An idiots guide to smoking shisha. With your mum.

Abu Dhabi, UAE
Day 2

Well my mum joined me in the UAE this morning and we checked into the Oryx hotel in down town Abu Dhabi.

After basically faffing around all day (visiting the Marina Mall, drinking beer in cheesy hotel bars) we ended up at the roof top bar of the Mecure Hotel smoking shisha.

A stout gentleman set us up with two of the fantastic pipes; mine with watermelon flavored tobacco and Mary with double apple. I don’t know what the difference between apple and double apple is, probably doubly carcinogenic.

Despite being amazingly bad for you, smoking a shisha is very relaxing and the flavored tobacco is pretty damned delicious.

Here's a tip: It makes you feel extra "Middle Eastie" if you drink thick Turkish coffee or mint tea while you smoke your shisha. 

A hazy start to day two.

The sun sets on a day of faffing around.

Coals burn in the top of my shisha pipe.

Mary with her apple flavoured shisha.

We immediately lost all our local shisha smoking cred' after opening a map on the street outside the hotel.

Abu Dhabi; First Impressions

Abu Dhabi, UAE
Day 1

First blog post eh? Better make it count......

For those who came in late I'm on holidays and will be until the 22nd of March. All I've got booked so far are a few nights in Abu Dhabi, and my flight back to Australia from Cairo.

With any luck I'll see Jordan and Lebanon as well as the UAE and Egypt over the next few weeks.

I'm hoping to post some photos and tales of exotic adventure each day of my trip.

First stop; Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates. After dumping my bags I went for a walk, got pretty lost, and took these photos.

After that I went and had lunch, then went for another walk again. And got lost. Again. 

Big thanks to Terry Friel for picking me up from the airport and putting me up for the night.

This part of the city is called the Tourist Club Area. You can clearly see why in this photo.

The paved walkway along the Corniche was pretty much deserted first thing in the morning.  It was kind of strange.

There seem to be an army of these dudes in green jump suits who tend to the city's gardens.

There are building sites all over town in various stages of completion.

This is my favourite part of town so far. It's the fishing port. A real hive of activity. I rode a bike down there, perfect weather for a bike ride, and only slightly terrifying.