Nov 4th, 2009 at 4:00PM: I hate airports. I hate sitting around and waiting, and I hate being unable to escape the thought that soon my plane will be the one zooming down the runway and lifting off into the sky. So rather than arrive early to the airport and allow myself time to get anxious about flying, I prefer to arrive at the last possible second, so that as I run through security and down the terminal, I don't have ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Dubai posts
Plan your airport layover with T+L's Airport Navigator
Nov 4th, 2009 at 4:00PM: I hate airports. I hate sitting around and waiting, and I hate being unable to escape the thought that soon my plane will be the one zooming down the runway and lifting off into the sky. So rather than arrive early to the airport and allow myself time to get anxious about flying, I prefer to arrive at the last possible second, so that as I run through security and down the terminal, I don't have ...Dubai's 'The World' cancelled
Sep 16th, 2009 at 8:00AM: Remember Dubai's The World? It was just one of a number of high profile construction projects for a country that seemed to have more dollars than sense. The plan was to create a series of man-made islands in the shape of the major landmasses on the planet. Eventually, plots of land on those islands would be sold off to the highest bidders for residential and commercial zoning. At least that was ...Final resting place for the QE2 not so final after all
Jul 21st, 2009 at 4:30PM: Last year, we wrote about the very last voyage ever for the famous Cunard QE2. This magnificent vessel was purchased for $82 Million by Dubai developer Nakheel. The plan was to dock the ship, and convert her into a luxury hotel. As it turns out, that very last voyage ever is not as final as first thought. Part of the contract with Cunard meant that Nakheel could never use the vessel as a passenger ...Swim with sharks at Dubai mall
May 24th, 2009 at 4:00PM: Dubai just changed how we'll all look at malls forever. The Dubai Mall could have changed the rules simply by installing an aquarium and zoo ... or gone even crazier by putting sharks in the water. Hell, watching sharks swim is a great way to eat your Auntie Ann's pretzel. In Dubai, you can have your friend hold your pretzel while you put on a wetsuit and hop right in!
At the Dubai Aquarium and ...Flight attendant pleads guilty to bomb hoax
May 23rd, 2009 at 2:00PM: It was a bad week for Australians, it seems. A naval officer was physically restrained on a flight to London. Not too long after, Matt Carney, a flight attendant from Melbourne, was sentenced to 18 months in jail in England. It was his own fault: he left not one but two(!) notes on a plane to London, "warning" of a bomb. Of course, he was working the flight.
The 23-year-old soon-to-be-former ...Dubai plans to cut up the Concorde like the QE2
Apr 9th, 2009 at 10:30AM: Dubai has a thing for buying British vessels and cutting them up. Not long ago, it snapped up the retired cruise ship the QE2 with plans to cut it in half, add a section to the middle, and turn it into a floating hotel. The latest buy it and slice it plan is with one of seven British Concorde's.
A Dubai consortium wants to place the Concorde--sans wings, near the altered QE2 as part of its fake ...A&K and Fairmont Earth Hour ideas will have tangible results
Mar 23rd, 2009 at 1:30PM: Earth Hour is on Saturday, March 28 at 8:30 PM. The hospitality and travel industry seems to have embraced this commitment to environmentalism. There are plenty of noteworthy initiatives out there intended to show support for a planet that could probably use our help. Of course, some are more interesting than others. I'm pretty interested in what's going on at Abercrombie & Kent and Fairmont. ...Livin' la vida expat in Dubai isn't as snazzy as it used to be
Feb 13th, 2009 at 10:30AM: Forget New York City - the world capital of spend, spend, spend has long been Dubai. This is literally where the sky was the limit, and when they ran out of sky, they simply built out into the ocean. Thousands upon thousands of foreigners made their way to Dubai to grab their own little bit of the wealth. Of course, that has all come to a grinding halt. Construction is slowing down, and a general ...Irishman Runs Seven Marathons on Seven Continents, in Six Days
Feb 8th, 2009 at 11:00AM: Irish endurance runner Richard Donovan completed an impressive series of runs a few days back when he completed his seventh marathon in just six days. Even more impressive than that however, is that each of those marathons was run on a different continent. The World Marathon Challenge got underway on January 31st when Donvan ran a marathon in Antarctica, covering the 26.2 miles n 4 hours, 39 ...New York for sale, $35 million
Feb 2nd, 2009 at 1:30PM: It's not as cheap as seashells, but New York is on the block for a new low price! Put up $35 million (though I'm sure there's room to negotiate), and you could own the city free and clear. You can start smoking indoors and decide whether alternate side parking should have a future. And, snow removal will never be a concern again! Did I mention this is New York, Dubai? A group of 300 manmade ...QE2 to be cut in half in Dubai
Jan 13th, 2009 at 4:00PM: We've written about QE2 before. The last post was Jeffrey's report that the ship had made it to Dubai with great fanfare.
