Here is a picture of what the big fireworks show last night at Taipei City Hall Square looked like:

from Phuket, Thailand.

The hostel I checked into a few hours ago in Bangkok has free Wi-Fi! I find it a little funny that the place that costs less than $10 a night has free internet unlike the expensive Dubai hotel and the Maldives resort. It’s not the fastest, but now I can post all my blog entries from the last week and a half and make sure no one has stolen my credit card numbers… I think I’m going to head out for some lunch but I will try to get some pictures uploaded soon.

Keep reading for posts from Israel, Dubai and Maldives.

Getting There

I knew the area around the equator was hot but I was not expecting it to be 29C when my plane got in at 1:15 am. I have jeans and my windbreaker on, so within seconds I am sweating and a minute later, soaking wet. I find out that it’s too late to get to the hotel I made arrangements with to stay at this night, since there is no taxi service at the airport other than air-taxi and ferry, both of which are done for the night, thankfully I never gave them my billing info so no loss there… My only other option for sleep tonight is the airport hotel, which Airport Information was kind enough to call for me. “Yes we have a room, and it can be yours for the low low price of $289 USD.” Pass. Luckily there is a 24 hour cafe at the airport so I go there to get a Red Bull and wait for sunrise, and hopefully my air taxi to the island I am staying at.

After waiting what seemed like an eternity for my flight, and several power naps later, I was finally on the sea plane no later than 10:40. My first sea plane flight, it was pretty cool, I didn’t even realize right away that we were airborne, unlike normal flights when there is a moment when you can feel the plane jump into the air, this was a much smoother, or possibly harder to notice, transition from water runway to air. It wasn’t a long flight, which was fine because the seats were small and not very comfortable but I grabbed a nice window seat and took some pictures. It was a little cloudy but I think some of them came out alright.

Spa-aaaaahhhhh………

Had my first spa massage today, it was a freebie so it was only 10-15 minutes, but I am starting to see why people pay money for these things. I go back for the hour long version on Saturday after some scuba diving.

Shark Sighting

I was out snorkeling today (Friday) and I encountered not one, but two reef shark! This was my first shark encounter, and I have to say it was pretty cool. I was about ready to get out of the water and started to head back to the channel that cuts through the reef giving access to the island, when I saw the first shark. After following him for a little bit I noticed his friend and was able to get a video of the both of them and some other random large fish. It’s not the best video since I was busy watching them instead of paying attention to what the camera was pointed at but it’s not terrible. There were a few points where a wave/surge came over us and pushed one of the shark really close, like within a few feet. After I lost track of them, I was on my way back to the beach when I almost went right past a school of large fish, each about 18-20 inches long. They were almost the same color as the water and very hard to notice. I had fun chasing after them and swimming in the middle of it, haha, got a video of it too.

Service with a Smile

Some of the best waiter service I’ve ever had, and from a friendly person as well. Compared to Athens, where everyone seemed to ignore you, or worse, give you dirty looks when you went to eat at their restaurant, this was paradise. The food was buffet style, but very good, always varied and always one made-to-order option, like eggs for breakfast (scrambled, fried, omelet), stir fry, tacos for dinner. Some of the best things I had there were pan fried fish with garlic butter sauce, lamb cubes with gravy, seared tuna with lemon cream sauce, homemade ice cream, chocolate and strawberry creeps, and fresh melon juice. Everything but drinks at lunch and dinner were included in the bill.

Stars

I finally got to see some stars for the first time in a long long time, but even here it wasn’t that great because of cloud cover. Half the sky had a lot of stars I could see and half the sky was black. I think Phuket Thailand may be my last chance to get in a good star gaze, but if the weather doesn’t cooperate or the air just isn’t clear enough, I think I’m going to try to schedule a weekend at home when there is no moon and head up to the mountains for a little campfire and some stars.

Turquoise Water

The water here is just like in the pictures. Clear, turquoise, beautiful, and warm too. No wet suit required for snorkeling and I didn’t use one on my dives either and it was fine. I probably should have taken more pictures of it but was too busy just enjoying it.

Rain

It rains here, a lot. I think it rained every day. And not that I am complaining, but on my last day, I was trying to dry a shirt and towel outside in the sun, because it was hot and sunny and I had to leave soon and it starts pouring out of no where!

No Shoes

I got used to everyone including, all the hotel staff, walking around barefoot, but barefoot pilots I was not expecting. On my sea plane flight back to Male, I happened to have to sit in the front middle seat because everything else was occupied by passengers from other islands, so I can see into the cockpit and I was looking at the pilot when I noticed he had no shoes!

Right now

I am sweating at the airport.. again. This place is hotter than hell and I think I am ready to leave.

