Enjoyed a week in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, largely in the company of my friend and colleague, Sonia.

If you've never been to Dubai before and you've the chance to stop off for a couple of days, then it's not too bad a place but any longer than that and you'll be tearing your hair out as there's virtually nothing to do outside of the hotel's grounds...and they know it...and charge a fortune for the simplest of meals / services etc. Save your money or, better yet, go to France, Malaysia, Thailand or Vietnam. Perhaps when developments are finished it'll be a different story...and don't let me get started about the lack of road planning here either...far too much time spent in taxis just to go what should be a few miles but in fact ends up being an odyssey into obscurity. The roads can only be designed to be so inconvenient for a number of reasons: (i) that there aren't enough cars to justify extra roads without the place looking rather spartan (true); (ii) that the petroleum suppliers had a say in the design of the road system to ensure maximum fuel use and so push up demand and hence prices (no evidence...but probably true all the same!); or (iii), that all the cars are just too damn plush to have them idling on the road for just two minutes - no, people need an excuse to swan about and show-off the latest grotesquely over-priced hunk of metal with a largely unchanged engine to all and sundry (true true true). Having said that the people are very friendly and helpful and it's far more colourful than the above paragraph suggests. Go there, just don't over-extend your stay!

Still had a good time though! (If you're reading this, thanks Sonia)

As a general rule, if I'm in the picture then Sonia took it; there are some nice scenic ones that she took whilst on the desert safari but quite which ones will have to remain a mystery until she claims them as her own!