of the day contacting people on Couchsurfing about a new trip, and keeping in contact with our first host in Dubai. This is certainly going to be a first time experience for both of us, thank god we have each other as back up. I have to admit the idea is a little scary, because it's unknown to me and my family remind me that I need to "be careful", but I know so many people who have successfully couchsurfed across different continents and they've recommended it...plus it saves a lot of money too.

We have been looking at tours and travel around Australia today. We've really left things quite last minute when it comes to researching what we are going to do. Allan is a lot more thorough than I am, and likes to know the when-what-where-and-hows of pretty much everything, and it's competitors. Whereas I would probably just turn up and hope for the best. One thing we have realised though, sometimes shopping around just wastes time and you may save negligible amounts that could be swallowed up elsewhere.

So far we've looked at the following: 

Most of the coast Sydney to Cairns
Great Southern Rail - Alice Springs to Adelaide
Relocation camper vans - to drive from Adelaide to Sydney (but really cheap and a fuel allowance too...this came highly recommended by past travellers)

Theres a bunch of different companies that do the relocation service, and the one we've been looking at today is Apollo. It's a great idea if you want to save some money when you're in Australia, you just take a camper van to a place where it should be, so you're kind of doing them a favour too. The Ghan railway journey from Alice Springs (lowest fare) is about £138 each for a day/night train, taking 24 hours. Sounds crazy, but it's meant to be one of the best rail journeys in the world.

Getting excited!