Short stories from Dubai:

You may have heard that Dubai has the tallest building in the world, the tallest and biggest hotel in the world, the largest artificial islands (under construction), but they also have the largest shopping mall. It is so large that the mall information stations have free fold up paper guides like some large museums so that you don’t get lost. I think I only saw a part of it but I did manage to stumble upon the indoor ski slope and snow park, inside the mall… But it was my last day here and all five of the sunglass shops I checked had the shades I wanted marked up between 50-100% over what it costs online, so I head outside to get a taxi to the beach where the tallest hotel, Burj al Arab, is located. Its the one that almost looks like a really big sailboat. And there is an endless line of taxis waiting. My driver was really pissed that he got stuck with me, going only a “short” distance, and said it took him an hour to get through the line, “sorry..” I told him. So five or six minutes later I am dropped off at the beach and I see it up close, well still probably a km or so away. I didn’t get to go inside the, since if you aren’t a guest, they won’t let you even cross the bridge that leads to it. Unless of course you have to have an appointment for lunch, which runs about 150 USD, I’ll pass.

On my first day I got up too late and missed the hotel shuttle to whatever touristy place it was going to that day, so I had to find something nearby and the Dubai Museum was within walking distance, also the Top 10 guide book I got listed it at number one of ten things to do in Dubai. I was a little skeptical but nothing else was even remotely close and I needed to get out and eat something anyway. So I find the place a short 5-10 min walk from my hotel. To be honest, it wasn’t much of a museum, as probably should be expected for a city that is only recently became of any significance. From the outside it looks like just the remains of a small fort, smaller than half a football field. Oh well, entry fee is less than 1 USD, how bad can it be? Let me just say, you get what you pay for, which in this case is not much. To their credit, there was a larger underground area, but all it consisted of was dioramas of the brief history of the city. Zzzz..

The good news is I didn’t waste that much time there, and the Lebanese Grill restaurant I passed earlier was open now so I went there to grab some lunch. I don’t think I’ve ever had Lebanese food before and it was pretty good. Had the mixed grill with lamb and chicken and some sausage type thing, but I don’t think it was pork. Also came with a big salad, olives, bread and a coke all for about 12 USD.

One thing I wanted to do in Eilat but didn’t have time for was a Desert Safari so I thought I would see if I could do one here. Fortunately I was able to book one for the same day, and they had included pick up and drop off. It was pretty fun, spinning around sand dunes in a small jeep convoy. My group definitely had the best driver, and somehow I managed to get the front seat so I had a great view. I got a couple videos of going up some 40+ ft dunes and other craziness. After they took us to a meeting point where other groups doing the same thing all gathered for Camel riding, BBQ dinner, and belly dancing… fun, and for a good price.

I didn’t bring shaving cream with me because I wanted to do the carry-on only thing but most airlines are making me check my carry-on bag anyway so I finally broke down after several excruciatingly painful dry shaving experiences and bought some shaving cream in Dubai. It wasn’t the normal Gillette aerosol gel in a can, instead it’s inside a toothpaste-like container. I was about out of blades too and the ones I brought with me were a new kind I had never tried at home, so I wasn’t sure it the problem was no cream or bad blade, anyway, I got some of my normal razors as well, and let me tell you, that was the best shave I’ve ever had. That is some excellent shaving grease, which is what I am calling it now, since it is much more like grease than a foaming cream. I think I will keep it for special occasions and when I haven’t shaved for two weeks or more; why use a cannon to kill a mouse?

Emirates is the official UAE airline, and they have their own private terminal at the Dubai International airport. If I had to pick one word to describe this place it would be ‘empty.’ I had to walk what seemed like 300m just to get to the ticketing counters after coming through the front doors, I saw less than 20 other non airport staff. From there it was another 200m to the passport control, no waiting here either, several booths active, none with lines, only one other had a passenger. Only 50m to the security check point this time, which was manned by no less than 9 or 10 groups of people operating the x-ray machines and metal detectors, none with lines, of course. On to the duty free shopping! I had planned to eat before coming to the airport but my hotel rushed me out into my ‘courtesy shuttle’ which was actually a taxi, that I had to pay for… so I got some food here, it wasn’t too bad and it let me spend all but two of my AED cash, too bad the cashier only has one AED coin left!… Whatever, it’s worthless to me now anyway. There is a story in here about boarding as well but this is already getting longer than I wanted, so on to the flight! A menu, metal silverware, free alcohol, comfy seats, no flight attendant nagging me to turn off my mp3 player on take off and landing, a hot moist cloth washcloth at the start of the flight, entertainment on the seat-back in front of you and decent movie selection. Also had front, rear and down cameras (pretty cool on takeoff and landing), flight info, as well as a bunch of other stuff we never get on domestic flights. The only thing that would have been better was to not be forced to use the stupid two pronged headphone jack so that I could have used my own earbuds.

One of the many things Dubai seems to have an abundance of is tall buildings. On my way to the biggest mall, the main street was lined on both sides with tall buildings, almost all 20-25 minutes of the drive there. The funny thing is, on my flight out, I could see a part of town where just one main street had tall buildings and everything else behind them was small 2-3 stories. I really don’t understand it, so many huge hotels, they can’t all be full or even close, because as far as I can tell, there simply isn’t hardly anything to do in Dubai.

To sum up, Dubai is where the desert meets the ridiculous and absurdly extravagant. As a side note, Emirates is probably the best airline I have flown on, I can’t wait to see what business class is like to Hong Kong…