When I read yesterday that the QE2 was to be cut in half, I pictured two halves of this magnificent ocean liner floating around its palm shaped, manmade island. Did Dubai World, the state-run conglomerate who bought the ocean liner want a hotel for each side of the island, I ...In Dubai, money can buy you a room on a refrigerated beach
Dec 16th, 2008 at 10:30AM: Sometimes the creativity that blistering hot weather breeds is truly mind-boggling: Pallazo Versace Hotel has decided to create a temperature controlled beach extending out and around its new hotel in Dubai, so that the "top people" (ugh) don't burn their feet. "We will suck the heat out of the sand to keep it cool enough to lie on," says Soheil Abedian, president of Palazzo Versace. Of course, ...Dubai hotel offers meals to those made redundant
Dec 12th, 2008 at 11:30AM: This is definitely one of the most innovative promotions I have seen coming out of Dubai: 3-star Arabian Park Hotel in Dubai is offering free meals to anyone who has lost their job because of the credit crunch. The promotion is not only open to Dubai residents, but anyone in the world who has been fired. All you have to do is bring your redundancy letter with you as proof, and you will have ...Leave the poppy seed strudel at home if you're heading to UAE
Nov 29th, 2008 at 2:00PM: Yesterday, while wandering through Westside Market in Cleveland, I passed by several stalls laden with baked goods, some sporting poppy seed. The poppy seed strudel was mighty tempting. This brought to mind the sidebar I saw that was attached to the article about Michelle Palmer's and Vince Acors escape from jail time in Dubai after they allegedly had sex on the beach.
Before Palmer and Acor's ...Sex on the beach couple out of jail in Dubai
Nov 28th, 2008 at 10:00AM: Remember the names Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors? They are the two Brits who weren't really a couple until they met at a champagne brunch in Dubai, got drunk, and then proceeded to get frisky on a beach. Before that party, they didn't know each other. After they became better acquainted after a cocktail or two, or who knows how many, their friskiness got them much international attention and ...Sharks Get Violent at Dubai Mall Aquarium
Nov 10th, 2008 at 12:00PM: Come shop in the mall recently built in the shadow of the Dubai Burj, the world's tallest building. You will enjoy over 1,200 of the world's finest shops and a huge, glittery gold market...and see a 10-million liter aquarium in which divers and small fish are ravaged by gigantic sharks. The aggressive sharks are part of a 33,000 specimen tank at the 12-million-square-foot Dubai Burj Mall. The ...Dubai Metro to feature the worlds first corporate branded station names
Nov 6th, 2008 at 2:00PM: Nowhere in the world is anyone working harder on their infrastructure than in Dubai. Mall after mall is being erected, new office buildings are breaking world records, and when they run out of land, they simply build out into the ocean. One thing missing so far, was a large public transit system. That is set to change in 2009 when the first portion of the new Dubai Metro opens. Of course, nothing ...Yet another gallery of the craziness that is Dubai
Oct 24th, 2008 at 8:30AM: We should have a permanent feature that just consists of jaw-dropping, gushy posts praising the delights of Dubai, with a footnote about their rather over-the-top penal code. Anyways, this is the shot of the marina from a few years in the future. Other monuments to come include Dubailand, to be the largest amusement park in the world; Dubai Sports City (a complex within Dubailand); Ski Dubai, ...Dubai Sex-on-the-Beach Couple Sentenced to Three Months in Jail
Oct 20th, 2008 at 12:00PM: It has not been a good summer for Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors. The couple's seaside tryst has turned into a courtroom drama complete with medical evidence and appeals. The two British citizens, despite the best efforts of their lawyers, and despite the black-eye it will give to Dubai's tourist industry, have been sentenced to three months in prison. Their lawyer claims that an appeal is ...Ocean liner QE2 on its last voyage, this time to Dubai
Oct 18th, 2008 at 10:30AM: For anyone who would like the experience of a luxury ocean liner vacation without actually leaving land, here are two options.
The Queen Elizabeth 2 has hit forty and is being retired. Instead of ending up in some boat graveyard somewhere like Jeremy has written about in a previous post, the QE2 is on its way from New York City [via Great Britain] to Dubai where it will become a hotel.
The ...
